Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

A sewing table for inept carpenters

I am short and most of my height impairment is in my legs. So getting good ergonomics with my work tables has always been difficult. I have dreamed of a custom sewing table (I need 3 actually) for a long time but neither Chris or I are very handy in the carpentry department.

This is how I have been working and it's worked fairly well. I use plain folding tables and Chris built me these boxes for my presser foot. I set my chair as high as it will go and that gets me pretty close.  Except that my chairs really won't raise quite high enough for me and then they are totally uncomfortable for other use.

I have 3 folding tables for 2 machines and a serger and they are all set up this way. I recently found adjustable table legs from Ikea. I ordered 4 and tried them on my Pfaff sewing table in April and I loved them.

Around the same time we decided to get rid of our big entertainment center because it would not hold a big TV that Chris wanted. (OK, I will want it too come football season.) You know that entertainment centers aren't worth much so instead of selling it I decided (while Chris was out of town) to completely dismantle it and see of I couldn't use some of the parts for other things. Chris wasn't much interested in that project idea but I found use for some of the items and the rest (all particle board) went to the dump. I used the drawers for bins in my dye studio and I saved the top because I thought it would be a perfect sewing table with a cut out for my Juki machine.

That's the underside of the top and it stayed in the middle of the loving room floor for about a month until I could talk him into the sewing table project. Thanks to the links you shared we finally formulated a plan that we could reasonably execute.

Before I share what we did I will tell you that this is the redneck method of construction. When it comes to my sewing room space I am totally function over form. I'd love to have the beautiful space that Karen has, but I don't have the patience to take up any of my time painting anything; just not interested. So until someone comes to my house and magically creates a dream sewing space for me I will stick to my simple but highly functional room!

Here we go. The only purchased materials that went into this project are a few 1 x 4 boards, some hardware and the Ikea legs.

First we borrowed a jig saw. I measured my Juki carefully and created a template for the opening. I determined that I wanted the needed to be about 8" from the front edge of the table and then traced the outline. I taped around the outline because we were concerned that the veneer might chip...but it didn't.  We rested the table on some bricks so that the saw blade didn't cut into the work table.

We (he) glued and screwed a 1x4 on the front and back edges of the table top. The table is veneered particle board so it's not strong enough on it's own.  Let's be honest here, I was mostly watching at this point.

For the machine shelf we used some 1 x 10 fir boards that we had around the house. When we moved into this house the living room was completely full of book shelves. We took them all out and are still using the wood 12 years later!

He cut the cross pieces first and we positioned them in place. Then we positioned the shelf on top and drilled the 6 bolt holes through both layers at the same time. We inserted the bolts and then put the  whole assembly in place: glued and screwed.

He made that shelf extra wide so that I wouldn't be slamming my knee into those bolts every time I sew.

The last step was to put the leg bases in place. I used one in each corner and one in the center of the back. I may decided later to add one in the center of the front but it all seems fine now.  The hardest part was adjusting the legs. These legs work great and are very economical but the trade off is that they are kind of a pain to use. But I figured it out and we eventually got them set right. The nice thing is that I can work with this for a while and determine if I need any more adjustments.

I didn't even paint the front edge of that 1 x 4. It works great! We did use one L-bracket on the back to make it more stable. These kinds of table legs are inherently wobbly so a little bracket is very helpful.

This table is smaller than the old one (as I wanted) so it's giving me a little more floor space to work with.

I also got my serger table done and now I have a little more storage space under there too.

I saved a few more parts from the entertainment center. It had these nice black shelves so I used some bits of scrap wood and made a little frame on the back side of the shelf.

The shelf fits snugly on the top of this rolling thread cabinet. Now when I am binding a big quilt or just need a surface for laying out blocks I can roll this extension table in place next to me. I've already used this a few times and it works great.

With the smaller sewing table I was able to rearrange this corner a little bit and now I have room for my computer in the sewing room. It all worked out nicely and we didn't argue even once! See, miracles do happen.

