Shirr Delight!

Today I'm sharing about shirring with a how-to and a little video! My daughter, Becky, wanted me to make a little sundress for her beach vacation, so I set her free in my fabric shop to choose her fabrics! She chose a white ruffle fabric for the skirt (it comes pre-ruffled right on the bolt!),  and an Amy Butler cotton print for the top (bodice).

For the bodice, I simply made a tube about 12" long and 10" wider than Becky's bust measurement. Next, I hemmed the top edge by pressing under 1/4" twice and top stitching around the folded edge. Based on Becky's measurement, the finished bodice needed to be about 10" long. I serged around the lower edge so that the tube was 10 1/2" long, giving me 1/2" for a seam allowance to attach it to the skirt.

For the skirt, I purchased enough fabric to attach it to the lower bodice edge, (purchase half of the bodice width, plus extra for a side seam on each side). The selvages will become the skirt's hem, and the cut edges will become the side seams. This ruffle fabric is 60" wide, and since Becky's skirt needed to be 21" long, that meant removing a piece of the center fold about 18" wide (and saving it for another project!). Sew up the side seams and attach the skirt to the bodice with 1/2" seam allowance.

Shirring is simple. Just hand-wind elastic thread onto a bobbin, being careful not to stretch it as you wind. Place the bobbin in your bobbin case as with normal thread, including passing it into the tension slots. Lengthen your stitch length to about 4.0 and you're ready to go! Back-stitch at the beginning and ending of your seam to ensure that the elastic stays in place. Working with a tube is very easily done by using the free arm feature on your sewing machine and sewing the elastic rows in a spiral, about 1/2" apart. When the first round is almost completed, just taper your stitching line so that it stitches 1/2" below the beginning point. Continue sewing around the tube in a constant spiral, ending when you reach the seam that joins the skirt to the bodice. Keeping an index finger pressed against the back of the presser foot while stitching will yield more gathers in the fabric. After the stitching is complete, steam the shirring with a steam iron for a few seconds to add additional gathers to the elastic! The video, above, shows how that shirring process looks. Give it a try!

Thanks for visiting! Happy Sewing and God bless! Maxie

Sewing with Knit and the Shell Tuck Edge Stitch

It's about time I turned out some baby clothes, don't you think? Grandaughter #1 is due in about 2 weeks! Thankfully, my Baby Lock Serger and Sewing Machines help me make haste, while making me look good at the same time! So today, I'm sharing a wonderfully fun technique that gives special detail when special is called for! I'll be using Bonnie Christine's knit fabric for Art Galley Fabrics, and the Celebrating Baby Newborn Gown patten that you can download free from Rachel at  Stitched-Together.com. Bonnie also has knits for her Hello, Bear line and her Winged line; if you love Art Gallery's pima cotton prints, you're sure to love their luxurious knits!

Notice the sweet edging stitched along the hems of the sleeves and down the front of the 'pleat' on the front of the gown. It's called the Shell Tuck Edge, and it's done completely by machine! If you have a machine with assorted stitches, it's very likely there. Read on and see!

The first thing you need to do is to hop over and download the pattern from Stitched-Together.com. The front accent is not part of the pattern, but easily made by moving the pattern off the fold 3/4", as shown below. By the way, do you use pattern weights? I love to use these that were gifted to me from Sarah Overton; you can make your own from the instructions over at Tea Rose Home.

Cut out your gown front, and while the pattern is still in place on the fabric, draw a line right next to the pattern piece (3/4" off the fold) with an iron-off marker. With the fabric still folded wrong sides together, put a few pins in the fold and stitch on this line. This will create a little tube on the front center. Press it flat, centering the tube over the seam, as shown in the photos below.

Fold the gown front wrong sides together, so that one side of the folded edge is extended. We will create the Shell Tuck Edge on both folded edges, working with one side at a time.

The next step is to set up the stitch on the machine. The picture below shows my Baby Lock Destiny's screen. The Shell Tuck Edge is stitch "Q-13" (highlighted in blue, below). It looks somewhat like a blanket stitch with three straight stitches between the right-swing jumps. Notice the width and length settings that I've adjusted to suit my knit fabric. Play around with your settings on scraps of your actual fabric and make adjustments to your liking. One more thing to note on the screen below: The Destiny has a built in camera that will allow you to view your actual fabric under the presser foot with a superimposed image of the chosen stitch, in actual size. This allows me to adjust my fabric precisely, and to see how the stitch will fall in place. Thank you, Baby Lock! You can see in the camera image that I am allowing the right-swing jump to fall off the folded edge of the fabric, with the stitch landing in the air. This is exactly what I want to happen because the thread will grab the fold and pull it over, creating a little scalloped edge! Note: this stitch is beautiful on woven cotton fabrics, too, especially when the fold is on the bias grain.

Beautiful, right? Imagine this stitch on other things. For example, how about on the folded edge of a 1.5" bias woven cotton strip for a beautiful piping insertion that would be wonderful slipped under a quilt binding edge!

With the first side of the front accent completed, fold the gown wrong sides together once again to expose the opposite side of the folded center tube. Repeat the Shell Tuck Edge for this side.

Continue to sew the little gown as directed in the pattern. I made a couple of changes to my version. First, instead of binding the neck edge, I folded the strips in half lengthwise and serged them to the neck edge with my Enlighten serger. (This serger threads itself, by the way!) This method is much faster and gives a nice smooth finish in one step.

The second change was to use the Shell Tuck Edge stitch on the lower hem, shown below, and sleeve edges as a finish.

I hope you'll give the Shell Tuck Edge stitch a try! I'm sure you'll find lots of places to apply it's delicate touch!

