We're joined today by guest Paige Plihal a soloist, fabric DIYer, and educator who has some fabulously fun techniques for us.

We'll start off by dyeing a cutter quilt in an indigo bath, and move on to installing zippers and working with bulky seams.

And in the end, we'll have a wonderful belt bag that's stylish and can bring new life to unsalvageable quilts.

Stay tuned, because this is an episode of Love of Quilting.

You won't want to miss funding for love of Quilting is provided by.

The Bernina 990.

If it can be imagined, it can be created.

APQS Longarm quilting machines allow you to express your creativity.

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Panasonic, maker of the 360 degree freestyle cordless iron, magic quilting and crafting collection, ironing sprays, and more.

Hey there.

Welcome to the 4700 series of Love of Quilting.

I'm Sara Gallegos and with me today is a very special guest, Paige Plihal.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I'm so excited.

Paige is a soloist and a dye artist and instructor.

And today we get to have a little bit of fun with some indigo dyes.

I can't wait.

I'm really excited to work with you on this.

Yeah.

So tell me about your dyeing process and what we're going to create today.

So today we're going to work with a cutter quilt to do a little bit of indigo.

Today I've used pre reduced indigo.

This is packaged.

That takes a lot of the guesswork out of working with a dye.

So you get all of your chemicals and everything together, pop it in a bucket.

We don't have to mess with fermenting or keeping the pot a specific temperature too much.

Just really makes it very simple to do in an afternoon.

So it sounds like this would be a really great place to start if someone's just curious about getting into dyeing.

It's a really great starting place for putting your toe in the water.

I love it.

Okay, so you mentioned that you're working with a cutter quilt.

What do you mean by that?

A cutter quilt is something that we would think is beyond saving.

You know, it's a quilt that has seen a lot of you, some love.

Maybe it has some really severe staining or some holes that are just there's too many to repair and give it life as what it was intended for.

So we want to repurpose it and create something new that we will use.

Yeah, it's really neat.

Cool.

Okay, so you've got your piece here, right?

It's adorable, by the way.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So this is a beautiful vintage quilt from a friend's grandma, and she gave us our blessing and was thrilled to see it used.

We're just going to get it nice and wet.

We want to let it sit in some warm water for a few minutes.

About 2 to 3 minutes or ten would be great.

We're just going to let it get really fully, deeply saturated.

And there's nothing in the water.

It's just warm water.

Just warm water.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

So now we've got a piece that's already wet.

And so we're going to talk about what would come next with the dye.

Right.

We'd made about, like you said, ten minutes to sew.

But now I'm ready for the gloves okay.

Of course, my hands are wet, so I'm ready while I put them on right.

So we've got some nice tall dish gloves, and we're just going to come over to the indigo that that I prepared.

You do want to give it an hour or so to set after mixing everything, and we're going to give it just a little gentle stir to bring what is called the flower.

You can kind of see some of this shimmering on the surface.

So we're going to try and bring that to the center and remove it every indigo that is a little bit different.

And sometimes we can just kind of shove it aside.

I think today I'm not seeing a lot of sediment in here, so I think that is what I'll do.

We're always stirring in the same direction and then moving really slowly.

We want to avoid introducing much air to the mat.

And just as air is kind of the enemy of indigo.

Okay, let me grab my wet piece.

And this was sitting on set for covered with a blanket over everything to keep everything nice and warm and nice and warm.

Yeah, this is a great project for a hot day.

Oh it doesn't.

It does not have to stay fully hot, but we definitely want it to stay above like 65.

So now I'm just going to take my wet fabric and slowly start to submerge it.

And again I'm doing this really carefully to avoid introducing extra air to the that.

And what does happen if there is extra air in it?

So it will just mess up the pitch or the balance of your event.

And so we'll need to add some more chemicals for urea or in the sodium hydroxide sulfate to help balance it.

There is soda ash in here as well okay.

Both of those things come with the kit.

Or you can buy them separately and do and measure if you're doing all larger.

Okay.

So we've got a little bit of science involved here.

Yes.

But it's also a very forgiving science.

It's really fun to explore.

And I'm trying to keep the fabric under the surface of the water.

My hands are also not moving very much, and I'm just helping to work everything through the fibers so that they get really nice and saturated.

You.

So Paige has spent the last 2 or 3 minutes just like really patiently kind of massaging the dye into the fibers.

And I just can't wait to see what comes out.

So what's really interesting about Indigo is that as you pull it out, it's actually going to match more of the shade of my gloves rather than being a nice deep blue.

