The Little Red Hen

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring!

I love spring. I love the excitement of new flowers, new growth, the earth coming back to life after the long winter. 
The egg has been a symbol of rebirth of the earth for more than two thousand years.  In honor of the first day of spring we decorated these "Tie Dyed Eggs" last night. It was easy peasy to get these fabulous designs. We used some old thrifted silk ties and the easy to follow tutorial at Our Best Bites.

I only had five white eggs on hand so we only dyed five. I'll be saving up the white eggs and dying more.  I think they turned out great. Next time I will try starting with wet silk fabric because I think there were some air bubbles that kept the dye from transferring properly in places.

I picked up a few more 25 cent silk ties today! I think we'll have an egg dying event later this week!

Try it! You will love this project!

Play Capes

Last week I made four new play capes for P's preschool. It was a great way to use up some fabric I had gotten at garage sales and it helped clean out the sewing room!

My original plan involved doing a little tutorial to post with them. I tried taking pictures as I was making these but the pictures didn't really show what I was doing very well.
I can share my pattern and a description of how it goes together.

These are really fun to make as you can use almost any fabric. You can make them short like a capelet or long and flowing to the ground. I like that they can be used for many kinds of play.

This is the pattern and how it should be placed on the fabric. If the selvedge edge of the fabric looks nice, place the front of the hood on the selvedge edge of the fabric and there is no need to hem.
The length of the cape is determined by the height of the child or the length of the fabric on hand. The fold edge of the pattern goes from the neck down the back of the cape.

1. Cut out as shown above.
2. Sew the two hood pieces together on the curved edge.  I use a flat felled seam for better looks and longer wear.
3. Hem and add any desired trim to the outside edge of the cape (all except the neck edge.)
4. Gather the neck edge of the cape and sew to the bottom of the hood. I either stitch the seam allowance to the hood or cover the seam with bias tape for longer wear.
5. Sew velcro tabs to the edge at the neck seam and embellish with a fancy button.
Here is a cape I made for P last year.
 

(please do not sell items made from this pattern)

Marking Fabric for Embroidery

I thought I would share my easy, peasy, low tech method for marking my embroidery designs on fabric.
I use freezer paper for a lot of things in my sewing room, such as, marking designs for embroidery.  First, I draw or trace out a design in pencil.   Once I have the design finalized I trace it onto the dull side of a piece of freezer paper.  I go over the design with an ultra fine point sharpie pen so that it is very dark.

Next, I place the shiny side of the freezer paper on the fabric and press until the freezer paper adheres to the fabric.  Then, I hold or tape the fabric up to a window and draw over the design with a fine point pencil. A mechanical pencil with a 0.5 mm lead works well. The freezer paper acts as a stiffener for the fabric and the fabric doesn't wiggle while you draw the design.

This method works great for small designs. My mother always said one should "make hay while the sun shines." With this method that is very true. I make sure I have my fabric marked before the sun goes down if I want to stitch in the evening.  Also, the design ends up reversed with this method.  If this matters you should trace onto the freezer paper with the original pattern reversed.

Here is the finished cat from this drawing.

Quilt Binding Tutorial

People often ask ask how I bind my quilts. I have started binding both the large and small quilts the same way, with a single thickness binding. I have never had a binding wear through on a quilt and I like the way the thinner binding allows the quilt to drape. It gives a soft edge. If the binding were to wear through it would be easy to replace it.  I have written up a tutorial explaining how it is done. The link will stay over in the sidebar for easy reference.

Handkerchief Doll Tutorial

As I mentioned here, my grandmother could entertain children all day with a button, a handkerchief, and a piece of string. When I was little she taught me how to make a doll from a handkerchief.

The boys eagerly volunteered were given baked goods as payment for being hand models for a tutorial on how to make the doll.

First, stand or sit opposite your friend. Each person take two corners of the hankie and roll them towards each other to meet in the middle as shown below.

When the two sides meet, rotate the hankie 90 degrees so that each person now holds two corners that are touching.

One person then folds his or her corners down about one third of the length of the hankie. These corners will be the feet of the doll.

The other person then folds his corners up leaving a little of the hankie showing above the corners. These corners become the hands.

The last corners that were folded up (the hands) then get crossed through the loop formed when the first corners were folded down. Each person then tugs a little on the corners in their hands to stretch the arms and legs.

Last, slip a ring or tie a string just above the arms to shape the head.

Now you have a finished doll.

If you want to use the hankie or make another doll just remove the ring or string and shake it loose.