How To's: 2020

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Three "Take Along" Doll Houses

I created 3 different take along doll houses (see the handles?) The houses are similar, only the way they were made is different. The first, the pink house, is entirely made of covered plastic canvas.

The second, the grey house, is made of individual walls and floor that are covered foam core and a plastic canvas roof. The second and third house walls and base were constructed using foam core, which gave both more stability, and allowed the fabrics to lay smoother on the construction material, as you can see from the photo's below.

The last, the beige house, is made of the same covered foam core, but not individual walls. Each has points in it's favor, and things that might be better. Here's the path I took.

I saw something somewhere that gave me the idea of creating these Christmas gifts. In my mind, plastic canvas seemed the perfect medium. Each sheet is 10.5x13, which I cut in half to make 10.5x6.5 sheets. Now, with a wall size, we can begin.

First, the exterior and interior wall and carpet fabrics must be chosen, and any embellishments to those walls added before you can begin construction (flowers, windows, doors...)

Once those are added to what will be the inside and outside, it's on to construction. For the first two houses I made, each wall is constructed individually, other than the base and 4th side, which are constructed together.

This meant that there was a lot of hand stitching, especially to the first house. by the time I devised the plan for the third house, hand stitching was only needed for the roofing. Each wall fabric was cut out at 11x7", the end two stood on end, and the foam core evenly cut from 6.5 to 10.5 into a triangle to make the top of the wall and the place that the roof would rest. The fabric was not cut, but left square, and sewed to the roof support (plastic canvas) to give extra support to the roof. I made a handle for the first, the second two I used button holes and cord or shoe strings to create a handing carrying handle to each of the houses.

Carpet and walls built	Where I began	First house with flap up under roof
First with flap down, lots of work...	Putting the roof cover on. Lots of work	Roof and walls are all hand stitched.
Pink house, flap up, held up by the roof	Pink house with door and windows on it	Adding flowers to house fabric
Fabric from the other side	All the pieces ready for construction	first interior walls stitched then the exterior
Starting on the roof supports	One side roof support finished	Sewing on the other side ...
Roof cover in place, button holed	Added handle, hand finishing roof	Beige, one piece surrounding
Beige sewing walls to carpet	Beige adding walls on carpet	Beige base/wall to carpet
Biege, adding foam to structure	Beige form core in, to roof	Beige ready to start roof

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Poinsettia Wall or Door Hanging

I saw something similar, years ago, that's been percolating in my brain. Though it doesn't have to be a door hanging, could be a table decoration, however.

I looked at some poinsettia's and then started creating the leaves from the green and blue foam. I used the top from a 'cake take, to make a big circle a couple of inches or so from the end of the foam, and then a serving dish a couple inches from the other end, and a ruler to bring them together, for one petal. Another, I used only the 'cake take' circle, and a ruler to make straight lines to the end. These are for general shape, as no two leaves are exactly the same in nature. I made a smaller set using other bowls. The heavy white canvas is for the back, and various reds, including flannel and cottons/mixes will make the leaves. I thought the canvas might be stiff enough to hold the leaves up, but it's not, so I am working on a plan to make them stiffer.

I cut out 8 large leaves and 4 small. each of the small are also cut out of a mesh with sparkles, of reds and canvas. Laying right sides together and a 1/4 seam (leaving about 4" open on a straight edge), I put them together, clipped the seams and trimmed the point, turned and top-stitched along the edge. Using a cup, I cut out a small circle in green, covered it in two layers of gold mesh with sparkles which was cut about 1/2" bigger, turned the gold under and zig-zagged it onto the green along the edge. I cut out leaves from the small pattern, in different greens, and when the rain ends, I will finish those.

I'm making several of these, each will probably be made differently, as I work to the build the optimum process and materials, and I will update when I have finished.
Note: on the 2nd attempt, I put batting in the petals, a pocket for a dowel rod in the back, and sewed in place only by sewing down the center and the small petals (the center seam and the bottom half around the edge.) See photo's below.

I created my pattern on foam and began
My first 4 petals, they are all different
More petals are slowly finished
All 8 big petals finished!
Layout - center and small petals
A different view of petals
All big petals - pin in place
Reviewing and re-arranging
Petals all sewed down
Now to make the leaves
I just move things to eat, and then back to it.

