Not enough fabric!

Somehow, don't ask me how, I miscaluated my fabric for Fairy Grandmother by
MLI. I will only have an inch of fabric at the top, and most likely only an
inch at the bottom. Can I make that work somehow, someway?
I have heard of sewing more fabric to the edges, but have never done it
before, as usually I allow plenty of fabric.
What type of fabric should I use? And should I have someone else do it as my
sewing skills aren't that great?
Someone please help! I started with the background first and only have the
top part of it left. Which I suppose is better than starting in the middle
and having most of the figure done before realizing what a goof I had made
if I had to trash it.
TIA
Annell

Hi Annell

Nothing wrong with having an inch of raw material.
Most of my finished works only have 1/2 to 3/4 inch if unfinished and
only 1/4 inch if backfolded, sometimes only 4 threads if I folded and
stitched the edges from the start of the project.

It has never caused me any problems!

TTUL
Gary

"Faren" verbositized:

Somehow, don't ask me how, I miscaluated my fabric for Fairy Grandmother by
MLI. I will only have an inch of fabric at the top, and most likely only an
inch at the bottom. Can I make that work somehow, someway?
I have heard of sewing more fabric to the edges, but have never done it
before, as usually I allow plenty of fabric.
What type of fabric should I use? And should I have someone else do it as my
sewing skills aren't that great?
Someone please help! I started with the background first and only have the
top part of it left. Which I suppose is better than starting in the middle
and having most of the figure done before realizing what a goof I had made
if I had to trash it.
TIA
Annell

Somehow, don't ask me how, I miscaluated my fabric for Fairy Grandmother by
MLI. I will only have an inch of fabric at the top, and most likely only an
inch at the bottom. Can I make that work somehow, someway? I have heard of
sewing more fabric to the edges, but have never done it before

It depends what you are going to do with the finished piece. If it is going to
be framed, with none of the background fabric showing, you can simply sew more
fabric to the edges - fairly firmly, if everything is going to be stretched.
OTOH, if the background will show, you can mount it inside a larger square or
rectangle of fabric, with an even amount on each side, sort of like a quilt
binding.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

From: (Olwynmary)

It depends what you are going to do with the finished piece. If it is going
to
be framed, with none of the background fabric showing, you can simply sew
more
fabric to the edges - fairly firmly, if everything is going to be stretched.
.........

Also, remember that ef the piece is going to be framed and you do need to
add some fabric, you don't need to have any special skill at regular sewing.
***IF*** the framing is done so that you won't see the additional fabric, your
best bet would be to add some good quality, tightly woven muslin to the short
sides. If you want the piece framed so that there is a fair amount of
needlework fabric showing around the stitched area then you will need to use
someother type of fabric -- either the same as the needlework fabric or
something pretty that coordinates.
Regardless of which type of fabric you use the most secure way to attach the
fabric **and not have a lumpy area** is to lay the edge of one fabric over the
edge of the other fabric, overlapping the fabrics by at least 1/2" and then sew
the two fabrics together along both raw edges. Use some sort of "overcast"
type of stitch (like a blanket stitch) along BOTH raw edges. This double row
of stitching makes the joining more secure so that when the fabric is stretched
for framing, it doesn't unravel and pull apart.
If you sew the two fabrics together as you would with regular garment
construction, you can run into some real problems. If the seam is opened up
and the seam allowances pressed to the sides, all of the stress of the
stretching for framing is put on that single row of stitching -- NOT a good
idea!! If the seam allowances are pressed to one side (as is done in quilting)
then you have a lot of bulk where 3 layers of fabric are on one side of the
seam and just one layer of fabric on the other.
If the join is going to be visible, you can press the seam open *IF* you
cover it with some sort of fancy stitch, trim, etc. that is sewn or stitched on
**both** sides of the seam. This result in basically three rows of stitching
-- the original seam, the top edge of stitching (above the seam) and the bottom
edge of stitching (below the seam).
Personally, I still prefer the overlapping fabric technique for strength.
Some sort of edge stitch (Nun's Stitch perhaps) along the needlework fabric
edge and a bit of pretty bead work would cover up any joining stitches :-)!!
HMMM -- the more I write, the more complicated it is sounding -- especially
for the original poster who said she didn't have much practice in this type of
stuff! Anyway, there ARE ways of adding the needed fabric that aren't really
all that difficult and don't take a lot of skill -- time, yes but not
necessarily sewing skill :-)) -- so don't lose heart! CiaoMeow ^;;^
..
PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ Queen of Kitties
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their
WHISKERS!!
Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!

