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Author Topic: Learning to sew  (Read 9812 times)

est

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Learning to sew
« on: 20 Aug 2006, 08:18 »
So uh, I guess I'm learning to sew in anticipation of the craft exchange thread.  I'm making a kind of plush doll/pillow at the moment, and to keep it simple I've started with a simple round sun.

Laying things out & planning:


Tidier eyes after I've sewn them up: (please ignore absolutely horrid linoleum)


Close-up of stitching:



This is kind of fun, actually.  Not sure if I am going to sew those pupils on with some black thread or if I'm gonna glue them on.  I am leaning more towards the sewing option at the moment, I think.  Seems like it would be sturdier.
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mysteriousbriefcase

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Learning to sew
« Reply #1 on: 20 Aug 2006, 10:32 »
oh wow, i'm impressed.  i learned to sew by hand back when i was into the whole "punk rock" sew patches and zippers on stuff phase, but it never looked as good as that.  my stitching was horrible.
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redglasscurls

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« Reply #2 on: 20 Aug 2006, 15:55 »
Nice, are you hand-sewing?
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also, related to burning stuff: a friend threw up on a hot water heater once, the vomit steam burned her face. awesome!

Lines

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« Reply #3 on: 20 Aug 2006, 16:21 »
if you're hand sewing, then, wow, you're doing really well. if not, hey, still looks good!
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est

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« Reply #4 on: 20 Aug 2006, 17:16 »
Yeah, I am hand-sewing using a method that Heather taught me (thanks Heather!)  It is a fairly simple stitch, but apparently it is pretty sturdy.  You come up one stitch away from the last stitch, then loop back onto it and down, then start over.  It is kind of slow going back and forth like that, but if it means that the thing doesn't bust open I'll take the time to do it right.

I could probably finish the face & start sewing the edges tonight.  One problem though is that I forgot to get padding for the insides.  So I may go out at lunch and grab some padding and maybe some brighter yellow felt for a kind of flare of triangles around the sun if I want to try to get a bit trickier.

If I want to get really tricky (for a first project, anyway) I guess I could get a yellow-gold zipper to sew in and a kind of pillow insert to put inside rather than simple padding.  But I guess that if I wanted to do that I would have had to have bought the pillow first and based the rest of the design around the pillow so that it fit properly :(

I think it's probably best I keep this thing simple and make whatever I decide to do next a bit trickier.  I usually have a tendency to go directly for attempting the best thing evar, and then get discouraged when I fail.  So it would be nice to take this in steps instead this time.
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jmrz

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« Reply #5 on: 20 Aug 2006, 22:41 »
Wow, I am impressed est, for a first go this is pretty good!
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est

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« Reply #6 on: 20 Aug 2006, 23:30 »
thanks :)

I bought the filling and some lighter yellow felt at lunch today, so I'll be playing around with this some more when I get home.  Will put up more pictures if there is significant enough progress to warrant it.
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Lise

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« Reply #7 on: 22 Aug 2006, 00:19 »
LOLOLOLOL!

Am I the only one who finds this humorous :)? Come on, anybody? no, no one?

Just kidding, I <3 your... "round sun" plushie. As if suns came in other shapes :) *cough*.

I think it would be absolutely horrendous if you sent me a sun plushie without a face. I might even have trouble sleeping at night, knowing its yellow void would be staring into my SOUL. D:

PS: I'm just being hard on you, you've got such a knack for sewing, you're too 1337 for your sewing machine counterparts :). Who cares if it saves time and effort? I feel more secure knowing that my plushies have been handled unnecessarily by est!

YEEEEST!
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est

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« Reply #8 on: 22 Aug 2006, 03:43 »
Hey, it's not unnecessary!  I am not about to go out and buy an expensive machine for a hobby I'm probably going to abandon at some point in the near future once I get bored of it.
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Lise

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« Reply #9 on: 22 Aug 2006, 10:22 »
OH, you won't get bored of it after you figure out how to make sailor tutu's and schoolgirl outfits :).

Anyway, your hand stitching is so even I really couldn't tell if it was sewn by machine or not *coughcoughHINTHINT*. So you could technically machine-sew me a faceless sun plushie, and tell me you did it by hand....

And nobody would be the wiser ;)!

EVERYBODY'S HAPPY!! na-na-na-na-naaa *she's a super freak*!
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Spinless

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Learning to sew
« Reply #10 on: 22 Aug 2006, 15:24 »
Who said that Est wasn't a manly man? Was it Tommy? Tommy, I owe you £5.
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est

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« Reply #11 on: 22 Aug 2006, 15:33 »
Wouldn't a faceless sun plushie just be an orange disc?  How boring!

