I accomplished yet another of the projects on my priority list today. The dogs now have some nice mats for their crates. They are even personalized! They were very quick and easy to make.

Materials:

One yard each heavy denim and polar fleece. This is enough to make two mats approx. 35”x28”. I just cut each yard in half down the middle to make two pieces 36” by 30”. My two fabrics were quite the same width so I did a little trimming to match everything up. If you want them to fit perfectly into the bottom of your crate just measure the bottom pan size and add an inch to get a 1/2” seam allowance all the way around.

How To:

If you want to personalize it, hoop your denim and stitch out the name. Because this denim was so stiff I didn’t put an stabilizer in the hoop with it. I did Maizey’s first and some of the stitches weren’t as nice as I’d like them to be so when I did Cas’ I slipped a piece of Heavy Cut-Away under the hoop before I started stitching and that worked great.

Lay the denim piece out flat right side up and place fleece right side down on top of it. Smooth everything out, matching edges, trim any edges that aren’t even.

Round off the corners. I marked them with a chalk wheel and used my magnetic pin cushion as a guide. I chose to round them off to make turning them right side out easier. Pin both fabrics together. Stitch around edge, leaving an opening for turning. I used my walking foot because the fleece likes to stretch under the foot while stitching. I also lengthened my stitch length and made sure I had a jeans needle in the machine.

Turn right side out and clip excess fabric from curved corners and notch seam allowance. (I forgot to take a picture of this step.)

Topstitch approximately 1/2” from edge. Be cure to tuck in the edges of the opening so they get caught in the topstitching.

All done in a couple hour’s work. I like that they are lightweight and easy to wash. No stuffing for the dogs to chew apart and get all over the house. The fleece gives a little cushioning and the denim is durable.

Miss Maizey looks a little less than thrilled with her new digs but that is partly because I moved her crate today from one corner to another and now Cas is in the same room. She doesn’t like change.

In reality the dogs don’t spend a lot of time in their crates. Just while we are out of the house. They are still spoiled and get to sleep on our bed at night. And with my part-time hours and how early the girls get home from school they are rarely crated for more than a few hours at a time. But Cas does like his crate and will just go hang out in their for periods of time. He is also a bit of a hoarder and we will find random things hidden in there. Like the time my friend stayed over to dog sit and after we got home I was cleaning it out and found her bank card still in the envelope from the mail in his crate.

Also, does anyone else think it is weird that two Michigan State Spartans have a dog named MAIZEy? I didn’t ever realize the awkwardness until I embroidered her name in bright yellow on a blue background.

Bernina USA website for #70/71 foot.

This is one of the feet Steve got me for Christmas. (I think I wrote down the wrong number when I gave him my list, I really wanted the #71 which is wider and for denim but I’m not complaining, I’ll buy that one myself and still get use out of this one.) This isn’t a foot I’ll use often but like so many Bernina feet, when you need it nothing else will do the job quite as well or as precisely.

I’ll show you step by step how to use this foot. Also the above link to the Bernina website has a great little video showing the foot in action.

Step 1: Align your fabric WRONG sides together with the bottom fabric 5mm beyond the edge of the top fabric.

Step 2:  Fold bottom fabric over edge of top fabric and place under the foot.

I use the point of my seam ripper to carefully poke the top corner of the folded fabric under the foot and needle. I then take a stitch or two and stop with my needle down to hold everything while I maneuver the folded edge of the fabric into the foot the way I want it.  

Sew down the seam keeping the bottom fabric folded over the raw edge of the top fabric.

The finished first seam. The raw edge of the top fabric is wrapped with the bottom fabric.

Step 3: Press seam and open it out, I don’t press it flat though. I find that it helps to get it under the needle and then take a few stitches and stop with the needle down so I can rearrange the fabric and get it placed in the foot properly. This also where having the Free Hand System (knee lift) comes in really handy!

Sew down the seam. The foot will fold the edge over and stitch exactly along the edge giving a perfectly top-stitched finish.

This sample was sewn with bright green in the needle and grey in the bobbin. This sample was sewn with bright green in both the needle and the bobbin. My bobbin stitching doesn’t look as perfect in this sample as the above one because I didn’t have it threaded perfectly. Usually the two rows of stitching will be exact and perfectly parallel like they are in the above sample.