And we're going to as we start to pull it out, we're kind of squeezing the excess dye back into the water as well.

Again, just trying to limit any splashing and error reduction.

Wow.

You'll see, it's like this bright neon green, so don't freak out if yours is not blue yet.

Right.

So through oxidization so that that process of being exposed to air, that's when we start to see that change in the blue.

And so this is why we're so protective of our van as well.

Yeah.

So you can see we've got this bright neon green over here.

And as we open it up it will start to get a little bit deeper and just you can repeat this process a couple times to get the level of intensity of dye that you'd like.

So this is going to be a little bit lighter blue because it was just a few minutes okay.

You don't have to rinse in between or anything.

And you can you reuse this fat then.

Or is this one done now.

This will stay good for about a week without any without any extra adjustment.

If it starts to become weak, sometimes you need to balance it out by adding a little bit more of either of the chemicals that help it to stay alive, interesting, or a little bit of warm water.

It's a little bit of science and a little experimentation.

Have you done this with your kids at all?

Oh yes.

I think so.

It would be really fun.

I think it's a great project for kids, and especially when they bring home clothes that are stained from school or something.

Right.

And I love it.

Repurpose it.

Yeah.

We'll create.

Okay.

So now what we're going to do is we're going to take away our buckets here and get ready for sewing.

So we've reset for sewing here.

And it's taken us probably about ten minutes or so.

And it's kind of fascinating to see what has happened to our dyed piece here.

It's already such a beautiful deep, rich indigo.

And you can see some of this shimmery fermenting that's on top.

So lovely.

Really pretty.

So what we've got here is an example of what it looks like after you've washed and laundered it.

Right.

So is there anything special we need to do when we wash and dry it?

You know, if you have done any tying or pattern, make pattern work.

You're going to rinse it while it's already tied and then take it apart, rent some more and toss in the washing machine.

I do like to use like a neutral detergent.

Okay.

That that's kind of important to check, but it's really fun.

We were just talking about how you can really see the scalloped edge and the pickle dishes.

And then of course, we've you've cut quite a few pieces out here.

So you end up with like use as much as you can and you've got a little cut up swatches here.

So I can think of a lot of really fun little crafty things you could do.

Right?

So many more things.

So what we're going to create today is this adorable little dough bag.

Share a little bit about that with us.

Yeah, this is a beautiful little belt bag.

We've got a nice snap to close, a small pocket with a zip installed so you can drop some things in there, a second pocket on the inside, and then this nice neat pouch.

And I actually used this yesterday traveling and really loved it.

It was a nice way to keep all the things handy you need right there.

Yeah, it's really adorable.

So what do we begin with?

Let's start with the zipper.

Okay, I know sometimes this feels like a little bit of a challenge, especially with like, a metal industrial zipper.

Right.

So we've just got a zipper foot on the machine.

We made sure that we moved the needle all the way over.

And then we're going to start by pinning together.

I'm going to put my zipper on right here and open it up okay, okay.

And then I'm also going to take the matching piece and lay it down.

So I've just created this little bit of a sandwich.

And you basically have it right side together.

Right.

So that the, the right side of the lining is touching the right side of the exterior.

Exactly.

And that's a great way to check is I'll put my first pin in maybe or my first little clip and turn it and just me okay.

Yes.

This is the direction I want it to go.

I do also like to hold to the zipper up to my body and think about which way I might want to unzip the pouch.

If you remember it.

Sometimes you don't, but it's it makes a little bit of a difference in how you're using.

They're using the functional as you're racing through an airport.

Yes, exactly.

So we're just going to layer all of that in right there okay.

So I've got all three pieces and take that little extra time just to get everything clipped in straight.

So you've got your zipper and your two pieces all perfectly aligned on the edge.

Exactly.

And we're going to take the bring this over and place it right underneath the foot.

Great.

So you just start stitching, Yes.

We're going to put that foot down.

Go ahead and give it a little start.

Backstitch.

To really securing those stitches.

And you're going to be pulling at the zipper as you open and close it.

Yes.

So we want to really just use the foot to guide you along as you're going and sometimes stop.

And we need to adjust the layers a little bit.

And the zipper foot typically comes with your sewing machine.

And it's got a left and a right side that the needle can be in.

So you can just run the edge of that foot.

It's real narrow right up against those zipper teeth, and it just gives you a perfectly straight stitching next to the zipper.

Yes, I'm going to pause right here and try and close this zipper.

