Wrapped Gaberdine Fabric

Wrapping lovely shiny gaberdine fabric creates a beautiful shiny basket, but with more fray than cotton.  It is such wonderful wedding fabric and easy to hand coil and sew.  I trimmed the fray from this lovely Wedding Candy Dish.   So, clean your machine well and your work area, since the fray clings to everything, yes the rug and your clothes too.  It is a little harder to wrap, since it is slippery and frays alot.  I wrapped tighter, so that it was easier to sew later.

 Here is a cotton White Wedding Candy Bowl and there is some fray due to the raw edges, but not as much as the lovely gaberdine. 

I am making a little flower girl basket with more fray for a nice Shabby Chic look. 

I would like to thank a very nice customer, Carol, for helping me design these baskets.

Again, Have Fun!

LARGE CAT BED!

A great customer sent me pictures of her daughter's wonderful cats!
What fun!  Great Christmas present!  They love their new cat bed!

What machine do I use?

A very nice customer is helping women in Africa make fabric wrapped coiled baskets.  I hope your next trip is a success!

She asked what kind of machine works well.  Unfortunately, I'm not an expert on machines and mine is not an industrial or heavy duty machine.  I use a standard Baby Lock 6150 with the top loading bobbin.  No, no computer!  I can't believe it is still going strong too!  I'm not sure how old it is, maybe 10 years old.  I have broken many  plastic and metal bobbins, but I use a great deal of thread for the fabric coiled baskets.  I usually use a jeans machine needle or a size 16 for these fun bags and baskets. 

CLEAN YOUR Machine often!  The rope and thread fuzz is incredible.  I clean out the bobbin area after every project or every 4 bobbins or 100' of rope.  I also oil any joints in the bobbin area, just one drop per joint.  After every 5 or so bobbin area cleanings, I also open the top and bottom of the machine and clean out the fuzz and oil the moving joints.

This is my bobbin area, what a mess after about 100' of rope basket sewing.



The second picture shows how much gets into the bobbin hook area.

I have to thank my husband, Chris, he just adjusted the machine again for me.  Yeah! the zigzag is going well again!  He also opened the motor area, which was relatively clean and oiled in there too.  I have now switched from the basic sewing machine oil to "Break Free" an oil lubricant, cleaner and preservative.  
Unfortunately, it would cost $60-80 to have this machine cleaned and serviced, but I don't think the machine is worth it, it is way too old.

So, I hope my luck continues!
Please feel free to contact me with any other questions!


Yeah, a clean machine!

New Cozy Cat Beds!

 I have been designing and making new cat beds.

This tiger striped bed is a polyester velveteen and is taller than most of the beds, 5".  This funky fabric was hard to work with, but it came out so nice, I'll have to try it again!

 This is a cotton flannel  paisley fabric!
Beautiful nutmeg color with blues and greens!  I'm trying out different sizes, with the small basic having a 11" diameter base, 16" across the top and 4" high.

Let me know if there is a better size!

Here is another brown paisley fabric, the dark brown is just wonderful, yes this cat bed sold!

 Love this Black!  It is a nice deep black with bright colors for great contrast!  I love the funkiness!

 Ok, here is a nice soft blue floral and it is in flannel too!

Yes, this brown and tan cat bed is flannel!
It is hard to find nice rich flannels like this one!

Yes, these Coiled Baskets and Coasters can be washed!

Yes, Yes, Wash those baskets, bowls, pet beds, trivets, coasters, even the tote bags.  Ok, yes I only use 100% cotton, so they will shrink some.  I have washed mine in the washing machine on cold and delicate.  I AIR DRY all of them!  Any of the above items are easily reformed and air dried.
Sometimes the baskets get smushed on one side, just gently reform and let it air dry.  Or make a new shape,  like this little aqua bowl which I turned into a little dish.

After washing in the machine, I reformed my large tray and let it air dry!  Looks great!

Yes, this is the same aqua teardrop fabric, the left tray is done with a royal blue thread and the little basket with aqua thread.  I love them both! 
Have some fun!  Enjoy!

Beautiful Layer Cake Basket

Layering a basket with many fabrics can be tricky just like borders on a quilt.  These pictures show the difference between the two types of baskets.

 All Over Basket uses one fabric for the whole basket.   I made this wonderful basket for myself! Yeah!  I just loved this bold floral fabric.  Yes, it is the same fabric as the table rug in last month's post.  I also made myself another oval table runner and might even treat myself to a matching tissue box cover.  It is so nice to have a matching set.



The lovely aqua basket is a custom order for a wonderful customer who sent me the most gorgeous fabrics to make this "Layer Cake Basket".  I enjoyed making this basket with all the special layers.  Usually I have two or three layers, but his one has a least 8, so that was a challenge to make all these lovely fabrics work together.  I just love how it turned out! 

What color thread to use on a table rug?

I was teaching a friend how to make a coiled basket and the question of of the day was...
What color thread to use on multi colored fabrics, which can be a tough decision.  If the fabric has lots of wonderful colors then I sometimes use invisible or clear thread, but it is not cotton.  Here is a table rug that has so many bold colors and depending on your color thread choice, you can change the shade of the finished table rug.  Many times I make coasters just to try out different colors on a specific fabric.

I just love this bold floral fabric and made this 16" table rug for great protection. 

This has so many colors it's amazing!
Usually I use the background color for the thread choice, so that it blends in.

 But here I used dark purple for a couple of rows, then I use a dark green, then a lighter kelly green and then a lime green.  It is hard to see them in this picture, but you can see that there are different shades.

Can you see the navy blue section, then the royal blue section and then even lilac?

I wish I could take better pictures.  This is the reverse side of the table rug where I only used dark purple embroidery thread to add to the highlights and I love it!  I will use this side!

See how even the colors look now that only one shade of purple is used.  I plan to make myself a matching basket, but I will use green this time, since the room is painted green or maybe not!

Good luck choosing your thread!
Thanks for visiting!
:)