What Are You Working On? is for all things hand-made, home-made, and creative in a variety of mediums.
I spent last Thursday and Friday at the Sewing and Quilting Expo in Schaumburg, IL. I took three classes: Bobbin work, specialty needles techniques and quilt applique using two types of fusible fabric. Follow me below the orange squiggle for more discussion on Bobbin Work.
Bobbin Work, Making a notebook cover
The first class on bobbin work was very interesting. We learned the basics of doing bobbin work which has you sewing on the wrong side of the fabric. For this class which was only 90 minutes we did a notebook cover. Most of us got it almost all the way done in class. We were given the fabric and the thread by the teacher. I'm not sure I'd have chosen this combination on my own.
First thing is cutting fabric to the size of the open flat notebook plus 2" in width and 1" in height. Then we fused batting to the wrong side of the fabric. On a piece of 8.5" X 11" paper, we drew diagonal lines on the upper left hand side, as well as our initial lower down and to the right. We pinned the paper to the batting that was fused to the wrong side of the fabric. The pic below shows some of the paper remaining on the wrong side of the batting / fabric.
Next we set up the machine. The bobbin is wound with a thick thread or cord. In this class we used gold wrapped filament thread. This thread is way too thick to go through a needle or even the bobbin tension. After the bobbin is wound you do a needle down and then needle up to pick up the thick bobbin thread. Remember it is not being slipped through the tension of the bobbin. The top thread is set up normally in the machine. Decide which ornamental stitch you want to use. Then hold the two threads -- top and bottom -- in your left hand towards the back of the machine. With the fabric face down -- paper side up -- begin sewing. The instructor strongly suggested the pedal the metal style of sewing as that causes less snarls. And if you can help it at all, DO NOT STOP.
Go to the end of the stitching, but definitely not off the end. Do NOT use the built in scissor snips, cut by hand. Move the paper, batting / fabric over to the next row, choose a different specialty stitch and and start again.
We had to hand write our initial on the paper. I'm not good at this, but it is a discernible W. The sewing machine was changed to a mid width satin stitch. Again we worked upside down following the outline on the paper and keeping the machine moving. The feed dogs are in place, not down, for those who understand that. If not, don't worry about it.
Once the ornamental sewing is done, measure the width of the notebook and turn the excess right sides together. You now need regular bobbin thread set up normally. Sew about 1/4" from the top on both sides. When you flip it back correctly, the top and bottom fabric will curl in to give you an almost finished seam look. Ultimately I will hand stitch these seams.
There is a bit of a sloppy look here as I haven't done the hand stitching along the top and bottom but that will get done this week.
In later WAYWO diaries I will discuss what I learned in the other two classes.
How about you? What have you been working on?