crafterhours

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Trimming (the cost of) a Project: A Tutorial

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In the latest issue of Threads, there’s a quick little piece about trimming a pillow. I’m not working on any pillows right now but I am working on a crib bumper. Adrianna, another friend and I are making coordinating baby stuff for a friend due in January out of Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks collection. I needed to trim the top and bottom edges of the crib bumper, but I don’t want anything that will distract from the fabrics themselves that are on their own pretty busy. I also don’t want to wait for trim to get here, since I won’t likely find anything I like locally. I also wouldn’t mind not spending more on the project if I can make something myself…

With the Threads article in mind, I made this bit of trim as a trial for sashing that will be part of a crib bumper. Well, I made a little piece first, and then I made 3+ yards of it.

And I thought I’d show you how. It’s so easy. And reasonably quick. And fun. And now I can’t stop thinking about variations on it. And layering it. Since my original piece is pretty low-contrast, I used unbleached muslin and red thread for this demo. And now I love that too.

Start with a zigzag (or other decorative) stitch, on the longest and widest settings. I pressed a crease in the middle of a 3.5″ piece of fabric so that I had a line to follow.

Turn the fabric over, pressing a line next to the zigzag, 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch away from it. Please stop looking at my obvious tension problem. You’ll make me nervous.
Place that under your presser foot for a run-through with a straight stitch, gently folding the fabric over as you feed it through. I thought that it would wiggle out of place and come out wonkily-horribly-why-did-I-waste-my-time-ily, but it didn’t. Just a little bit of guiding as it went through. Like so:
And then you’ll have this:
Press a crease on the opposite side and straight-stitch again and you’ll have this:
And using the same process with a variety of decorative stitches you could have this:

Now I’m thinking about skirt hems, dress hems, bib shirts with this down the middle and ruffles on the sides, stacking a bunch of lines of this on a skirt….

And now I have a new obsession. At least it’s not one that involves acquiring new gadgets.

Comments

  3. AmesOx says

    Wow, I can not wait until my new sewing machine arrives to try this out! (Hubby broke mine trying to sew name tags on a rucksack…lol) This idea would be wonderful on a little pleated skirt length wise! Wonderful idea/tutorial!

    Reply

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