Gifts To Sew

[Weedygarden]

I have often made gifts for others, when I had time.

This year I am going to make denim shop aprons for my daughter and her boyfriend. They are working on developing a woodworking shop. They are hands-on people. Leather aprons were suggested to me, and while I like that idea, I lack experience with leather, and have lots of experience with sewing fabrics.

I would like to make them each a kitchen apron as well, but she has one already. He loves to grill, so he needs an apron for that.

 

[Amish Heart]

Great idea! I've been working on simple potholders to put in gift baskets with other homemade food items I'm doing this Christmas for gifts.

 

[Swing]

I'm making American Girl Wellie Wisher (the new 14.5 inch dolls) for my two granddaughters. I hope to make 2 each. One sparkly and one from their great grandmother's wedding dress. Then I need to make 6 sets of Hitty doll outfits for a friend's granddaughters.

 

[Dani]

I did granddaughter an apron and mitt set for Christmas. She is getting a kitchen play set so will fit right in. Used leftover material from her baby quilt and also from the last quilt I made for her big girl bed.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@Dani that set is so beautiful and I am sure your granddaughter will love them .

Incidentally I was wondering if someone could advise me as I have a heap of cotton flannel (flannelette) from old PJ's whether you could use multiple layers of that for the internal insulation for the oven mitts ?. I have heard that people do this with pot holders so I wonder if it would be a good substitute for insul-brite ?.

 

[Weedygarden]

@Dani that set is so beautiful and I am sure your granddaughter will love them .

Incidentally I was wondering if someone could advise me as I have a heap of cotton flannel (flannelette) from old PJ's whether you could use multiple layers of that for the internal insulation for the oven mitts ?. I have heard that people do this with pot holders so I wonder if it would be a good substitute for insul-brite ?.

Sewingcreations, I have never seen that done, and it might work great, or not. I would test it out by using several layers, as many as you think you need, and test it on a pan coming from the oven.
Me? I have some flannel pieces that I am wanting to make t.p. cloth wipes from.

 

[Weedygarden]

I did granddaughter an apron and mitt set for Christmas. She is getting a kitchen play set so will fit right in. Used leftover material from her baby quilt and also from the last quilt I made for her big girl bed.View attachment 665

That is a lovely set. I have a thing about aprons. I seldom wear one, but I love them!

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Thanks @Weedygarden I suppose the only way to find out is to try it for myself and make one .

 

[Elgar]

Flannel works, but not as good as insulbrite. And you'd probably need a bunch of layers. But sometimes frugality wins out.

I haven't started yet, but am going to make some pillow cases for friends I meet after Christmas. They are quick and easy to make but look classy. This is the tutorial I follow:

 

[Weedygarden]

We do a close friends and family Christmas eve dinner and small, simple gifts. Sometimes it is not easy to know what to get someone. I am not a drinker, but am going to make wine bottle covers from this site and give a couple bottles of wine. https://www.fleecefun.com/wine-bott...il&utm_term=0_4d7abc93a4-7a57052429-323405325

 

[Elgar]

Weedy - I like that wine bottle cover. Neat idea.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Thanks @Elgar for your reply on using the flannelette for the oven mitts and love that easy tutorial on the pillowcases.

 

[Swing]

I'm making American Girl Wellie Wisher (the new 14.5 inch dolls) for my two granddaughters. I hope to make 2 each. One sparkly and one from their great grandmother's wedding dress. Then I need to make 6 sets of Hitty doll outfits for a friend's granddaughters.

The Wellie Wisher dresses never got made. I ended up with more work than usual, so I sent money. They loved doing their own shopping so all is good. I did get the Hitty dresses done and 3 more since then.

 

[Patchouli]

Flannel works, but not as good as insulbrite. And you'd probably need a bunch of layers. But sometimes frugality wins out.

