|
What with the new Baby Locks, the holidays and the Winter Retreat coming up, we've been up to our necks in alligators here at Ragtime! * The blog's been neglected lately, but we'll be back soon. Promise!  Is that Sylvia or Lisa? * There's still time to sign up for the retreat, individual classes or the whole weekend . . . come join us! It's soooo much sewing fun!!
0 Comments
One more new item for my sewing room! How I love it!!! Must have checked the time 50 times on Friday! It even has Baby Lock written on it, and the scissors are the pendulum! Go see the girls at Ragtime for your very own or add it to your Christmas wish list! *  ~ Nancy Evers * Start your very own "Honey Hint List" at Ragtime so that Santa knows what you want -- Santa will appreciate the help! 
I have been sewing since I was 10 (WOW, 60 years!!!!). I did mostly garment sewing with a little home decoration thrown in for many years. Then 15 years ago, I walked into the newly opened Ragtime Fabrics and Belle and staff introduced me to machine embroidery! I was off and running!!!! Machine embroidery is a blessing to me since I have loved to make quilts but I could no longer piece small pieces due to tremors from a spinal injury in 1992. Quilting in the hoop has opened a whole new world to me and have made many quilts in these past 15 years. I am blessed to have met Belle and her girls and have learned so very much from them over the years! I just purchased the new Solaris which was my 8th machine from Ragtime Fabrics! You will see pics of the five I have now! I must also add that I have an amazing husband, Bob, who makes all my cabinets and tables. You will see all that he has done for me in the past few years! My room is pink and yellow in honor of my grandmother who was color blind and could not tell the difference between the two colors! She would love it or hate it, not so sure!!!! I hope you enjoy the photos SEW much!!!
I love these cabinets. Bob made these from sassafras wood and they are a work of art. Before, I had plastic drawers on rollers that I would tend to overload, and they would collapse on me! The small drawers hold supplies and tools and the four larger bottom drawers hold a project each; either one I am working on or one that is next on the list. One of the cabinets holds my Sashiko and Evolution Serger. I move them to the cutting table when I use them, so I have a large work surface. You also see more sewing thread and a TV.
Here is an overall view: 
God Bless………. Nancy Evers
 As I was preparing for a serger event at the store, I watched several videos from the BabyLock Love of Knowledge library.  Some of my favorites are with Sara Gallegos.  In one of the videos she was demonstrating the cover stitch and was using a serger Open Toe foot. There is a foot called "Cover Chain Stitch," but the Open Toe foot I find much more useful. So, I bought myself the serger Open Toe foot.  The next time I was finishing a knit top for myself, I happily remembered I had it! The Open Toe foot not only has a large "window" to see your stitches, but also has wonderful bright red lines at the back and front of the foot.  With those red lines, you can easily line up your cover stitches as you come around the neckline binding or the circle of the hem to finish off. ~ Sylvia
The upholstery and padding are all off of the chair. So...what's left? In this segment, Nancy will show why this chair was no longer a comfortable seat. Springs, strings and burlap . . . how were they installed originally to support the seat? (Note: If the video will not play for you, try clicking on the words "YouTube" in the bottom right corner of the video screen.) By the way, we've only got 3 votes so far on the wing issue . . . should Nancy keep them or lose them? Let us know what YOU think by leaving a comment . . . because YOU might win the chair if you're one of our blog followers! (Spoiler alert: so far, "lose the wings" is winning!) Don't forget . . . one of our blog followers will win this chair when the series is over and will even get to choose the fabric to cover it! Click here to follow our blog. I have done a lot of sewing for a lot of people...mostly things like hems, zippers, and pillows or cushions. Occasionally, though, I'm asked to make something that's really unusual. I'm actually thankful for that. I like the opportunity to solve the puzzle. I met a guy while I was sewing patches for the local Harley Davidson dealership. He is a trapper and had 24 fox pelts. He wanted them made into a blanket. I wish I had a picture of the pelts when I got them . . . all strung together on a piece of coat-hanger with ears, noses, feet and tails attached! Unfortunately, I don't have that picture, but here they are all piled up on a bed.  I'll confess I'm not a hunter, and I don't deal with dead things very well at all so when I was handed the hanger, I had to take a minute to remind myself to breathe . . . among other things. My cat, Jack, helped me while I was splitting and trimming the pelts. I had to get them into a shape that I could put together somewhat flatly. The animals were all different sizes to start, so the resulting rectangles weren't all the same size.  All cutting is done from the skin side of the pelt, not the fur side. There were thinner and thicker areas of skin, and there were holes where trap damage had been done. I had to cut around these things while trying to keep as much usable pelt as possible. When done, I laid everything out on a bed to fit the pieces together, keeping all of the fur going in the same direction.