The result is a perfectly finished seam with no raw edges. Where would you use this technique? This narrower one would be perfect for sewing side seams in lightweight blouses instead of a French seam. The advantage over a French seam is that this type lies flat. You see this seam finish in men’s dress shirts. This type of seam is very strong so it is good for seams that get a lot of stress. The most common use of a wider flat-fell seam is in denim jeans. I made a pair of stretch denim jeans for a store sample this fall and plan on making myself a pair soon so I will be going back and getting that #71 foot. I love the way this seam finish looks, so professional. I’m at the point in my sewing career that I want my home-sewn items to look as good if not better than store bought and this is just another way to achieve that goal.

At a later date I will share with you a couple short cuts you can use to achieve a flat-felled look in fewer steps and less time. Because we all know that I also like to get projects done fast!

Yesterday I spent some time making blocks for Missy’s quilt. I took some pictures of the process I’m using for making the blocks. Each block is unique but I use the same basic approach to make them and will outline it here for you today if you want to use this technique too. For the first entry I wrote about this quilt and how it came to be go here.

Step 1:

Start with a smallish (2”x3”) trapezoid shape. The more irregular the shape the more skewed the finished block will end up.

Add the side pieces to opposite sides. I usually pick a piece of fabric that is longer than the side I’m adding it to to give me plenty of room for trimming later.

Sew (1/4” seam allowance) and press with seam allowances toward outside.

Step 2:

Trim excess fabric. I line my ruler up with the edge of the original piece and trim off the excess fabric. You can also trim at a new angle if you want to skew the edges even more.

Step 3:

Add the next round. Again choosing a piece that is a bit longer than the edge it is being added to. This round goes on the other edge of the first piece and the seam crosses the ends of the seams of the first round. Press open with seam allowances toward the outside.

Trim overhanging fabric like in the first round.

Step 4:

Continue to add fabrics to opposite sides, pressing and trimming as you go. I typically add a total of 7 rounds, the center square counting as “round 1”. I planned this quilt so that the 6th round will be white fabric and the last round (7th) will be the darker green.

Step 5:

I want my finished squares to be 11” square so I make sure the last two rounds (white and green) are plenty thick enough to give me room to trim them down to the finished size.

Lay a square ruler on top of the finished block and make sure your finished dimensions fit on the square.

Trim right and top sides.

Line trimmed sides up with the 11” marks on ruler. Trim remaining two sides.

Your finished block should be square with opposite green edges and opposite white edges. You can vary the width of the inner rounds to make the outer rounds wider or thinner. You can also add more rounds. The bigger the angles you use to cut the edges will skew or square you block more or less depending on personal taste.

Step 6:

Putting the finished blocks together.

Line the blocks up so that a green edge is touching a white edge (turning each block 90°)

I am pretty sure that this is how I’m going to assemble the finished quilt. But I may experiment with adding a narrow green sashing between blocks. But right now I like how the green edges make the rest of the block “float” in space and blur the lines of the finished blocks.

NOTES:

For a while I was making the blocks so that the 3rd round was always white but then I thought that made the finished quilt look too white all over so I started eliminating that round of white and varied the fabric placement to make more darker blocks. I’m also trying to make more blocks with thicker green edges. I think the overall effect will be very cool and modern looking. I love the fresh clean look of this simple color palette. Right now my quilting plan is to just straight line quilt with lines going across the quilt in different directions. I just don’t know what color thread to use. I think white will show up too bright on the green parts but green or blue will muddy the white sections. I’ll have to do some test blocks to see what I like best. Of course I’ll post results here to get your opinions!

I also made this one square using the breast pocket from one of the shirts. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to incorporate it into the finished quilt. I may do a partially pieced back and put it there with a note to Missy in the pocket. Or I may use for a coordinating pillow. I also saved the front button bands from the shirt with the idea of using them on pillows as the closure. The possibilities are endless!

If you use this technique please link back to me so I can see your creations. I love these improvisational techniques because the end results are all so different. I can’t wait to see what you all make with it too!