Sewing Bee Series II

[Lambstales]

There is a thread in Telly Addicts but surely there ought to be a thread here?
What are you sewing?
Jersey?
Curtains?
Silk?
Summer skirts?

The feet were very fiddly. With hindsight, I think the pattern, and therefore the seam allowances, were meant for hand sewing.

The ears were hand stitched on after stuffing. I wonder whether longer floppy ears sewn into the head seam would work just as well, although clearly not true to breed! I think he now looks like some kind of sausage dog/terrier cross :)

I need to take another photo actually as he is properly stuffed and finished now.

Here he is... I love him very much indeed :)

He is gorgeous [love], no idea what breed but definitely a dog. (The experts can sort that out!)
I rather like his stage set, the stack of books. Did you have puppy problems

I'm going to bite the bullet and try to make one, with as much machining as possible, as I have some suitable scraps in mind.

It's great.

No, not at all...

Nice one!

:)

If I were to make another, I might add 5mm ish as extra seam allowance. You'd need to clip the seams at tight curves though.

Hurrah - finished the laundry bags with bound buttonholes to carry a draw cord. Just washing out the pin pricks of blood now [klutz]

I'm scared of button holes. How did you do them, a clever machine, lots of zig zags?

OMG I have been stupid. I grabbed scraps of tweed, corduroy and velvet.
The colours look lovely together but.....
I should have taken heed from the Sewing Bee about them being problematic.
Fray,fray,fray....I'll get there though.

Lovely thread. Try searching on Pinterest for 'bottle top pincushions'. Hours of fun wasted time dreaming up ideas. They are really easy to make.

Millet seeds are good for adding weight to pincushions and legs and tummies of toys. Roast it in a moderate oven first for about half an hour.

I daren't go near Pinterest.

Patrick the Pin Dog's feet were made from a fraying fabric. It was a PITA but, as it's stuffed, I don't think there'll problem from the fraying now it's finished.

Owlcapone - is that from the pattern you uploaded on the other thread? If so, I'm about to make him now :)
...well I do have to find suitable fabric first.

Lambstales, there are two ways of dealing with fabrics which fray.

Either zig zag round each piece as soon as you've cut them out before doing anything else to them, or put iron-on interfacing on the back of each piece.

You'll still get a bit of fraying, but not to the same extent.

Hats are so fiddly to sew. All those pieces in the shell fabric and the lining. I have some Japanese hat patterns which are very stylish but I'm not convinced the results are worth the palaver. Well, they are for my hats but not the DC's! I crochet DD's sun hats. Miles easier and great portable projects.

bound buttonhole tutorial no zigzags required. Yes, I totally over-engineered, but now I have a new skill

Now I'm working up a beast pincushion pattern but being distracted by crochet projects...

Yes, Cate, it is.

I did zigzag a couple of pieces but it kind of made the fraying worse I think. The interfacing would have been a good idea, although I don't actually have any. :)

The telegraph this weekend has a sewing bee supplement with patterns and instructions for the patterns in the book.

Thanks PigeonP the fabrics were too bad to zig zag :( Interfacing would have worked. Didn't have any.
I think that I have a dog (that likes to sleep), it also likes to cock it's leg :s. as it won't stand on all four legs and splays out...

I'm having a few issues in the dog leg area. I think it needed some kind of skeleton for the legs - the pattern I used did call for a wire support inside the legs but I ignored it.

Owl- could you fill the legs with something more solid- silicon beads?
That's what I'm thinking of doing, my thought being he would be more stable... And I could use him as a fabric weight when cutting pattern out too.

They're filled with aquarium gravel! :o

I thnk the legs needed longer bags of gravel rather than just leg height ones, if that makes sense.

I didn't think of that! TBH I think silicon beads would be to light.
I thought of sand- but figured it would work through the fabric.
I suppose as you say longer 'rods' of filling if you can get them firm enough would work. :)

I filled mine with chopped-up wool jumpers , which are poking out in the fraying areas. Fire fighting here.... and shouldn't have chosen a bright blue stuffing. It is rather conspicuous against the muted tweed colours. Ho hum.
However, on Sunday I saw a dog with panniers and thought....what a good idea. Pannier (1) is from an odd mitten. They will hold my chalk and chocolate eer more pins

Patrick is made from a skirt I bought in Primark for £1 specifically to cut up. I looked at the pockets I'd cut off and thought about panniers :) definitely needs a scissor pocket I think.