Sometimes that's a little easier said than done, right?

With all of these layers.

But oh, there we go.

Beautiful.

I've tried through.

So to get that out of the way now the zipper pull.

Yes.

And we'll just finish that off almost to the end.

Backstitch to secure.

All right.

Excellent.

So we have got that ready.

And then we can give it a really quick press okay.

On to the other side.

Great.

Is there a certain type of thread that you like to use for this.

You know I will use an all purpose or a simple like silk finish.

Cotton is sometimes nice too, if we want the thread to be really contrasting and popping and beautiful.

Oh, so you could really use as a decorative accent?

Yes.

Just something that's going to be sturdy.

Exactly.

You could also use, you know, a decorative stitch in your machine along a zipper to keep it down.

We are going to do one more pass at the end of top stitching.

Once we get the other side down to how's that?

That looks beautiful.

That's a nice little.

All right.

So we're going to do the same thing on the other side.

It's going to oh we will hide that in the flat top when I sew it together.

That's the really nice thing about these quotes though too, is that they give you a lot of grace in working with some of the different unique qualities of a of a cutter quilt.

Sure.

Yeah.

We just kind of saw a little bit of a slash in the fabric there.

So she flipped the piece over because it will be able to be, you know, kind of accounted for in one of the other seams.

So I'm to not worry.

Now that I have that in place, I'm going to zip it up in a little bit.

I'm just going to change my needle position over to the right.

There we go.

And because my zipper tape is now on the right side, I'm going to place this under the machine again.

Use my fingers to just kind of find that zipper shape.

I like how you're lowering the needle just to kind of anchor everything together to before.

Like while you're still adjusting before you start to stitch.

Yeah, that's one of my number one tips when I am teaching is, you know, put your put your needle down and it gives you a lot more room to adjust.

Exactly.

And page moved the needle over to the right.

So we're now using that other side of the foot.

It's still really narrow.

And we can just run right alongside the zipper.

Yes.

And I'm keeping my fingers right over here to make sure that I'm still in line, because I can't see it as much through a quilt.

Yes.

And if you've never played with your zipper foot before, it's just a little small pouch.

It's a great place to start so we can try for for a first time, maybe dying and putting a zipper into a project to a great big challenge.

Like, and honestly, these aren't too challenging.

They're just new.

Great.

You know, we have all of the tools to do it and we can make it a little bit easier on ourselves.

Yeah, we're using a little bit smaller machine here because it's really great for travel.

So even though I've got a big machine at home, I do keep it a little bit smaller.

One that I can take to classes and such and, retreats and even those smaller machines oftentimes come with a lot of really fun accessories like your zipper foot and buttonhole foot.

Yes.

Yeah, this one would be this project.

And this machine would both be great for, group sewing day.

Right?

Conquering some of those things and with the with an indigo that, you know, you can you can dye quite a few pieces.

You could do a full quilt or, you know, 10 to 15 t shirts.

So you can get a lot of dye, get together with your friends and have a little dyeing party.

Yes.

And there we go.

Okay.

All right.

So another process.

Okay.

Oh, look at that.

So pretty.

I like how your zipper contrasts with the fabric so nicely.

I really love red and blue together.

I mean complementary colors.

And just then you've got the purple on the other one.

Really nice.

Lots of options.

Okay.

There you go.

All right.

So now we're going to do a quick top stitch.

Oh I took the whole set off.

This machine has a very quick change but it's just that little plate.

All right.

So I'm going to just do a little top stitch right down the center.

So we're just back to the basic sewing.

But for that little bit of top stitching yes I'm choosing to align it right there with the edge of my indigo okay.

So again I'm using like this contrasting thread.

This would be a good time to maybe try a decorative stitch, or if your machine came with them.

And opening the zipper kind of helps you get in there a little easier.

It really does.

It removes any of the bulk.

And you know, I can just focus on the one side.

I will use the table to kind of hold the other.

So I'm not getting stuck as right as the dogs try to advance it, but this one's visible.

So take your time and utilize that edge of the foot for even consistent spacing of your stitching.

Exactly.

It's pants and zip up.

Get it out of the way.

And you backstitch at the end of the top stitch to I like to again, it's going to get all put together and probably it's unnecessary.

But this is such a high stress point on the bag that extra security is never a bad idea.

All right.

So I'll just do that other side again.

And then we will be ready to start putting her back together.

And since we're on a center needle straight stitch, she was able just to keep sewing in the same direction on the bag.

Just use the other side of the foot as that.

