So this post has been a long time in coming, but I just haven't had a couple of spare hours together to dedicate to the next step in the process before now. So tonight I finally got up the courage and opened up the nifty Serger I got for Christmas.
I immediately regret this decision.
I spent about forty-five minutes reading over the instructions. Since my sewing has largely been self-taught, most of this is absolute gibberish to me. I never learned the terminology. I could have made learning to use this stupid thing take up the entire five weeks of the 20% Project--blankets or no blankets.
Oh look, they have handy dandy CDrom guides! For Windows. Oh wait, I don't even HAVE a drive to put CDs into anymore. (Which is one of the only things that have really, really annoyed me about Apple over the last few years.)
The first problem I had was getting the tension wheel to move. I couldn't tell if it was jammed or if there was some kind of factory lock on it. So, I turned to google. Here is the most helpful suggestion I found on some outdated forum:
And then, as if by magic, it unjammed!
Clear to move on to the next step. Plugging it in. But wait, what's this? DANGER?! The only thing I know about AC and DC is how much they rock my world with Thunderstruck. Which one lives in my living room wall socket? I have no idea. This was not covered in 7th grade Home Ec!
The machine comes pre-threaded, which is nice. The threads they picked coordinate with the colored nobs, and it allows you to see which thread ends up where in your sewing. Each thread has its own tension settings and has to be threaded and adjusted separately. Just to help simplify things, there are also two different needles, and everything is packed in so tightly that they actually give you a pair of tweezers because your fingers can't fit in there to do the threading.
Using the factory-provided test sample, I try running a little line down the open side. It cut and pierced the fabric, but didn't actually stick.
Obviously, something is not threaded right. I found this instructional Youtube video very helpful for walking through the rethreading steps.
And it worked! Time for test #2.
Holy cow, this thing is fast.
Now, time for a REAL test, I bought this Pokemon fabric for my son at the same time I bought that last round of fabric for my friend's baby. Since I don't have enough thread in the right color to finish off my current blankets, doing something with this seems like a good tester alternative. And actually, the rainbow thread that came from the factory with my serger matches the Pokemon fabric perfectly. So, I decided to whip up a quick pillowcase for his little travel pillow.
So, technically I did not get to the actual blankets this week, but learning how to use this serger is a really important step in achieving my ultimate goal of streamlining the quilt-making process. Based on the pillow case, I have a feeling that this little guy will save me hours over time compared to doing everything on the sewing machine.
Uggggghhhhh look what I bought today. It was just so freaking cute! And my best friend from high school just announced she is having a girl, so I HAD to go get something special for her. Right? AND I bought enough to make three blanket sets so I can sell the others, which means they are all tax deductible. Get off my back, okay? In other news, I did some work today! One step closer to getting something ready to list on Etsy, which hopefully means one step closer to recouping some of these, erm, "business" expenditures. with aI made fairly quick work of the fabric sets I cut out last time. The pressing and cutting part really is the most time consuming and labor intensive part. (Perhaps I should consider outsourcing that part to my much craftier and far more talented friend Tiffany for a cut of the theoretical profits.) I started by piecing together the stripes for the quilt face with a 3/8" seam. Two REALLY important tips:
Oh, another good tip? Put the most friction-y fabric on top--UNlike I did here--and you'll get less shifting than I had to deal with. Multiply by three again to get three finished faces. Then it was time to bust out the iron to press the seams flat. Pressing the seams is what will give the quilt a crisp, finished look. (Interesting aside: the iron steam did not really smell like pee today. This has me more worried than I was before.) Speaking of that pesky right side, though. I did have some trouble with the orange fabric. Since it is a different texture than the patterned fabrics, it kept getting unintentionally stretched as I went down the line, which caused a bit of a ruffling effect that I was not really going for. I was able to alleviate this by adjusting what I assume is the tension nob and finished all three faces in about four episodes of Fuller House. (Got it keep it child-friendly as we're talking daylight hours here. And I already finished watching all the episodes of "The League" that are on Netflix.) On to the burp cloths! For these, I use store-bought pre-folded diapers as the base. They are very absorbent and they are a good size, even if the craftsmanship leaves a bit to be desired. (I thought *I* had trouble sewing straight. Sheesh.) Anyway, that's why I dress them up with coordinating fabric for out-and-about fabulousness. Pin in place going down the center of the pre-fold diaper, and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. The first one, I decided to use a zigzag stitch. This was problematic though, as my nice zig zag turned into a funk zag on the face. After this first burp cloth, I switched back to straight-stitching. I also gave myself too wide of a seam allowance on the top and bottom edges. The pre-fold diapers are really uneven here, and I try to use my fabric on top to even out the appearance on the front a bit. But this means that I can't see where the tri-fold diaper is to know how much clearance I have before I run off the edge. But it had a pretty simple solution: flip the burp cloth over and follow the diaper seam as closely to the edge as possible. It meant more back stitching because I had to do the lines separately, but worth it in the end. And my neat little bundles, all ready for the final step. Hint: I THINK it's going to involve my new Serger that I got for Christmas and have been afraid to take out of the box! I was pleased to see that all but one of them came out pretty darn close to 31" square, and line up pretty well with the 31" square orange backing pieces. So who's ready to put in a preorder ;) ?
