Camping Flannel

I bought this cute flannel with camping icons on it from Joanns.  I decided to use my go-to pattern, Simplicity 8427.  I also decided to dig into my sewing machine stash and use my Bel-Air Bantam to sew this shirt.  The Bel-Air Bantam is a Singer 99 clone( 3/4 size machine), but made of aluminum so it is only 12 pounds.

Camping flannel

Bel Air Bantam

I used my vintage Singer buttonholer, a $3 thrift store find.

I was asked how I align my plaids.

First, I do not fold the fabric for the front and back pieces.  For the front, I cut a single layer and flip the pattern over to cut the other front.  I use a rotary cutter and a ruler to get straight cuts.

right front

left front

For the back, I cut one side, remembering not to cut the side that says "place on fold".  Then flip the pattern and finish cutting.

I line up the bottom of the patterns with the same line.

left rear

right rear

arms

I fold the fabric for everything else.

yoke cut on angle

This shirt has flat-fell seams in the armholes, but I serged the sides.

Front

Back

Thanks for stopping.

Rock Around the Block, part two

I realized when looking at my last blog, I had not explained I was using the strip piecing technique to make the checker blocks.  This cuts down sewing and cutting a lot.

With strip piecing, long strips are sewn together, then cut into small pieces to sew back together.

Sew strips of background and color together

Cut 1 1/2" pieces off strips to sew together for checker block

Add triangles and rectangles to make blocks

Sew different colors together to make large block

After adding sashing and borders this is the quilt top.

Now it is ready for quilting.

Thanks for stopping.