Sewing – Ornamento

WANTED!

By: ornamento.blog March 11, 2021March 8, 2021

Art, Boris, SewingArt, Cats, Pandemic craft projects, SewingLeave a Comment

I have a bad cat. Yes, Boris is wanted for Destruction of Furniture. This is a Felony in my house, but cats and small children get automatic immunity.

We have some storage hassocks that we use as foot stools and coffee tables in our living room. When you live in a small (916 sf) house, every piece of furniture has have more than one function.

Boris keeps his sleepy pad one one of the hassocks where he hangs out with his stuffed mice. The little monster does not deserve a new cover on his hassock (never mind that he has three scratching posts on the first floor, plus a cat tree and he uses them all) but I decided that a pandemic sewing project might be interesting.

I used some heavy canvas fabric I got in a free bin at a house sale. I added a design with some fabric paint. The hassock was an 18″ cube, so I measured a strip of fabric 72″ long (the material swatch was huge. I could have also cut and sewn a strip 72″ long) plus an extra inch, and 22 inches wide. I made a giant tube snug enough that I had to finesse it over the hassock. The bottom of the fabric was already hemmed.

The fabric pulled over the hassock. I stapled it to the inside.

I cut an 18.5 ” square for the top and sewed 4″ strips to the sides. I fastened them to the underside of the lid with staples.

So, what’s to keep Boris from destroying this? And I also decided that I didn’t want to make three more covers for the rest of the hassocks. And I’m not crazy about the fabric. Light colors don’t work to well for a foot stool. Replace the hassocks? And have them destroyed again? But I think I found a solution.

To be delivered this week. I hope it’s Boris proof!

Creativity in the Time of Coronavirus

By: ornamento.blog March 19, 2020May 6, 2020

Art, art, creativity, crafts, inspiration, creativity, SewingArt, coronavirus, creativity, DIY Facemasks2 Comments

Most of us are stuck at home and the more fortunate of us are merely apprehensive or bored. Not knowing what’s going to happen is a scary, but think about it-when did we ever know what the future held? And if we did, who among us is smart enough to know what to do with it? With brings me to today’s question:

Should we wear face masks to protect ourselves from the coronavirus? Here’s one point of view. Here’s the other. This link goes to an article that says that DIY face masks can offer protection from coronavirus. I am not prepared to debate this with anyone because I simply don’t know the answer. I have resolved this question for myself with an “off label” application of Pascal’s wager. I know that wearing a face mask does not offer immunity or an excuse to dispense with hand washing, etc. But if you are already taking all the precautions you can, how can it hurt? That leaves the question of where to get face masks. They have become a precious commodity.

I already have some N 95 respirators that I use for enameling and metalwork. But you can’t wash them and they say to throw them away after one use. Who knows how long the pandemic will last? I need a better face mask option. For me, the option is to make some face masks. Will they offer any protection? As you can see from the chart below, certain materials offer more protection than others.

mask-materials-effectiveness-1-micron-en

I don’t have many vacuum cleaner bags, but I have many dish towels (a more accurate description would be old fashioned tea towels-a closely woven cotton fabric made for drying dishes and glass ware). Here is a link to the kind of tea towels you would use to make face masks. I would not use terrycloth or micro fiber. You have to breathe while you wear the mask.

There are many sites with directions for sewing face masks. Most of them use two or three layers of material. The tea towel fabric is tightly woven, however, so you will have to adapt any pattern you use to make it work for you. A single layer with a thin cotton fabric as a liner might be best. I plan to experiment.

Here are some links if you are interested in making face masks.

CraftPassion

Medical Mask for cancer or COPD patient (including child’s masks)

Hand-sewn mask

And here is some helpful advice from Ana Belchi

Since I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, the CDC has changed its no face mask position. The CDC now advises that wearing non-medical grade face masks might help to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. For instructions on how to make a no-sew face mask, press here.

