Vintage toys as inspiration

These felt and embroidered houses are so sweet, someone has to make them.


This clown is creepy. Don't make this for a small child unless you want to give them nightmares.



Happy little lion. I'm definitely getting a lion vibe at the moment.
It's a bit too cliche, but Kingston loves them at the moment, so I might have to tweak and play to come up with a cool variant.



Every boy loves dinosaurs, and king is a little obsessed, his bed is covered with them. But I think this one would eat all the others and poop stuffing for a week, he's huuuuge!



I love how this kid is such a runner that not only is she wearing a harness, but that it has bells on it just in case she does escape.

xCherry

www.FuriousKingston.com.au

Done! All ready for mathildas market-well, nearly

Well, this is what the sweat shop looked liked 2 days ago.
And as of 20 minutes ago now, it's all done! Just have to heat set some tees tomorrow morning (they're drying overnight), and we're all set to go.
Well, after packing and breakfast and such.
I'll admit, a few things fell by the wayside such as the red check shorts, hoodies, dress up moustaches and treasure bags. *sniff*, but after restocking what we hopefully sell on Sunday, I'll definitely sew up the 'missing' goodies for online and for the Caulfield market.
I know the blog has been a misery of late, but I promise that after this weekend I'll be back to my crazy self and post fun stuff. Like musings for next season! Ooh. Yeah.
Ok, I'm going to be dead tomorrow on all of four and a half hours sleep, so goodnight peeps!
Hope everyone has a great weekend and we'll see you all on the other side of Sunday.

xCherry

www.FuriousKingston.com.au

Sewing tip: keep your needles handy

Next time you switch needles, keep the packet somewhere handy so you remember what kind you're using. Far easier than trying to read the tiny numbers on the needle, let alone remember if it's a ball point or sharp.
Oh and a piece of fabric wrapped around the machine with a little wadding underneath makes a great pin cushion in the handiest place. Not the prettiest, I know. And you'd get hate mail if you sent it out in a pin cushion swap, but it definitely keeps pins nearby when you need them.

xCherry

www.FuriousKingston.com.au

Tip: easy fusing cutting for waistbands

For an easy way to cut out fusing for waistbands, belt loops, straps and other long straight items:
Just buy a roll of fusing and slice through at the width you need.
It makes it so much easier to iron/press onto your fabric too.
Just be sure to cut carefully so it's not on a funny angle, or you'll end up with wavy edges.
I just used a sharp knife on my breadboard. It's much cheaper than buying the small precut rolls of thin fusing too. This 1m wide x 10m long roll of standard fusing was $8 from my local store, compared to $12 for just 3m of fusing precut to a waistband width.
Such a timesaver!

xCherry

www.FuriousKingston.com.au

New 'skipper' hat shape- meh?

Although very cute, I'm just not feeling the love for this hat. It's only in sampling fabric, but I just seem to feel meh about it.
Maybe it needs to be a fraction larger and the crown a little rounder?
What do you think?

xCherry

www.FuriousKingston.com.au

Sewing tip: turning sharp corners

Step 1:
Sew your corner nicely. For thinner fabrics a perfect corner, pivoting around the needle like the left one. Thicker fabrics need a bit more room, so pivot twice, using a stitch as the corner like the sample on the right.







Step 2:
Trim the seams down to a minimal width, and clip the corner.






Step3:
Holding the corner like this, use your fingers to fold down the seam allowance so that it folds inside out nicely, instead of crumpling up inside.























The corner should look like this after you turn it right side out.
Not very sharp, right? But a good start, since there's no excess fabric inside clogging up the corner.

Step 4:
Insert your snips (or a small pair of embroidery scissors), on the inside of the corner and push out. Not too hard, you don't want to pierce through!







Step 5:
Pinch the corner a little bit to finish off the shaping.







Done!
Beautiful corners!

As you can see below, the one on the left isn't quite shaped right, it's a bit stretched. That's because it was sewn with the corner for thin fabric, but on thick twill, which needs the thick fabric cornering. Clear as mud?






Happy sewing!

xCherry

www.FuriousKingston.com.au

Florida shorts in stripes for summer

On the machine at the moment, no where near finished yet, but looking sweet as so far.

xCherry

www.FuriousKingston.com.au

Piping- do it yourself the easy way

If you want to make your own piping, the easiest way is to get some existing piping and cover it. Maybe a huge roll on sale(I love Jack Stock), or some funk-eugh colour from the op shop or ripped out of an old garment. Just make sure it's colourfast, though. You don't want to cover red piping with a lovely cream satin and then have it run in the wash!