My husband went on a guys-only camping trip this past weekend, so I put my son to bed early, cracked open a can of Dr. Thunder, and took over the bedroom and kitchen for a wild night of Crash Course Economics, ironing, and rotary cutting. Fast forward fifteen episodes, and you can see the results: three sets quilt and burp cloth pieces, ready for stitching. I have a bit of leftover fabric, as seen here. It may seem like a big pile but it is actually a lot less than I usually have, so I have succeeded in purchasing/using materials more effectively. I can either toss these scraps (and not feel too bad in doing so) or perhaps use them to piece together little loveys to include in the set. I'll think about it. Unfortunately, it was not as easy or as quick to get these cut as I was hoping. Particularly because I did not really account for factors like motivation [lack thereof], energy levels [lack thereof], and a sore back from bending over awkwardly. Finding a different time of day (not 2am) may help alleviate this. The pros:
The cons:
So here's a look at the process I came up with. Lesson 1. Measure and iron together. You don't need to mark the fabric if you can use the crease instead. When fabric comes off the bolt, it is already folded in half so that it measures 21" wide (I'm working with 42" wide fabric.) Since I want my cut to be 31", I went ahead and ironed out that natural crease. Then I folded over one edge of the fabric 15.5" in and pressed that seam. For the backing piece, I went ahead and took this edge all the way down the 3-yard length of the fabric. You can also see the uneven edge (on top where the edges don't line up.) This is where the fabric store cuts from the bolt, and they are notoriously NOT straight. My next task is to square up this edge. I used my husband's handy dandy T-ruler thingamajigger (that's the scientific term for it.) Eventually I figured out that this wasn't necessarily any more helpful than my regular yard sticks and rulers. Lesson 2. Measure twice, cut once. Not really a new lesson, but I was being very careful since I knew I had virtually no room for mistakes with the backing. My first cut was along that uneven edge to square up the fabric. VERY important to get this actually square, otherwise it will mess up pretty much every other cut that comes after. Second cut was along that 31" line created by the overlap. Since the fabric is 3 yards long, I didn't make this one single cut all the way across. Once I passed the 31" mark, I made a perpendicular cut to remove an entire 31"x31" square. Then I picked up where I left off along the length of the fabric and repeated two more times for a total of 3 31" squares. The pieces left over would become my 9 3.5"x31" strips: Lesson 3: Two rulers make a match. That doesn't really make any sense, but this is perhaps the most useful trick that I picked up for the night. My clear ruler is super handy for measuring out the stripes, BUT since I am right handed I couldn't use my rotary cutter on its left side. So I just got my yard stick and butted up flush against the clear ruler and VOILA.
No. Don't ask me why I just didn't measure from the left side of the fabric and skipped the need for this double-ruler thing altogether. There was a reason, I just can't remember. After that, I pretty much repeated with the two patterned fabrics, except skipping straight to the 31" by 4.5" strips. The burp cloths are a little more flexible, but ended up being 21" long and about 7-8" wide. This week was all about planning for a streamlined blanket-making process. As mentioned in my last post, I fell into some new fabric opportunities that I couldn't say no to when I popped into Joann's. Here's the way I've been planning blankets in the past:
The end product comes out something like this: So it turns out well, but with quite a bit of waste. My process definitely needed some revamping.