 

I'm away for the day

but you can find me guest blogging at !Sew WE Quilt! If you've never visited Sew WE Quilt you may want to check it out. It's a blog chocked full of great tutorials. The theme for April is "kitchen" and there are lots of cool projects for your kitchen.

I am sharing a tutorial for this Birthday placemat. You can get the PDF for the tutorial here. If you are new to my blog you can find lots of my own tutorials here.

 

Coming Home Placemat Tutorial

 

Remember these?

I made them again using my Coming Home fabric palette so I've decided to call them the Coming Home placemants and you can find the tutorial here.

Quick Holiday ornaments - a tutorial

Tonight is the Christmas Party for my quilt guild and this year I volunteered to host it. I wanted to make an ornament for everyone to take home. After a bit of pondering I came up with these. I got a little carried away and made enough to cover this little tree. Everyone might be able to take two!

I even made a star!

These were so much fun and so simple that I may make more of them. I can see all kinds of themes with colors and shapes. Here's how I made them.

What you will need:

Fusible Web - I use Mistyfuse because it fuses sheer and you can fuse several layers together and still see through to the bottom layer. You need enough for about 4 layers of fusing.

Base fabric - I used a piece that was 18" square and that gave me about 50 ornaments and the star. I used an old fabric that I didn't like because it wasn't going to be visible in the final project. Depending on what you are layering you might want a base fabric that is in your color theme.

Bits and pieces - I used tiny bits of hand dyed fabric as my first layer and added bits of yarn, metallic fibers and Angelina fibers

Tulle - for the top layer

Felt - For the backing

Cording or ribbon - for the hanger

Decorative thread - I used metallic thread

The instructions:

Start with your base fabric and fuse Mistyfuse to it. Start layering on your first layer of bits. Keep adding layers, alternating with Mistyfuse, until you are happy. The final layer will be Mistyfuse and then tulle to trap it all down.  Here's how mine went together:

Base fabric

Mistyfuse

Fabric bits covering most of the base fabric

Mistyfuse

More fabric bits to completely cover the base fabric

Mistyfuse

Drizzled yarns and metallic threads

Mistyfuse

Angelina fibers and tulle

Here's what it looked like before the last layer of Mistyfuse, Angelina fibers and Tulle.

At this point it's still very pliable and can easily be stitched. If you use another type of fusible you may want to do fewer layers. BUt I still haven't done any stitching and that's what makes these so fast and easy to make.

Now the fun begins. Cut the enbellished fabric into shapes. I used my 30 degree mark on my ruler to cut some diamonds that I then cut them inot half to get tree shapes. I also used my Go! cutter to cut teardrops, circles and stars.

Cut a piece of ribbon or cording for the hanger and use a bit of tape to hold it in place on the back. Cut a chunk of felt larger than the ornament and place the ornament right side up on the felt. I cut several large pieces of felt so I could stitch a few at a time.

Sew the ornament to the felt around the edges. Hold your hanger in place as you sew around.  I used metallic thread and a simple straight stitch but you could use a decorative stitch. Trim away the excess felt with pinking shears or other decorative scissors.

That's all there is to it! I made about 50 of these ornaments in one evening and I wasted a lot of that time making Chris look at them as I completed them. You could do the same thing with card stock as a backing and use them as gift tags.

I even used a few to decorate the tree skirt. I hope the ladies like them!

 

 

 

Make a summer sun visor

Have you seen the wide-brim sun visors? I know they have been around for a few years but I first saw them this year. When I am in the sun I try to keep all of the sun off my face, ears and neck. This style of sun visor was perfect for me.

So I made a pattern! The pattern is in PDF format and you can download it here. It takes less than 2 hours to make and, the best part is, you can customize it to your reflect your personality.

 

I made mine in black and red, of course, and I made Anne's in bright pink and chartreuse.  Kim picked out her fabric yesterday in floral with lots of pink, as expected!

Will you make one?