Also, Spinless: this is manly sewing.  Totally different from non-manly girly sewing.

Totally different.
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Spinless

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Learning to sew
« Reply #12 on: 22 Aug 2006, 15:38 »
Of course, my deepest apoligies.

Is this like the manly tea party/teddy bear picnic you didn't invite me to?

Why didn't you invite me? I cried all night. Mr Cuddles wanted to go too.
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Lunchbox

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« Reply #13 on: 25 Aug 2006, 02:35 »
Hey est, how is Mr Sun going? I miss him.
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Inlander

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« Reply #14 on: 25 Aug 2006, 02:49 »
Yo Spinless, it's X-TREME sewing.  That material's razor-sharp.
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est

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« Reply #15 on: 27 Aug 2006, 07:03 »
Ok you guys, I finished off this project about an hour ago.  It got kind of fiddly toward the end & I know that it could have been done a lot better, but I guess that means I learned something, right?  Hopefully the next project will turn out better.

Here I've laid out and pinned a corona for the sun:



I've left one part off so that I can use that area for stuffing.  I sewed around all the other bits, then stuffed it, then sewed up the hole.  Pretty simple.

The next pic is the kind of stitching I used around the outside.  Went down, across and back up.  Didn't loop back, just kept going.  Then when I got to the end I turned around and came back using the same holes to make it stronger & so that it looked the same as the stitching around the face elements (this is from when I was half done)



And here's the finished product:



One insanely happy sun!

Not sure if I am going to keep this for myself  due to it being my first project, or give it to my dad for father's day next weekend.  I mean, I am pretty sure that I am going to keep it, because I am not sure my dad would appreciate a sun pillow with a big shit-eating grin on it.  I wonder if I could think of something else simple to make in time for next sunday.
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schimmy

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« Reply #16 on: 27 Aug 2006, 07:19 »
Hah, that's awesome. Can I have it? For totally manly reasons, of course.
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thehoopiestfrood

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Learning to sew
« Reply #17 on: 27 Aug 2006, 07:20 »
Aww! That's so lovely! You are excellent at sewing, I really thought you'd used a machine to do it!

Over here you can get tiny little sewing machines for about £10 like this but I don't know how good they actually are - you can get them in Superdrug and random places. You can also get proper full sized ones very cheap in Lidl, but I don't know if you have an equivalent of Lidl in Australia.
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est

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« Reply #18 on: 27 Aug 2006, 15:17 »
Lidl sounds like Aldi, and I am sure I could probably pick up a super-cheap sewing machine from Aldi if I wanted one.  I think that hand-sewing is fun for the moment though.  Maybe once I get over the novelty of it I might look at prices and see if it's worth it.  Thanks for the tip!
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thehoopiestfrood

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Learning to sew
« Reply #19 on: 27 Aug 2006, 18:04 »
Ah yes, Lidl and Aldi are pretty much interchangeable over here in Britain, they're in pretty fierce competition as far as I can tell. I know my Mum got a sewing machine from one a few years back when her old one died. Basically if you want something like that and you're willing to wait long enough, they will turn up pretty cheap in one or the other. It's how I kitted out my flat. :P

I stick to handsewing myself if I ever do sew anything as I am terrified of sewing my hand to something using the machine. :P
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jmrz

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« Reply #20 on: 29 Aug 2006, 05:00 »
That is one insanely happy sun est!
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« Reply #21 on: 11 Sep 2006, 17:03 »
Good Jorb Est! Just like the real sun, it hurts my eyes, though this one hurts because it's so damned cheerful. ;D

What awesome thing are you going to make next?
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Lines

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« Reply #22 on: 11 Sep 2006, 17:43 »
that sun has the "OMG I AM SO HAPPY I COULD EAT YOUR FACE!" look about it. it is sewn very well, which is probably why it's so happy. yay!
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est

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« Reply #23 on: 12 Sep 2006, 00:37 »
I am going to make something for the craft exchange next, but it is semi-sekrit, so I won't blab about it here yet.
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devils_daughter

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Re: Learning to sew
« Reply #24 on: 25 Oct 2006, 04:17 »
That's really good! I've been hand sewing for since I was about 6 (yeh, my mum got me started early), and I gotta say, I don't think I've seen such good backstitch on a first project. All your stiches were really similar in size...that's damn hard to do...looks like you're a natural!
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est

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Re: Learning to sew
« Reply #25 on: 25 Oct 2006, 11:10 »
If by natural you mean "nit-picking pedant" you are totally correct!  :)
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