Hallowe'en cookies!

Made some more Hallowe'en cookies, and thought I'd do a quick tutorial on the decorations.

I love the classic sugar cookie recipe from the Cake & Cooky Cookbook, brushed with milk and sprinkled with sugar or sprinkles. Generally, this means sugar or sprinkles all over the cookie sheet, cooked on, keeping me from lifting off the cookies without breaking them. So this time, I made stencils out of heavy paper, by tracing the cookie cutters and then cutting inside the lines (the idea being, if the stencil is slightly smaller than the cookie, there will be less spillover). After I had done a few, I realised at one point that folding up the edges of the stencil would result in even less spilling.

Then I made separate stencils for the Jack O'Lantern face and ghost eyes.

A slightly tedious process, but much less time than icing, and after the first sheet I had a pretty good assembly line going, doing the white sugar first, then the orange, then all the black (eyes, faces, cats) at once.

They look like more work than they are!

piping and flat-felled seams tutorial!

following the tradition of getting xmas presents underway early enough to enter them in the fair, i just finished a pair of xmas pyjamas for the kiddo. just need to find some buttons and they're done. also did a pair of pyjama pants for myself, top to come later! both were made from cotton flannelette from fabricland. i may be slightly addicted to flannelette.

i have made a zillion pairs of tailored pyjamas, i love them so. kiddo won't wear anything else. the thing that makes them look so smart is the piping and the flat-felled seams. they also make the pyjamas more durable. it's a bit futzy, but i've got my technique down to a science, so i thought i'd do a tutorial.

some of the piping is obvious - the collar for example. sandwich piping between layers of fabric, and sew. but it's the sleeve cuffs that this tutorial focusses on.

note: this tutorial assumes a standrad 5/8" seam allowance. also, to use this technique, you will be applying the piping and cuff before you sew the sleeve/underarm seam.

first, how much hem allowance does your pattern allow? unless you want your sleeves extra-long, trim it off, plus an additional 3/4". for example, if the pattern allows 1 1/4" for the hem, shorten your sleeves by 2".

tear a strip about 2 1/2" or 3" wide along the selvedge edge of your fabric. using the selvedge edge is key: it means one less raw edge to worry about. cut a length of strip the same length as the sleeve hem to use as the cuff. then, cut a length of piping the same length as the sleeve cuff.

sandwich the piping between the sleeve fabric and the cuff strip, lining up the raw edge (not selvedge) of the cuff with the edge of the sleeve, and sew together as you normally would.

then press flat.

next, trim back the excess cord inside the piping pull out about 3/4" of the cord, and snip it off.

pull the fabric smooth so the ends of the cord disappear back into the tube. this will make sewing the seam easier - no lumpy cord to sew through - and the seam will be more neat.

next, pin your sleeve/underarm seam as you normally would, right down to the edge of the cuff. make sure you line up the piping as precisely as possible. sew right to selvedge edge of cuff, leaving a 5/8" seam allowance, and press flat.

snip the seam allowance along the edge of the piping, right up to the seam. then trim the seam allowance on one side of the sleeve to 1/4". leave the other seam allowance, and the seam allowances on the cuff, untrimmed.

press the seam allowances on the cuff open, and the sleeve seam allowances to one side.

fold the wider seam allowance around the trimmed seam allowance, and pin down. all the raw edges of the sleeve seam should be neatly enclosed.

sew this folded edge down against the sleeve. on the right side, this will appear as top-stitching.

almost there!

next, fold the cuff up, just overlapping the sewing line for the piping with the selvedge edge. make sure to line them up well.

on the right side, edge stitch along the piping, going through both layers of the cuff to secure it in place.

now, the selvedge edge of the cuff neatly covers all of the raw edges on the inside...

... while you have a neatly trimmed cuff on the outside!

it's not difficult once you get the hang of it, and in addition to giving a tailored finish, it finishes all raw edges using the machine - no hand-finishing required. i use this method to cuff the legs on pyjama bottoms, too.

ghostbusters costume: the zipper-shortening tutorial

i was updating my progress on this costume yesterday when i realised i hadn't taken any pictures of the zipper-shortening process - and figured this might be useful information for someone.

so here it is: how to shorten a zipper.

"why would you even want to do that, it looks fiddly," i hear you cry. well, when you have a dozen old zippers you bought for cheap somewheres a million years ago, and you find yourself needing a half-dozen zips of varying lengths in order to make a set of coveralls for a ghostbusters hallowe'en costume, you gotta do what you gotta do.

i used a nail file and a pair of pliers to do it.

the thing that stops most zippers from opening at the wrong end - and thus determines their length - is a little piece of metal that clamps the two sides together. it kind of looks like this:

with the flat top part showing on the front of the zipper, and the teeth at either end going through the fabric and bending over the teeth of the zipper. here's a look at the back view:

see the teeth? they're pretty well camouflaged. what you want to do is open up those teeth on one side so you can take the bracket off. i used a nail file to pry them up.

