pond_ripple's Fabric Blog

This is the first in a series of posts about my latest project, a fancy steampunk inspired coat. The pattern is loosely based on a Simplicity pattern, 2172, that I have been slowly altering as I go along. Here are a few sketches to show the basic idea for the coat. The Simplicity pattern I'm using; all the new pattern pieces made moving everything to an empty tin box necessary. This is my first sketch when I had simple dreams of adding a hood and maybe changing the neckline. This is a much later sketch showing how I've chopped off the patterned skirt in favor of a pleated and much more dramatic one. This also shows the fancier detachable sleeve option. I honestly don't know how many sleeves I will make. The plan at first was to do the pattern with a few small touches thrown in to make it my own. Adding a removable hood and changing the neckline slightly were quickly followed with making detachable sleeves, and adding a high collar in the back. The pockets b...

Azazel Today I'm going to show you how to sew a fabulous, reversible cat bed with 2 fat quarters and some fluffy poly-fil. You can really use any kind of stuffing that you like, this was just the biggest bag of fluff that my Walmart carries. (it doesn't take anywhere near that amount of filling, I plan on using it for many more projects) Bird Floral Dark Blue I used one fat quarter of Spoonflower's fleece and cut a rectangle of white faux fur from Joanne's to match. On the fleece, mark on all four corners a 4 inch x 4 inch square. I used a water soluble marker. Pin the corner so the edges of the square line up with right sides together,  and sew a seam along or just inside that line. Repeat for all four corners.  I went over it twice with the zigzag setting of my sewing machine. Then trim down the seam allowance and get rid of any marks that might bleed through to the other side. You should end up with a floppy shallow box ...

I originally found the pattern for the Undercover Maker Mat on Pinterest, and have finally managed to finish sewing my own! It comes from the blog lillyella by Nicole Young and you can see her post and get free pattern HERE . The mat doubles as both a sewing machine cover and a pocket filled organizer to keep all your notions et cetera at hand as you work. This was a bit of a stash busting project, which required a bit of editing from the pattern. This was almost entirely made up of test swatches which are approximately 8" x 8". The obvious thing  to do was try and break each swatch down into blocks of 4" x 4", but since they end up being slightly less than that, I decided to do a bit of fussy cutting to make 2 slightly larger blocks using the unprinted white space to remain attached in the seam allowance. Here is my rough plan of how to assemble my new pattern. The dimensions changed to 20" x 28" for each side before sewing and seam ...