Even spacing from the zipper exactly right.

Needle down can use the use the button or the hand crank to do it.

Just lift that foot up out of the way to compose the zipper exactly.

Love that red thread on there.

Such a nice addition.

Definitely would have been nice to audition some of the cool stitches, but then try that.

I beg to play with your decorative stitches.

Definitely beautiful.

There we go.

Easy to open and close.

Zipper.

Great.

All right, so next you said we get to put a pocket in.

Yes.

So here we do a feature that I use a lot I'm primarily a garment.

So so I'm going to do a bar tack.

And then you can switch from that right over to your straight stitch without needing to move anything around.

So I'm just going to place this right here and let the machine go.

And that vertex just a little skinny zigzag, right?

Yeah.

Kind of like what you would see it to attach the button or the belt loops on your pants.

So it's just an option on this machine already in there.

It's done it.

And now I can just switch back to a straight stitch and place my inner pocket.

Oh, that's really neat.

And I noticed that it went forward, backward, forward.

So it's doing the extra zigzag and stitching over itself a couple times.

So if you've ever had a pocket that the stitching kind of started to loosen up on the corners as you kept putting things in and out of it, it's a great tip.

Yes.

And it gives you just a really nice, super clean.

You can also sometimes you can adjust the settings to make it a little bit longer, or if you're using a different kind of thread or a different application all there.

Yeah.

Let's do a little pivot come to the end and we'll do one more.

So you just stop with the needle down and pick the other stitch and keep on going.

Exactly.

That's really neat.

I go scroll down, here we are.

And then I can just push the start stop button and it will do it for me.

Oh that's really neat.

All right.

Great.

There we go.

So we've got two little bar tacks and we are ready to start building a bag.

Let's take a little peek at those.

So just right on the corners there it's done that little forward backward forward.

And yeah really secure.

It looks like right here.

Maybe we could have used, a tool to help with the leveling.

This is an inside pocket.

I'm not going to be too fussed about it.

And I'm going to talk about that tool and the next step.

Excellent.

Okay, so what can I get for you now here.

All right.

So let's take all of the pieces of our bag okay.

And that was just an extra.

So we'll pull this together okay.

Oh and we do need the webbing.

So we've got some lemming and a buckle.

We won't use the buckle just yet okay.

So what size webbing is this?

This is one inch.

And then you just want to make sure that you're using the same hardware that, it's the same with was your buckle.

So that it's going to be nice and sticky I'm going to cut let's say like 30in right here.

And that might be a little bit extra, but then it gives you like some room, whether you want to wear it as a crossbody or around your bag, around your waist.

And then the other one, I am going to cut just a little bit shorter.

I'll cut that at 14 because this is going to be the non adjustable anchor.

So we do have like this is a total of 45in you know it gives you a little you can add a little bit more or less okay.

So we've got the short one over here that's not adjustable.

And the long one here okay.

That makes sense actually.

All right.

So number one we're going to just roll the extra length of our webbing up.

And I like to just put a clip on it.

And this way we don't get any we don't catch it.

We have.

So it doesn't belong.

Exactly.

It's a good idea.

Yes, I have, I have maybe have learned from experience that happened one time, a time or two.

Just.

Yeah.

So I mean, you do eventually know because it's going to add a little bit of thickness but.

Right.

Yes.

All right.

So we've got.

All right.

Inside pocket is formed with this okay.

And then we're also going to attach this pocket okay okay.

And then we have our outer.

And that is going to come right here.

So we've already made the flap closure.

And there's a little bit of a snap on there.

Yeah.

And you can follow the instructions for that.

So now we'll show you how to put the whole thing together.

Yes.

So I've got this all together.

And then what I'm going to do is just kind of make sure that I'm lined up nice.

We're sewing so many layers together here that you really want to take the time to make sure they're all lined up, because you're not going to be able to see them as you go, right?

Right.

Or adjust.

So we could also baste along the top of this.

I think for today, I will I will skip on that because I've made this bag a few times.

But if it is your first time, I would definitely recommend that.

Just anchor everything together with a little basting stitch.

Yes.

So then we're going to put our webbing in.

And we want that to come a half inch from the top okay okay.

So we're just going to take a quick second to arrange our pieces and do a little stitching.

And we'll be right back.

So you've stitched the lining all the way around.

And now you're about ready to stitch the exterior of the bag.

Yes I am.

So I've got the webbing clipped in about a half inch below have absolutely old I think it is okay.

It's below our seam allowance.

So.

So we're going to take this over to the machine.

I still got everything clipped in together, so I'm not sewing anything that I would not want to do.

And this is a little bit thick.

And so you can see that my foot is at a little bit of an angle.

So what I'm going to do is bury my needle and I'm going to pull out this little tool.

It comes with most machines.

It's called a compensation plate.

Right.

And what you want to do to get the angle of your foot to a perfect horizontal is we're just going to place it right at the back.

Sometimes I need to push it a little bit further back.

If I'm backstitching, these machines are really strong and they can go through the plastic.

So and we're ready to go.

So if you've ever wondered why those little plastic plates come with your machine, now you see it.

Because when you start sewing at a really steep angle like that, the machine has a hard time getting up over the mountain and stitching down.

Yes.

And you have all of these different levels so that if you have a lot of layers, you can adjust the height of it so that it really brings the foot right up where it's supposed to go.

Okay.

So now we're just going to stitch around the three sides of the exterior of that.

Yes.

And we're going to do a little bit of backstitching at the webbing again because this is such a high stress point okay.

All right.

And just go right through it.

And I'm also going to stop and push my zipper ends together right here to a little bit just to keep it look really nice.

Right.

You've got two separate pieces.

And as the machine is moving the fabric through, it kind of wants to pull them apart.

So if you can kind of keep those together with your fingers or with a stiletto or whatever works for you.

Yes.

This stiletto would have been a great tool.

So what kind of a needle do you typically use when you're going through thick layers like this?

Something like this I would use at least like an 8012, maybe even a 9014.

You know, we start to introduce the webbing and we want to have a really nice sharp tip to sharp.

Yeah.

Sharp and durable.

So this is where maybe like a denim needle would work.

Even though we're not sewing denim, it would be a great tool because it's going to meet those needs right there.

I'm also going to stop and move my zipper pull out of the way.

And the same thing right here.

And I just remember that I'm going to try and hold those together.

All right.

So I'm just going to go really slowly over this zipper, keeping my fingers and making sure that we're not hitting any of the metal parts.

Yeah.

This is really important because we've got a metal zipper.

So if our needle were to hit it, it's going to break the needle.

So you want to take your time and make sure that that zipper stop is pretty far away from your seam allowance.

Yes.

Traditionally the zipper is also like the bag closure.

So sometimes we want to make sure that that's nice and open so you have room to turn your bag as well.

Definitely.

This is an upside zipper okay.

So now that we've got the lining and the bag exterior constructed, we're going to take a moment just to get them inside of each other okay.

So we've taken a couple of steps here.

We've turned the lining right side out and nested it inside of the exterior of the bag.

So the right sides are touching and you've stitched around.

I see you've left an opening here, right?

Yes.

I always like to pull a couple of fun different pins to differentiate, like my opening spot, because it's a signal to my brain to start and stop there.

So I use clips for the rest of it.

But now we're going to do the most fun part, so we're turning the bag right side out.

It's very gratifying.

Yeah, and leave your opening bigger than you think, right?

It really is a challenge to get all that material through that hole, especially with some of these really bulky fabrics.

And then it also gives you some space to really get your fingers in there and press your corners nice and open too.

Yeah.

So we're just going to do that finger push on a little bit All right.

And we have a bag.

So cute.

Our last step is going to be to slip stitch the opening and then apply the hardware.

I chose this red buckle really to match all hardware.

It's a little bit different.

Yeah.

So follow the instructions.

Adorable project.

Thanks so much for joining me.

Thank you.

Grab a pencil, tips and other useful information.

Coming up next okay.

This is from Rita Schoenike of Eagan, Minnesota.

And she says, Sara and Angela, I love waking up on Tuesday mornings to your cheery, fun and informative show.

Have you ever done a show on bed runner runners?

I've recently discovered a love of making them.

They're a good way to use up scraps, an excellent beginner project, and to practice for a new technique for advanced quilters in a nice, seasonally themed decor item.

A little pop of color at the bottom.

This one is from Joyce Walker from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

She says.

Dear Sara and Angela, thank you so much for your show.

I've learned so much from you both.

When I retired the second time in 2021, I decided to use up my stash of fabric.

But I'd mostly been a fashion, so.

So I took some classes in sewing and I was hooked.

But the only problem was I couldn't keep my columns and rows in order.

So she has embroidered her columns and rows and uses those on her project.

That is excellent.

Thanks for sending your tips.

If you have one to share, you can send it to the address on screen.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

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