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[elfie-elfie.livejournal.com]

Yep: been busy! And I can prove it!


Cross-posted to sew_hip  and my journal.






Of course you remember the "Autumn Jawas" - officially known as the "Fall Fairies" - capes made from stash-busting satin and repurposed fleece blanket.  (The smaller one sold the first day I hung it up in my market stall! Yay!)

There was one other cape in a cheetah print I had to do for a birthday party, but it got finished, wrapped, and delivered before I could get a picture of it.  These pictured capes were not stash-busters, alas, except for the cheetah-print: I used the last of the black IKEA sheet (ah, cotton, I love you!) to line it. I had to purchase the bamboo quilt batting to line the cheetah cape, quilt the sheet to the batting, and then create the cape.  The same goes for the black nylon lining in the Tiger print fake-fur cape, but I got to bust a lot of microfleece from my stash and quilted the lining to that, instead.  So most of what you'll never see (the interlining) is orange, but one piece of it is leopard-print fleece. All scraps. Not enough escaped the stash, however. I'm not doing very well at this fabric-fasting.

The closure on the Tiger cape is a pair of carven horn (deer antler, I'm pretty sure) toggles on elastic loops.  I didn't want to mess with buttonholes on such slippery and crawly fabric.

Tiger was kind of riled that I've more or less stopped making stuff for her since starting up this Elven Hands sewing business (and to add insult to injury, I "made" her model capes she would never get to own for herself!). She insisted I make one for her, and she chose, of course, fabric that was not on sale, would never GO on sale, and likely would not be there if I should try to WAIT for a sale.  AND it was 2-way stretch metallic knit, lined with 2-way stretch and high-loft arctic fleece.  She punishes me in cruel and unusual ways, but I have a walking foot, so I survived. Still, the above brown cape is a big win for her, and she loves it. It's perfect to wear on the (indoor) skating rink, and to play in the fallen leaves. She practically disappears.

And aside from a bunch of Vanilla House "Four Corners" aprons I'm doing on commission, there's not much interesting coming out of my sewing machine these days.  I've been playing with my embroidery machine, finally. Yay, watching the machine work by itself!  (BTW: if you ever take on machine embroidery, win the lottery first.  And if you decide to charge for monogramming, charge at least $10 for a 3-initial job. It takes about half an hour to hoop and secure the already-made article in the machine, and you need not-so-cheap stabilizers, really expensive ones if you're doing fine linens! I promised to do three heirloom-quality hankies for the customer who sent me over $100 in apron commissions, for $5 each, and I don't think I'm going to make back the cost in materials, let alone pay myself.)