once you've got one side loosened, you can push back on the fabric of the zipper to pull them out. here's a look at the front, you can see the teeth pulling out:

then, grab the bracket with a pair of needle-nosed pliers, and pull it gently away from the fabric.

here it is. you can see the teeth on one side (the side pried open with the nail file) are kind of straight, but the teeth on the other side are still bent.

use the broad part of your pliers to straighten out the teeth.

now the bracket is ready to be re-inserted into the zipper in the new location. push the teeth through the fabric on the right side so they poke through on the wrong side.

then, use the pliers to clamp the teeth closed over the zipper so they're nice and flat.

that's when my batteries died, but it's basically done. just cut off the excess fabric, leaving about 5/8" below the bracket for stability.

a little weekend sewing project: silk crepe tank & brocade skirt

after being sick all last week and doing literally nothing, on saturday i remembered that, oh yeah, a childhood friend was getting married the next day, and organizing something to wear was to have been the previous weekend's activity, except i just slept all day and night instead. oops.

so, what to do? dig into the stash, and see what i could find.

i had just enough of this lovely blue chinese silk/rayon brocade to make a skirt, and magically came up with a scrap of silk crepe in a coordinating blue. i think it was from a remnant bin, or maybe the textile museum sale? in any case, there was barely half a metre of it!

i managed to locate a zipper of the right sort & size and some bemberg to line the skirt, so that wasn't too hard. the real trick: what to do with that scrap of crepe? that wouldn't take any extra effort or fabric?

the solution, was to make a super simple tank.

i did this in the quickest way i could think of with the least amount of fabric and finishing:

first, i simply folded the fabric in half, selvedge edges together.

using the folded edge as the "shoulder seam" (except i didn't have to do the seam, ha) i cut out armscyes and the neck hole (a boat neck wide enough to go over my head, no fasteners needed).

then, i sewed down the side seams, from armscye to the selvedge edge (which i used as a hem - no fraying, not visible, so no finishing required). i did a french seam, being the most sturdy-yet-nice-looking seam i know, which also requires no hand finishing.

then i rolled the edges at the neck and armscye, and finished those by hand which took all of till the clouds roll by, which you can watch for free on youtube. it's a jerome kern biopic, a bit maudlin and drippy, but gorgeous costumes, and of course lots of spectacular musical numbers. everyone is in this flick: judy garland, frank sinatra, lena horne, june allyson, van johnson, dinah shore, syd charisse, angela lansbury, van heflin, esther williams!

that's it, that's all! it was more effort getting the kid to dress up with me.

front porch freshen-up: recovering chairs

many years ago, tg found a couple of chairs in the garbage. they were great except for not having seats! so i cut out circles of mdf and upholstery foam, covered them with cotton twill, and voila! they looked great, for a little while.

but i learned a few things.

like, cotton twill does not stand up to being left outside in the rain and snow for six or seven years.

and, piping is not just decorative, it's also strengthening. i had just cut a biiiiig circle of the twill, gathered all the extra and stapled it under. so there was no reinforcement of any kind at the "edge" of the foam. and eventually, the fabric wore away. if i'd seamed and piped, first off the fabric on the piping isn't under much strain the way structural fabric is, and secondly, even if it does start to wear through, you just lose a bit of piping, as opposed to having the whole covering fall apart. lesson learned.

this time i did it right: indoor/outdoor fabric, and piping!

being exceptionally slow these days, i bought the fabric about 6 weeks ago, and a week after that got the chair seats measured, and a week after that got the fabric cut, and the week after that got it sewn, and then last friday i finally stapled the new covers on. whew. i have more cushion covers cut out, but they may just wait till next year.

recovering upholstered seats:

you'll need a staple gun for this, and fabric and cording.

first remove the seat from the frame. turn the chair upside down. on my chairs, there were three screws holding each wooden seat base to the metal frame. remove the screws and save for later. now you can work with the seat independent of the chair.

measure the seat. trace the shape onto a piece of paper, measure around the outside, and measure the total depth (foam, wood, everything).

cut out fabric, making sure to add seam allowances - 5/8" on each edge, with an extra 2" for the edge which will be stapled to the wood underneath. also sut a strip of fabric for piping, and cord the same length.

step one: right sides together, sew ends of each long rectangle, making two loops (one for the seat edge piece, one for the piping).

start by making the piping. fold the fabric in half lengthwise wrong sides together, and set the cord into the valley of the fabric, trimming cord to fit if necessary. sew the length of the fabric, as close to the cord as possible.

fit the edge piece around the edge of the seat piece, wrong sides together, sandwiching the piping in between. stagger the seams of the edge piece and the piping, so the fabric doesn't get too bulky. sew through all layers.

