Consumed with work

Hey folks, I've been a little busy with work but i should have another Tute up here shortly. Just keep checking back. Thanks

Blog setup frustration

Sorry about  how cluttered everything is getting, but i just can't figure out how to create new pages and actually post to them. I'll keep trying.

P.S. anyone got any tips?

Hooded Duck Towel Tutorial

duck

Well here it is, the tutorial that i promised. the pics didn't turn out as good as i was hoping, but i think you manage just fine.

We'll start of with a material list:

1 large yellow bath towel

1 yellow hand towel

1 orange hand towel

1 white hand towel or wash cloth

2 medium size black buttons

Corresponding color thread

small amount of batting

The first step will be to make the hood of the towel. Follow the link i have posted below to another hooded towel tutorial. FOLLOW IT ONLY AS FAR AS THE COMPLETION IF THE HOOD and the come back to this tute to create the duck. http://sewdad.blogspot.com/2011/01/hooded-puppy-towel-tutorial.html

 I didn't want to have to go all of the way back to the beginning since i had created a tutorial that covered this earlier.

Lets get crack'n on the duck head! First we need to sketch up the three patterns for the bill. The actual finished bill turned out to be abut 4 inches wide. The shape is not set in stone so sketch the bill to look how you what or just do what i did below.

The bill consist of three piece stuffed with batting. The pic directly below is the sketch of the top of the bill. Sketch out a ruff pattern of the bill as viewed from above. This will be just a tad bit larger than the finished bill. Now add an extra 1/2 inch around the outside of the pattern EXCEPT FOR THE TOP OF THE BIIL where it will attach to the face. This is the seam allowance. You will use this patter for the 2 half's of the upper bill. 

 The picture below represents the three pieces to be cut. The black out line is the upper portion of the bill. The blue line represents the cut line for the bottom half of the upper bill. Basically it is the same as the top half of the bill just with the excess material above the blue line cut away. The red outline is the lower bill. It is to be cut about 3/4 inch narrower on the 2 sides than the 2 upper bill half's. use this pic as a reference.

Place the patterns on the orange hand towel and cut them out.

 Place the lower bill material on to the lower half of the upper bill. Place it so that the top(where it connects to the face)of the bill material overhangs 1/2 inch over the of the lower half of the upper bill and pin them together.

Sew around the edges using a zigzag stitch. You want to sew it so that the stitch completely encompasses the raw edge of the lower bill material. this is to prevent it from fraying and coming apart. Leave the top open.

 Place the upper half of the upper bill material on the lower half of the upper bill sandwiching the lower bill material between the two and sew the edges use a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Leave the top open.

Fold the bill right side out and stuff the two pockets with a small amount batting. Not to much or it wont dry easily when washed.

Pin the lower portion of the bill to the Hood. This is where that overhanging material on the lower half of the bill material comes into play. Ensure that the bill is centered with the hood and pin it to the outside of the hood, not the inside. As you can see from the picture below the bill overlaps the hood with right sides touching approximately 1/2 inch.

sew along the width of the bill with a straight stitch staying about 1/8 inch in from the edge of the hood. Do this only to the lower bill half, not the 2 upper bill pieces. This step will attach the lower portion of the bill and the next step Will protect the raw edge of the bill material.

Pull the top portion of the bill up the outside of the hood about 3 inches or what ever looks right to you. Center the bill with the hood center and pin it. you can see now that it is starting to look like something.

I must have forgotten to take a picture of this step but I'm sure that you'll manage. With the bill pinned to the hood and and your stamp of approval on the placement its time to sew it on. Don't forget to change your bobbin and spool thread to the appropriate colors. Sew along the edge of the upper bill half with a zigzag stitch. Make sure that you over lap the stitch over the raw edge of the bill to prevent it from fraying and coming apart. You also might want to consider tightening up your stitch length for this step.

Now you have a blind duck!

Lets give the duck the gift of sight. As you can see in the pic below the pattern that i sketched out for the eyes is kind of cartoony. go ahead and make your pattern. you only need to make one pattern.

Place the pattern on the white hand towel and cut 2 of them out. I folded the towel over on its self so i could get 2 out of one cut.

Determine a appropriate location for the eyes and pin (one at a time) to the hood. once satisfied sew it on. Remember to mind your thread colors. Sew around the edges of the eyes using a zigzag stitch and encompass the raw edge of the eye. repeat for the second eye.

Unless you like the zombie duck look (you know with the eyes rolled back in the head) sew on the pupils. Take one of the black buttons for each eye and determine the placement and sew them on.  You may want to do this by hand, I'm lazy so i did it with my machine. to do this by machine you are going to have to disengage the feed dogs under the presser foot and use the appropriate width zigzag stitch. Check your thread color.

This is what you should end up with. 

Now you need to wash and dry it. That should work up any loose threads so that you can trim them. Once you have all of the loose ends trimmed you can now fold, roll and present

I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial because they take a lot longer to write than it does to make this towel. Don't be intimidated, this is super easy. You just need the confidence to try.

Hooded Duck Towel

I just wanted to throw up a quick post about this hooded duck towel i literally just finished. I took a lot of pics and hope to have a Tutorial up by the end of the night.