I pushed the fur out of the way and reinforced the seams with tape to keep the stitches from tearing out of the leather. Fox hide is quite soft so I was able to sew it with my conventional machine. Even the seam intersections weren't a problem. I had to cover the seams with something. I chose black fleece. I couldn't attach the fleece to the pelts through the middle of the blanket, so to keep the fleece from rolling to the fur side around the edges, I hand-sewed the tails around the edges along the sides and along the top where the fur had its origin. The fur concealed the fleece on the fourth side because of the direction of the fur growth. (The hair hung off of the edge.)
Here's the finished blanket. And yes . . . it's VERY warm! Just another tidbit: I did not “let” the fur as a furrier would have. This would have meant cutting the pelts into very narrow strips and sewing the strips closely together onto a fine netting. The spacing is close together so the netting isn't visible. Had I done that, it would have made the finished blanket lay flatter. It also gives fur pieces a softer drape and would have made it about twice as big . . . but it would have taken a lot longer to do. This project was a challenge, but what a thrill to see the finished product! I also made a pillow out of the scraps. Just had to!  ~ Nancy
My husband and I went to the fourth annual Roanoke Railroader, a contra dance weekend in Salem, Virginia. There were fourteen two-hour dance sessions between Thursday night and Sunday afternoon, with a potluck, roller skating (and contra dancing on roller skates!), hiking, mountain biking, and laser tag mixed in between.  There were three or four bands, and a DJ spinning pop music. Where our local dance may have thirty people dancing in one line, the Railroader in Salem had two hundred people dancing in four or five. There was often a "chaos line", where the "lady" and "gent" are really "lead" and "follow". Who's dancing which role changes often and shenanigans ensue, leading to a great t-shirt slogan: "Dance with who's comin' at ya!"  It's a good motto because everyone makes mistakes while dancing. They take the wrong step, get off the rhythm--my husband spun someone from the wrong line!--and you just have to keep going. All of this amid a whirl of skirts filling the room with color, cheers from the dancers for good music, the stomp of two hundred feet, and sooooo much laughter.  When my feet needed a rest, I sat down and enjoyed the music, while learning a couple of new board games with new friends and old. The majority of people came from within a couple of hours north or south--between Philadelphia and Wilmington, NC--but there were some from Oregon, and one couple from Australia.  We have to wait until next year for the fifth Railroader, but my husband and I are already looking forward to it, and to the Winter Dream in Dayton this January! ~ Kelly Nancy's nearly done with stripping the chair, but has discovered a few more interesting features of its construction that will help her in her reconstruction and reupholstering. Join her as she discovers the burlap support fabric, the spring rolls and the welting around the curved arms. Was the welting part of the original upholstery when the chair was first made? And why is she bagging up and saving all that nasty batting and padding? There's a good reason! (Note: If the video will not play for you, try clicking on the words "YouTube" in the bottom right corner of the video screen.) Nancy is undecided about saving those broken wings, and she'd love to hear your opinions, blog followers, because one of you will be winning this finished chair. Do you like the wings . . . or not? Don't forget . . . one of our blog followers will win this chair when the series is over and will even get to choose the fabric to cover it! Click here to follow our blog. I was poking through some old issues of Threads magazine today and found this great tip from Eleanor L. Shields in Santa Rosa, California. This tip was published in the June/July, 1990, issue . . . one that is long out of print . . . but what a clever hint it is. Next time I'm setting in a sleeve, I'm going to try this!  ~ Kathy My parents invited me to come along and see my father's mandolin teacher play at a contra dance back in 2005. At first I said "No." I loved dancing, but wouldn't know anyone there and would feel like a wall flower. Little did I know how that night would change my life!  First, a bit of an overview. Contra dancing, in a nut shell, is a form of dancing that goes back about 300 years. Generally there is a caller, a band and sets of dancers. If you've ever square danced, contra will make a lot of sense. Each person has a partner -- men ask women to dance and vice-versa -- and two pairs of partners form a set. The lady is always on the right. Sets of four stand in a line. The music repeats after sixty-four beats, with eight measures of eight beats. A band plays music you'd call "Bluegrass" or "Appalachian" -- sometimes "Celtic" is common.  