Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Beginners Guide to Thrifty Sewing

I love Free patterns, Tutorials and Tips. I love looking, reading, and then doing it my own way. When i first got the sewing bug in 2009, it was due to being pregnant with my second child. I wanted to do something special, because i knew there was no way I'd be taking as many photos of this child as much as I did with our first. So I thought I'd make a quilt, something special, made by me, that meant something and could, hopefully, be kept for a life time. I don't know if that is something a boy will treasure, but that is what I'm offering!
So I looked online for patterns and decided to do a charm patchwork quilt, but I'd do it MY way! I didn't want to follow a pattern (however I did get some great advise on how much fabric I'd need to get what I want, from a wonderful woman from Spotlight!). I went to some fabric shops, I asked for their advice as it was my first quilt. One speciality shop told me I needed to buy a rotary cutter, plastic templates, a cutting board and what ever else they where trying to flog off! I though, I don't need all that! If I have to fork out a huge amount of cash to make this quilt, it's not going to happen. There is no point buying a whole heap of speciality tools, if I find I don't like sewing and never want to do it again, then it would be a waste. I love spending money, but because I'm a Mother, I have to have a really good reason to spend it. So I usually look for the best deal, make do with what i have or repurpose something that I already have.
So my thinking was, I don't need a special ruler, I have a tape measure and a 30cm (12") ruler. That will do fine!
I don't need a rotary cutter and cutting board. I have scissors! 
Now many quilters and sewers are probably laughing their heads off at the moment, shaking their head and saying 'She has to be kidding!'. 
You may say that, or you might be wondering if it's possible, if you are just starting out or thinking you would like to get into sewing, but it seems too hard or too expensive. Well if your wondering if it's possible, read on.
I've been finding lately some very inspiring blogs. They inspire me by, colours, patterns, and blog ideas. Each of these blogs have something to give there readers, and I'm all for giving back to the sewing community and I'd love to be able to inspire others. So I thought what do I do that no one else does, what makes my sewing and creativeness special, that other people might benefit from knowing. It then came to me, I'm thrifty! I make do with what I have, I repurpose and use every little scrap of fabric.
So I want to share, if you want to read, my experience, ideas and thrifty tips.
Don't get me wrong, I don't skimp on quality! In fact I'm all about quality! Why bother making something at all if it's not going to last!  
Now I'm no expert! As I said I've only been sewing since 2009, but I do believe I have something to offer. So stay tuned for little bits and pieces. I don't know how much I have to give at the moment. I have found that reading other peoples blogs and their tips, I have felt compelled to comment with my own tip and have done so.

So let me tell you how and what I started out with.

Sewing Kit
I had a cheap little sewing kit, everybody seems to have. Even my Mum had a sewing kit, you know for repairs, but it seemed whenever something needed repairing it would go in the fifth dimension (linen cupboard) and we would never see it again. However I can't talk too much about that, I love sewing, but really don't like repairing things! Another reason I want to make great quality pieces.   
This sewing kit included a measuring tape, needles, cotton (I don't use this cotton for seam work), seam ripper, and thimble.
You may want to get a better kit then I have, or at least a better thimble. I don't use my thimble, because it's made of plastic! Now I would like to know, who thought it was a good idea to make something that is suppose to stop you forcing a thin metal needle though your finger, out of PLASTIC! However it's not necessary, as I don't use one, but it may save you a puncture, prick or the accessional piecing. I should get a good metal one, one day, as I have been using the back of the TV remote to push the needle though layers of fabric. That is me though, making do!
As I said before I have a 30cm ruler. As I write this I'm currently using it for a quilt I'm making. The strips I'm cutting are the length of selvage to selvage, this particular fabric is 43". The width is 2 1/2" and I'm doing this with my 30cm (12") ruler. I have thought about getting a ruler for quilting, but again it's not imperative!

Scissors
When I started out, I used a pair of scissors from the kitchen draw. Now I'll tell you it wasn't the easiest to cut fabric with, but it did the trick. I have since bought a pack of three scissors from Spotlight for under $10 (I think it was about $8 or it may have been $18, still not expensive). I have a small pair for cutting thread, a medium size pair for cutting paper and a large pair for cutting fabric. I don't use them for anything other than their purpose, so they are good at cutting. Now I'm sure that if I spent a heap of money on a really good pair of scissors, it would feel like I was cutting butter with a hot knife, but I still don't think I'd enjoy cutting anymore. Honestly cutting is my least favourite bit, probably because I just want to skip straight to the sewing.
Now every sewer is going to need scissors, but I was told I'd need a rotary cutter and cutting mat. I do think that they would make life a little quicker and easier, especially if your a quilter or cut a lot of straight lines. Rotary cutters can range a lot in price, so I do think it would probably mean you get what you pay for. I did come across a pack at Spotlight for $20 that includes a rotary cutter and quilters ruler. I have been a bit dubious about buying it, because I just don't know how good the blade will be. I don't know if they are interchangeable with other brands. I will have to investigate, because I if i can change the blade with a better one later, then it might not be a waste of money. Again I don't know if I will like using a rotary cutter, so I don't want to pay a fortune for one. To buy a cutting mat you can easily pay $50 or $100 (for a fair size one that is)! I actually own a cutting mat, it is left over from my traditional scrapbooking days (it was a present). I don't know how much use it would be for cutting fabric though as it's not very big. So I think if you want to invest in one down the track, I'd save up and get the biggest one you can (probably a self healing one). These things are not high on my list of priorities.

Ruler
A sewers measuring tape (from my cheap sewing kit) and a 30cm (12") ruler. It is possible! I will show you how in later posts. There are yard/meter rulers and large quilters rulers you can buy. Ideally I think a yard/meter ruler would be great, because you wont run out of ruler so much when your marking/cutting. It is however another expense and you can do without to start off with, I still have exactly what I started out with. I have been looking a some rulers lately and found one i think would be handy for $20. It comes with a rotary cutter, but the thing I really like is it has a little slit in the ruler so you can mark/cut at the 1/4''. I think that would come in handy. However it's not a overly long ruler.

A4 Paper
I use A4 paper for drawing or tracing patterns. I don't even know how much it would cost for the plastic to make them out of. I just don't see the need. As a designer of soft toys and other wares, I find using A4 paper to make my patterns perfect. You can buy a ream of it pretty cheaply and most people have it for their home printer. Granted a lot of the time I have to stick a few pieces together with sticky tape to get the size I want, and you have to be careful when you are cutting out your fabric that you do not cut your pattern/template. However it folds up for easy storage, there is plenty of it if you make a mistake and it does the job well.

Something to sew with
Now the big question is what are you going to sew with? When I started I didn't own a sewing machine! I didn't until i was given one this year. I still haven't used that one though, as i discovered it only has 2 stitches. I'm currently borrowing one from my Father In-Law!
So the first quilt I made and a lot of other things since are all done by hand! Now you might not want to go as far to save money, you might be thinking if I had to sew by hand, it will never happen. That's ok. Most people I find already own a sewing machine (even if they don't use it), it's a good thing to have to do repairs, I suppose. I have always done any repairs by hand, sewn my Hubby's biscuits and name badges on by hand. I also hated doing all of that and I'm surprised I got into sewing.
I do love making things by hand, sitting on the couch in front of the TV and sewing buy hand. Once the kids go to bed, I'll sit there and sew till the early hours of the morning. True it takes a hell of a lot longer to do and when you stuff something up it takes a long time to correct. Case in point, the quilt I'm working on at the moment has white boards around coloured blocks. I noticed that some of the blocks were not lining up, so last I had to go back and unpicked a long row and resew it. After doing that (at about 2am) I noticed the last block I sewed is off (by a few millimetres), so I will have to unpick that and redo it, because on this quilt it stands out a mile! Hey I'm still learning as I go! When I do finish something by hand though, it means something. You see I'm a Virgo in every sense! I'm a perfectionist! So when I make something I want it to be, well, perfect. So being Artistic and a Perfectionist is hard! Being able to sew my creations by hand in a controlled manner is the best way for me to be both (within reason). There are lots of reasons (some complicated) to why I sew by hand, but the short answer is it feels great to have a finished product that is all by me and being able to show people that.
I will post later a few tips and trick to help with hand sewing later, but simply though, if you don't want to sew by hand, then you will need a sewing machine. You could try and borrow one, rent one, try one and if all else fails buy one. I really can't tell you if it matters how much you spend buying a sewing machine. I do know usually the more you pay the more gadgets it has. If your just starting out though, I'd suggest doing a little research, talking to sewers and buying a cheaper one for now. I think my Father In-Law paid under $200 for the machine I'm using and it's fine. I personally don't see the point of forking out a heap of cash for a top notch sewing machine, if you don't even know what half of the things on it do and what you would use them for. If you buy a cheap one and decide down the track that you love sewing and need a bigger, better one that does more things, then you can always use the first one as a back up, loaner or hand me down.


What did I buy?
There where a few things I had to invest in to start out with.

Tape
I bought masking tape especially designed for sewing. This was invaluable for me as a hand sewer! It would have been pretty difficult to quilt straight lines on the back of my quilt without it. I can eyeball a 1/4" and sew pretty straight, but when I stitched the ditch of my first quilt, I found that the needle doesn't always go though the layers straight. It differently would not have been able to quilt dragonflies without it. I ended up using a paper template on one side and a masking tape template on the other to make sure both sides had a dragonfly and not a complete mess of stitches.

Fabric
Thats pretty much a given. You can't make anything without fabric, but depending on what you want to make, you have some choices.

Second hand or vintage sheets (if they are in good nick). You could have a look in your linen closet or charity shop. There is a great blog that I follow called In Color Order by Jeni who uses vintage sheets in some of her quilting and she also sells them in her Etsy shop Ironsea. I tried looking for some vintage sheets myself, but I haven't had much luck yet (I need to try harder). I am thinking though that America might just has a better range due to it's long history and love of all things fabric. So I would recommed looking at Jeni's shop and her blog especially if you love colour. She always has a beautiful colourful array of vintage fabric to sell and her blog is full of inspiration and information on quilting, colour and fabric. I learnt a lot of helpful things from her Art of Choosing and she also has some tutorials on a heap of different things.

Old clothes. Point in case, my husbands pants had a hole in the crutch, but the rest was in good nick. I found a tutorial on the net to make skinny leg pants for kids out of adult pants, so I turned Daddy's old office pants into pants for my eldest son. He loves them, because they look cool, soft and Mummy made them!
You could also use clothes that the children have grown out of to make a memory quilt. I'm going to be making a quilt for my Father for Christmas. I'm making it out of his old t-shirts, so they are all cars, bikes  and bands.
So you can alter old clothes to make new clothes or cut them up and make something new altogether!

Samples, remnants, off cuts and scraps. I love them, I love them, I love them! I actually buy scraps! I buy them from the USA! There are so many things i can do with scraps and by buying them from overseas, I don't have to spend much on them and I can get a great array of designer fabric. Such as Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry and more. I love these designers, but you can't tell from the computer what they truly look like. So the great thing with scraps and such is you get to see the true colour and also feel it.
Not only that but you can make so many things out of scraps. I make softies and because they are for children and babies they are small. There is one thing I'm still working on (so I can't say too much), but it uses my scraps up so well, to the point where I only have a cm or so left. Then I can use those left over scraps to stuff bits of my softies that need a little structure. Such as my Baby Dragon. I stuff it's wings with scraps, to give it shape and it wont hurt the children or babies like wire could.
If you want to quilt and patchwork samples, remnants, off cuts and scraps can be great. I have some Amy Butler and Heather Bailey scraps that I purchased, that I'm making place mats and a table runner.
I also love going thought the remnants bin at Spotlight, you never know what you will find! It really helps to build up a stash. There really is an endless array of things you can make and your only limited by your imagination and execution.

Buying Fabric. As an Australian I know we should buy Australian, but sometimes that means paying a premium. I buy designer fabric from overseas. Buying straight from the US means I pay a lot less. Most fabric designers are in the US and the fabric is made in the US (or shipped straight to the US before going anywhere else) , so buyers in the US don't have to pay anywhere near as much as what we have to. Example: To buy a meter of Amy Butler's fabric in Australia is $20 or more. Now I recently bought 2 yards of Amy Butler's Lotus Wall Flower in Cherry from the US (i shopped around for the best price including postage) for $24.20AU. So 2 yards was $16.50 and $7.70 for postage. There is only one place where I live that stocks Amy Butler and they don't have that one, if I was to buy it on the net from Australia I would still be paying more, trust me I've looked. The only draw back I've found is that it takes weeks to get to me, but it's like Christmas when it does!
The great thing is a lot of suppliers sell there fabric in fat quarters, half yards and any other yard you want. I buy a lot of my fabric on Etsy, there are so many suppliers and they all seem as wonderful as the next, I can't choose just one. I also buy from Hawthorne Threads which have one of the best websites I have seen.

Thread
Not overly expensive. I personal buy Hand Quilters 100% Cotton Thread. I use it in the machine, softies, quilts, pretty much everything. You can start out with one reel, you may want a few in different colours or you might like just one or two (maybe black and white). I currently have 2 different greens, 1 red, 1 blue, 1 white 1 black and 1 grey in my quilting thread. Plus a heap of black basic thread for repairs to clothes, and whatever is in my cheap little sewing kit. However this is such a cheap expense as they tend to last me a long time, so I would put it down as a justifiable luxury!

Batting 
A given if you want to quilt. Although I have heard of people using flannel instead of store bought batting. I do believe there are a few other alternatives if you are willing to search. The reason I haven't gone down that path of thriftyness is because of allergies. I just feel better knowing there is a new 100% cotton batting in my quilts and I'm willing to pay for that, but I'll still get the cheapest one I can from Spotlight. You see I don't want to pay shipping on batting (just to much) and there isn't anywhere else in town for me to buy it.

Hobby fill (stuffing)
I'm currently buying my stuffing from Spotlight, although there is a eco version I've been thinking of trying, but as their smallest pack is 5kg, it's a lot to fork out. When I really get into sewing and selling my softies I'll give it a go.