Here's a link to the tutotial

http://sewdad.blogspot.com/2011/01/hooded-duck-towel-tutorial.html

Kids large draw string backpack

I've been wanting to make a backpack for a while now so i figured that I'd make one for my 6 year old son. it turn out better than i thought it was gonna besides the fact that it was a bit larger than i pictured it being. Now that i have a completed bag and some good lessons learned I'm going to make another one, but it's gonna be a lot cooler. i plan to shrink it up and and some zip up pouches and  make it from different materials.

I used canvas and some other hardware i had lying around to make this bag. It wasn't nearly a hard to make as i thought.

I'm Being Featered!

My hooded puppy towel is being featured over at Polish The Stares along whit a lot of other great items! head over there and check them out.

http://www.polishthestars.com/

Linned Zipper Pouch

A couple of weeks ago my wife asked my if I could make her a make up bag. Well I finally got around to it and i got a thumbs up! I have to say that I'm quite proud of it. I think that I'll have to make myself one that is a bit larger and in a "Manley" color for a hygiene kit when I travel out of town for work. I'm a construction worker, I'd get laughed at if it had pink and green flowers.
     It didn't take that long to make, maybe an hour max. It took as much time to take pictures of the process. I was a little nervous because i had never sewed on a zipper before so if there is a better way please share it with me.

The following is a tutorial of how I made this pouch. 

Something to ponder before you start is the size of the finished pouch. It is roughly 5"x8" with a 7" opening.

It requires about 1" of material to create each of the french seams that i use for the edge and corner seams and approximately 3/8" for each for each of the 2 top seams. So with that in mind adjust the material dimensions how you see fit.

Material required:

1 piece exterior fabric cut to 13"x13" square

1 piece liner fabric cut to 13"x13" square

1 piece heavy weight fusible stabilizer cut to 13"x13" square

1 piece fusible fleece cut to 13"x13" square

1 7" or larger zipper

Appropriate color thread(use same color as the liner for all of your seam work)

Place the fusible side of the stabilizer to the wrong side of the exterior fabric and follow the manufactures instructions on how to adhere it. I do my own thing so I don't want to lead you astray.

Adhere the fusible fleece to the back of the fusible stabilizer. Follow the manufactures instruction.

Place and pin the right sides of the liner and exterior fabrics together.

Sew ONLY 2 SIDES together with a straight stitch using a 1/4" seam allowance. The sides to be sewn are parallel to each other. I think that it is good practice to back tack the beginning and end of everything regardless if it is need or not.

This what it should look like after your done sewing the 2 sides together.

Fold right side out and press the 2 seams flat.

Fold in half and secure the 2 finished seams together at the top. I placed the clip in the picture at the top.

Measure 2 inches in from the top corners and cut at and angle down to the bottom corners.

Keeping the right sides out sew a straight stitch along the 2 ends that you just cut from top to bottom using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Cut of the excess material from the 2 sides staying 1/8" to the outside of the stitch.

Snip approximately 1/4" from the 2 bottom corners. This will help the corners tuck all of the way in when you fold it inside out.

Fold inside out and sew a straight stitch along the 2 ends using a 3/8" seam allowance.

Snip 1/2" or so off of the 2 bottom corners and fold right side out.

Sorry this is not a very good picture. Press it flat with you hands into a diamond. You can see in the picture that the opening is running up and down. You might have to fuss with it a bit to get it flat while trying to keep it squared up.

Measure 1" in from each of the 2 ends(the pouches bottom corners, NOT THE OPENING) and draw a line parallel to the opening.

Sew a straight stitch along the lines on the 2 ends.

Trim the excess material off of the 2 corners staying 1/8" to the outside of the stitch.

Fold inside out and sew a straight stitch along the 2 corners that you just cut using a 3/8" seam allowance.

Fold right side out and this is what it should look like.

Time to put the zipper on. This is where i  had know clue what i was doing. follow along if you wish or do your own thing.

Fold inside out and place the top of the zipper at the seam at the end of the opening of the pouch. make sure that the right side(top side)of the zipper is on the liner and not the exterior. You want the teeth the zipper flush with the edge of the opening all of the way across. Pin or clip in place. If you have a zipper foot for you machine put it on now. Unzip the zipper partially and start sewing from the top end of the zipper(see the pics below for the little metal tie, that's what I'm calling the top) keep the edge of the zipper foot flush with the zipper teeth along the whole stitch. DO NOT SEW THE OPENING SHUT.

Now we do the same for the other half of the zipper. Line up the two little metal ties at the top of the zipper and pin or clip the un sewn half of the zipper to the pouch the same way as stated above. If you can't change the position of your zipper foot on your machine then you'll have to start the stitch from the other end if you are using different color threads in the bobbin and on the spool. I used a straight stitch at both end of the zipper along both ends of the pouch to secure the ends of the zipper to the pouch. See the tip of the pencil in the 2 pics below.

Permanently secure the bottom end zipper teeth together(where the zipper stops when opened). you can do this by hand by doubling up a piece of thread on a needle and stitching about 10 time in the same spot or by machine. what i did was disengage the feed dogs on my machine and set it to a wide zigzag and stitch over the inside and outside of the zipper in one spot. Once that is done trim the excess zipper off.

I know that the zipper instruction was a little long winded and ruff, but i hope you were able to follow it.

Fold right side out and trim any excess threads and Wa-la, your done.

I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial