Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Sewing: A chicken and egg situation

I'm super excited right now because I decided to make a baby sling for my best friend from college. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl just a few weeks ago.

But the thing about sewing something from scratch is that the prep work always seems to take more time than the actual sewing. And it never seems like as much fun as the actual sewing. My beginner students in my patterns class are always amazed at how much work we do before we ever start sewing.



In this case, the ironing seemed to take forever. The reversible sling tutorial I'm using called for two and a half yards of two fabrics.

I decided to use this great cotton duvet cover that I had been saving because I loved the fabrics in it. I washed it, and then of course I had to iron it.

Have you ever tried ironing a duvet cover? At least this one was just a twin size and not a queen or a king!





Then I had to cut down the fabric so that it would be the right size. I don't know about you, but I don't have one of those fabulous oversized cutting tables like they do on Project Runway.

My solution is always to move the coffee table, roll back the area rug, vacuum the floor, and then lay out my fabric on the living room floor. Not exactly perfect, but it works.

And my favorite trick is to use canned goods as pattern weights to keep the fabric from shifting while I'm cutting. It's a simple and inexpensive solution--both good things in my book.

I'll let you know how the whole thing turns out. If I'm lucky, maybe my friend will send me a few pictures of the sling in action!

No comments:

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin