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Towel Experiments (plus a tutorial)

This is the last stop on the Christmas recap train (I think... I'm not very organized about this).

We have five nephews under the age of six. They have more toys than you can imagine. So, I try to give other kinds of presents (art supplies, books). This year, for some reason, I had an unstoppable urge to make hooded towels. (Might have had something to do with the huge kick J gets out of wearing one each evening...) So I made one set as an experiment, tweaked the measurements a bit, and then got Mama's Little Sweatshop up and rolling just before Thanksgiving. Fortunately, I took a lot of notes (after leaving the first set of measurements in the towel aisle at KMart).

Materials: towels, washcloths, and some cute flannel (1/4 yard per towel). You need an extra towel to cut up for the hood. For five boys, I actually needed two extra towels. Preshrink everything first! The towel will almost certainly shrink at a different rate than the flannel, so if you don't preshrink them, you'll get some obvious puckering after the first trip through the dryer.

I used a denim needle (2026, size 100/16) and all-purpose thread. Didn't seem to need a walking foot, though if your towels are insanely thick, you might want one. I think the terry and the flannel had enough friction between them to stick together in between pins -- there wasn't much creep. (Perhaps another benefit of preshrinking, since it washes the slippery stuff out.)

The towels I used happened to be 28.5" wide, and the washcloths were 12.5" wide. They had woven bands near each end (two 2.5" high bands for each towel, and one 1.5" high band for each washcloth), which I planned to cover with a strip of flannel.

Your measurements may vary! I turned under about 3/8" all the way around for the towel and washcloth strips, so I cut two 29.25" x 3.25" strips for the towel and one 13.25" x 2.25" strip for the washcloth. Yes, 3.25 is greater than 2.5 + 2 x 3/8. When I made the first one I found that the woven band kept sneaking out, so I made the strip a little wider and stuck with the 3/8" hem.

The hood is also trimmed with flannel (not lined, though you could certainly go there!), so you'll need a hood template:

Because I am lazy, I used a single piece of newsprint to trace both the front and back pieces of the hood, even though the front piece is 1" shorter than the back. Just fold up the bottom inch when you trace the front piece (or cut two different templates). The dart here is 3" deep, but I think it could have been even a bit deeper, and certainly could have been wider.

A note on seam allowances for the hood pattern: The curved edge of the hood includes a 1/2" seam allowance (or so). The bottom edge does not need a seam allowance! For the front, you'll bind the raw edge with a wide strip of flannel. For the back, be lazy like me, and place the template along the already-finished edge of your sacrificial towel:

Now you just need to cut one more flannel strip for the hood binding. I made mine 14" x 3" (including roughly 3/8" hem allowances along the long edges). It ended up showing about 1.25" to 1.5" high on the front of the hood. It really doesn't matter how high you make it, since it's not going to cover anything up, so relax and don't worry about cutting it too large. The bound edge eats a lot of height.

Press the seams under on all four sides for the towel and washcloth strips. Press the long edges under on the hood strip. Note that on the binding edge (on the right), the hem is a bit wider and is folded over twice (like bias tape).

Pinning time! I did the towel and washcloths strips first just to get them out of the way. Lay a flannel strip over one of the woven bands (right sides up) and start pinning in the center of the strip, working your way out to the edges. Then stitch as close to the edge of the flannel as you can manage, making sure to catch the turned-under hem.

I pinned and sewed the towel strips one at a time, just to keep from getting stabbed by a pin while wrangling all that extra towel. Once the woven bands are all covered up, you can move on to pinning the hood strip. Pin the binding edge to the wrong side of the front hood piece, making sure that each pin goes through all the layers of fabric (2 flannel, 1 terry, 1 flannel).

 

Sew the binding edge -- I ran the needle right down the middle of the road, making sure to catch the turned-under flannel and the terry all the way down. Then flip the hood front over and pin the top edge of the flannel to the terry. Sew it down just as you did with the towel strips.

Almost done now... time to pin and sew the darts (right sides together) on each hood piece, then pin and sew the hood pieces (right sides together). Make sure to preserve the 1" flap at the bottom of the back piece (don't worry about the raw edges at each end of the curve). For these seams I ran a straight stitch first and then went over it again with a wide zigzag. I haven't a serger and terry is too bulky to turn under twice (especially for something that's going on a child's head!), so this is lazy lady's serging.

Final assembly! First, fold the towel in half lengthwise and mark the center with a pin:

Next, pin the hood to the towel, matching centers. The hood should overlap the towel by about an inch. Be careful to turn under the raw edges at each end of that overlapping region.

Stitch the hood to the towel along the bottom flap (two short edges and long prefinished edge). Mind you don't catch the front of the hood!

Then flip the whole thing over and stitch down the edge of the towel, on the inside of the hood.

J came in just in time to help with the last bit, and to model. He only does action shots though.

That's it! Honestly, it took longer to write this up, than to make a towel set. By the end of it I was cutting the pieces out assembly-line style, then pinning, then sewing. It seemed to go faster that way... and I was able to put five sets of towels in an extra suitcase and check them through on our flight to visit the grandparents and cousins. (Hooray for Southwest's humane baggage policy!)

If anything is unclear or weird, please let me know. Happy toweling!

Winter CSA, week 02

I forgot to take a photo before it was all put away, but here's what came in this week's box:

• more strawberries!
• butternut squash
• small white potatoes
• large sweet potatoes
• lots of small onions
• rainbow carrots
• arugula
• cilantro!!!
• apples
• oranges

I'll try to remember to photograph what we make with it :)

The snow yesterday was beautiful, but kind of frustrating -- we've been having problems with ice dams on and off since we bought the house, and this was an "on" week. The weather forecast for the rest of the week heralds more snow, too! At least today it warmed up enough that the ice sheet fell off the back wall of the house, and the roof wires appear to be working -- we couldn't tell at first, there was that much snow. (We should have turned them on last week.)

All this grey means that my yellow Shalom sweater is getting LOTS of mileage. I really need to knit up some warm and COLORFUL sweaters!

Knitting Lessons

J wanted to have his own "knitting" -- he quickly got frustrated (of course, he's two), but discovered the joy of pulling wool between one's toes. He must have been giggling for a full ten minutes.

Snow Picnic

Today we are all snug at home due to a foot of snow and more coming down every second. It's nice to be home, with nowhere to go, after spending yesterday (and three gallons of gas... in a Civic) dropping off my sewing machine for a tuneup, and hunting down parts of an anniversary gift for my in-laws.

On New Year's Day, we have a family tradition of getting outside for a spell, no matter the weather. I thought I'd share some photos of this year's Snow Picnic (click for larger):

After today's storm, we'll definitely be out to play. I hope you are enjoying the day too!

Winter CSA, week 01

It really feels like cheating to be having strawberries in January. Like the Month Brothers are going to come down hard on us in return. Oh wait, we're supposed to have a nor'easter tomorrow.

We just joined a winter CSA, East Coast Farm Share, run by Enterprise Farm in western MA. They have deliveries to the metro Boston area, and just added a location less than three miles from our house, so I no longer had an excuse not to do it.

The lettuce, at least, is local (and I think the sweet potatoes too). Everything comes from farms along the East Coast, and at least we know we're supporting family farms and organic farming.

I'll keep you posted as we inch towards spring...

A Real Kick in the Pants

This was the Christmas Gift That Almost Didn't Happen. I bought the pattern and fabric (four yards of it) months ago, preshrunk the fabric and ironed it, then spent a lot of time knitting stuff and quilting potholders, and when it got down to crunch time (Dec 23) I still hadn't cut out the pieces. I'd made peace with that, though. If it got done, it got done, and if it didn't, well, J. would be just as thrilled to receive a teepee come summer time. It's not like there wouldn't be plenty of presents for him at Christmas.

My husband, having held up his end of the bargain (buying the PVC pipe and other hardware, and drilling the holes) coaxed me into at least trying. So it was around 11 pm, or maybe midnight, on Dec. 23rd, that we discovered that cotton duck shrinks by twenty percent lengthwise. D'oh. I'd preshrunk it because I knew it would shrink... it just didn't occur to me that the pattern author assumed you wouldn't preshrink it. Isn't that one of the Commandments? Always preshrink! Right?...

Christmas Eve morning saw me at the door of JoAnn Fabrics at precisely 9:00 am, purchasing another yard and a half of cotton duck, then preshrinking it, then getting back to the turkey and trimmings and all other manner of Christmas Eve tasks. After we filled the stockings that night, we went back to the tent and finished cutting, sewing and assembling... at 1:17 am Christmas Day.

(photo taken after a few hours' sleep)

Tim gets full marks for doing the hardware, and helping with the pinning, cutting, and seam ripping (yes, I sewed a 5' seam backwards). He also gets full credit for providing the necessary kick in the pants. Thanks, honey! J thanks you too.

Except for the yardage issue, I'd recommend the pattern to anyone who wants to make a great (and easy) kid's tent. It taught me how to make a French seam in the process, and it really was pretty simple to put together. The whole tent collapses (no breakdown, just pick it up) and fits behind the couch. It's such a simple piece that it almost begs for embellishment. We'll likely paint ours together in a couple of years, but here is a roundup of beautifully creative, or creatively beautiful, tents to inspire you!

