Does your scrap bin include fabrics other than quilting cottons?

If so, stay tuned because you can do so many things with a different substrate.

We're joined in the studio today by Paige Plihal who shares some clever methods for creating patchwork with silk, leather, denim and other bulky fabrics.

She'll construct a laptop sleeve with bound edges and a button closure.

Excellent skills for any sewer.

Let's stitch something unusual and fun on today's episode of Love of Quilting.

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.

APQS quilt forever.

The Warm Company manufacturer of battings and fusibles for quilts, crafts and wearable arts.

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

Hello and welcome to the 4700 series of Love of Quilting.

I'm Sara Gallegos, and with me today I have Paige Plihal and oh my gosh, I'm just loving this little creative mess that we have on the table here.

It's a very beautiful mess, isn't it?

It really is.

It really is.

So, Paige, you like to dabble with all types of different fabrics for garments and quilt blocks and all sorts of things.

And today you've brought a really fun project for us.

Yes.

Today I'm really excited to work on a laptop sleeve or any any device.

If you have a tablet or a similar thing that you want to use, this is very adaptable.

You'll just change the measurements to fit your device.

And inspired by a really popular puffy one on the market, currently have a little button closure.

I want to slide our device right in there.

We're using some fun textiles though.

Absolutely.

And I love when I see things like this, because it does really kind of remind me of how quilting began, right?

Where we're just using everything that we have access to, and it's a great way to use up scraps from garments.

Right?

Absolutely.

I've got a selection over here.

Some dupioni.

So this is a beautiful silk weave leather.

Lots of denim.

And I've just got some tips for quilting with these nontraditional materials.

Or maybe more traditional actually.

Right.

But in our modern sewing studio.

Right.

Okay.

So where do we begin?

Let's work on a little bit of an improv block right now for these.

I just do like a nice straight stitch, stripey patchwork because it really fed off of that inspiration.

Right.

But for today, I'm going to work on a little bit of a smaller block that you could use, maybe to be like the center or the star of your back.

If you want to build out with borders or what have you.

Absolutely.

So we're going to come on over here to the machine.

We're going to put in either a leather or a denim needle because I'm sewing with leather today, I want to go ahead and swap it out to a leather needle.

And that's a pretty quick process.

And what is the importance of a leather needle.

So a leather needle is going to have a wider gauge.

It also has typically a larger size.

So if you're using a different type of thread it will accommodate a thicker thread.

Better.

Today I'm just using an all purpose.

But sometimes I might use like a silk finish cotton.

I might use a thicker, topstitching thread for some of some of the steps in this too.

And that could be really fun to add some topstitching to your piecing as you go too.

Absolutely.

And honestly, you'll see in, one of these pieces right here that it is actually pretty important.

Oh yeah.

To lay nice and flat.

Okay, so the other part of a leather needle that's really nice is that it has a very, very sharp point.

So you can really get through that fabric because it is heavier to go through for sure.

Yes.

Than a lot of our modern sewing machines today.

If you'll just look in the right places within the machine, you'll find suggestions for working with different types of fabrics, or even different sewing techniques.

Yes, it definitely takes the guesswork out and allows you to kind of get really creative.

So I'm going to also keep my leather on top today.

You can find you can sometimes get like a Teflon foot or something that would help.

But with this I know that I can just sew it with my standard let me get that thread out of the way through there nicely and not stick to the bottom of the foot.

Exactly, I think.

Yeah.

All right.

So I'll just go ahead, do a little tie off.

So a little securing stitch to keep it all together.

Yes.

Thank my stitch a little longer.

Yeah.

And the longer stitch length will also really help in finding those big layers to the machine.

A little bit more traction on the bottom with between every single needle drop right when you get oh, let's do it.

Tie off also, just in case.

Keep that right here.

So to press this we can't iron it.

But I do have this handy little tool that I like to use.

I'll put my finger right there and kind of give it a really nice push.

It just flattens everything out.

It does.

It's going to just give you a little bit more of an edge.

Maybe I need to come over here and kind of go this direction.

We just really want to tell the fabric what to do.

Take charge the leather if you will.

So that looks pretty nice.

But because we're going to then be adding more things, we really want it to lay nice and flat.

I think I'm going to come over here and add in a little bit more of a top stitch.

So I'm going to make my stitch length even just a little bit longer okay.

All right.

And we'll use this nice bright red thread.

We do that just so that you can see it.

But of course you could use only the coordinates.

But I actually really like a top stitch that contrast.

Just a nice little touch.

A little bit of pop is always nice and fun.

Yeah, it so it's just going to go nice and slow.

We do have an adjustable presser foot pressure, but it's handling it pretty well as we come to some of these like bulkier seams.

We're just going to go slower still.

Yeah really bulky.

When you're going over the flat felled seam from the side of the denim lot of layers, the machine's powering through.

And that downward pressure with the presser foot really mashes everything together, and it can make it hard to flow through.

So sometimes you do have to loosen up that presser foot pressure.

All right.

Oh that looks great place.

Got a little bit of stretching in the do panty.

But you know if we keep building one block around it it's kind of just going to come together.

It'll be great.

Let's maybe just try a little bit more denim okay.

Over here and work.

So the seam allowance do you feel like you're using here?

I typically is it's improv right.