The dance itself is made up of "figures," movements that usually take eight to sixteen beats to complete. The last figure will send one couple one direction along the line and another couple the other. At the end of the line, you get 64 beats of rest and then come back the other direction. The caller will announce the steps in order and will usually give a quick walk-through of each dance. After a dance finishes, people catch their breath , then find a new partner, and a new dance commences.  As you might have guessed, I did end up going to hear my father’s teacher play. I danced every dance, with everyone there, and met a wonderful new community of people. Of course, it wasn't a trouble-free experience; I had been smiling so much that my face was sore the whole next day -- I was hooked!  Eventually I became a volunteer for the dance in Harrisonburg, and one day danced for the first time with the man I would marry two years later. It's hard to imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't let my parents talk me into coming along that first night! ~ Kelly One of the most exciting and satisfying things about sewing is to have the perfect fabric (in my case, a "delicious" knit) in your favorite color (coral) AND to have found a great pattern to use! All of this came together for me this week while I was sewing EXCEPT as I finished the knit top, I realized it was too tight!! :( A knit top should softly snuggle you, but this was "snug" enough to show all my middle age lumps, bumps and flat tires. And this after CAREFULLY measuring AND taking care to only sew with the 1/4" seam allowance the pattern specified. So my happy moment suddenly became a huge disappointment, and I was discouraged. Well, of course I had to have a bit of a pity party. After I got over that, I put myself to work thinking through the problem and how I was going to resolve it. I looked at a few YouTube videos which weren't much help. I knew I needed an extra couple of inches inserted into the sides. The trick was to figure out what would look good. Then . . . it came to me!!! I had enough extra fabric to cut two long strips. I could ruche the two sides which would mimic the ruching at the neckline. Then the strips could be sewn into the sides. Eureka!!! Below are my strips after using the differential feed on the serger on both sides. I cut 2-1/4" strips. I still needed more gathering for the impact, so I pulled the needle threads to get the desired look.  Below is my gathered/ruched strip pinned to the side of my top. I chose to carry the strip all the way to the bottom edge of the sleeve. I did this for two reasons: 1. it makes it easier to install the strip, and 2. the sleeves were tight as well! I also increased my seam allowance to about 3/8" to cover up any stitching from my gathers.  Here is my ruched side!
And here it is with sides folded to the front for the picture.  YAY!!! And now I am happy again. It's painful, but sometimes happy accidents or creative thinking out of desperate necessity produce an even better end result. Now my top fits great and looks more interesting than the original pattern. ~ Sylvia I've begun the process of removing the upholstery from the chair. I wanted to give you a view of what I found and of the kinds of notes I make as I go. One thing that I realized after I did the last video is that it might have been helpful to you if I had mentioned where to begin. Typically, it's easiest to begin by loosening the pieces from the bottom of the chair. Often this is the last place that each piece is attached. They're not all tacked at the same time, but as the front is put in place, the bottom will be the last place where it is attached to the chair. This is a good place to start removing tacks. For this chair, the bottom was already loose because the chair had a skirt around the bottom. I started by removing what is usually the last piece to be attached to the chair: the outside of the back.  The outside of the back was hand sewn to the other upholstery pieces along the sides, following the frame of the chair. I'm not looking forward to that step of reconstruction, but I know that's going to be the way it will be fastened in place. The upper edge was tacked through a thin strip of cardboard. The cardboard gave the upper edge of the back a sharp, straight fold that didn't gap between the tacks. I knew there were buttons through the front of the back. I could see them before I began the tearing apart. What I didn't know was how the buttons were attached. I have taken a picture so you can see what I discovered. I will use this photo and my notes as I reconstruct the chair.  I also discovered that the wing piece is attached before the outside of the arm. The piece of fabric that will cover the outside of the wing also wraps around to the back. The bottom edge of that piece will be covered by the top edge of the outer arm piece. You can see in this photo the fold at the top of the outer arm piece. You can also see that the outer arm piece is shorter than the piece that covers the wing. The sewing line follows the wood frame from bottom to top, but there is a bit of padding under the back of the wing that required the fabric to be longer and to be pulled in farther on the frame.  I've attached a photo of the notes that I've made so that I can reconstruct the chair. I'm a bit old fashioned, maybe, but I find that while photos are helpful, my notes do even more. Taking notes requires me to be more thoughtful about how things are put together. I can add small details that are sometimes difficult to see in photos, as you can see from the second photo here. Notes make me stop and think, to consider how the pieces fit together and the order of construction. You can see that I don't worry too much about neatness or sentence structure, and my drawings aren't very good. This is a reminder, and it will include some extra details that won't show in a photo. I'm not suggesting that taking photos isn't important . . . just that photos might not be enough. This is especially true if, for some reason, this project gets put on the back burner and doesn't get finished quickly. The longer you need to remember the information, the more valuable the note as well as the photos will be. Please continue to watch. There will be another video in this series soon! ~Nancy  Here's a helpful hint from a Ragtime customer, Donna Lane: "I was tired of my stylus "running away and hiding" from me. Solution: Self-stick hook-and-loop dots! I just stuck one half on the front of my machine and the other half on the stylus. No more searching for a runaway stylus!" "Now if I could just find all the other things that hide from me." Have you ever wondered why Belle likes to burn fabrics? To the average person it might look like she just likes setting fabrics on fire but in fact she is doing a burn test. Burn tests are the best way to find out what fibers might be in a fabric. We get a lot of closeout fabrics here at Ragtime and don’t always receive the fiber content. A burn test helps us to conclude what the fiber is. Burn tests are not 100% conclusive, but they help tremendously in determining what fibers are in a fabric. A burn test will help us tell if the fabric is natural or synthetic. Each fiber has a different color, smell and ash. Using all three helps us fine-tune our assessment of what the fiber content might be. Unfortunately with blends, we will not be able to tell you percentages of fibers, but we can tell you what type of fibers are in the blend. We are attaching a link from Threads magazine of a burn test if you wish to try it at home. The printable guide is a great resource. https://www.threadsmagazine.com/2013/06/20/how-to-identify-fabrics-with-a-burn-test
Helpful Burn Charts from the Domestic Geek Girl Blog. ~ Kelly
Several times a week, sometimes more than once a day, we have customers asking for advice on how much fabric to purchase when they are reupholstering a piece of furniture. Rarely, of course, do they drag the furniture into the store! Usually, we get a verbal description ("It's a sofa, kind of long. Well, not super long, but not a love seat.") and not very accurate measurements ("Uh, I don't know, maybe 6 feet?"). As you can imagine, it's tough to give estimates under those conditions! Even if we ask detailed questions ("Are the cushions attached or separate? Is there a skirt around the bottom? Fully upholstered or wood showing?") . . . even if we show some line drawings of basic furniture shapes . . . even if the customer has a picture on her phone to show us. We have found a website, however, that includes color, detailed pictures of a huge variety of furniture!  Don't let the word leather stop you . . . this website's estimates work for upholstery fabrics, too. They have illustrations and estimates for lots of chairs . . .
And for lots of styles and lengths of sofas and loveseats . . .
Even sectionals!  As well as stools, hassocks, and benches . . . curved banquette, anyone?
You can even print out color copies of their upholstery estimate guides to use when you're fabric shopping. (Yup, we've printed them out to use here at the store.) Or pull them up on your phone while you're shopping.  This useful website is provided by the Leather Hide Store in North Carolina. Click here to access it. Here we are again with our Victim Chair! It's finally time to start disassembling the old fabric covering and all the innards underneath. Doing it systematically and using the right tools will not only make the job easier, it will also pay off later when we are replacing the old upholstery with the new padding and fabric. Join Nancy as she shows you the tools that she likes to use as well as her methods for keeping track as she removes each section of fabric and padding. (Note: If the video will not play for you, try clicking on the words "YouTube" in the bottom right corner of the video screen.) Don't forget . . . one of our blog followers will win this chair when the series is over and will even get to choose the fabric to cover it! Click here to follow our blog.
A rare sighting of an endangered species -- Belle working at the serger! LOL!  It's so cute to see how hard she's concentrating!
You've decided on an upholstered piece to refurbish, and you're ready to begin the project. Demo Day, right? Should you just jump in and start tearing off the fabric and everything that's underneath it? Or are there a few things to consider before you begin the demolition? (Note: If the video will not play for you, try clicking on the words "YouTube" in the bottom right corner of the video screen.) Don't forget . . . one of our blog followers will win this chair when the series is over and will even get to choose the fabric to cover it! Click here to follow our blog.
