To Ease the Way

Maya's travel pillow was one of those projects. One of those projects that make me say, "Now why didn't I think of that?" It's such a simple idea with such great appeal. A pillow. With a handle. Really Maya's version is even sweeter, with its little pocket to hold a doll or note to comfort a little voyager. But my little voyager doesn't so much go for sweet as for soft.

I cut the front from a rummage sale cashmere sweater (seventies-era! made in Scotland!) that didn't look as great as it felt on me. The gray wool for the handle, piping and back was a gift from my mom's stash. So everything that is visible was essentially free. But the insert inside was a fancy one, so soft, from Hancocks. Don't tell.


Believe it or not, because this is silly, I agonized over whether to add a zipper. Normally I like all pillows to have a zipper. Somehow the envelope style never looks quite symmetrical when it is stuffed. On my pillows, that is. Other people's look nice. But in the end I slipstitched the opening closed at the bottom. I was worried a zipper might scratch or otherwise catch on something when the pillow is being toted about.

He's slept on it every night since the last stitch was sewn. We'll see how it does on its five-and-a-half hour cross-country flight coming up later this week.

The dog likes it too.

Belated

As an only child, I might have thought to marry someone with lots of brothers and sisters. But, well, other considerations (such as compatibility and emotion) won out. And so I have but one very dear, very far away brother-in-law. And he got married more than one year ago, with little fanfare, to a beautiful only child in Portland, Oregon.

Finally we are flying out to a belated celebration of their wedding! This little quilt and pillow will fly ahead of us, and I hope will make up for the delay.



The fabric is Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks (that woman is a right genius). The pattern is Amy Butler's Lotus Path. The quilting is...from the heart?

The quilt makes me happy just to look at, so it seems right for commemorating a union. A small family is just fine, when you love every member so much.

Air Quality for the Sewing Room and Beyond

I've spared the blog the sad tale of my recent basement flood and the subsequent sewing room mayhem, but the funky smell has lingered long after the destroyed rolls of fabric have made their way to the landfill.

Our friends Liz and Sam have invented an industrial-type air filter that goes into your regular heating system. When our flood occurred, I was using a regular garden-variety Home Depot filter because I happened to have it on hand. But a few days into the cleanup, I noticed that the sour smell was permeating our whole house. I reminded myself of the size that was needed and got a new Safe Home Filter. Wow! Within a few hours, the smell was bearable on the main level of our house, and within a day it was gone.

The filter removes all kinds of other nasty things as well (dust and fiber, chemical toxins, allergens, mold, pet dander), but just getting rid of the smell was benefit enough in this situation.

The basement is still rather rank despite quite a lot of professional carpet cleaning and drying, but we really can't expect the filter to have an effect on that when our HVAC system doesn't serve the basement.

Since installing the filter I have also noticed that cooking and pet odors have truly vanished. The filters are fairly expensive compared to ordinary filters (close to $40 per filter vs. about $6 for a standard filter), but so much more effective and convenient than a standalone air cleaner. One filter lasts for about three months, and I have an insider tip that can extend their life: vacuum a dusty filter and reinstall.

One-Yard Wonder T-Shirt Tutorial

Last winter, I made a bunch of t-shirts with 3/4 length sleeves. That length seemed to be in style, and I was loving that I could make them out of just one yard of 60" wide fabric. But do you know what? I am cold, cold, cold natured these days, and I need a whole sleeve, darn it!

Even so, I persist in buying just one yard of fabric. It's easy to get a smaller sized front and back out of a yard, but obviously two 22" sleeve length from shoulder to hem can't be cut from a 36" long piece of fabric (I'm short, but I do have two arms!).

But there is a way to get that yard to yield long sleeves, and the way is called cuffs. Cutting this out is a bit improvisational for each piece of fabric, but I've tried to give you an overview of how I have gone about it. Prewashed fabric may shrink, your cut may have been off grain and you had to straighten it, your arms may be longer than mine: I can't guarantee that you can get a true long-sleeved shirt out of one yard. But now that I've done it four times, I have to say I think you have a good chance.

First, here is a sketch of the general approach:

After cutting the front and back, I fold the remaining fabric in half from top to bottom and mark the center of the fold. One sleeve can be cut above the mark, one below. Measure the distance from the top of the fabric to the mark. Knock of a half inch or so just to give yourself a tiny bit of wiggle room. Measure from the top of the sleeve pattern to that measurement and make a mark. That is your cutting line for the sleeve. You can fold that bit back so as not to cut your pattern. Then cut two sleeves. I try to stagger them in order to leave a larger scrap to one side for cuffs. Don't forget to turn the pattern over for the second sleeve!

