More Sewing Than Blogging

There has been sewing, 

--- just not a whole lot of blogging about it.

A while back I discovered the "York Pinafore" by Helen's Closet. I used some upcycled, off white, light canvas curtain fabric for a test of the pattern.

--- and liked the pattern so much I went on to make three more in rapid succession. 

The style ticks a lot of boxes for me. It's comfortable, it has handy big pockets, it's not clingy, and by varying what is worn under it it can span all four seasons.

More Bags = Less Bags

I found an excellent tutorial for upcycling pillowcases into great shopping bags. Keeping that in mind I waited and took a trip to Value Village on 50% off sale day and came home with 2 sets of pillowcases that looked brand new.

Using the tutorial at the Creative Kismet blog I whipped these up. They don't take long and they use up the entire pillowcase, no waste.

After making the first one (the small one on the right) I modified what I was doing to make the bags a little wider. In the tutorial you are instructed to take a piece off the side of the pillowcase to use later for the handles. I found it made the body of the bag too narrow and tall (I folded the excess height down to the inside in that first bag) and yet I had plenty of length in the pillowcase to work with.

For the larger three bags I decided to take a piece from one end of the pillowcase for the handles instead. With the really long pillowcases I had (kings maybe?) the modification worked very well. The proportions, I feel, are perfect.

This pillowcase to shopping bag tutorial makes very strong, comfortable to carry bags. The side walls are double thick and the bottom section, which uses the pillowcase hem, is triple thick.

So now that I have some sturdy washable bags for getting groceries I should be able to accept less of the environmentally disastrous plastic ones. I've heard rumours that our community will be banning single use plastic shopping bags in the future.

Nine Ribbons

I entered 8 exhibits in the 2019 Chilliwack Exhibition and managed to win 9 ribbons! 7 firsts, a second, and a Best in Show.

Firsts for a "counted cross-stitch on aida",

an "adult hat and scarf", (my Year in Temperatures Scarf with a hat to match)

a "recycled article with a major style change", (a tunic made from duvet cover)

"Spinning - any natural fibre, plied" (a 2 ply cotton)

"Collection of 3 or more decorative items", (16 of my Stitch Meditations")

"Yardage of woven material", (my travelling inlay Saori yardage)

"Wearable article woven with recycled material" (my coat from denim strips).
The coat also won a "Best in Show" rosette.

And in the "Scarf or cowl" category I received a second place. 

Testing Testing

A peek or two at what I'm working on now.

The weaving was done quite some time ago, years perhaps. It's denim strips woven alternately with picks of an indigo dyed cotton yarn.

With the ANWG Conference (Association of North West Weaver's Guilds) coming up in June I've decided to make something of the fabric and submit it for exhibition. No guarantee that it will be accepted of course, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

These photos are just teasers. Some experimenting, trial and error and testing of ideas is going on.

The above is a testing muslin for a bound pocket. It's not perfect but I learned a few things I can carry over to the real project.