From Overalls to Cross Back Apron

By: ornamento.blog July 13, 2017July 12, 2017

apron tutorial, Art, repurposing, SewingArt, clothing, Cross back apron, pottery, reporposingLeave a Comment

My pottery overalls had finally bitten the dust. No wonder, they were more than 25 years old although I had not worn them for a number of years. Saying goodbye to my overalls was a painful prospect. What would I wipe the clay on? I decided to make an apron from them.

1.1

First, I cut off the legs being careful to keep all the pockets.

2.2 3.3 back

It was not until I turned the overalls over that I realized that I had the makings of a no-sew cross back apron! Se my other post on how to sew one from scratch here

4.4back cut

Just cut the seam right down the middle of the back.

5.5Roomtoextendthestraps

Make sure the straps are plenty long to accommodate the cross over.

6.6TheCrossBack

Rear view. You don’t have to unhook the straps to put on the apron which is what is so great about a cross back apron in the first place!

7.7Crossback2

8.8Stillhavethepockets

Front view. A great, easy, low-cost no sew cross back apron! With pockets!

Learn to Sew in a Butcher’s Shop

By: ornamento.blog June 2, 2016June 2, 2016

Amalia Petherbridge, Art, SewingArt, Bella, Butcher's Sew Shop, creativity, Sewing, South Philadelphia, south philly1 Comment

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Amalia Petherbridge (Mali, pronounced “Molly”) is the founder and tireless proprietor of the Butcher’s Sew Shop in the Bella Vista neighborhood of South Philadelphia. While she has been sewing nearly as long as she has been walking, it was not until after college graduation, a stint working in the non-profit sector and taking some sewing classes for fun that she decided to go back to school and study sewing full time.

Mali was not sure what direction her career would take after she completed her course work in design and pattern making. But she discovered that she loved teaching when she started giving her friends sewing lessons sewing in her home. “I loved seeing things click for other people,” she recalled, “and I still love seeing adults learning those skills for the first time. It’s really empowering for them. Even something as simple as being able to hem your own pants. It’s a life skill and it’s a great creative outlet, too.”

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So she decided to open a business and teach sewing. This is hardly surprising; many of the women from Mali’s childhood combined creativity and entrepreneurship in their careers. An Aunt had a line of children’s clothing. Mali’s mother built pipe organs in a home studio. Mali’s step mother was a seamstress and quilt maker.

Mali located her shop in Bella Vista because she knew and loved the neighborhood. “I think it has a great vibe and when I saw the for rent sign in the window I just instinctively felt that it would be a good place.” And that turned out to be true. “The neighbors are so supportive; it feels like a little community and we do have a lot of students who are from the neighborhood, although we get most of our students from Internet traffic.”

When Mali signed the lease, she did not know the space 8th and Catharine Streets had been a butcher shop. The shop had been a bodega after the butcher shop closed, and looked completely different when Mali first saw it.

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Mali tackled the renovations herself with the help of many friends. She found gleaming white tiles behind the peeling dry wall. The drop ceiling hid an old fashioned punched tin ceiling. As the renovations progressed, she uncovered more relics and artifacts.

win

Transforming the shop was an intensely personal process for her; she felt a deep connection to the space. At some point in the process she learned the store had been a butcher shop. But one day, purely by serendipity, she found out that one family had operated the butcher shop for eighty years. That’s when she started to research the history of the shop and the family behind it. “Because here I am opening my first business,” she explained,” and I’m just trying to make it through the first month and to think that family kept a business alive here for generations!”

She located the family and asked them if they would allow her to name her business Butcher’s Sew Shop in their honor. “Butchers work with their hands, too. It’s a craft and I felt that energy in the space and loved the idea of being able to honor that.” The family was delighted and sent her copies of old pictures and other information about the butcher shop which you can see on the web site here.

Front

“Our core adult student is a young professional who wants some kind of creative release outside of work. Some of the people who come in have some kind of vision. They want to learn how to make something for themselves or to mend their clothes or we have young mothers who want to sew for their kids. But a lot of people just come in to try it and they end up taking more and more classes.”

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“Half of our business is a sister program where we teach kids. They are so creative and they soak up things like sponges! We have kids who have been here for a few years and they can sit down at the machine and do pretty much anything at this point. We start at age 5 and go to 14. And we have the five year olds on the machines too.”

