Tattered Grain Sack Hearts

While I've been laying low at home with a nasty cold,
(which my darling hubster passed on to me)

I scraped up enough courage (and strength) to haul out my little sewing machine again.

With knocking knees

and whispered prayers on my lips,

I sat down to create some tattered heart sachets using some grain sack material.

I was motivated by all of the hearts I had been seeing of late in blogland. 

♥

Now...I must tell you that this particular grain sack was not of the best material.

Not like the ones I usually purchase from my favorite Etsy source.

I picked this one up at the antique market last summer for cheap,
which is why I had no qualms about cutting it up.

It was clean and very linen-like, however -

perfect for this project.

I remembered that I also had some leftover drop cloth scraps in the basement 

along with a flour sack towel,

so I used those, too.

I found a heart online, traced in on a manila file folder,

and cut it out.

After tracing it onto the grain sack and cutting it out,

I sewed a button or tag here;

a piece of lace or embroidery thread there;

and added vintage seam binding or grain sack twine to hang them from.

No, the machine was not consistent with nice, untangled sewing lines,

and I found myself almost flinging the thing across the room at one point

because of the clumped snags it was making.
Agh!

But I controlled myself,

re-threaded the bobbin and the needle,
(more than once)

(revisited my self-inflicted sewing assignment)

and attempted it again.

The results were worth my almost patient, prayer-filled effort.

I created a mixed media heart with grain sack material

and some vintage toile,

and I outlined one with red embroidery thread.

I made one using that flour sack towel,

but found that fabric was a little more tricky to maneuver 

with my temperamental machine.

I left the edges rough and tattered.

It made them look well-loved.

 And yes....

the sewing machine survived to see another day...

for now.

Hope that you were blessed with a Valentine's Day 

full of love!

~  ♥  ~

 [ Blessings }

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Vintage Handkerchief Buntings

Let me start off by saying

I am NOT a seamstress.

Not by any means or margin.

In fact, the last time I ever sewed anything on a real live sewing machine

was way back in junior high school.

Yeah....THAT long ago.

But when I saw some of these charming vintage handkerchief buntings on Etsy,

I thought that maybe...

just maybe

a simple project like this could be my reintroduction into Sewing 101. 

 ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

 

Let's begin, shall we?

Assignment #1: Read the sewing machine handbook. This is an important step since you haven't a clue as to what you're doing.There are nice big pictures and very few words in it, so if you're in Pre-K Reading class, this will be a cake-walk.

Assignment #2:  Familiarize yourself with the machine. Talk to it and ask for it to play nice.

Assignment #3: Plug it in. This is the easiest part of this whole assignment.

Assignment #4:  Learn how to thread the needle. Have your Reader glasses ready.  That hole in the needle seems to be extremely small for some odd reason...

Assignment #5:  Go back to Assignment #4 and change it to "Learn how to wind the bobbin first".

Assignment #6:  Learn how to thread the needle (through that teeny weeny hole).

Assignment #7:  Practice, practice, practice on a piece of old fabric first because when you try to do it on the project you're making,

the machine suddenly makes a weird sound and stops working.

Assignment #8: Go back to Assignments #4 & 5 and change to "Learn how to wind the bobbin AND install it correctly".

Assignment #9:  Rip out tangled mess on back of project.

Assignment #10:  Proceed merrily - but cautiously - on your way.

** ♥ **

Ok ~ so for this project you're going to need:

1 package of double-wide seam binding,

some dressmaker pins,

and   

4 or 5 vintage handkerchiefs

Ready?

Cut each hankie in half on the diagonal.

No need to be really neat about it,

but try to cut in a straight line.

(Remember ~ this IS Sewing 101.)

Open up the binding and lay the cut edge of the hankie in the center of it.

Fold it over the hankie and pin.

Yup.  Just like this ~

all the way down the binding,

pinning whatever colored and patterned hankies that tickle your fancy in place

end to end (point to point).

With the 3 yards of binding that comes in a package,

I could get about 5 hankie halves pinned in a row

leaving about 3" at each end for ties.
(This will all depend on the size of your hankies.)

Now, here comes the scary part.

Sit down at your machine, 

say a short prayer

(this is a very important step),

lay your binding beneath the foot of the machine,

clamp it down,

(say another short prayer)

and 

s l o w l y

press your foot on the "gas pedal".

(You're not driving a dragster here, ya know...

That comes with Sewing 901.)

Sew along the edge of the binding

plucking out the pins as you go
because you don't want to break the needle with the teeny weeny hole.

Now...

 I know that some of you Sewing 901 brainiac students are thinking,

"Why didn't she iron the binding down?"

Well, I didn't think of that until I got going.

Besides, my palms were too clammy.

Anyway, keep sewing right to the end of the binding.

I actually reversed the sewing at the end

to make sure the stitches were good and secure

with a little doohicky-switch-thingy above the needle.

(You read how to do that in Assignment #1...remember?)

Next,

say a thank you prayer that all went well

and that the bobbin didn't choke up and spit out knots of thread

(Failure to do Assignment #4 & 5)

even though you had to fill the tiny little bobbin a minimum of four different times which meant that you really learned to do it correctly

and probably won't need to read the handbook ever again in your life.

Drape your pretty vintage bunting on your frantel,

stand across the kitchen from it

and try to reach in back of you to pat yourself on the back.

Congratulations.

You have now graduated to 

Sewing 201.

(Insert music to "Pomp & Circumstance" here)

These sweet vintage buntings will be for sale at the Allegan Antique Market this spring!

[ Blessings ]

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