Thanks for visiting! Happy Sewing and God bless! Maxie

How to Create Gentle Gathers

I am a quilter, but garment sewing is my first love in the sewing world. You probably know that I have a little grandson, Bear, who is expecting a baby sister in about 4 weeks! I love sewing for Bear. In fact, I made a pillow case for him today, from a print filled with elephants and monkeys. He loves it. But sewing for a girl is different, and I'm very used to that because I had two daughters! So gather 'round, everyone! Today we are gathering!

So, here's what that sleeve and armhole opening look like before they are sewn together. You can see that the sleeve's curved edge is larger than the arm opening edge (above left). What to do about that? The sleeve cap (the upper curved edge) must be gathered to fit. This allows the sleeve cap to curve over the bend of the shoulder at the top of the arm. It's easy to do, and all this little sleeve will need are gentle gathers, not puffy, full gathers. I accomplish this easily by stitching along the curved edge and, at the same time, holding my index finger firmly behind the presser foot, pushing the fabric that feeds through into the back of the presser foot. This creates gentle gathers, as shown below in the video:

After gathering, place the sleeve cap edge, right sides together, against the arm opening. Match any dots or notches transferred from your pattern and pin in place, (as shown in the photo, above right). If you still need to gather a bit more, pull gently on the bobbin thread and distribute the fullness. Stitch in place. Easy as pie!

Thanks for visiting! Happy sewing and God bless! Maxie

Reflecting on the Mirror Image

How often do you put to use some of those great features on your sewing machine? If you stick with me on a regular basis, I hope to help you begin to use a lot of your machine's special abilities that you might otherwise overlook. One great feature on most machines today is the mirror image. It's obviously needed for certain applications, such as when using the blanket stitch for applique´ and you just need the stitch's jump to work in the opposite direction for you. But what about a straight stitch? Could a mirror image be helpful for a straight stitch? Why, yes! I'll show you how I used it to make the sweet little bag shown in the photo below.

Bag is from Tilda's Summer Ideas, show above.

The mirror image feature does just what the name implies, flipping the stitch or design exactly opposite of the default setting. A scallop stitch that swoops to the right will swoop to the left when the mirror image is activated. That would be very helpful if you were stitching rows of decorative scallops down the front of a blouse and you wanted all the rows to the right of the center line to lay exactly opposite of the rows to the left of the center line. Janice Ferguson Sews has a great picture on her blog of decorative stitches that have been mirrored on the front of a garment. The need to mirror certain stitches is obvious, but let's look at mirroring a straight stitch. Here is the mirror image on the Baby Lock:

When I sew a ribbon on a piece of fabric, I like to stitch both sides in the same direction so that the fabric is not skewed. When stitching straight lines some people stitch one line in one direction and the second in the opposite direction, continually alternating sewing directions to 'even out' the layers. I can usually spot when this is done, because the fabric will slightly skew between the rows of stitching.

For this project, I used the Edge Joining Foot to stitch along the edge of the ribbon. I set my needle in the position that I wanted, and sewed down one edge (left photo, below). Rather than turn my project and change stitching directions for the other side, I simply touch my mirror image button and slip my fabric over until the other edge of the ribbon is positioned underneath the needle (right photo).  Because this foot has a centered metal 'fence' guide, placing the ribbon's edge along the fence assures perfectly aligned stitches! Moving the project and realigning it under the presser foot as before will ensure that both stitching lines will be the same distance from the ribbon's edge, and that no skewing will occur.

Yes, the mirror image works great with your straight stitch when you need to use both sides of the presser foot to guide your stitching lines, both sewn in the same direction! Try it for purse handles, too. Can you share how the mirror image function has helped you?

Thanks for visiting! Happy Sewing and God bless, Maxie

Put Your Best Foot Forward!

When we sew, sometimes using the right tool can mean the difference between homemade and handmade. I prefer handmade, but I'm no stranger to homemade! I've been sewing for a long time and I've paid my homemade dues, and that's one reason why I love to share things that make our sewing easier and, at the same time, offer a more professional finish. Today I want to share one of my very favorite and most useful presser feet, the Edge Joining Foot. This foot isn't likely in your accessory box because it is usually an option. Looking a bit like the blind hem foot, you might inadvertently think you have it, but upon inspection you'll notice the difference. Below is a shot of my foot as I sew in the ditch (seam) of this placket on a robe I made for my mother. With a small needle and a 60 wt. cotton thread, the stitching is virtually invisible. Show off!

Pictured below are both the blind hem foot (left) and the Edge Joining Foot (right). Notice that the blind hem foot's center guide has a curve in it that wraps around the needle. The center guide on the Edge Joining Foot doesn't even extend into the needle area, allowing the needle to sew at any position you choose. Keeping your needle in the center position, as in the picture above, allows you to stitch perfectly in the ditch because the blade will guide your fabric. If you want to stitch on either side of the ditch, just move your needle into a right or left position. The blade will still remain in the ditch, but the needle will impeccably stitch the perfect distance from the ditch! Show off!

Right: Baby Lock's Edge Joining Foot (Product #ESG-EJF)

I use the Edge Joining Foot to sew many of my quilt bindings. The blade keeps your stitching line uniform on the binding's folded edge. You can see all four edges of this quilt's binding in the photo below (two sides show the front and two show the back). Show off!

There is so much more that this little jewel of a foot can do for you, making you look like the best sewist ever!

• Sewing edges of laces, trims or ribbons together.
• Topstitching any edge (bindings, purse handles, etc.)
• Sewing pockets into totes or clothing.
• Sewing applique´edges in place.
• Fagotting two folded edges together with a decorative stitch.
• And more!

Do you have your Edge Joining Foot yet? Let's get out there and show off!

Thanks for visiting! Happy Sewing and God bless! Maxie