Sewing
Erin.Lane is thrilled to announce the homecoming of the newest member of our team, Margaret. Thanks to all of you out there who contributed to helping Margaret find her way home.
Here are a few pictures of her journey to our little studio. She is currently sewing one of her first embroidery designs, and is very happy in her new home.
She is a big machine. It took both Mom and me to get her inside. However, she is totally worth it. Here is her unpacking and getting ready to start her new job.
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There she is ready and willing to sew. She packed her embroidery unit very carefully as you can see. She is also very bright. Her LED HD touch screen is wonderful when she needs to communicate a problem to us. So far, all she says is transmitting, sewing, and finished sewing. She is super easy to get along with. We are so happy to have her sewing along.
She is such a good machine. She is working diligently to make sure that jumps aren’t an issue. In fact, we went from this:
to this… Isn’t she fabulous!?
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She is definitely a more complicated machine. We are going to have to go to class with her to learn how to do most things. We have figured out a few things, but she still has a lot to teach us. Therefore, we are not going to be taking embroidered bags with us to the next show. We will have to learn more first.
Again, everyone at Erin.Lane, including Margaret and Sue, thank you for your generous giving.
P.S. Sue decided to retire from embroidery, but she is still sewing. Don’t worry. She is working currently on some drawstrings for the next show. What a trooper, huh?
Tags: brother, embroidery, IndieGoGo, Sewing, sue, updates | 
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We are working diligently to get everything ready for Stitches Midwest. We are super excited to announce that we are
BOOTH # 719
Not only that, but we are working hard to get the 120 buckets we want to take with us. Sue has trudged through finishing her 57th canvas in 30 days. She is tired, and if you can please help us hire her replacement by contributing to our IndieGoGo project. If you have already donated or want to help, please tell your friends. We are at about 25% of our goal. We need to know we can get that new embroidery machine when we get back from Stitches. Otherwise, we might not be able to make Buckets for the holidays. ACK! Please help us. To prove how tired she is, here is what she did one day.
I spent the entire day working to make her feel better, but last Wednesday, pretty much all I did was work with her. The reason that looks funny is because what you are looking at is the bobbin thread being pulled to the front of the canvas. Not a good thing. It took forever to fix, and a phone call where I was asked if I had the machine threaded.
You can imagine how I felt about that question.
But I diverge.
The main point of this was the fact that after tons of cutting, sorting, and sewing, we have made huge progress. We have all the KnitPacks ready for final touches meaning magnets and binding ribbon. Also, we have managed to get all the buckets ready to stuff and sew together…which means we could have the buckets done in the next 3-4 days! It took forever but they are all ready!
This is where I tell you the truth. When we make anything that has that nice stand up bottom, we have to draw the square on the bottom and then pull and sew them. After that, I have to cut that extra fabric off or it makes a mess in the bottom of a bag. This is how I feel about corners… I want them to die. All of them, forever and ever. This is what it looks like after I have done all the buckets.
Yes, Hank is hanging out with the corners. Mainly he hung out down by my feet to make sure I didn’t stab myself in the eye with the scissors. Thank God that is over.
Want to know the bad news, we have to do that many corners for the insides of the buckets, and for all the insides and outsides of the sock bags.
Did I mention that I don’t like corners? Yea, I have a lot of them in my future. Ugh. A cornering I go…
Tags: bag, bucket, fabric, IndieGoGo, organization, prepwork, Sewing, stitches midwest, update | No Comments »
So you know all that fabulous fabric we got. We had to cut it up. It is now waiting to be new KnitPacks, Buckets, Ewesfulls, Ewe Hauls, and you know what else, DRAWSTRINGS! It took us 8 hours of cutting over and over and over again, but we finally finished it. Now we just have empty bolts of fabric. Here is just what is going to make it into the drawstring category.
It doesn’t look like much, but let me tell you, it feels like a mountain of fabric. A MOUNTAIN! Like EVEREST! Thank God that is over for a little while.
Tags: cutting, drawstrings, fabric, prepwork, Sewing, stitches midwest, updates | No Comments »
So, after a great deal of waiting and shopping, and waiting some more, we finally have received all the fabrics that we are planning on taking with us to Stitches Midwest.
First, we found a great little fabric company out of California that only prints a few lines, but they are amazing. We spent a little while on the phone and the sales person, Paul, actually would go to the warehouse and check to make sure the fabrics we were choosing were going to match. Talk about amazing, yea, meet Anthology Fabrics‘ Theory Line.
I know you are already in love, but there is more, oh so much more! We waited and waited and called and called and then one day unexpectedly our doorbell rang and *POOF* there is was, a fabric that wasn’t suppose to come in until the END of August. Just so you know, that is Joel Dewberry’s Aviary 2. It is super back ordered, but because we are such fabulous superheroes, we got it in early!
Last but not least, we got in another FABULOUS fabric line by Alice Kennedy. Portobello was something else we had to fight to get in before we left. We were super excited when we ordered it, but it got so much better when we opened the box. We thought it would be beautiful, but we didn’t know how pretty, here is a sneak peek!
We have a bunch to cut up and make into fabulous needle cases and bags. Check back for studio updates.
Tags: alice kennedy, anthology, fabric, joel dewberry, update | No Comments »
This is the plight of anything that is made in large quantity.
Prep work.
Over the last 3 days, Lisa and I have been working diligently to get all the things done so that all we have to do is assemble bags and KnitPacks. One wouldn’t think that is such a large task, but just to give you a little perspective, here is the muslin mausoleum that Lisa and I have found ourselves in lately.
This is the pile, nay mountain of stiffener and muslin that Lisa tackled this week. It doesn’t sound like a task, but each of those buckets requires a bit of prep.
We have to put the muslin on the stiffener, then add the pocket, THEN fold it in half, and sew it up, and finally cut the corners to make it that lovely “bucket” looking bag.
This was about half way through the second day.
However, triumph was not too far off. Today, Lisa experienced total victory, 120 bucket, as we are calling them “guts” ready to be buckets someday (hopefully soon.)
While mom tackled the buckets, I stated scaling the mountain of drawstrings. Now, do not misunderstand. I love that bag. I think I have 5 I am living out of currently; however, for every ONE of those bags, I have to sew 2 bags.
For some reason this never occurred to me before I had to sew 250 bags in each size. So, it feels like I am drowning in the muslin mausoleum. I know I have made progress, however, it is not evident to me how much because IT ALL LOOKS THE SAME. You have no idea how boring it can be.
The picture on the left is small project bags. The top right picture is large project bags, and the bottom right picture is sock bags. Can you tell? No? Well, that is exactly how I feel. I have been sewing for days and I can’t tell anything has gotten done. You want to know the best part, I still have to do the outside, the pretty part. Guess when I start that. Yea, TOMORROW. I guess I should be glad to be out of the muslin mausoleum and into the drawstring dirge.
Tags: bucket, drawstrings, muslim, prep work, Sewing, stitches midewest | No Comments »