2nd attempt, I'm using batting
I left enough for a pocket on back
2 full batting, others partially
Laying out my 2nd Poinsettia
Trying to show the glitteriness
Sewing down the center is NOT Fast or easy
The back, with all the pockets
I think that the batting makes a difference
How it looks almost finished
Another view almost finished

Sunday, August 16, 2020

Child-sized Take Along

My child-sized take along. A handy thing for a young person to have, to keep their toys stowed and together. This is the first one of these I've made, and it's imperfect, but I learned a lot along the way. First, I wouldn't use flannel again. It's a left over from mask making, so I used it here. Second, I won't 'fold-in' space in pockets again.

Hang it anywhere
Folds up neatly
The fold area and pockets
Laid flat, you can see the roominess

Here's how I built it. Or how I would, were I not using scraps. The interior fabric needs to be a strong enough fabric to take a beating and hold itself together, in shape. I like the pre-quilted fabric for that, or an upholstery fabric. The exterior and pockets should be a fun fabric. My bag is 12x24ish, though I will make the next 16x28-30". Before sewing, fold the interior fabric in half, and then pin up from the fold 1", this is the bottom of the brief case, and should not have a pocket anywhere in this space.

1st Pocket: Interior fabric only! My strip here is 4-1/2" high and 21" long, with elastic zig-zagged along the top and then hemmed. I laid it on the edge of the interior fabric, pinning it on at the 1/2" mark. Then with a quilt ruler, pinned it down at every 1-1/2", using my thumb (though anything else would also work) inside as a spacing quide, before pinning each 1-1/2" pocket. After pinning, I sewed the individual pocket seams down, leaving a 1/2" at the bottom to fold under. Once all the 'side seams' were in, I folded under the bottom, creating a fold in each individual pocket, and sewed it down. What I learned and what I will do different next time:

1. I should have used a pencil and marked exactly where the top of each pocket should align on the quilted fabric, I will next time to keep it straighter.

2. I will put in two lines of wide stitching along the bottom, to gather the bottom when hemming, rather than folding it.

2nd Pocket: Interior fabric only! This pocket is 9" tall and 15" wide, with an inset zipper. I put the zipper in 2" from the top, hemmed the pocket all the way around 1/4" deep, and then ironed in a one inch double fold all around, matched the sides so that they were all the way to the edge, then sewed it down.

What I learned and what I will do different next time:

1. I will put in two lines of wide stitching along all four sides, to gather the bottom when hemming, rather than folding it.

2. I wont hem first, I will hem as I go, on future projects.

3. I will have to use a pencil and marked exactly where the top and bottom of each gathered seam of the pocket should align on the quilted fabric, to keep it straight.

3rd/Whole side Pocket: Interior fabric only! This pocket is 15" x 15". Learning from the first two, this one has double seam, wide stitch gathering along all four sides. It also has an inset zipper (both zippers are 9"). First, gather the top and the bottom so that they are both flush with the sides of the interior piece. I pinned 1/2" up from the bottom fold for this side (up from the 1" fold taken along the bottom, setting in a 1/4 hem as I went, and stitched it down, then do the same about 1-1/2 inch from the top of that side. Then gather the sides so that they fit the pockets size and stitch them in 1/4-1/2" from the sides, being sure the fabric is flush with the sides of the quilted fabric. Having the binding over all the fabrics (pockets and outside) helps make them stronger and looks neater.

Lay the pocketed side down, and then lay the exterior fabric with the pattern up together, and zig-zag along the edge. This makes it easier to add the binding. The binding goes on next, I used prepackaged here, but usually make my own.

Finally, make two handles of the exterior and pocket fabric by taking 16"x1 or 2" (depends how much fabric you like to fold under) strips, folding under and sewing down along one side. Center (about 4" from each end) the these straps 1 to 1-1/2" into the fabric and sew along the bottom, top and both sides, and then add a couple of X's to be sure that they stay affixed (remember, this is for a child, and they are not known for the delicacy with which they handle things.)

Monday, June 15, 2020

Kaleidoscope Quilts

These quilts have movement, but are only one simple block, with 2 different sized triangles. Everything is dependent on the colors. Mine are dark and light for the center pieces and then for the corners, I tried medium colors, divided in to dark and lights.