Sewing Darts

Darts used to drive me crazy until I stumbled into how I sew them now..

First, as I cut the patterns, I mark the pieces by stabbing pins through the pattern piece then gently hold up the edge of the pattern and carefully put a pin through from the wrong side into the pattern piece exactly where the first pin marked (I'll try to get pics or video of this up)




The darts are marked by pins at the dart point and about 1/4" from the edge ON each dart leg.



Now, I position the fabric so the dart legs away from me on the ironing board and I can use the left pin to replace the right pin (so the left pin goes down through the wrong side of fabric on the left dart leg, then up through the right dart leg from the right side).




Next, I stab that pin into the ironing board (doesn't my friend have the coolest burn mark on her ironing board cover?). The dart point had been marked by another pin: keep it in place and work the folded edge of the fabric to make a straight, even fold from the pin to the edge of the fabric.





Now, carefully iron the fabric to make a crisp fold without melting the heads of the plastic pins and permanently adhering them to your fabric.. ('cause that would be bad..)





Take a straight edge and something to mark the dart: pencil, disappearing ink..line up the straight edge, draw a line between the two pins.






See how lovely?





Use the pins to pin the dart in place to maintain the edge and keep the fabric from moving whole sewing (a third pin in the middle helps).





Either, sew by hand with small stitches. Or, by machine:





At the normal stitch length, begin by sewing a few stitches backward, and then stitch, stopping about 1/4" from the edge of the fabric.





Change to a smaller stitch length..





..and sew off the edge of the dart. (With practice, you'll be able to change the stitch length at the appropriate place without stopping.)





Leave threads long and tie them in a square knot (really, shortening the stitch takes care of this, and I just snip the threads, leaving ~1/4" ends). Tada!:





Press dart in direction suggested by pattern, and you're good to go!

Space, the Final Frontier

Crafting overtook the game table set up in the corner of the living room. Then fabric filled some of the laundry baskets and were piled onto the coffee table. I considered building cabinets along the wall. I prayed for a cabinet to organize this chaos.

Last Friday, I was visiting a friend whose children have nearly all been potty-trained. She asked if I knew anyone who is expecting and needs a changing table. I drew a blank. Is anyone I know in the area expecting right now? She showed me the unit and my corner of piled baskets of fabric came to mind.. If she didn't find anyone in need, may I have it? Apparently, she'd had it on offer for a couple weeks without takers and was more than happy to give it to me!

My cutting mat fits on the lower side of the table, where the changing pad belongs. This disturbs Ben a little.. Now, the bottom drawer has scraps and fabric the children have requested, the middle drawer has my projects, and I'm working on organizing the top drawer.

LX fits in the cabinet, so I'll move in there more slowly. Otherwise, he dumps out what I put in there, or claims it as his own.

Allergic to What!?

Ben let the children know his friend is allergic to ginger as we were getting ready to head to the BBQ. MissA quipped, "Who's Ginger?"

I try to be honest, straightforward and get them thinking, so I explain that "ginger" is the British term for redheads. After all, *who* else is?

MissA squeaked out a worried, "So, he's allergic to me?"

Colette Crepe, First Go

Crepe Dress, Second Go

Last month, I cut out a couple dresses. Late at night. And managed to have the pattern pieces upside down. The green fabric has words across it: birds, flowers, fruit, vegetables.





I think it's cute. This is view 1, with the scoop neck. MissB took these pictures for me.