turn the seat cover right side out, and pull it over the seat. turn the seat upside down, tug the fabric firmly over the wood at one edge, and staple down. next, rotate the seat 180 degrees, and pull & staple the fabric snugly at the opposite side of the seat. continue in this way around the edge, going back and forth to opposite sides, to make sure the fabric is evenly stretched in all directions. think about it this way: if the first staple went in at 12 o'clock, the next should go in at 6 o'clock. then, you'd do 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock. then 7 and 1, 10 and 4, and so on and so on.

once the fabric is nice and snug, and you've got a staple every 1/2" to 3/4" around the edge, drop the seat back into the frame, and screw in using the screws you removed earlier.

finally, five years later... mask stands!

here's a little project that sat around waiting for me to do it for a long time, although it was not difficult at all!

five (yes, five!) years ago we went to zambia for a month, and among the things we brought back were two wooden masks. but we needed a way to display them! i foolishly thought it would be easy to but some sort of hat stand and adapt it, but i was woefully wrong. le sigh. so i had a little think about how one could make such a thing.

i imagined a version of some of the display racks i'd seen in shops for hats (although i couldn't for the life of me find such things in the right configuration and price for me to purchase): a base, an upright, and a knobby bit on top:

fairly simple, right? the wooden bases were cedar deck-components bought at our local hardware emporium - they're meant to cap 4x4 posts, and there's a good variety of them available most places you would go to buy stuff to build a deck. the upright section is simply a length of 3/4" dowel. the top, because i couldn't find wooden ones, is ugly white styrofoam.

i got a 3/4" spade bit and used my trusty old hand drill to drill down through the centre of the wooden bases - almost but not quite all the way through, leaving just under 1/4" thick at the bottom. then, i inserted the dowel with a load of glue, and anchored with a wood screw which i drove up from the bottom. solid. i also screwed a couple of mending plates on the bottom of the base, for added weight and stability.

the styrofoam balls... drilling in styrofoam is a messy unpleasant job. but it got done. those got glued on the top.

now of course, they looked pretty ugly. here's where the papier mache comes in. i made a simple paste of 1/2 cup flour, 2 cups water, cooked for about 5 minutes and then left to cool. i had a bunch of natural brown tissue paper in my collection of tissue and wrapping paper saved from every gift that has ever entered the house, so i used that, and covered the stands in their entirety, from the top down. the styrofoam balls got extra layers, as did the join between styrofoam and wood - my drill holes were messy, the balls were wobbly, all the stability they have now is due to papier mache. layers of it. these don't need to be exceptionally sturdy; the masks are made out of a fairly lightweight wood so they weigh less than you'd guess to look at them (makes sense, considering they were originally made to be worn by people). and, they're going to be sitting out of harm's way, on top of the piano.

i was originally intending to use a dark stain over all, but the natural light brown was sufficiently innocuous that i just left it.

ta dah! i'm feeling a bit pleased with myself now. although the top of the piano is probably getting too crowded for its own good. i should probably rearrange the living room bookshelves to make room for the basket o' sheet music up there, at least.

a quick and easy me-made tutorial

here's a terrible photo of today's me-made outfit:



the jeans are actually a recon job from a couple of summers ago. the top is probably the easiest-ever thing i have made: two identical pieces of fabric, stiched up the sides and shoulders, with turned-under edges at the neck, armholes, and hem. here's a quick diagram showing how - n.b. the fabric must be stretchy!



tomorrow i'm planning on wearing my flowered half-circle skirt along with a top i made on the weekend, but i don't know if i'll have time for photographs/blogging it till the end of the day - the kiddo is graduating pre-school! kind of ridiculous, really, but we're having fun with it. his bowtie is ready to go!

what i want for christmas

whoops! i started this post last week and it somehow got lost in the "drafts" folder... found it because i am home sick today!

this. and more realistically, this book! all about saul bass, the amazing graphic designer who did the credit sequences for so many brilliant films in the 1950s and truly created the aesthetic.

in other news, it's me-made month!



i will confess this morning i completely forgot until i was already on the road. did not sleep well last night is my only excuse. but yesterday i wore my new favourite skirt, a high-waisted half-circle in a floral print!




(note to self: hands too shaky, drink less coffee. or, get a tripod.)

i think the fabric was actually meant to be for upholstery, but the weight means it drapes nicely instead of flying up in the air all of the time. love this skirt! and was easy to make, too. here's a brief diagram of what i did:



n.b. all sides need seam allowance added!

make sense? one quarter-circle is the front of the skirt, the other is the back; the rectangles are for the waistband, one front and one back, and the line down the middle is to show that it's folded in half. first, sew one long side of each waistband to the smaller curved edge of the skirt piece, right sides together. then place the two combined pieces right sides together, lining up the waistband seam. sew the entire side seam (waistband and skirt) on one side, and on the other, sew the side seam only from about 5" from the waistband down to the bottom (to leave room for the zipper). fold the waistband down in half on the inside of the skirt, and sew through all layers "in the ditch" of the waistband seam. insert zipper, hem, and you're done!

i got a little fancy with mine; since it's a fairly wide waistband, i through in a couple of darts like this:



sorry i wish i was better at tutorials!