Print N Sew

A couple of posts ago I said that there might be a tutorial on printing on fabric, and here it is.

First select a thin fabric with a tight weave. A high quality muslin works well. For this tutorial I used silk taffeta because I am working on some special projects that I'll tell you about at the end. (You didn't just scroll down to the bottom of the post did you?)



After you find some fabric and give it a good press, get out your freezer paper, or go to the store and get some. It comes in a roll that is 18 inches wide, and you will need pieces that are 8 1/2 X 11 inches, or whatever size the paper is that you are printing on in your computer printer. If you tear off a piece of the freezer paper 13 inches or more, you can fold it in half so that the side edges meet, draw a line 1/2 inch from the folded edge and cut on the line, you will have two pieces that are 8 1/2 " wide and all you have to do is measure the 11 inch length.




Now lay the sheet of paper, shiny side down, on your uncut piece of fabric and press the paper without steam.



After it is stuck to the fabric, cut the extra fabric off, and you have a sheet of printable fabric.




The next step is to choose the design you want to print. Dover Publications have an unlimited supply of permission free designs. I bought the "Ornate Letters and Initials" for my stocking projects and it even came with a CD. Super easy. You can sign up at doverpublications.com to get free samples sent to your email address. (I used free samples for this tutorial.) Once you have your design ready to be printed, load your fabric-paper into the printer. In my printer, I load it fabric side down.




You then will need to peel the freezer paper off and press the back of the printed fabric for 3 minutes or so, without steam (Because I printed on silk the design showed through on the back). This will prevent the ink from running if or when it gets wet. If the fabric will be washed or exposed to rain, or drool, it would help to soak it for a couple of minutes in some cold water with vinegar added to make it even more run proof and preshrunk.



I will be using my newly printed fabric to make a ring bearer pillow. No, there aren't any weddings coming up for anyone I know, but there is a fun Trunk Show in the works at Saffron and Genevieve in February. I will have some pictures of some of the things I am making, mostly from vintage linens, and more details about the sale in my next post.

De-pleated.

Wow, time flies when you are immersed in pleating projects. I spent the last couple of weeks, before this week, making cushions, shams and a bed skirt with pleats. I have plenty of sewing jobs to do, which I am very thankful for, so I have been working hard while the work is available.

I thought I would share a method I used, out of desperation, while making 5 inch box pleats on a king sized bed skirt. That comes to about 48 pleats that I was trying to finish in a hurry.

I cut a piece of cardboard the width of my pleat (5 inches) and used that as a pressing guide, pressing the pleat right on the cardboard.



Then I cut another piece of cardboard twice the width of the fold under the pleat. Normally I would fold it to the middle of the top part, but I didn't have enough fabric to do that. This cardboard was used to form the underside of the pleats, keeping everything nice and straight while I pressed it.





Then I pinned the pleat in place. To keep from losing track of how many of the 48 pleats I had completed, I stuck a pin in my cutting table, off to the side, every time I finished a pleat.

After all that pleating, I made slipcovers for my daughter's chairs. We made the 300 mile trip to visit and deliver them last weekend and had a really nice visit. They took us on a couple of beachside outings, and of course we had fun playing with our 9 month old grandson. He is sooo cute.

I was so excited to put the covers on the chairs, that I failed to give them a good press first, but the beauty of slipcovers is that they don't have to look too perfect. Right?

Seams to me.....

I recently made some canvas liners for wire baskets, and because I didn't want the seam allowances to show through the holes of the baskets, I used the flat felt seam. You know, the seam that is on your jeans. I watched a video of how jeans are made, and as I suspected, someone in a factory, feeds the pant legs into a machine that makes the seam in one swift zzzihhhhh of the special flat felt seam machine. (Editing note: I always thought this seam was called a flat felt seam, and when I searched it on the internet, as such, I found plenty of entries, but after looking it up in the dictionary, and other sewing resources, I now know that it is actually a flat felled seam. )





I also watched a couple of nice tutorials on making a flat felt seam in the comfort of your own home, but honestly, they were a little tedious for me, but that's just me. Impatient I guess. The tediousness involved a lot of pressing and pinning, which is certainly necessary sometimes, but because I make slipcovers and work mostly with heavier fabrics, it's not always practical.

Several years ago, before I started my slipcover business, I worked in an upholstery shop. There was no use of pins there, which was a shock to me at the time, and though they had an iron, as I recall, when I asked to use it one day,a search was called to find it. So, here is my flat felt seam instruction for the impatients of the world. (It works best with fabrics that are a little heavier, that stay where you put them.)

Because I started out making a tube that had only one seam, I positioned the top layer of fabric with 1/4 of an inch allowance, and the bottom about 1/2 of an inch of allowance.



After the seam is stitched, the larger allowance is folded over the smaller. If you are making something from a pattern and it isn't practical to move the top allowance over before stitching, then sew your seam, and trim the top allowance.





Next, fold the seam flat, with the "folded over" allowance on top, (this is where the pressing and pinning would come in, if you wish to add those steps) and stitch close to the edge.




Here is the finished seam.

Is there anything better than green vinyl?

Yes!!
I received this cute chair in trade for making a slipcover for someone else's cute chair over a year ago. It has been draped with various quilts and throws until this weekend when it got a real slipcover.



My preferred method for making a slipcover is to do a muslin pattern, or actually, an old-white-sheet pattern. I measure to the center of the chair or sofa and make a pattern of half. That way the slipcover is symmetrical, and I can write notes right on the pattern. I don't mind the extra step, as opposed to cutting the fabric right on the furniture.
BUT.... when I am doing a project for myself, I am usually trying to get it done with a limited amount of time.




Therefore, since I wasn't planning to add cording, and could just sew it as pinned, I put the fabric, wrong side up right on the chair and pinned it together, trimming seam allowances to a half inch. I left some fabric to tuck into the back of the seat. If I had made a pattern first, the slipcover would be a little neater in spots, but for this project, getting it done was the priority.




Because the back of the chair is wider at the top than lower down, there needed to be some type of opening in order to get the cover over the top. I decided to put a big pleat in the back with a twill tape tie, because that would be a faster option than buttons.




Done!
Ahhhh, that feels good.

ties and tapes

I am working on a slipcover that needs a couple of skinny ties, so I got out my bias tape maker, and thought I would do a demonstration, for anyone who hasn't used one.

They come in different sizes and this one makes bias tape (or a tie) that is 1/4 inch wide. Start by cutting a one inch strip on the bias if you are making bias tape. I didn't cut mine on the bias because I am just making straight ties.




Feed the strip into the wide side, using a pin to pull it out the other side.



Press the now folded strip as it comes through the tool.



You now have a "tape" that is 1/2 inch flat, or 1/4 inch folded.



To make my ties, I just stitch the open side closed near the edge.



I back stitch the end and apply Fray Check to keep it from raveling.



You can order them here or at just about any place that sells sewing notions.