For contrast, here's the new process I've come up with this week.
Now actually making these cuts is going to have to wait for next week. But in the meantime, let me entice you with some pictures of my fabric choices. I've got five different sets of coordinated material and will be making three blankets with each set (so long as I don't screw anything up too badly.) I THOUGHT I was set on the piano goal. I even ordered two books of sheet music: Best of John Williams and Phantom of the Opera. BUT then I had some time to kill after Social Science CSET on Saturday, so I went into Joann's for some curtain ties... and came out with $230 worth of snuggle flannel for $80. (60% off new cute fabric designs I haven't seen yet! + 10% off total purchase including sale items. Tell me you could resist that??)
The truth is, I am probably going to end up pursuing BOTH of these goals. But for the purpose of this assignment I will report on the baby blankets. I spent some time doing competitor research on Etsy, looking for comparable items, prices, and other sellers' overall trends of success. There are really two types of successful sellers for this type of product: those who keep it relatively simple by creating one listing and then allowing customers to select color options. When the item sells, it automatically renews the same listing, which has major benefits for listing ranking, search exposure, and overall traffic (for example). Chances are she has bolts of fabric in each color on hand and makes the blankets to order. Unfortunately, this is not something I can make work with my existing materials. But it would be a good idea for the future. I know this strategy works, because it is how I have become the top seller for wine cork planters. The other strategy is to go more custom and more detailed, like so. They have the quilts pre-made and each quilt has its own listing. (She actually only has two quilts advertised right now, but it looks like she has had more in the past that have already sold, and she takes in a fair number of custom orders.) This shop has really made a specific niche in terms of colors and style, which is also something that I can't necessarily do right now thanks to my existing materials. Average competitor cost for blankets similar to what I am looking at doing are going for as little as $25 and as much as $60. Since I am not Walmart (nor do I want to be) and I do not yet have an established sales base for blankets, my aim will be to fall somewhere in the low-middle end of that. I need to time out how long it will actually take me to make a blanket set start to finish before I calculate the exact price, but I'm thinking somewhere in the $40 range with low shipping costs. Did you know: slightly higher upfront cost and low shipping creates higher perceived value? People are more willing to pay $42 + $3 shipping than they are to pay $37 + $8 shipping--even for the exact same product. I'll post some pictures of my lovely new fabrics and my specific plans for them next week ;) Brainstorm time. I have three options I am toying around with for this 20% project. Option 1: Baby Blankets for Etsy I'm a little bit of a fabric hoard, especially when it comes to Snuggle Flannel at 70% off on Black Friday the last three years in a row. The problem is, I rarely end up doing anything with it due to time demands, and now I have accumulated nearly three large bins worth of coordinating fabrics that will [someday] be stripe quilts with matching burp cloths for me to sell in my Etsy shop. If I choose this option, it won't be so much "Learn to make a striped baby quilt" as this is something I already know how to do. Rather, it would be about streamlining my process to greatly decrease production time and learning market best practices to give them a good chance of actually selling in a pretty competitive marketplace. Questions to consider:
Option 2: Learn to Play Phantom of the Opera, Jurassic Park & Star Wars In high school, I taught myself to play reasonably well on my mother's beautiful Baby Grand. I had a repertoire of around ten songs anyway, but my progression got cut short when I moved out and came to learn that most apartments don't come with pianos included [wtf mate?]. I've taken advantage of the last few days off to do some much needed deep cleaning around the house, including my bedroom. In true if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie style, this led to a complete rearrangement of our bedroom furniture and the fortuitous rehoming of my sadly neglected keyboard. of I bought this guy some eight/nine years ago back when I had time to myself and money that didn't need to go to after school daycare. And he has gone completely untouched for about half of that time.
Now that he is in sight and in mind once again, I would like to shake off the rust, start playing proficiently again, and even learn some new music that I have always wanted to be able to play. In high school, I was able to finger out the melody to these iconic songs by ear, but specific sheet music was a lot harder to come by back then than it is now and music is not exactly something that comes naturally to me. Questions to Consider:
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