craftgrrl | Chequebook sleeve and scrap sleeve (Reply)

Been a long time... I still haven't caught up here! Between making my own laundry detergent (woo, exciting!) and Christmas, my mother's birthday and my own, getting more involved in the community and my kids' school, I've lost the habit of checking in at LJ - I just don't have a full hour of time anymore.

My embroidery machine abets my delinquence, too. I've named her "Baby" - because she demands my constant attention. That is: I have to be present while she stitches out designs, or she'll have a tantrum. We've come to an agreement: I will quietly sew uninspiring stuff while she works on a design, so I can drop everything the instant she beeps for a thread change.

Here's the most interesting stuff I've been working on. (I know, and I'm sorry.)

The Scrap Sleeve and the Chequebook Sleeve!

I have been needing a new chequebook sleeve for a very long time, as you can see. This ugly plastic thing came with the cheques the bank gave me when I opened up the chequing account all those years ago. It was so stiff when it was new that I had to close it with an elastic band, and my cheques never did fit into the pockets properly, so the elastic band stayed there forever, to keep them all bundled together. I'm amazed this thing didn't split apart, like just about every other plastic sleeve included with every other doo-dad and electronic thingummy.

I needed to see the tutorial on Urban Threads, however, to get my butt in gear to finally make one for myself. (You can get hand embroidery templates there, too.) Of course, because nothing in my possession is standard, I could only use the tutorial for inspiration. There's lots of great ideas there, though - check them out!

So I took the dimensions of the old sleeve, added about 1/4" to the width so it would actually hold my REAL cheques without showing any corners, and doubled the length. As you can see from the pictures, I folded the ends in toward the middle and stitched them down. I also cut a slit in the vinyl just inside the stitching line, so I could slide my sideways cheques in there. Vinyl is great: it doesn't fray, so I dont have to worry about the raw edges!

But BEFORE I did any sewing, and AFTER I did all my measuring and cutting:

I applied the crest I'd test-stitched onto an upholstery swatch. It's a case of "try it and see if it works" -- and it obviously didn't work too well. Lesson learned: Don't use loosely woven fabrics for embroidering applique badges.

My financial situation is pretty much a fiction of wealth, anyway... "Yarn" is entirely appropriate.

To the right, you will see another test-stitch of another Urban Threads design (can you hear my boring tourguide drone? I'm practising!). In this case, I needed to know how dense it would get so I could embroider it on the fabric I've chosen for my sewing machine bag. Hopefully, I'll get off my duff and make that soon.

Old jeans legs leftover from repurposed "bum bags" projects work out just fine in the "scrap sleeve" department. I needed a place to put all my pattern tracing web scraps (because they're great for easing sticky vinyl under the needle), I needed a place to try out the crest, and I needed to use up some ends of previous projects (i.e. seam binding and elastics).

In case you're not familiar with the notion: scraps go in the top, and you pull out what you want from the bottom.

And I'm thinking that light purple is not the best colour for that crest border... *sigh* I need to find me a good sense of colour.