You've found (or been offered) a piece of furniture that looks like it has potential, but boy, does it ever need a make-over! Your imagination goes into overdrive . . . you could turn this piece into a show stopper! All it needs is some love! Some new fabric, some foam, a staple gun. How hard could it be . . . right??? Ok, so how DO you decide if this piece is worth refurbishing and reupholstering? (Note: If the video will not play for you, try clicking on the words "YouTube" in the bottom right corner of the video screen.) Don't forget . . . one of our blog followers will win this chair when the series is over and will even get to choose the fabric to cover it! Click here to follow our blog.
Ragtime was closed to commemorate Independence Day, and some of us found each other in downtown Harrisonburg in the afternoon. The Farmer's Market pavilion was bustling with vendors and visitors all celebrating the 4th of July on Wednesday.
The food trucks were all out in force with their delicious offerings. Mmmmm, the paella! the gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches! the gelato!
There was a classic car show going on in the adjacent parking lot. Ted Tallent's 1932 Ford pick-up truck was on display. When Ted built this hot rod, he covered the bench seat with leather he found at Ragtime!
Belle's grandson Gavin found Ted's truck very tempting. That leather seat was pretty comfortable for this new driver!   I have simple traditions: the Christmas Baked Olive Cheese Balls and English Trifle, New Year's Day hikes, a "Happy Birthday!" banner I string across the fireplace when celebrating a loved one's special day. One of my few 4th Of July traditions is to attend the Celebrate America! performance. The show is held at Harrisonburg High School every July 3. The Shenandoah Valley Choral Society joins with the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Concert Band to share their musical talents with our community. The theme of the evening is remembrance and honor of our heritage through ballads, folk songs, show tunes and patriotic numbers. As I observe the performers, my heart swells with appreciation for each neighbor on the stage, sharing his and her talents in such a lovely manner. I love music, most genres, and always the selections I hear at the annual concert. This year, among my favorites: "Nine Hundred Miles," "It Had To Be You" and "Moon River". However, the highlight of the evening is always the salute to the veterans in the audience. As the band and Choral Society play the anthem of each respective branch, veterans and active members stand and are applauded by the audience. Some stand at attention, others are more subdued, but they all seem to appreciate the applause and the waving flags. And, every year, I shed a tear or two as my heart swells with respect and gratitude for the dedication and sacrifice of each member and their families. Then, the band plays, "Stars And Stripes Forever"......... Thank you for your service, thank you for my freedoms, and may God bless America!  When it was first suggested to him by his wife that Belle needed a sewing machine mechanic and that he was just the man for the job, Dave says he just broke up laughing at the absurdity of such an idea. Not him! He was into the manly stuff: power tools! electricity! mechanics!  Wait . . . sewing machines are mechanical power tools that use electricity, right? So Dave took a look at the guts of his wife's sewing machine and became intrigued. Long story short, and Baby Lock technical training behind him now, Dave tackles whatever sewing machine challenges we throw at him from check-ups to broken parts. What does a sewing machine mechanic do in his off-time? Plays with vintage cars, that's what! Specifically, a 1979 Trans Am that was originally his dad's driver.  As you can see, Dave keeps that baby in tip-top condition, cosmetically and mechanically. Dave has 3 grown kids: Danielle, David and Jenna. Jenna's in Florida, but Danielle and David live locally and have provided him with a couple of grandsons, Garrett who is 16 and Parker who is just one.  Parker -- 4th generation Trans Am driver! When he's not wrestling with sewing machines at Ragtime, Dave works at Rocking R Ace Hardware on High Street. He waits on customers and repairs power tools there. Next time you're in Rocking R, check out the guys in the red shirts. One of them may have just recently fixed your sewing machine!  Yep -- Dave's one of those Rocking R guys!
Nancy has a great idea for our blog and for our customers: an upholstery video tutorial series!  Looks pretty hopeless, doesn't it? This piece of furniture has had a hard life and could easily have ended up at the dump, but Nancy rescued it recently. Shall we revive it? What kinds of materials, tools and skills will be needed? How complicated a project will this be? We're going to post step-by-step videos of the project over the next few weeks. At the end of the project, the newly refurbished chair will be won by a lucky Ragtime customer. To be eligible for the drawing, you only need to be a blog follower! In fact, once we near the end, we'll choose the winner who will then be given the opportunity to choose the fabric that will cover the chair. If you win, you'll get a new piece that will fit right into your home decor. Talk about dedication! Even with a broken foot, Shellie's still coming to work. Thanks, Shellie! Keep that foot elevated!  |
Our Ragtime Staff
|