Chiming in here. No need for you to panic - if you're comfortable working
with only an inch about, just as you get to the extremes you're going end up
with some of your stitched fabric in your hoop/Q-snap - so remember to
uncover that when you're not working. I'm assuming that you've done
something to the fabric to keep it from unravelling - if not, I'd do that -
either carefully fray-check it, or serge it, or zig-zag - to be sure that
you don't lose any more of your border area.

As regards the framing - I'm going to disagree a little - to your ease ;^)
It's better to have more fabric around the border - makes for much easier
handling when you stitch, and when it's stretched. That said, a good framer
who is experienced with needlework will be able to stretch it with an inch
all around. Heck, I've stretched pieces that barely had a 1/2" on a side.
You might end up only showing about 4-10 threads (1/4") beyond the design
when it's all put together, but that's okay. If you're going to mat it, the
framer will know how to stretch the piece, then fill in around the piece to
give more backing so that a mat can be supported, and close it all in. No
one will ever know that you had a less than desirable border of fabric. It
just takes a bit more hand strength for the stretching when there isn't much
to hold onto. But an inch is certainly doable. Especially on linen - it's
harder to grab on Aida. I've stretched pieces that just barely make it
around the corner to the back. Your framer may charge you full price for the
stretch - but honestly, we'd do it with no problem. Just likely might take
an extra bit of time. And the owner of the LNS/framer I was working in has
very high standards - we do it, and it looks right. Honestly, you should be
fine.

IME, people do this a lot - they think they started in the middle, and are
off so one side has minimal spare material. Or just don't stitch with much
border.

Anyhow, my feeling - FWIW - don't panic. Make sure the fabric isn't going to
unravel. Stitch away. Only bother extending it if you need to do that so
that you're more comfortable handling the fabric in the stitching process.
You shouldn't need to do anything for the framer - really.

Happy stitchin'
ellice

On 12/28/03 9:52 AM,"Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply"
posted:

From: (Olwynmary)

It depends what you are going to do with the finished piece. If it is going
to
be framed, with none of the background fabric showing, you can simply sew
more
fabric to the edges - fairly firmly, if everything is going to be stretched.
........

Also, remember that ef the piece is going to be framed and you do need to
add some fabric, you don't need to have any special skill at regular sewing.
***IF*** the framing is done so that you won't see the additional fabric, your
best bet would be to add some good quality, tightly woven muslin to the short
sides. If you want the piece framed so that there is a fair amount of
needlework fabric showing around the stitched area then you will need to use
someother type of fabric -- either the same as the needlework fabric or
something pretty that coordinates.
Regardless of which type of fabric you use the most secure way to attach the
fabric **and not have a lumpy area** is to lay the edge of one fabric over the
edge of the other fabric, overlapping the fabrics by at least 1/2" and then
sew
the two fabrics together along both raw edges. Use some sort of "overcast"
type of stitch (like a blanket stitch) along BOTH raw edges. This double row
of stitching makes the joining more secure so that when the fabric is
stretched
for framing, it doesn't unravel and pull apart.
*snipping good info*

Thank you all for calming me down and for all the good info. I think that
I'll go ahead and finish stitching it as is, it will be a little annoying to
stitch like that, but I'd rather trust my stitching skills rather than my
sewing skills! Since Ellice says my framer shouldn't have a problem with
it, if she does I'll just take to someone else. I usually go to Hobby Lobby
and the lady that normally does it seems very good, but I've also gone to
two other framers that I trust. Oh, I bought my fabric from Silkweavers so
it is already serged, which is one more reason to buy from them!
Thank you all
Faren

I miscaluated my fabric for Fairy Grandmother by
MLI. I will only have an inch of fabric at the top, and most likely only an
inch at the bottom. Can I make that work somehow, someway? BRBR
I did that...once. When I realized the problem (the problem was that the LNS
did not cut the proper amount of fabric, now I watch them like a hawk) I called
my framer. Since she knew I was also a quilter and had pieces of muslin she
suggested I stitch on the sewing machine a 3 inch wide piece of muslin at the
bottom. I did...it worked. She framed it for me and it looks fine. Why don't
you check with your framer, or if you frame it yourself, go on and try muslin.
Be sure to wash it before you stitch it on to the fabric. Boo

From: "Faren"

........ I think that
I'll go ahead and finish stitching it as is, it will be a little annoying to
stitch like that, but I'd rather trust my stitching skills rather than my
sewing skills! ...........

You can always just sew some old sheet fabric to the short edges to make the
piece easier to work with. This would be something you remove when you are
finished with the piece. I do this all the time when I want the fabric to fit
into a hoop or frame that is bigger than the fabric -- usually when I am
working with Q-snaps. Since the extra fabric would be removed, you don't have
to worry about your sewing skills at all -- a row or two of a closely stitched
running titch would work fine :-))! CiaoMeow ^;;^
..


PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ Queen of Kitties
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their
WHISKERS!!
Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!