Look how close I had to cut it to get my two sleeves:

Now you will make your cuff pattern. Lay your sleeve pattern flat and place a piece of tracing paper on top of it. Trace the part of the sleeve you omitted, but fold up the hem allowance. Add two seam allowances at the top (1/2" to 1", depending on what you like). I say add two because you didn't add one to the upper sleeve section.

Then make a duplicate of this piece and put the two together in an hourglass shape, like this:

Now, wherever you can fit the whole length of the neckband on the crosswise grain (from selvedge to selvedge), go ahead and cut that strip.

Assemble the t-shirt in your normal fashion. After applying the sleeves and stitching the side seams, you will be ready to attach the cuffs. Here is a view of the cuff seam folded right sides together, and then beside it the cuff folded in half.

Attach the raw edges of the folded cuff to the end of the sleeve, fold it down, and your sleeve is full length...and hemmed!

With this busy print, the finished cuffs are hardly noticeable.

But in a stripe, there are lots of options for playing up the cuffs as a design feature. Notice that the sleeves are cut with the stripes on the bias. I couldn't get even two shortened sleeves from one yard with the stripes running horizontally because I couldn't work out the repeats properly. Now that it's done, I am so much happier with all the crazy stripe directions than with a standard stripe layout.

Necchi Mirella

A few months back, I spotted a Necchi Mirella on eBay. As is so often the case, the photos were few, dark and fuzzy. It was difficult to know what I was bidding on, but I was eager to see one of these machines up close. The very unusual thing about the Mirella is that it is designed for both motorized and hand crank operation. Switching between the two is simple and requires nothing more than loosening the motor clutch, pushing in a button and attaching the crank.

In no particular order, here are some things I've learned about the Mirella:

• Straight stitch only, with reverse
• Rotary hook
• Mirella-specific bobbins required; no longer made and very scarce
• Low shank, but Singer attachments don't seem to work well
• Motor is difficult to access
• The body is made of aluminum, so the machine is extremely light and easy to carry
• The free arm is accessed by unscrewing a knob underneath the machine and removing the extension. A separate cover is provided to protect the bobbin area.
  

Accessing the gear area on a Mirella, or on one of its sisters (such as the Lydia or the Silvia), requires loosening a set screw in the knob located in the middle of the handwheel. Then the knob can theoretically be unscrewed by holding the handwheel steady with one hand and loosening the knob with the other. In actuality, this proved very difficult. I eventually got the knob free by removing the set screw, oiling with Tri-Flow through the set screw hole, cushioning the knob with a rubber jar gripper pad, grabbing the pad with pliers and applying force. It took some effort!

With the end plate removed, you can see the very simple inner workings of the machine. If this were a Lydia or a Silvia, you would see the nylon camstack between the top and bottom gears. This camstack is very often cracked and is no longer made. It is my understanding that repairs are all but impossible. If the crack is small, the machine can often operate and perform some of the stitches but not the ones controlled by the cracked area.

Ta Da--A Treadle

Thanks to the Craigslist generosity of David, of North Street, Asheville, and the carpentry skills of my husband, Eric, I can treadle!

But, um, I need a lot more practice to get good at it.

This, as much as anything, I love about the project: it was free save for the three cans of spray paint required to coat the rusty base. We were able to repurpose the center section of a now-unused drop leaf kitchen table for the top. All tools were on hand, even the fancy-schmancy Forstner bits necessary to cut the round holes for the hinges. By the way, Necchi-lovers, the White hinges matching the treadle base fit perfectly into my BU, with no alteration (such as is needed with Singer hinges).

Thank you, Eric and David.

Variations on a Theme

Simplicity 2614 again. Now that I've tried out a new sleeve, a new sleeve cuff (both lifted from the Everywoman's Favorite Cardigan from the 2/2009 edition of Ottobre Woman magazine), a center back seam and covered buttons, maybe I'll be able to try out a new dress pattern. Goodness knows plenty of them are calling from my pattern stash!

This version is Sophia knit (polyester, rayon and spandex) in teal. Currently available, along with any number of other items that just keep arriving on my doorstep, from fabric.com.