For When You Need To Hold a Pot

Pretty much everyone I know cooks at least a little bit, so potholders are an excellent all-around go-to gift. Hostess? Christmas? Birthday? Valentine's Day? (I kid you not, my mom mailed me a homemade heart-shaped potholder for Valentine's Day 2009.) Therefore, when I wanted to try a little quilting -- and by "little" I mean not larger than 6" x 6" -- I planned to make a smattering of potholders.

The only problem was, I don't know much about quilting, and the strip-block quilting I tried eight or nine years ago was not very successful. Public library to the rescue! A quick trip to the 746.46 shelf and I came home with Quilting 101, 501 quilt blocks : a treasury of patterns for patchwork & applique, The complete book of machine quilting, and a really charming video produced by the New England Quilters' Guild in 1987.

I don't know what methods are being taught in quilting classes today, and for the time being, I'm perfectly happy not knowing. The video was a great introduction to the basics: choosing fabric, drafting a template, marking and cutting fabric, piecing, quilting, and binding. I found myself taking notes and I ended up following the methods of marking and piecing shown in the video, rather than those outlined in the Quilting 101 book, when the two conflicted. For instance, the guild ladies recommended tracing a template without including a seam allowance, cutting with a rough seam allowance around the traced edges, and then, pinning and sewing the traced edges together. For a somewhat inaccurate sewer like me, that produced much better results than cutting with seam allowances included and trying to sew along a strict seam allowance. Being able to pin lines and corners together really helped me keep things lined up. They suggested another tip that I used, which was to paint the tips of cardboard templates with nail polish. It reinforces the cardboard so your points stay sharp. Shazam.

The other reason I loved the video, beyond all the practical advice, was that the ladies reminded me of all of my mom's friends, and my friends' moms, in the 1980's. Very nostalgic!

After getting an idea of how to start, I pulled some Christmas-y fabric from the stash and chose two star motifs from the book of quilt blocks. The first was called "Star of the West" (diagram):

 

I think the second was called "North Star", though there are several blocks that go by that name, and I'm having trouble finding it with Google Image search. At any rate it looks like this:

Then I got busy with some cardboard, scissors, and the sewing machine! While I used the Quilting 101 book as a quick picture reference as to "what comes next", I really relied on Robbie Fanning's book, The Complete Book of Machine Quilting (first ed.), for detailed directions and photos.

This book is AWESOME. I'd flip through to look up something particular, such as basting, and realize half an hour later that I was still reading. The authors have a sense of humor (just read the section on "how (not) to machine quilt a sheet") and a trove of knowledge on how to manage all the little details. I kept discovering what I needed to know next, before I knew I needed to know it. So I ordered a copy for myself on Amazon for Christmas. :) (It's out of print, but there are some library copies out there.)

Here's just one example of how it helped me make a better potholder (click to read):

So. What did I end up making? Two potholders for my mom and two for my mother-in-law. If there had been more time I'd have made a few more for friends and for myself. Aside from a bit of trouble staying "in the ditch", I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. J helped with a bit of the sewing, when he felt like it.

So there you have it: four quilted potholders, immense gratification for a novice quilter, and two people who have no excuse for burning their hands on a hot pot!

Next up in the Christmas crafting recap: four five and a half yards of cotton duck, some PVC pipe, and a kick in the pants...

Machine Sewing: Not So Hard After All

My mom put me in front of the sewing machine at an early age. In truth I was in front of it while still in the womb. She used to wake me up in the morning by sewing my baby outfits before work; at least that what she says, since I have no memory of it. She also says I used to kick like crazy.

(my sewing nook)

I don't remember her sewing much when I was small, but when I was five we moved to a house with three bedrooms, and my mom finally had a room to set up her machine (and a door with a lock!). The sound of a sewing machine is instantly soothing to me, since she spent many dark winter afternoons working on doll dresses and other magical things only she (we thought) could make. In summer she made us new shorts and skirts; in fall it was corduroy pants. Eventually she put each of us in front of the machine to sew an apron for Grandma, or something else simple and quickly gratifying to a kid. We had free rein of the scraps and made a few doll dresses of our own, hand-sewn, with only a passing nod to "proper" seam and hem construction. :) In Girl Scouts, we mass-produced scrunchies and sold them as a way to raise funds for the troop.

Why is it, then, that it's taken me so long to really get comfortable with machine sewing? I think it's due to the fact that, once fabric is cut, it's CUT. Yarn you can frog and re-knit, but scissors are terribly permanent. Also, in college I'd tried sewing a couple of simple sundresses and nightgowns, and the results were abysmal. Things were too tight in places and tentlike in others. Woven fabric has little give, and sewing knits was something I didn't dare tackle (my mom didn't go there, either). So although I picked up a sewing machine ten years ago, I only used it to make a few drawstring bags and placemats. In 2009, I bit the bullet and sewed curtains for J's room (after taking several months to work up the nerve to cut the beautiful -- discontinued -- toile fabric).