The Butcher’s Sew Shop is stocked with heavy duty Singer Sewing machines and plenty of sewing tools and equipment. Students also have access to two sergers. They are also welcome to bring in their own machines; Mali and her staff will help them learn how to operate them.

Table2

In June, the Butcher’s Sew Shop is opening a second location at 1912 South Street which it will share with Loop Yarn who will offer knitting classes in the rear. Programs are planned to start in July or August. Mali is excited about this expansion which will give her more room for children’s classes.

For the full schedule of classes and activities at the Butcher’s Sew Shop, go to the web site here. For information on the exciting summer, afternoon and weekend programs for kids offered through Sew Philly, click here.

Ent

BUTCHER’S SEW SHOP 800 S. 8th St PHILADELPHIA, PA 19147

TEL: 215-678-7671

www.butcherssewshop.com

Turn An Old Skirt into Something New!

By: ornamento.blog July 17, 2014July 14, 2014

Art, inspiration, recycled art, recycling, repurposing, Sewing, Singer Slant-o-maticArt, creativity, recycling, Sewing, thrift shopLeave a Comment

I wanted a dreamy looking leather satchel in a soft, buttery leather only I didn’t want to shell out a couple hundred dollars for it. I saw a cool looking black leather skirt in a thrift shop and I suppose they were having a hard time moving it because it was marked down to $7.00. I grabbed a back leather belt for $2.00 and away I went!

I turned the skirt inside out and marked there I wanted to cut it. Since the skirt was lined, I could skip lining the tote.

I had to decide how to work around the zipper and decided that I would make a seam there and remove it.

I’m glad I scanned the Internet for tips (see end of post) because I got myself some heavy duty needles which helped immensely. The leather I used was thin-it had been a skirt after all, and the Singer Slant-O-Matic had no trouble handling it. Plus it glided smoothly because the lining and not the leather was making contact with the sewing machine.

I cut the handles from a thick leather belt which was very hard to cut. I used a utility blade.

I attached the handles to the body of the bag with grommets I bought at Harbor Freight.

I stitched the handles to the top of the bag with a sewing awl, also from Harbor Freight. You can see that I had to make the holes with a drill, but the awl was great for passing the thread back and forth between the holes.

I installed a magnetic purse snap and I had a leather tote for under $10.00!

Here’s another one made from a suede thrift store skirt

This tutorial from sewbeittudio.com was very helpful. I also liked this one from the Vintage Ramble blog.

And here is a good video to get you started.

The Quilt In Progress

By: ornamento.blog April 23, 2014April 20, 2014

Art, art, creativity, crafts, inspiration, Personal History, quilting, SewingArt, creativity, inspiration, Quilting, SewingLeave a Comment

I have started the block trimming and sewing. Lots of scraps! But now that I have a decent place to work with a cement floor, it’s much easier to keep things swept up

I decided to make sections of 12 blocks-2 rows of 6-and then I will join 4 of them to make each quilt top which will be 6 blocks wide and 8 blocks long. (Finished blocks are a foot square so the quilt will be 72 x 96 before binding.

Since I had so many colors of fabric, I decided to use white in the overall design to give the eye a rest. I’m glad I did, because this is going to be a busy quilt.

Studio Birdie seems to be enjoying all the activity and bright colors.

I am wearing a wrist support because I am doing a lot of trimming and I don’t want my wrist to suffer.

I find that it’s helpful to break up the trimming with the pressing and the sewing. I am managing to keep all the thread under control but I have a feeling I will be picking loose threads off these quilts for a long time.

I started out sewing 2 blocks together then joining to make strips of 6 and then joining this to another strip of 6. But last night, I joined a two block section to another two block section to make a four block piece and I sewed three of these together. It seemed a little easier to line up the seams with the latter method, but I am still learning. Any tips would be welcome!

