Tutorial - Finishing Stuffed Toys

It seems like I’ve tried a hundred different stitches for closing up stuffed toys, but for me the ladder stitch is the clear winner. I get nearly invisible results every time. Here’s how you do it.

1. Place whatever pieces you’re sewing together, right sides facing each other. Choose the seam that will have the stuffing opening and sew it first, leaving a gap of about 2” for small projects, larger for larger projects. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of all stitching.
2. Press this seam open. This will give you nice crisp fold lines to follow when you do your hand sewing.
3. Fold your pieces back together and finish sewing the rest of the way around. Clip any excess fabric at the corners.
4. Turn your piece right side out. Use a chopstick to help push the corners out.
5. Stuff it.
6. Now comes the fun part. Thread a needle and knot the end. I used contrasting thread here so you can see it, but I usually match to the darkest color (if the front and back of the piece are different colors). Take your needle in through the stuffing hole and then out at the seam. I usually start my hand sewing so that it overlaps the last ¼” or so of the machine stitching.
7. Pinch the opening closed. Your pressed folds will be a great guide.
8. Time to take your first stitch. Needle-in directly across the stuffing opening from your last needle-out. Needle-out about 1/8” away, on the same side of the opening as your needle-in. I took a slightly larger stitch here because it was harder to show what was happening with smaller stitches. The thread should jump straight across the opening and then run – hidden - inside your pressed seam allowance fold. Your needle in and out (while the needle is still in the fabric) should look like this.
9. Repeat for your next stitch. Stitch two should look like this.
10. And stitch three should look like this.
11. For each stitch the visible part is the thread’s quick, straight dash across the opening. The part where the thread travels the length of the opening is the part that’s hidden in the fold of the seam allowance. I took several loose stitches here so you could see. See why it’s called a ladder stitch?
12. And here are the same stitches pulled tight. The seam would be less wavy if I took the smaller stitches I usually take, but it's still not bad.
13. When you get to the end of the opening, continue for a stitch or two, overlapping the machine stitching, then knot it off and you’re done. Ta daaa! The small knot is usually the only part of the stitching that you see. Even with contrasting thread here it’s nearly invisible.
14. Enjoy your work and show it off proudly to as many people as possible.

I'm really excited about a stuffed toy project I've been working on but I don't have good pictures yet. Today is going to be sunny and warm - so we'll be working on the new house until the sun goes away or our bodies give out. More lifting heavy siding into place. Yay! But tomorrow is supposed to be overcast. Perfect for resting weary bones and taking pictures - so hopefully I'll post them tomorrow night.

Update: Triangle Toys are here! I'm so happy with how they turned out!

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Scram!

I've been working on some fun stuffed toys - pictures and a pattern to come soon! - and while I had the stuffing out I went ahead and finished a project that's been cluttering up my table for a while. It's an old T-shirt of Jo's that, sadly, no longer fits. Cut a nice squarish shape from the front and back, sew them together, and stuff. Now Jo has a fun grouchy pillow. We went outside to take photos and Jo's the one who suggesting styling Oscar on the big pile o' junk still in our yard. Clever girl!

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Fabulous Food

I didn't go overboard with the cooking this holiday season, but I wanted to share a few of my favorites - and all of them are easy so they're good everyday food. Sorry - I forgot to take any food pictures.

Salty, crispy pretzels, creamy caramel, sweet chocolate, nutty pecans - the perfect combination. Jo and I made these fabulous (and super-easy) candy creations from the post here from Angry Chicken. We made them early in the season for gifts and then we made them again because we gave away all of our first batches. These are so good and so easy - they may become a year-round treat.

Fresh Brussels sprouts braised in heavy cream. I love fresh Brussels sprouts and when I saw them in the grocery store last week I bought three pounds - just for me because no one else will eat them. I braised the first pound in heavy cream with the recipe from The New Best Recipe from the folks at Cook's Illustrated magazine. Heavenly! Even Jo liked them and she usually turns her nose up at all vegetables except corn.

And I saved the best for last. Raffy's Turkey Sausage and Chestnut Stuffing - as seen on Everyday Italian, my favorite Food Network show. This is chock full of everything I love. Sweet apples, tart apples, caramelized onions, a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan. Off to a delicious start! Add dried cranberries and yummy roasted chestnuts, cornbread, and sweet Italian sausage. I love the smell of the fennel seed when the sausage hits the hot pan. Toss in a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes for warmth, and a handful of Parmesan (because everything is better with Parmesan) and you have one very tasty dish. I want to make this one all winter, but I know my grocery store will stop selling chestnuts soon. Maybe I could try pecans instead? I'll have to experiment. . .

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Gratz Industries HQ: More Siding

We've done a couple more day's work on the siding of our headquarters, so here's a quick update.First we laid down another spread of gravel. It's much easier to work on a gravel bed than it is to work on mucky red clay. Jo vogues for the camera in her snazzy overalls.
It's been cold lately so we work while the sun is shining on us. Here we are at the end of the day - one row of panels put up. Alan huddles with his hands in his pockets for warmth. As soon as the shade moves onto our spot we get COLD.
Today we got to work on the next row of panels. I am the Head Measurer in Charge of All Things Mathematical.
Doing around the windows involves lots of measuring and tedious cutting. We're going to cover all the seams and around all windows and doors with three-inch battens painted the darkest shade of gray.
Alan is Chief of Hammering and Heavy Lifting. We managed to work our way around the house today to get a start on side #3. Our hope was to get two rows up on that side too, but the shade came and froze our fingers - time to go in and light a fire. We've been having a fire in the fireplace every night and it's really awesome - and necessary for warming up cold bones after working outside.
Jo never seems to get cold. She actually helped shovel quite a bit of gravel today and then repeatedly climbed the pile of gravel to the North Pole - or sometimes the West Pole. I'm not sure who lives at the West Pole, but Jo visited several times this afternoon.
And here we are at the end of today. We're taking a break tomorrow but we'll be taking advantage of the nice weather forecast for Wednesday to get some more done. We're going to do two rows of panels all the way around the house, paint them, and put up their battens. Then we rent scaffolding and start on the higher-up rows. Ah. . . something to look forward to as the weather gets colder and colder. . .hoisting 70+ lb. panels of cement up three stories of scaffolding in January cold and wind.

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Speedy Sewing

The tradition: Jo always gets a new pair of jammies on Solstice Eve.

The challenge: I forgot to make them before Jo's school vacation started.

The solution: Alan had a meeting in town on Wednesday. One other attendee was bringing her kids, so it was ok for him to bring Jo.

The problem: They would be gone for less than an hour.

So I did some power sewing. I did everything I could before they left. I made sure I had a bobbin wound. I threaded my machine. I altered last year's pattern to fit this year's body. A little tricky without matching the pattern up to an actual Jo, but I closed my eyes and visualized how snug her old pants are across the butt, and what depth water she could wade into without getting the bottom of the pants wet - and then I reminded myself that these are jammies and they don't have to fit like a dream (hee hee) - and I guessed on all the alterations. Jo likes to hang out with me in the sewing room, but only after I've gotten the fabric out so it wasn't hard to do this without answering tricky questions. Alan and Jo headed out the door and I headed to my sewing room. I was pressing the fabric by the time they were headed down the driveway.

Everything was going well. Too well. I got the pants put together (French seams and all - I really love French seams) and then - aaack! - where's my hem gauge? Where's my hem gauge? WHERE IS MY HEM GAUGE? I need it to hem the pants and do the elastic casing. I can guesstimate it, but I really like to make those even. I do NOT have time to turn my room upside down looking for this tool and I'm not about to use a yardstick. I was ready to wing it when inspiration struck. I dashed to my sewing machine and sewed a line of stitching at 1/2" and another line 1" from that. Guidelines! I did the same thing around the legs for the hems. This made it SO easy to press the hems down - and I burned my fingers less than I usually do with the hem gauge. Ha Ha! Ten minutes later and I was done.
I realize I've probably just reinvented the wheel and this is a little sewing trick that EVERYONE uses and I'm the only one who never heard of it - but still. It was so easy and I think it will make for really smooth turns on curved hems so I'm going to keep doing it. And I'm going to brag about it. I still haven't found my hem gauge but I don't even care anymore.

While I'm on sewing tricks, here's another little thing I do. Kids learn which way to put on store-bought clothes by putting the tags in the back. Well, most of Jo's clothes don't have any tags so I always put a little loop of ribbon in the back of pants and skirts. If I ever get around to putting some hooks up in her closet this will also make it easier to hang up clothes for future wear. You know - instead of leaving them in a pile on the floor. . .

I love French seams so much that I thought about writing a tutorial for them, but then I found an excellent one here. In case you don't know - French seams are an awesome (and super easy) way to get nice finished seams - no loose threads that feel like spiders crawling up your legs.
And while I'm on sewing tips and tricks - these are the best pattern weights ever.

They're exactly what they look like - little ziplock snack bags filled with aquarium gravel. Plop them down, shape them around curves - they're perfect.

And here are the finished jammies. For the top I just used a plain white T-shirt, cut out a motif from the pants fabric (with pinking shears) and appliqued it down.

Doesn't Jo look . . .super? Sorry - I couldn't resist.

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Busy Little Elves

We've been playing Project Barbie and adding siding to our house, but that's not all that's been keeping us busy lately. There's also Solstice! We've been decorating.
The tree.My snowman collection.Jo's forest of trees.We've been making gifts - but I can't show most of that because some of the recipients read this blog. I can show some almost-finished ornaments for teachers.The first gift under the tree.Fanciest wrapping so far.Happy holidays!

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Gratz Industries HQ: Siding with the Enemy

It's been a while since we had a Gratz Industries HQ update here, I know. I'd like to say that it's because we were very busy--which is partially true--but our frequent Project Runway and Project Barbie posts belie that. The truth is, not much has happened to the house since it was handed over to us. It got door hardware, and a spiffy new trench with little landscaping flags and everything, but the house still stood in its underwear--until now.


Doesn't look like a thousand dollars worth of siding, does it? But it is. This is cement board siding called HardiBoard. They make it with wood grain and faux board molding, but you know we're too weird to do it straight up like that. We have a very different look in mind, which we'll get to in a minute.

Jo is leaning on enough siding to do about one and a half exterior walls--give or take a few panels. We overbought (we hope) for the first wall both because we're new at this and want to make sure we've calculated right, and because we're going to rip some of that stuff to become the battens, the little strips that cover the siding seams. We figure we can use any overage on the next wall anyway.

Work began by hefting the dang things into place and then hammering them into the sheathing already on the house (hidden behind that "BreatheEZ" housewrap there). Each of these panels is 4 x 8 feet, and weighs about 70 pounds. I kid you not. Lifting them into exactly the right place is a four person job, for which of course we only have two people. Nailing them is a one-person job, which allowed a particular persona non grata to take a shot of my butt. (Which is better than seeing the bald spot on the back of my head, I guess.) Jo likes playing in the rocks we put down to keep the mud from splattering back up on the house, but I was able to enlist her help eventually:

Jo's pushing the paneling flat for me while I nail it in.

Each side of the house is exactly four panels long. Coincidence? Perish the thought. We deliberately designed the house so that we could use 4 x 8 panels without having to cut them. Until we come to the windows, of course. We chose to start with the back wall, here in the shadows, for that reason--only five windows, and not until we get up high. (This is the northern, cold wind side, which is why there are fewer windows. It also faces the woods.) The other reason we started with the back side of the house? Years of weekend warrior experience have taught us a very important lesson: always begin with the least visible place you're working on--that way all your terrible initial mistakes are hidden and by the time you get to the visible stuff you know what you're doing.


Does this tool belt make me look fat?


Two full rows finished! That's as high as we're going on each wall until we rent some scaffolding, so we can spend as little time (and money) on it as possible. Now it's time to paint the stuff!


Remember what I said about us never doing things nice and easy? Our grand plan is to paint each of the 4 x 8 panels one of three shades of greenish/gray, to give the house a graphic design kind of look. Here's our game plan, printed out in the four walls of the house:

The top left is the back wall, the one we've started with:

Those dark lines in between the panels are the battens we'll have to attach to keep the elements out and hide the seams.

Wendi begins with the lightest color paint, and I get revenge for that butt shot. Woohoo!

And the paint goes on. Wait! It's the same color as the primer! Dang. Still, has to be done, just not as satisfying as the other colors:

Now we're talking! The paints haven't dried yet, so the two lighter ones look very similar. That will change.

And here it is later in the day as the sun sets over the mountain behind us.

We're 1/14th of the way there!

Oh man, that's a depressing thought.

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A Wicked Cover!

It's official! I couldn't post this when I got it because it hadn't gone through the final approval process, but now it has. Meet the wicked awesome cover for Something Wicked! (Click on the image to see it larger.)

The new cover keeps the same great design from the first book, Something Rotten, while incorporating new faces--Mac and his girlfriend Beth:













And since this is based on "the Scottish play" and set at a Scottish Highland Festival, we also get that great tartan blue! (A Macduff tartan? I'll have to check.) Love the way the blue tartan becomes the mountain sky on the back cover too. Genius! This one takes place on a mountaintop near Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee--hence the picturesque backdrop this time.

In lieu of the little skull on Something Rotten's cover we get a new icon here too--a sgian dubh, or short Scottish dagger. Wait, this means I'll have to get a new stamp made! I'm going to have to buy one of those carousels bookkeepers use to hold all their check stamps.

I'm totally thrilled with this cover, and the whole look of the series. Special thanks to editor Liz and cover designer Emilian Gregory for making it happen!

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