 

All that has changed. December 2009 saw the creation of J's Christmas stocking, using my own childhood stocking as a template. That took the edge off and 2010 was the year I finally made friends with the machine, sewing several Christmas gifts and a Halloween costume for my favorite pumpkinhead. I even ventured boldy beyond the pattern (which was for some kind of bat/bird hybrid unknown to zoological experts), setting in my own penguin wings and adding a yellow brim to the hood. Fleece hides a lot of imprecision. :)

(my son does have a left hand... he was just hiding it at the time)

While I'm finishing up the last secret knitting project, over the next couple of weeks, I'll post more about the Christmas sewing. Honest I will! There's J's stocking, a teepee, my first foray into quilting, and even a tutorial for a quick/fun/useful kid gift. After that I'll step boldly forth into 2011 with some fresh yarn and ideas... hooray for new beginnings!

A Tomten at Our House

This has been a slow year for knitting, for me. One long (though not large) secret project, still in the works. One Olympic dash (you saw that one). One small secret project, given at Christmas. And one toddler sweater, which was just right for book club, TV watching, and evening knitting... pity I kept falling asleep as soon as J. was down for the night. (Also, this was the year I made friends with my sewing machine, but that's another post.) So, progress was slow.

However, now that Christmas is over, the house is clean(ish), work is not biting my arse, and I have a little free time at the computer, you can finally see what I've been up to needlewise. First off is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Tomten Jacket, sized to about a 2T-3T. When I started it back in September 2009 (wince), I measured a Gap Kids sweater that I thought might fit J. the following winter... and I was right. Also, it's garter stitch, so it's nice and stretchy.

Full project notes are on the Ravelry page, but it's worth mentioning here that I did add a zipper. I followed the pictures at Not Martha and Fashion Incubator to figure out how to shorten the separating zipper and insert it properly (skipped the twill tape; discovered that a nylon coil zipper has to have its teeth cut off before their roots can be extracted). Definitely worth it to put the garment on a real body, pin it shut, and measure the zipper length live, as it were.

The recipient likes it very much, even with the hood up.

The yarn is part wool, so it's quite nice to have on a blustery November day. It was another one of those stashbuster projects that required purchasing one more skein to complete. Try as I might, I can't win :)

I take that back. Clearly this pattern was a win all around.

Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all!

Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all! I hope your celebrations have been peaceful and joyful. (And a very belated Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah, too, while we're at it...)

I've *just* come in from a tramp through the woods behind our house on snowshoes. They're not our woods (and they're not my snowshoes -- thanks honey!), but our neighbor doesn't mind a little foot traffic. The deer don't seem to mind much, either.

It's hard to make myself go outside this time of year, but it's so worth it when I do. Once I got past our compost bin and over the first little ridge and rill, the houses were out of sight and all was quiet. Except for my shlomp, shlomp, the only signs of life were the tracks of squirrels and deer.

Then I came to the larger brook, named after our neighbor's forefamily, and had to look and listen for a while. Mostly iced over, but not completely, the water bubbled and whistled around the edges. Under the silencing ice, I could still see sizeable bubbles shifting and flowing with the water. A photograph wouldn't capture the half of it.
It reminded me a bit of a winter paddle on the Concord River, probably two or three years ago now, since it had to be pre-kid. We tried to capture the delicate belling of the river against the encrusted shore, using our digital camera, but it didn't come through. Memory serves where consumer technology failed.

Past the brook, I hiked on, weaving in and out of deer tracks and over once-surveyed, long-abandoned stone walls. This forest was all cleared a couple of hundred years ago, plowed and planted and harvested. Now it's protected "open" space, dense underbrush in the summer (mosquito heaven) and only feeling open to the sun in winter. Light reflects everywhere and comes in at odd afternoon angles, so close to the solstice.

I diverged towards the swamp to backtrack a two-or-three day old print of some mammal, but it didn't get any clearer. It wasn't till I crossed the brook, heading homeward, that I noticed it again. The animal had followed the same trail as we've been using, till it went down to drink and then headed out across the ice. The prints were slightly clearer in the shade of the gully and I'd hazard an 80% guess that it was a fisher.

Now that we've packed the snow down with three or four tramplings, we'll make sure to pack up some thermoses and sandwiches and take J. out for a snow picnic, sometime in the next couple of days. It's a tradition of ours to spend part of New Year's Day outside (no matter the weather). May you and yours mark the turning of the year in good health and good company, and get outside! The woods need you.