Creative Thrift Shopping

By: ornamento.blog March 27, 2014March 27, 2014

Art, recycling, repurposing, Sewing, Thrift Shopscreativity, Philadelphia, repurposing, Sewing, thrift shopsLeave a Comment

One of my favorite thrift store in Philadelphia is Thrift for Aids. With its creative and witty staff, shopping there is always entertaining even if I don’t find anything. Case in point: their new trash receptacle outside the store.

For me one of the best forms of therapy is retail therapy in a thrift shop. There is no thrill like finding an item like a pair of Talbot’s Silk pants for $4.00 or a an Ann Taylor sweater for $7.00. Unless you are shopping for new fashion trends, are a Wall Street Trader or work for Big Law, a good thrift shop can be your go-to store most of the clothes you’ll need, not to mention a source of fabric for quilts, a source of yarn for sweaters, and all kinds of household goodies. But what to do when you see a pair of Eileen Fisher pull-on pants in a soft and dreamy Italian knit that you must have but they are much too large? If you are like me, you buy them and keep them for a year before you get the courage to take scissors to them. You search your sewing books and on line tutorials and then you come across a video on YouTube which is as simple as it can be watch it and get the courage to alter those pants so they fit! I was so surprised at how well they turned out that I had to share the results and the video with you.

I don’t have any “before” pictures, but these are the pants after I took in the legs and crotch, put in a new waist and shortened them about 6 inches

New hem

New waist

Here are another pair of Eileen Fisher pants made of linen which will be perfect for summer. These don’t need a new waist so much as slimmer legs and a crotch that’s not in the middle of my thighs. And now here’s the video to which I owe my new pants.

Here are some links to instructions for altering waistlines and hemming pants. Now get sewing!

My Sewing Machine Will Quilt Again!

By: ornamento.blog September 12, 2013April 29, 2015

Art, quilting, Sewing, Singer Slant-o-maticArt, humor writing, Quilting, repairman review, Sewing, sewing machine repair3 Comments

In my previous post, I told you how I murdered my sewing machine and how Jack De Sorte carried it and my other machine off into the night. Did I ever hear from him again?

I am happy to report that I did. As a matter of fact, he had the Slant-O-Matic back to me THE NEXT DAY!!!!! I was beside myself with joy and sewed like a mad woman all weekend. But what about the Kenmore? Well, that’s a little more complicated.

I got a call at work the next week. It was Jack.

“What did you do to that machine?!?!” he demanded.

“Did I do something wrong, ” I whispered meekly.

“Did you do something wrong? The gears were shot! I don’t know what you did to that machine but I had to call in favors and drive to shops in Jersey to get all the parts. What did you do to that machine?”

“I dunno,” I squeaked, “Could you fix it?”

“Could I fix it?-It’s like new,” he shot back me, ” and when I deliver it I’ll give you some instructions.”

Yikes. What was I in for?

He arrived at my house that might cradling the machine like a baby. He laid it on my dining room table and pulled a small bag out of his pocket. “Here are needles,” he told me, “and bobbins and a new zipper foot. I want you to use them.” He put the bag on the table.

“Do not use cheap needles!” he admonished me. If you hit something while you’re sewing, STOP AND STEP AWAY FROM THE MACHINE! Do not try to sew with a bent needle! Do not pull the thread! Do not sew with a dirty machine! Clean and oil it regularly! ”

“Yes Jack,” I whispered.

And now, I am afraid-I am afraid that if I screw up one more time, that Jack will find out, come to my house, take my machine and place it in a foster home.

I will be careful.

Seriously, if you live in the Philadelphia area and need sewing machine repair, call Jack. I cannot recommend him enough.

De Sorte’s Vacuum Cleaner Service

6153 Market St
Philadelphia, PA 19139
(215) 474-3045

Here are some pictures of what I sewed after Jack fixed my sewing machines

I Murdered My Sewing Machine!!

By: ornamento.blog September 5, 2013April 29, 2015

Art, Philadelphia, quilting, Sewing, Singer Slant-o-matic, South Philadelphia, South Philly, writingArt, creativity, humor writing, Quilting, repairman review, sewing machine repair5 Comments

I managed to murder a sewing machine. I was busy sewing wonky log cabin blocks on my late Mother-in-Law’s Kenmore when I heard, GADUMP! I stopped and saw I had a bent needle. I replaced it and stared to sew but the machine continued to clunk!clunk! clunk! And clunk! And basically not sew anything. I needed sewing machine triage.

