My husband’s Levi’s jeans had a front pocket failure: the inside pocket fabric ripped where it was worn from use. The jeans themselves are still in good condition, so to mend the pocket I wove thread across the rip to strengthen the weak fabric as well as to close the hole. Using a whip stitch wouldn’t last long because the edges of the fabric are worn and are more likely to rip again. By weaving across the opening, the new thread extends into sound fabric, and it should hold longer.
I noticed that my eldest’s Prisma colored pencil case was full of pencil tips. My hypothesis is that the pencils got sharpened, then the tips break in transit. To try to prevent future breakage, I grabbed a strip of foam sheet and used double stick tape to hold it in the end of the box.
I have recently moved my craft supplies into a new space. I did have everything in one side of a master closet with a small work bench. I’m not sure how I fit it all in that space, as it now fills a regular bedroom. No pictures yet, I’m still sorting and evaluating, but I have setup three folding tables, and decided I had room for a fourth. Before I could go buy another folding table, I spot a working treadle sewing machine for sale for $50. Hm. I’ve actually wanted one of these for a long time, but either didn’t have the car space, or the floor space, or the money (restored sewing machines can be pricey). But at that moment I had the space, and I had the cash. I bought it and my husband helped me fetch it. There is a reason it was reasonably priced. It was stored in a feed room in a barn. Yup. But the wheel turns. The owner bought it from the original owner a few years back (I’ll let you do the math here in a moment), but didn’t get around to using it. It had a bag of parts that went with it, and I’m still counting the wasp nests that hitched a ride. It is living in the garage until I can do a basic clean.
I found the serial number and looked it up. This machine is a model 27 and on May 1, 1907, 70,000 machines were allotted. So it is 116 years old and I am the third owner. Hm. It definitely needs some TLC and oil. My plan is not to restore it to new, I rather like patina and that it shows its age, but I will remove the rust, stabilize what I can, and see if I can get it functioning well. This should keep me occupied as the kids head off to school. Oh, and I’ll post updates of course.
I recently finished a commissioned order for leather wrap bracelets with a saying. I used 1/2” strips of tooling leather, which were a little fuzzier on the back side than I’m used to, so I trimmed the “fuzz” as a first step.
Next I wet and smoothed the edges of each strip round with a slicker. I found a wooden slicker tool awhile back, but am not impressed with it in the raw state. I think I will give it a good sanding and glossy finish before using it again.
I have multiple options on making the saying on the leather: I have stamps, leather tools, and my pyrography kit. I haven’t done pyrography on leather, so really wanted to see how it might work. I took a scrap piece of tooling leather and did some experiments.
I found that the heat of the pyrography pen, when at about 5 and a half, would burn into the leather and make a mark like stamping, but also darkened the leather. This was what I was hoping for! I could do the sentence free hand. I also found that it was better to dye the leather first, then burn it, then seal it.
Once the pyrography was done, I cut in the button hole and sealed the bracelets. When the sealant was dry, I punched holes for the button and used waxed linen to sew on the button. The leather had become stiff, so some bending and moving freed up the form some.
I do really enjoy pyrography, so this was a fun project and discovery!
Rather than take separated supplies to my crochet class, I made up individual kits. Each kit has enough yarn to make two amigurumi animals, yarn for the face, a wooden crochet hook, a wire stitch marker, a yarn needle, chenille sticks, and stuffing.
To divide up the yarn, I placed the big ball of yarn on the scale, tared it, then wound off onto the ball winder. When the scale read the value I needed (negatively), I snipped the yarn and started a new ball.
Each kit will also have a pattern and a label.