Then cut your bias strips of your new fabric, fold over the piping, keeping the fabric nice and firm around the cord, and stitch down. If you use a great big stitch, it will take no time at all, and try to sew closer to the edge rather than the cord (like the gray on the far right). That way when you insert it into your garment the basting stitches will be hidden in the seam. When you do insert it, use an invisible zipper foot to get nice and close to the cord for a neat finish.
And voilà! Custom piping that is easy and quick to make.

xCherry

Sewing tip: zigzag trimming

Sewing tip: zigzag trimming, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

Instead of clipping the seam allowance of a curve, use pinking shears to trim the seam allowance to about 3-4mm before bagging out(turning). You end up with less fabric inside and a smoother curve.

xCherry

www.FuriousKingston.com.au

Pro tip: keep snips handy

Pro tip: keep snips handy, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

Tie your snips onto your machine with a length of elastic. That way they don't go missing, and they're always to hand when you need them.
I have several pairs, one for each machine and one on the ironing board to trim threads when pressing.
You can do the same with overlockers and their long tweezers.

xCherry

www.furiouskingston.com.au

Wicked welt

Wicked welt, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

I am vastly improved on my welt pocket making. Mad skillz my dears.
I just loathe doing 'practice' ones though, I feel like if I'm going to all the effort of sewing something, then I should get something out of it.

xCherry

www.furiouskingston.com.au

Rework vest

Rework vest, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

Vest reworked from a vintage jumper. The bind isn't 100% yet, I think I need to work on it a bit more, but overall I'm really happy with how it's coming along.

XCherry

Jarmies

Jarmies, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

After a few trials an errors I think I have a pretty nice pattern for some lounge pants / jarmies coming along for summer. A nice flat front with elastic at the back (no, not hanging out like that, I just didn't know how long to make it), and a straight leg that sits nicely on the hips and under the tum. I'm not into the kiddy pants that have a high rise and go up to the armpits!

And strangely my iPhone auto spell wants to change 'jarmies' to 'marmosets'. ???

Xxx Cherry

www.FuriousKingston.com.au

Audrey's dress - better pics!

I had to get the recipient to give me some pics as in my haste to finish it i forgot to take some myself! so here is the lovely Audrey's dress in full:



the main body is a lovely soft rayon blend woven, with a blend of brown and grey threads to give it a lovely sheen. the yoke is a vintage rayon sateen scarf, cut on the corner to keep the pattern going around the yoke. and some lovely green vintage buttons to finish it off.
thankfully the dress was well received!
xxxCherry

folded sleeve dress-complete!

So after unpicking and re-cutting, fusing and re-sewing the neckband, i forgot i needed to add gape darts to the pattern to take out the excess. gah! too lazy to do it all over a third time, i just darted the band in six places and left it at that. i'll fix the pattern up so there won't be any seam lines on the final product, but damn, i'm not bothering if it's really just a trial dress for me to wear.
And i spent over an hour trying to find a spot in our house with the right lighting to take a bloody pic! so i apologise for the crappiness of them, and the fact that you can see the kitchen sink in the background, but by then i was over it! clearly i'm going to have to set up a nice corner that has some good lighting at some stage.




and the little man lookin too cool for school:


xxxCherry

Folded sleeve dress on the machine

Folded sleeve dress on the machine, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

Just a little left to go till it's done. Of course I was lazy and
didn't fuse the neck facing and it stretched and so now I need to
unpick it and redo it. Damn. Oh well lesson learned.
The fabric is just sub- some stash bits and pieces but the plaid will
be nice for winter I think and the chocolate works well with either
reds or jades which are my Dave colours so I'll definately wear it
which is good. Big pics once it's done- hopefully tonight or tomorrow
if kingston lets me!

Xxx Cherry

Loving the folded sleeve

Loving the folded sleeve, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

Just toilling up a dress and rather enamoured with the folded sleeve,
thought I had to share!

Xxx Cherry

And the back

And the back, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

With snaps for growing boys.

Xxx Cherry

Finished jumpsuit

Finished jumpsuit, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

In a lovely soft chocolate woven with a little stretch for comfort and
ease to play in.

Xxx Cherry

On the sewing machine

On the sewing machine, originally uploaded by cherry_rockette.

A little romper for the Kingston.

Xxx Cherry