Thursday, June 23, 2011

More crafting

Having a go at another hooded towel for one of Zachary's friends. This time it's a rabbit and I'm trying to keep it simple! Have attached a white hood to white towel, and this evening I made 2 ears (pink and white) and appliqued a pick nose to the hood. Just need to add a tail, some paws and perhaps some whiskers.

I think it looks okay so far - definitely easier than trying a tabard one again, although applique on towels, even with a sewing machine is a bit tough! I was also going to try to be really thorough and overcast the edges of all the towel sections to try and prevent too much fraying but had to give up on that. Overcasting round curves was very tricky and I gave up in the end.

Overcasting uses the same stitch as applique (a satin stitch) so I thought I'd be okay, but I have to use a different presser foot in the machine to make sure the stitching stays as close to the edge of the material as it should be, and that foot has a central couple of bars, which the stitches are stitched over. Normally when appliqueing round curves, you lift the presser foot as the material starts to curve and adjust the material to keep everything going neatly. With the stitches running over the central section on the overcasting foot, I found that I couldn't turn the material. I'm sure there must be a way to achieve this - perhaps just trying to use a 'normal' presser foot, but I just left it as the edges were going to be hidden inside the ears. Fingers crossed!!

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