Ladies' Lifestyle: Sewing and Embroidery

Starlight said:
Thank you again, though the glory is not mine :)

Funny you should mention that because I’ve been wanting make one as well. I think they’re absolutely beautiful. From what I’ve seen online, you can stitch shorter bits together to make longer ones before braiding. The Anabaptist family I stayed with as a child had ragrugs… one must’ve been 12 feet long and at least 8 feet wide… Now, I’m thinking “that’s a lot of leftover clothes!!” Lol :squintlol:
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Yeah, I don't have enough old clothes for a rug that big! :D Plus I think that the weight and type of material needs to be similar to be put in the same rug. I'm thinking about going to second-hand stores to get old clothes and sheets, cheap, for rugs. Too bad this isn't like back in the 80's, when wool skirts were readily available second-hand. (If they hadn't been, I never would have had any, I'm sure! My parents didn't have the money to buy them new.)

Some ladies buy new fabric for this, I guess to control the look of the finished product more. That defeats the purpose of a rag rug though, which is to use material from garments and sheets that are no longer usable for their original purpose.
 
Her needles are thicker than the ones I bought. I got the size the label on the yarn told me to get.

How many things of yarn do I need for a lap blanket? With other projects lined up, I'm hoping to get to learning knitting this spring.
 
EntWife said:
Her needles are thicker than the ones I bought. I got the size the label on the yarn told me to get.

How many things of yarn do I need for a lap blanket? With other projects lined up, I'm hoping to get to learning knitting this spring.
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One ounce per 64 square inches.
 
EntWife said:
Finger puppets? I've never heard of knitting those, but I shouldn't be surprised! My kids would love that.
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She is making my kid a hat that looks like sonic right now, and she sent me a really lovely blanket with little rosettes on each square for Christmas. I think if you can get started and sit with it, it must not be so hard. My great Gramma used to make booties, doorknob warmers, whole sweaters, and very heavy blankets from the doorknob warmers all pieced together.

I'm still glad I don't have to work in the finishing mill for a living. Everyone here before my generation did that as a career, before NAFTA.
 
PineTreeFarmer said:
She is making my kid a hat that looks like sonic right now, and she sent me a really lovely blanket with little rosettes on each square for Christmas. I think if you can get started and sit with it, it must not be so hard. My great Gramma used to make booties, doorknob warmers, whole sweaters, and very heavy blankets from the doorknob warmers all pieced together.

I'm still glad I don't have to work in the finishing mill for a living. Everyone here before my generation did that as a career, before NAFTA.
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How wonderful! Rosettes on squares are probably way beyond me for a while, but it sounds beautiful. I'm planning to do the basic knitting stitch (if that's the right word) enough times for a nice-sized lap blanket. I need one anyway, and this should give me plenty of practice with the basic knitting stitch.
 
EntWife said:
How wonderful! Rosettes on squares are probably way beyond me for a while, but it sounds beautiful. I'm planning to do the basic knitting stitch (if that's the right word) enough times for a nice-sized lap blanket. I need one anyway, and this should give me plenty of practice with the basic knitting stitch.
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I prefer sewing. I like to make old tee quilts and curtains. I need to do some basic mending now. :laughter: My kids keep pulling their hoodie pockets off.
 
I enjoy sewing too. I ought to make some curtains because the ones you can buy in the store now are usually garbage. Somehow that always ends up farther down than the list than items of clothing and embroidery, and I just never get to sewing curtains.

T-shirt quilts sound interesting, but I don't see myself having enough patience for it. I envision cut edges being fiddly and curling up on me. Does that happen to you?
 
EntWife said:
I enjoy sewing too. I ought to make some curtains because the ones you can buy in the store now are usually garbage. Somehow that always ends up farther down than the list than items of clothing and embroidery, and I just never get to sewing curtains.

T-shirt quilts sound interesting, but I don't see myself having enough patience for it. I envision cut edges being fiddly and curling up on me. Does that happen to you?
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I hand sew and pin everything to a full backing. For now.
 
My mom had gotten both my sons camo sweatsuits that, it turned out, had been sewn with bad thread. I discovered this because of multiple seam rips the 3 or 4 times they were worn. So I decided to make my older son a lap blanket from his sweats.

I ripped out all the seams and removed the pockets, cuffs, and hood. Then I pieced them together, crazy quilt style, and used embroidery floss to sew the pieces together. I used an embroidery stitch that I had never tried before, feather stitch. It was easy to learn, and fun and satisfying to do. I've still got to straighten up the edges and do blanket stitching along the raw edges of the blanket. I've never done blanket stitch either, so that will be 2 embroidery stitches that I've learned and gotten lots of practice on with this project.