What have I bought since?
There are a few other little things I have in my kit now that I didn't when I started out.

A pincushion
Not necessary unless your other half refuses to go near you because you have pins stuck in your clothes! You can use the lounge, a actual cushion, your pants leg, sleeve, or the container they came in. Or it could be one of the first things you sew. I sewed mine this year.

A sewing table
Mine is a old dressing table I have had since I was a little girl with a $3 stool that is unfortunately still to high to sit with my legs underneath it. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find something that would fit, I just don't sit there enough yet for it to bother me. I just have to say I do love the idea of using a old piece of furniture, because you could get creative with it and make your little sewing corner, space or room something really special and inspirational! I love the idea of covering my dressing table with fabric (like decoupage) or painting it robin egg blue/green. sigh.....

Sewing box
My cheap little sewing kit comes in a little plastic container and holds pretty much only what was supplied in it. I was lucky enough to received a gorgeous sewing box from my husband and sons for Mothers Day this year. It's wonderful! It has spaces for my cotton reels, a tray with three compartments that comes out and space underneath it for more! I love it, because they made it and I can keep all my sewing things at hand.
A draw or two, cupboard or shoe box would do fine to start out with.

So there may be a few other little bits and pieces I may have left out, I don't know. If so they are probable not important or they are crucial and I just thought they were a given. I do hope to add to this later, so if you have any comments, questions or something to add, please feel free to email me or comment below. I'd love to here from you!

If you find this helpful and wish to show others you are welcome to add my button to your blog.






I hope you enjoy your Thrifty Sewing!

Leacena (aka Mother Dragon)

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Working progress

So since last post I've had my birthday, my brother and his wife, children and dog visited for two nights, I donated plasma, finally got health cover, celebrated my husbands birthday + Father's Day (Yah I was finally able to give him his work bench and tool chest!), sewn and received two deliveries of fabric. 


The first lot of fabric was scraps from thesplitstitch. It included a lot of pieces of Amy Butler's Love and Soul Blossom Collections. I've been wanting a sample of quite a few of these (or pretty much anything Amy Butler!) and I'm so happy to see the real colours. The monitor/photos really doesn't do justice to some of them. Amy Butler's Love Sandlewood Turquoise for one, on the monitor it looks very acidic, but up close and personal, it's as lovely as I hoped it was going to be. The same goes for Love Bliss Bouquet Teal.

The second lot of fabric from beyondweddings, I thought would never get here (Due to postal services, not the supplier). Then it arrived yesterday. As alway, I went out to the mail box hoping it would be there, but then saying to myself, before I open it, it wont be there. That seems to work, because it was there! I'm not sure if I let out my excitement at the mailbox, but I do know when I get back into the house I let out a squeal of excitement and said 'My fabric is here, my fabric is her!'. Sometimes I sing "I'm so excited!"
So here are some pics of of the fabulous 2 yards of Amy Butler Lotus Wall Flower in Cherry that I bought especially for the back of my It's a Hoot Quilt. 



I do have to say again, the monitor/photo, doesn't do this justice. It looks white and red, it's actually more a off white/beige and (cherry is not a very descriptive colour, because it makes me think of deep red cherries, this is more a glazed cherry) a pinky red. That's my best shot of describing it. With these colours it almost has a natural look to it. I love it!

Next is some pictures of my It's a Hoot quilt top, it's a working progress.



I keep going back and forth of how I'm going to quilt it. I bought the Amy Butler Lotus Wall Flower in Cherry, because I thought that i could quilt around the pattern. I'm thinking this will take a long time to do by hand. I have also thought about quilting the Wall Flower pattern on just the white bits of the quilt top. Then I thought maybe just quilt 1/4" out from the lines of the quilt top. Originally I wanted to do a meandering continuous stitch or something really different like a tree and other things till it was quilted all over. However I think at this point of my life (having young two children at home), I don't have the patience or inclination to take on such a huge task.
Isn't enough I'm doing it by hand! That last statement is for myself. I would really love to be more artistic, but I also have to do this quilt and move on, back to making things for my Etsy store.
So if you have an opinion on quilting this, I'd love to hear it.

This is one more thing I have been doing since my last post that I wished to tell you a about. A couple of nights ago I was struck with a epiphany. A way for me to give back a little to the sewing community or future sewing community, what ever the case may be. I'm still working on it at the moment, but I hope to have something for you soon. So stay tuned.

As I write this post, my youngest son (he doesn't talk yet), came up to me and tapped me to get my attention and then pointed towards the hall, so I followed him (what is it Lassie, has Timmy fallen down the well, lol). He stops at the door to his room, so I opened it, we go inside and he walks up to his change table and stops. He wanted me to change his bum! I think that is just SO clever of him!
I better go now, but keep a look out for my next post.