I haven't started yet, but am going to make some pillow cases for friends I meet after Christmas. They are quick and easy to make but look classy. This is the tutorial I follow:

I used a pattern for potholders "hot pads". I can't remember if it called for two layers of the insulbrite, but I experimented and used two layers, a layer of cotton quilt batting in between, then the outside fabric layers. I guess I wasn't using the right needle for the job as the sewing wasn't the easiest; but the finished job was much better than using only one layer of insulbrite. The crocheted pot holders someone gave me worked better than one layer of insulbrite with the two outer layers of cotton fabric.
They say using layers of flannel is good for hot pads but I haven't used it.

 

[Weedygarden]

The Wellie Wisher dresses never got made. I ended up with more work than usual, so I sent money. They loved doing their own shopping so all is good. I did get the Hitty dresses done and 3 more since then.

Angie, I have a whole bunch of that in my life. That is the kind of stuff that I am working on now, finishing the unfinished projects. Lots of small stuff that I just want to get finished.

 

[Weedygarden]

Flannel works, but not as good as insulbrite. And you'd probably need a bunch of layers. But sometimes frugality wins out.

I haven't started yet, but am going to make some pillow cases for friends I meet after Christmas. They are quick and easy to make but look classy. This is the tutorial I follow:

I have subscribed to her channel and want to get some pillow cases made up. I have a few small pillows that I keep with my sleeping bag that I would like to make up a couple pillow cases for.

 

[Patchouli]

I'm only slightly OCD and it would drive me batty to have my animals going sideways instead of standing right side up on a pillow case. I made a pillowcase with owls on it and they are horizontally sitting, not vertically.
Plus I think when cutting and sewing various projects, I usually see the pattern as being cut on the fabric with the selvages on the vertical. It has to do with how items perform or wear as they are used; especially when using any kind of fabric that has a stretch to it.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Thanks @Patchouli still haven't got around to doing them as lots of other things to do around here at the moment.

 

[Patchouli]

@Sewingcreations15 : Do you know what I mean? When making a skirt from a pattern, the pattern goes on the fabric, up and down, not lengthwise across the fabric. Does that make sense? The fabric would not wear correctly if the pattern is put the wrong way on it. And it would look weird. If you were making curtains, you would hang the fabric with the selvages of the fabric vertical. I hope that makes sense.
http://isntthatsew.org/marking-cutting-fabric/

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@Patchouli I am not a dressmaker unfortunately but make homewares unfortunately. For curtains for instance I have the selvedges running up and down along the sides vertically.

 

[Patchouli]

@Sewingcreations15: Yes. that's what I'm talking about. I'll shut up in a second. I could have used a better link, but I couldn't think of the right words myself. Like, with the grain, against the grain, the weft, grainlines. Ok. Now I'll be quiet.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@Patchouli you usually cut in my limited knowledge of dress making with the grain of the material so the arrows on the pattern are facing up and down the fabric, but then and again I am going back to school days which was a while ago now.

 

[COSunflower]

I have made potholders using warm and natural for the insulation AND have also used layers of old towels. I would think that the cotton flannel would work but it would take several layers. A couple old wash clothes work well for square potholders too.

 

[phideaux]

PICS PLEASE




Jim

 

[COSunflower]

I won't be able to post pics until I get wifi. I only have a limited amount of data on my new tablet. What do you want pics of? Our potholders?

 

[Elgar]

Although the grain of the fabric is important in garment making and housewares (like curtains), it is not so important in quilting as we work with small pieces. The standard in quilting to to cut crosswise rather than lengthwise.

 

[COSunflower]

I always try to cut with the grain, especially with triangles, to avoid fabric stretch.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Thanks @COSunflower for the info on the pot holders too and the wash cloths are a good idea too or I suppose you could cut down old worn towels keeping the unworn bits for the sewing project too.

 

[lilmissy]

I made my great niece these little dogs. It was just a preprint panek I got at the quilt store, but I think they are super cute. Messed around with some piecing on this quilt. Quilting is crappy, didnt realize my tension was off a bit and was in a hurry.
I love winter, this is when I can sew and relax.

 

[Double R]

Those are adorable lilmissy!