Yuki Clothing

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Category Archives: Misc


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Finished bedspread

It’s been over a month ago since I first told you about the bedspread made of recycled denim. I’m now happy to tell you that it’s finally finished! For about two to three weeks I’ve been thinking “this will finally be the day when I finish it” but no, no, it always takes longer than I expected. However, yesterday was the day :D

When I got to making the back side of the bedspread I went to the store to buy some denim. That part went well. I usually pre-wash all fabrics but I just didn’t feel like pre-washing and ironing 8m of heavy denim. Feeling lazy, I just cut the fabric pieces that I needed and start ironing them. After a while I looked at my hands and realized that karma just punched me right in face. Saying I looked like a Smurf might be a slight exaggeration but let’s just say that I really needed to wash the fabric.

Washing means shrinkage and that was something I hadn’t taken into account when I cut the fabric. Sure, I did cut some extra but nowhere near the 5% needed. Fortunately there were just enough fabric left after washing it twice in cold water and stretching it afterwards. *phew*

At first I had planned on adding a 10cm border around the entire bedspread in the same denim as the one I used for the back. However, I decided to add a smaller border (~1cm) instead. It looked just as good and quite frankly, easier to sew. So I got to use my bias binding maker for the first time and it worked like a charm – even on the thick denim!

Now that I’ve finished this project it’s about time I started working on my pattern grading skills and grade the pattern for the Tamoto dress.


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Bedspread – a work in progress

My latest project is actually a recycling project where I’ve used 25 pair of old jeans and cut them into squares. Since I didn’t have this many old jeans myself, a bunch of friends came to my rescue and donated trousers that were either ragged or too small (a huge thanks guys!). When I first got this brilliant idea, I never stopped to think about just how many squares I needed to cut and sew together. I only knew that I wanted them to be around 10x10cm. Later on, when I had cut out around 50 squares and wanted to know how many I actually needed, I finally did the maths… I wanted a 2,5×2,5m bedspread which resulted in a staggering 625 squares! But since I don’t like giving up, I just kept on cutting and finally ended up with this.

Yay, now it looks like mini fabric skyscrapers! :D

Yay, now it looks like mini fabric skyscrapers! :D

When it was time to actually start sewing I decided to sort all the different jeans into one stack each. That way it would be easier to distribute them evenly across the bedspread. That tactic worked well and an hour later, I had 25 stacks on my table with each stack containing 25 squares.

All 25 pair of jeans, neatly sorted.

All 25 pair of jeans, neatly sorted.

My first approach to sewing everything together was to sew one row at a time and then sew the rows together. The only problem with that idea was that I had a hard time lining up the seams perfectly. This prompted me to try a new approach that focused more on the fact that it’s squares I’m stitching together. Two squares on the first row are sewn together and then two on the second row. The those four squares are then sewn together. Hopefully the picture explains it a bit better. I have absolutely no idea if that’s how quilters does it or if there’s a better way but it’s working out alright for me.

I had hoped that I would’ve been able to show you a finished project by now, but that’s not the case. Never in my life would I have guessed that making this bedspread would take this much time. Clearly I’ve underestimated my opponent. Not only have my patience and sanity taken a toll during this tiresome project, but two  needles have lost their lives in tragic accidents.

A victim of the bedspread!

A victim of the bedspread!

And this is all I’ve got to show you today. Not many squares left to put together, which is good because I’m running out of thread! :O


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Leather Pincushion

I’m proud to present my latest invention – the washable hand pincushion with a leather base! Before I present all the lovely ideas behind this pincushion I feel it’s only appropriate to talk about the first version before I give it a proper burial in the trash bin.

When I started sewing clothes more seriously a couple of years ago, it didn’t take long before I realized I needed a pincushion that I could wear on my hand. Just sticking the pincushion on the wrist would’ve worked but it wasn’t good enough. I wanted the cushion to be closer to my (right) working hand to minimize the distance my hand needed to travel to pick up a pin. Surely that should speed things up a bit. That was when I came up with the first prototype of the hand pincushion.

R.I.P. my faithful old pincushion.

R.I.P. my faithful old pincushion.

I cut out a piece of cardboard paper the size of my hand as a base (we wouldn’t want the pin to go through and hit the hand, now would we). Some leftover fabric from my grey shirt was turned into a casing. Two straps were added, one fixed size and one with sewed on velcro. Then all it needed was some stuffing and a seam to close the whole thing up. It has served me well for years but it didn’t take long for it to get dirty (unfortunately ladies got hand sweat as well). Only problem was that cardboard paper doesn’t do well with water… Clearly I needed something that could handle washing up.

My list of requirements:

  • The base should be tough so that I don’t accidentally pin myself
  • It should be attached to the hand, not the wrist
  • It needs to be washable
  • The fabric on top may not be too dense. It should be easy to put the pins in the cushion
  • Easy to take on and off

For the first requirement, I decided that some medium thick leather should do the trick. It would be thick enough for the pins not to go through but still flexible enough to follow the hand. Of course, leather also gets dirty but it doesn’t “soak” it up the same way fabric does. This means it shouldn’t need washing that often. No cardboard paper means that it’s washable but do we really need to wash everything? I think not! That’s why I’ve added a removable inner cushion and of course a zipper to enable the removal. When closed, the slider of the zipper is facing out, away from the wearer so that it’s not in the way.

Peek-a-boo! There's the hidden inner cushion.

Peek-a-boo! There’s the hidden inner cushion.

As for fabric choices, I went with a very thin fabric for the inner cushion. You barely feel any resistance as you pierce it with a pin! Since I was so pleased with the grey fabric, I decided to continue using it for the outside fabric. I also liked the velcro fastening on the first version so I decided to keep that as well.

 


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Yarn Basket

For Christmas, my mum gave me these beautiful balls of yarn! The plan is to turn them into a scarf (hopefully this winter and not the next but I’m a slow knitter so we’ll see about that). Of course I want somewhere to store the yarn while I’m working so I made these yarn baskets. One for me, and one for my mum.

The fabrics I used was some scraps that I had lying around in my fabric stash. The striped one is some left-over from the boat curtains and the flower print is something I got from mum. Not really certain, but I think it might originally come from my grandma’s curtains.  I like how you can tie up the basket and bring everything with you without worrying about things falling out.

Ready for transportation!


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Fabric scraps and gift wrapping

First of all, I’d like to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy holidays!

One thing I’ve always liked about Christmas is wrapping gifts. Every year since I was a kid, I used to spend hours wrapping up the gifts. I enjoy that almost as much as receiving gifts myself ;)

For those of you who are doing some last-minute shopping or haven’t wrapped up your gifts already, I’ve got a quick and easy tip. Use some old fabric scraps to wrap them! If the cloth piece is large enough, use it as wrapping paper or just use it as ribbon.I really like how the string on the front gift resembles and obijime and the green fabric scrap an obi sash on top of the Christmasy “kimono” (a.k.a. regular wrapping paper).