Sewing the easy way!

Now that you know how to set up your machine and you gave it a test spin, you're ready to put it into action.

Away we Sew!

Today, I'm going to show you how to sew a zig-zag stitch, nice and straight! Sewing looks even better if your paper looks like fabric! This gorgeous patterned paper pack is by K & Company. It's called Hannah by K-ology.



I used two coordinating pieces of this paper and some fabulous card stock by Prism. I must have been living under a rock because when my friend Tami Mayberry emailed me and asked me what I thought of Prism paper, I told I liked it. I thought I had tried it but I was wrong because I would have remembered this and I would have told her I LOVED IT!!! Tami had the wonderful people at Prism send me a sample pack and let me tell you, this card stock rocks!!!



I love the texture. I don't know if you can see it in this picture but it has a orange peel texture, like the kind of texture you find on the walls of high quality homes. I really think it's fabulous!



So, with these three pieces of paper and a beautiful piece of Prism green card stock for my base, I began my card.

Here are the measurements for my two pieces of card stock that I sewed together.



My plain piece of card stock is 1/4" larger all the way around. The patterned paper is text weight, not card stock weight. I would not recommend sewing anything thicker than this together. You could break your needle.

I used mono-adhesive tape to attach these together and then I was ready to sew.



If you look in the middle of the presser foot, you will see a split right in the middle of the foot. Line the edge of the patterned paper up in the center of the split in the presser foot. As long as the edge is always in the center of that split in the middle of the presser foot, your stitches will be perfectly straight. And, it will give the appearance that your zig-zag stitches are what's holding the two pieces of paper together, (not the mono-adhesive.)

Here is a view from the side so you can see how far back the paper is under the presser foot.



You can see that the needle is level with the very back of the paper and will come down right at the very edge.



Once the paper was loaded where I wanted it and I lowered the presser foot, I turned my stitch dial to the medium zig-zag stitch- stitch G.

Then, I sewed right to the edge of the other side of the card stock.



Before I trimmed the thread, I pulled more of it out of the machine like this.



Then, I trimmed the threads.
 


When you have loose threads, you need to secure them so they don't unravel. Don't just cut them close to the paper. They will quickly unthread themselves and not look very nice. There are two ways to do this. (There are actually more than two ways but I want to show you these two ways right now. I will show you other ways in a future tutorial.)

The first way is to tie them off.



I turned the paper over and I tied two knots over each other and then I cut the threads close to the knot.



The second way if to tape down the loose threads.



Run a strip of mono-adhesive just under the stitches and press the loose thread into the tape. Trim the thread just beyond the taped down part.

After I finished sewing all four sides and securing my threads, I mounted the piece onto my green card base.



Next, I used the coordinating patterned paper and made a strip to go across the middle. I sewed down each side and secured my stitches.



Then I assembled my card. I used stamps from the "Spring Holidays" stamp set. I love this pot of clovers. I don't make a whole lot of St. Patrick's Day cards so I didn't design a set specific to that holiday.
 
These clovers can be colored to look like potted geraniums for summer cards and a pot full of clovers can be sent anytime you want to wish someone good luck. This stamp set is so versatile that way! And I love the saying, "Feelin' Lucky?" That can mean a whole lotta' things. LOL!



I used Copic Ciao markers from Box C to color this card. Then, I added a little glimmer to it by coloring on top with my new Copic Spica Pens! I love these pens. Sometimes you don't want glitter. You want shimmer. It's different. It's a tad more elegant. I really love the look. I don't know if you can see it enough to realize just how beautiful it looks, but here is a close up shot. That little bit of shimmer really makes a difference.

We just got a shipment of Copic Spica pens and we will be adding them to our online store in a couple of days. I'll keep you posted here on my blog when they become available for purchase.



So now it's your turn. Take this challenge:

Try sewing on a card. Upload it into your gallery at Splitcoaststampers and use the keyword SEWGKD so we can all go and see each other's projects.

I will be back again soon with another tutorial on how to change the needle and how to sew straight stitches and square corners.

Oh and guess what I did! When I ordered that sewing machine for our winner of the last contest, I put two in my cart! You know what that means... and it's coming soon!

Hugs,
Gina K.
Posted by Gina K at 2/26/2008 5:36 PM
Categories: uncategorized
 

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