: Chain Piecing on the Kenmore

There is no sewing repair place near my house and I don’t own a car. I was determined not to ask a friend to schlep me and my crippled machine to a repair place so I started to look for someone who would come to my house. I found a guy on Yelp who had one five star rating. That was his only rating. I called him.

“How old is your machine?” he asked

“I don’t want to buy a new one,” I retorted. (I am always suspicious.)

“I don’t want you to buy a new one,” he answered, “the new ones aren’t any good; but I need to know how old yours is before I know whether I can work on it.”

“Seventeen years old, ” I replied.

“I can fix that no problem.” He made arrangements to come to my house the next day.

My husband let him in and took his card, Jack DeSorte’s Vacuum Repair. Jack parked himself at my dining room table and inspected the machine. “I’ll have this fixed in about an hour, ” he announced.

My heart soared. For the next hour, Jack labored on the machine and treated my husband and me to the short version of his life story, his philosophy of sewing machines, sewing machine repair and sewing machine restoration. It dawned on me that I had a first class, genuine, A-Number One sewing machine nerd repairman seated in my dining room. Which is a good thing in case you were wondering.

After an hour, Jack rose from the table wiping his forehead and informed me that he would have to take the machine into his shop. “I don’t know what you did to this machine, ” he declared, ” but I’m gonna have to take the whole thing apart and it’s gonna be messy. I might need parts. I can’t fix it here.”

“Will you bring it back when it’s fixed?” I inquired.

“Of course,” he replied as if wondering why I had to ask about something so obvious.

“Wait a minute,” I called, running down the basement steps, “I have something else.” I returned with my Mother’s 1961 Singer Slant-O-Matic 500A. “This was my mother’s machine, “I told him, ” and I used to sew on it when I was a little girl. It works but it needs a tune up. She got that machine when Kennedy was president, ” I added. (This means that I felt comfortable enough with Jack to date myself. Which means something but I’m not sure what.)

: Slant-O-Matic

He was beaming. “Will you look at that, ” he exclaimed lifting up the lid that covers the double thread spindles. “It’s so clean! Normally when I see one if these it’s got all kinds of crap on it.”

“My Mother was so clean that once she broke our television to clean it, “I bragged. “My Father wouldn’t get it fixed, so we had to turn it on and off by using the plug. And my brother claimed that we were the only family he knew who had a brutal cycle on their washing machine.”Maybe you are starting to understand why I took to Jack like I did.

Jack wrote up the proper receipts and disappeared with my sewing machines into the night.

To be continued. . .

Still Quilting, Still Dreaming

By: ornamento.blog May 23, 2013May 22, 2013

Art, quilting, recycling, repurposing, SewingArt, inspiration, Quilting, SewingLeave a Comment

I started these quilts (I am making two) a year and a half ago. I put them away during our house renovation. I have moved from the dining room to my new workshop in the basement where I have lots of room and a floor that is easy to sweep. I moved my mother’s Singer Slant-O-Matic down there and plan to have it tuned up. In the meantime, I’m using my late mother-in- law’s Kenmore which I also love and which I used to make my couch covers.

I’m making a modified Log Cabin pattern, semi wonky because I could never color inside the lines and still can’t. I plan each block to be 13 inches square raw and 12 inches square sewn and I have 70 made so far. I want to make 14 more. I am using mostly cut up clothes, old sheets and tablecloths, scraps and found fabric.

I bought a big box of scraps on Etsy. If you do a search for “fabric destash” you can get some incredible deals and the shipping is reasonable too.

You use a lot of thread when you sew patches together so I am using a cone rather than a spool of thread and I made a stand for the thread cone that is working out quite well! Here are some instructions.

I also learned about the chain piecing technique that helps you to sew faster. There’s a nice video on it at the bottom of the post.

And now for the gallery