Last-minute sewing

I finished the last of the four Martha Circle quilts that I had set out for myself for November. It was fun playing with the moving squares. All the patterns are the same (five unequal patches - two on the outside and three for the inner strip), so the variations are in the fabrics and the arrangement of the patches in the middle strip.

The fabric in the lighter blue one (with two red squares) didn't seem as stable as the broadcloth-like fabrics I used in the other quilts, so I ended up top stitching the pieces together. The fact that these quilts are tied, not quilted, concerns me. I wonder what the additional fray-factor is for a tied quilt.

I've already been thinking of what I might do for December, and I think I've decided on four unequal patches. I played around with the idea a little, using EQ5, and there seems to be some possible variations there. I don't want to do something with complex piecing because of the fray factor. Well, December is a while away, and we'll see what I'm thinking then.

I started packing today, but first I checked the weather in Tel Aviv for next week. Looks like it's about the same as here, which means that it will be cool in the mornings and evenings, but we might have a chance of pretty warm early afternoons. That means that I want to be sure to take things I can layer easily. I don't want to take many things, so I need to be careful with my choices.

As I started getting myself organized to pack, one thing lead to another ... and I decided to take a black sweatshirt and make a jacket out of it. I wanted something loose but warm, and definitely something soft. I did a little searching on the Internet to see what tips I could pick up for sweatshirt jackets, and I found this: http://www.geocities.com/~sewntell/sweatjacket.html

That was a really good find. Although I didn't find anything else useful for this little project, I used the iron-on interfacing trick to stabilize the center front before I cut it open. It works like a charm! It keeps the sweatshirt fabric from rolling or raveling - and if you sew, you know that's worth a ton! I know there are some really nice fancy things out there, but I didn't want anything elaborate for this project. Quick and dirty - that was my goal.


This sweatshirt is large, and I figured I'd probably like something that made it look more like a jacket - like a collar, so I cut a 5-inch wide bias strip , folded it in half, turned the raw edges under and pressed them so I wouldn't have to zig-zag or serge the edges, and pinned it just below the rim that's there from the neck ribbing. I then seamed that and made an identical seam on the rib-side of that rim, and it seems to work really well.
I put iron-on interfacing on the wrong side of the front facing strips - they're about four inches wide (not bias) before folding. That gave me a good solid surface for the separating zipper. I actually had a separating zipper, in black, the exact size I needed, so I didn't even have to do any modifications to it.

A travel jacket has to have pockets, of course! So I cut a couple doubled pieces about 8.5 x 9, some of the contrasting fabric for a little decoration, and then I cut some flaps. I didn't want to go to the trouble to put snaps on the flaps, yet I feel more secure if there's some kind of closure, so I included a strap on the pocket that will hold the flaps down. I don't keep secure things in my jacket pocket, but it's always good to have a pocket to stuff little things in. I have a vest with zippers and a wallet I wear around my neck to hold my secure items, like my money and passport, but I'm always losing the little things I carry - so some kind of closure is a must for me.

Before we started traveling last year, I made a couple pairs of slacks with pockets that have horizontal openings (like jeans), instead of the standard slit along the side seam. Boy, was that a good idea. Hardly anything can fall out of those pockets. When we were RV'ing a lot, I had sewn Velcro to a lot of my pockets. Having horizontal openings makes my pockets just about as secure without the sticky mess Velcro sometimes causes when things don't get closed in the wash!

That fancy piece of check under the jacket, abovce, is a shirt I keep on the back of my chair for when I'm just slightly chilly. You can tell, I don't have a keen sense of design!

So, tomorrow is another day and I'll make a little more progress toward getting ready to go and cleaning up my sewing projects. I think I'm just about ready to put all my sewing gear away for a while now. I'll use my needlework time over the weekend to work on the shawl I'm knitting. I'm really pleased with how it's turning out. There are 13 repeats of 12 rows, and I have 9 of those repeats done.