Showing off my wife's sewing projects

[Marquette]

After a multi-year absense from the needle, my wife broke out her machine and started sewing again. For mother's day, she made this for my mom:

She made a matching wallet this week:

Her mom is a sock monkey fanatic, so she got this tote:

After her aunt saw them, she wanted one too... so she got this one:

And we went to see our old neighbor for dinner a few weeks ago and brought her this:

I think she's be able to successfully answer the "what do you do all day" question.

 

[bbbamI]

Those are beautiful...she is very talented!

My mom used to make clothes for my Barbie doll. As for me, I can barely sew on a button.

 

[Moemg]

Those are beautiful . She does amazing work .

 

[shoe]

Wow Marquette she did a lovely job! Have you sprung for a Bernina for her yet?

 

[Martha]

I've made the same purse as on top. I really like her fabric choices. Did she have a pattern for the wallet? If she did, can you get her to share who made the pattern and the pattern number? I'd like to try making that too.

 

[Moemg]

Are they patterns ? I might have to try making one .

 

[Martha]

Moemg, you can get a wide variety of purse/tote patterns. They are fun to make and if you are inclined towards the wild, you can throw some beads on them too.

 

[MyOwnTime]

Nice work! I recognize a couple of the patterns, too--my mother has also used "make purses" as her solution to "what do I do with all my free time?"

 

[Moemg]

Moemg, you can get a wide variety of purse/tote patterns. They are fun to make and if you are inclined towards the wild, you can throw some beads on them too.

Thanks , I think I'll give it a whirl !

 

[Purron]

Marquette,

This is beautiful work! I am very impressed and wish I had the talent your wife does.

 

[Marquette]

I've made the same purse as on top. I really like her fabric choices. Did she have a pattern for the wallet? If she did, can you get her to share who made the pattern and the pattern number? I'd like to try making that too.

Martha,

It's “A Girl’s Best Friend Wallet” by Jenna Lou Sewing Patterns. My wife wrote about it on her blog... some of the gotchas she learned along the way

A Girl’s Best Friend Wallet Pattern | dawntastic

 

[bright eyed]

Hey Marquette -

have you shown your wife this thread? you might get lucky tonite...

what a sweet hubby!

 

[HFWR]

Some fellas look at the eyes
Some fellas look at the nose
Some fellas look at the size
Some fellas look at the clothes
I don't care if her eyes are red
I don't care if her nose is long
I don't care if she's underfed
I don't care if her clothes are worn
First I look at the purse!

J. Geils Band

 

[haha]

Those are beautiful...she is very talented!

Ditto that! A real source of pride for you that she is so accomplished.

Ha

 

[Marquette]

Are they patterns ? I might have to try making one .

Yep, they are all patterns. I've told her she should try her hand at designing her own, but there are some really great patterns out there.

Amy Butler has some great bags: Amy Butler Design

The totes and the purse are by Grand Revival: Flea Market Bag ~ Grand Revival. Tanya is the lady behind Grand Revival and you can read her blog here: Grand Revival Designs

One fun thing about the smaller creators is that it's easy to get to them and they tend to have strong communities.

 

[Marquette]

Oh, and thanks for the comments all! I'll make sure she sees this thread.

 

[Dreamer]

Those are so pretty. Your wife is very talented.

 

[Marquette]

Have you sprung for a Bernina for her yet?

Funny you should ask! We each bought a Viking Sapphire 830 last year. We've had a fit of trouble with both of them that we shouldn't be having (her's is in the shop right now, again, and mine is going there after her's is out).

I'm trying to talk her into buying a Bernina now. The one she likes is in the upper tier of their mid-line, the 440QE. They range in price around here from $3,250-$4,000 (excuse me, just $3,999). The guy we bought our Vikings from will give us $1,600 in trade for the two (not bad since we bought for $2,000) but won't give us deal on the new machine. Don't have a great gut-feel about him, though, so we'll see.

I think I'm winning the argument to spend the money so she'll have a new machine by the end of the week. We went with the other machines originally because she didn't know if she'd sew much again and I wanted to get into quilting. Well, I don't use mine as much as I'd like and she uses her enough that I think it's worth buying a tool that'll last and make the experience more enjoyable.

 

[shoe]

Marquette I can vouch for the quality of Bernina machines. I bought a 1090 (lowest end computer machine) in 1993 for $1400 and with constant heavy use, it has never caused me a day of trouble. I have only had it tuned 3 times. I keep it scrupulously clean and could sell it on ebay for $900 without batting an eye. You can't beat them!

 

[Marquette]

Just an update, she bought the Bernina 440QE.

And here's a project from it. It's the Michevious Gnome Messenger Bag pattern by Sew Liberated: http://sewliberated.com/patterns/gnomebag.html

 

[Moemg]

Your wife does amazing work !

 

[ladelfina]

very nice!

I have a little Bernina that my parents got me, the 801 Sport. It hasn't gotten a real workout in years, but just handling it you can sense the quality of machining/fit/finish. Though it's tiny it takes on multiple layers of thick fabric easily. The only sad thing is that -while nothing has broken on it- I found out that Bernina only stocks replacement parts for models under 20 years old. This machine should last a lifetime, but if their products now are made with the same care as 30 years ago I would go straight to Bernina if I wanted another machine.

Don't have a great gut-feel about him, though, so we'll see.

I have always gotten a skeezy impression of most of the places that sell vacuums and sewing machines (for some reason these products often are twinned). They never quite seem on the up&up.

shoe, what is involved in the "tuning"?

 

[Marquette]

shoe, what is involved in the "tuning"?

They'll clean it, oil it, make sure the tension is back to factory spec.

Just a remind, if you don't sew much, never ever unthread your machine by pulling the thread back up. Rather, cut it at the spool and pull the thread through the machine. Doing otherwise could cause some issues with your thread tension discs.

 

[shoe]

Yeah Ladelfina, what Marquette said. Be prepared to spend $80 for a tune-up at a Bernina dealer and that won't count parts. They will tell you your machine needs a tune once a year but if you keep it clean and oil the screw behind the shuttle after heavy use, you can go years without having one. Good quality thread is really important too. Thanks for the info regarding Bernina only stocking parts for 20 years. I did NOT know that!

 

[Marquette]

Good quality thread is really important too.

What do you use, Shoe? We're running Mettler poly for must everything. Gutterman seems to have gone downhill a bit over the years.