In January 2011, we went to a fabric shop and spent a couple of hours picking out the best fabrics for the best growth chart to go with the best pattern she'd found.
It is now AUGUST 2011, the baby is 2 years old, and I'm embarrassed and quite ashamed to say that I'm not done sewing it yet.
BUT.. as an appeasement (to myself, as K has had interminable patience with my haphazard scheduling and lazy ass) I took pictures along the way and can now post a few of them.
The finalized product is about 6 feet by 2.5 feet. The first thing I did was wash the fabrics in Woolite, except for the brown wool. I think wool is dry-clean only, yes? So to be on the safe side, I only air tumbled the wool to freshen it up. After everything was washed and dried, I ironed it all to get nice and flat fabrics. I measured and cut the linen, and eyeballed the tree trunk.
I had made enlargements of the pattern pieces and cut them out, eyeballing the proportionate sizes for the size of the overall chart.
I then added interfacing to all the pieces. Unfortunately, I think I bought the wrong kind; I was looking for double sided interfacing, but only purchased single side. For those of you who know applique, it can be a lengthy process to "turn in" the edges, the traditional, "real" way. Another cheater way is to add interfacing paper, "turn in" the edges, and then remove the paper. I cheated mucho by using iron-on interfacing. Which worked.. except for when it came time to sew the pieces down and the single sided interfacing made my pieces slide around. Boo. I consoled myself with the fact that now it looked handmade and not machine appliqued. ;)
I tested on scrap piece of linen and green cotton fabric for the leaves to determine what stitch to use and the tension/setting to use for the best stitch. I'm still in the process of learning how to use my Singer "Simple" sewing machine that my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday a few years back. "Simple" is relative; and my machinery skills are amateurish at best.
Now, these pictures are dated the end of January 2011. So we have quite a ways to go on this project... It's supposed to kinda look like this:
How's that for an introduction? :)
2 comments:
It is a thing of beauty, Ming! I love it so much. It is perfect. Thank you. LOVE.
Aww, Kate! You are the best. Even R said so. ;) i'm looking at the last photo and it looks so plain compared to what it looks like now...! Btw, I kept forgetting to ask you if you wanted the bird to have an eye? A sequin, button, rhinestone, fabric eye, anything? Or plain?
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