My younger son wants me to make one for him too, so I'm going to do the same with his pair of camo sweats. He's also very concerned that his small teddy bear doesn't have a blanket or pajamas. If there are enough scraps left, I'll do something about that too.
 
EntWife said:
T-shirt quilts sound interesting, but I don't see myself having enough patience for it. I envision cut edges being fiddly and curling up on me. Does that happen to you?
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I have a bunch of old shirts I want to make into a quilt and somebody told me it's easier to do with a rotary cutter.

I need a project. AHHHH
 
Ah_Tibor said:
I have a bunch of old shirts I want to make into a quilt and somebody told me it's easier to do with a rotary cutter.

I need a project. AHHHH
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Do you mean shirts made out of shirting fabric, or T-shirts? I'm saving old T-shirts to make a rug because I don't think I have the patience to make a quilt out of them. Regular shirts would be easier I guess.
 
EntWife said:
Do you mean shirts made out of shirting fabric, or T-shirts? I'm saving old T-shirts to make a rug because I don't think I have the patience to make a quilt out of them. Regular shirts would be easier I guess.
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T-shirts. I'm not sure about my patience level, either. I also kind of want to make a dress out of them.

I did more projects like this as a bored teenager-- like turning jeans into skirts, making shorts, deciding to handsew a shirt w/o a pattern etc.
 
Ah_Tibor said:
T-shirts. I'm not sure about my patience level, either. I also kind of want to make a dress out of them.

I did more projects like this as a bored teenager-- like turning jeans into skirts, making shorts, deciding to handsew a shirt w/o a pattern etc.
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Ohhh, do the dress, do the dress! :love:

Your teenaged projects sound fun. I have a pair of jeans that I want to turn into a skirt for my daughter. I've got several projects lined up before that though.
 
EntWife said:
Ohhh, do the dress, do the dress! :love:

Your teenaged projects sound fun. I have a pair of jeans that I want to turn into a skirt for my daughter. I've got several projects lined up before that though.
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Yeah. I never really pursued sewing beyond a certain point. One time I was making a sheath dress and got caught up with the zipper and that was the last time I made anything from scratch.

Jeans into skirts are easy, especially if you have fabric scraps.
 
Ah_Tibor said:
Yeah. I never really pursued sewing beyond a certain point. One time I was making a sheath dress and got caught up with the zipper and that was the last time I made anything from scratch.

Jeans into skirts are easy, especially if you have fabric scraps.
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Invisible zippers make me nervous. There are a couple dresses and skirts I want to make that require an invisible zipper. I need to get over it and just do it.

As for jeans to skirts, I have several pairs of jeans that I stopped wearing when I switched to wearing skirts, so I have lots of material to use. Actually, I might have enough to make a skirt for my daughter and then one for me.
 
EntWife said:
My mom had gotten both my sons camo sweatsuits that, it turned out, had been sewn with bad thread. I discovered this because of multiple seam rips the 3 or 4 times they were worn. So I decided to make my older son a lap blanket from his sweats.
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Got it done a little before midnight tonight! My son was thrilled. It's so satisfying making things for my kids because they always love it. They don't notice small imperfections either; they're too busy being happy about whatever I made them. It's just lots of fun.

Ah_Tibor said:
T-shirts. I'm not sure about my patience level, either. I also kind of want to make a dress out of them.

I did more projects like this as a bored teenager-- like turning jeans into skirts, making shorts, deciding to handsew a shirt w/o a pattern etc.
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Ah_Tibor said:
Yeah. I never really pursued sewing beyond a certain point. One time I was making a sheath dress and got caught up with the zipper and that was the last time I made anything from scratch.

Jeans into skirts are easy, especially if you have fabric scraps.
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Your posts about turning jeans into skirts inspired me, so I dug out my old jeans and found two pairs, and possibly a third one, that can be turned into skirts for my daughter.

What I did not expect was to also find three skirts that don't fit me anymore that she can wear with minor alterations! I had totally forgotten about them. I'm so glad. It's hard to find decent, modest skirts. I was planning to make her some skirts, but fabric is a little expensive, so it's great to be able to give her skirts that are basically free, just a little effort required. One is kinda worn, so it will be for around the house. The second is in good shape. The third is like new, as I only wore it a handful of times. The third one is also a style she really likes.

Anyway, all the rambling to say, thank you very much for the inspiration!
 
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