Letting the Faux Fur Fly

Have you ever tried to sew with faux fur? If you haven’t you are lucky… and I bet your home is spotless.

Faux fur is very, very messy. When you cut it, you end up with fur everywhere. On you. On your sewing table. In your sewing machine. On the floor. Everywhere! You cannot pick it up. You cannot wipe it up. You have to vacuum it up.  The vacuum cleaner has been residing by my cutting table for the past two weeks. We are becoming very attached.

This Christmas, I am making soft fur scarves for gifts. I bestowed the first one upon myself because I thought I should conduct a little product testing. This luxurious scarf was a hit, so my production line began.

I have finished five scarves with three more in various stages of completion. I am ready to be done with the flying fur in my house but have been hampered by my own frugality.

Instead of buying new fabric, I am making my gifts using fabric scraps I already own. The problem is that while I have a room full of fabric, I do not have yardage in colors that lend themselves to beautiful scarves. I have a mountain of bright green iridescent material, which I used a long time ago to make a costume for my son. That green looked great on the Monster from the Green Lagoon but would probably look out of place adorning someone’s neck. Then there is all the leftover fabric for Zubaz I never got around to making. Never heard of Zubaz? Just google it and you will understand why this craze came and then quickly went. I have found some old soft suede that should work nicely but I will have to get inventive to make the amount of suede I own into three more scarves.

Now all I need is a burst of energy or all this fur will be stowed away once again. If that is the case, I guess I will just have to expect the fur to continue to fly.

Old Sweater, New Life

I had an old sweater I no longer wanted. As I was putting it into the Goodwill bag I realized I could transform this sweater into something special for family and friends.

After cutting my sweater it looked like this…

And here is what I was able to create with my sweater pieces…

• I made a vest and matching hat for my granddaughter. I can’t wait for her to try them on.
• I am finishing a pair of mittens I plan to line with fleece for the cold winters in the midwest.

Now my only problem is figuring out what to do with the rest of the sweater. I think I will make a small pair of mittens for my granddaughter but am not sure what to do with the remaining material. Any ideas? I would appreciate them!

Monday, November 7th update:
Today my daughter emailed a picture of our granddaughter in her new sweater and hat. She makes everything she wears look adorable. Evidently she did not want to wear the hat but mommy persevered and now I have a new picture to treasure.

She Who Dies with the Most Fabric Does Not Win

When our grandson was born, I went to the fabric store and purchased new fabric to make a quilt. When our granddaughter was born, I decided it was time to use the fabric I already own to make something beautiful. How much fabric do I have? One closet, two dressers, a couple of baskets and a bin full.

I sorted my fabric scraps looking for pink and decided to make a rag quilt. Rag quilting is something I had never done and is quite easy. 

To make this rag quilt:

1. Cut sixty 8-inch blocks of fabric
2. Cut thirty 7-inch blocks of cotton batting
3. Center a 7-inch square of batting between two 8-inch squares of a matching cotton print (wrong sides together)
4. Top stitch an “X” on each block going from corner to corner, creating 30 squares
5. Arrange squares into a pleasing design
6. Sew the blocks together into strips with a 1/2″ seam allowance
7. Sew each strip together with 1/2″ seams
8. To create the rag effect, snip each seam at 1/2” intervals to within 1/8” of all seams being careful not cut into the stitching
9. I bound the edge with a purchased satin binding ~ Simple directions for binding can be found on Heather Bailey’s Quilt Binding tutorial.

To rag your quilt, wash the quilt in warm water and detergent. It is important to shake the quilt before drying to shake off loose strings. Dry, with no dryer sheet, making sure to clean the lint trap once or twice during drying. Once dry, repeat with a second wash and dry this time with dryer sheets. Remember to clean the lint trap half way through.

The best fabric for rag quilting is flannel because it makes a soft, cuddly quilt. I didn’t have enough pink flannel so I used cotton fabrics to create a beautiful gift for the special little one in my life.