So if I would use 3/8 at least or a half inch sometimes with, especially with the silk because you might need to do a little bit more stitching on the backside to really secure it.

Okay.

All right.

So maybe let's trim this down a little bit I think actually.

Yeah.

Me too.

The leather down a bit.

Yeah.

Let's take off maybe a half inch.

Sure.

And it's improved.

So we can just kind of make it up as we go, Absolutely.

Three show of it.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Let's do the same thing over here.

So I'm just going to adjust my stitch length back down just a little bit for that construction seam.

Do a tie off.

So it looks like you're doing about like say 2.8 for construction.

And we are a little over three for the top stitching.

So it's still a longer stitch than what we typically use for quilt piecing because of the thickness of the fabric.

But a little shorter for construction and for top topstitching.

Exactly.

And you'll see that this time I left a little leather on the bottom, and it handled it really beautifully down there as well.

Great.

There I have another little tie off and we can trim that down as well.

After we do a little more rolling up, I also have a little marker tool.

Let's oh, this is really useful.

If you can't use heat you can see that it's really straightening it.

So I'll kind of alternate between these depending on the fabric where I am.

What I have and how well works with how well it works.

Yeah.

So let's go back.

And actually this time I think instead of doing just a regular straight stitch, I'm going to add in a triple stitch for a thicker but top stitching.

I think that's always a really nice stitch.

So a triple stitch goes forward, back and then forward.

I'm going to use a compensation plate though right here, because I have all of that extra bulk just to get myself started.

So this helps to level out the presser foot.

It was a little bit hooked.

Now we've got just that nice straight surface to get started.

Is such a helpful tool and it comes with a lot of our sewing machines.

And I think as quilters we just never think to use it.

But it can even be helpful when you're going on to really thick seams within a quilt because it just gets the feeling going for you.

Like if you're working on a flannel quilt, something with maybe like some wool scraps and thick batting starts, that triple straight stitch looks really pretty.

And if you don't have a compensation plate, if you don't have that tool, you can always use your needle.

Oh, it is so great idea.

Yeah, work.

So same way.

It doesn't have the adjustable height, but it does get your foot up a little bit.

Gets it through in a pinch.

So yeah.

So we've got that nice little top stitch.

Add it a little bit more.

Maybe if I were I would maybe lengthen the stitches a little bit more.

I try and play around with a thicker thread, but these are all things that you can kind of do as you go.

Practice with your scraps.

Okay, so once you've created the block that you like, it's real simple.

You just made a big long piece, right?

Right.

I made one very long piece.

I've actually already basted this one together to be ready for binding.

Okay.

But I've measured it to be about three quarters of an inch, on either side.

So an inch and a half wider than my device.

Okay.

On both the width and the length.

Width and the length of, and then the length, we're going to add in as much of a flap as you want.

This one is a little bit more dramatic.

Sometimes I see the flap come all the way down.

So just kind of those are things to keep in mind and make it your own.

That's like a personal preference.

But I would say what, at least 4 to 6in for the flap minimum, right?

I would add maybe even eight inches.

So just have lots to trim off, especially if you put a lot of stuff in there and it gets real thick.

So okay.

Yeah.

So so now at this point we're ready to apply our binding.

Okay.

Let's kind of clean up a little before we take this away too.

I just thought it would be fun to show that again.

You've got your topstitching on and a more traditional looking quilt block done with some really fun fabrics.

Yeah, you love that one.

All right.

So we have our binding over here okay.

Binding on the run.

So you've just got a traditionally prepared binding or is it traditionally prepared.

It is.

I did this one 2.5in.

So it's a little bit wider because again we have really bulky materials and we're doubling them up.

And then we want to allow space for it to move too.

With this work with a pre-purchased binding.

You could I yeah I do prefer to make my own for this because you just get so many more options when you are here choosing all of your furniture.

Yeah.

So I'm just going to pull that off and bring it over to the machine.

Right.

So I see you're kind of hanging a little bit off the edge there.

Yes.

We'll talk about that when we fold it over.

But I do like to leave three quarters of an inch at least at the top.

Okay.

So then I can kind of fold this over and get that really nice.

All right, so I'm just going to place this right under the machine.

My stitch length is coming back to about a three.

And we're going to definitely use this trick.

Let's put our needle down.

And I lifted my presser foot.

And I'm just going to again put a needle case back here just to show how how that works as well, because it is a really nice bulky start.

But here we go.

So clever.

I never would have thought to use a needle pack for that.

It's a tool that we always have available.

Isn't it great?

At least we should.

Yeah, yeah, we should be changing those needles pretty frequently.

Yeah.

And so you're stitching right down the fold line I am.

Yes.

So again we made this a little bit bigger to accommodate for that.

Here we go.

Speaking about the needle, I had a student in class that was having trouble stitching and some one of the students asked her, okay, well, when was the last time you changed your needle?

And she said, is that a thing?

Oh, dear.

Yeah.

And because I think a lot of people just don't realize that once that needle, then, you know, you're stitching on it for 8 or 10 hours or something and then it's time to swap it out, right?

Yeah.

You do get dull and then your stitches don't form properly every few projects.

Yeah.

That's right.

Any time you're starting a new big project to swap out that needle or you can't remember the last time, it's probably time.

Yeah.

It's also good to, like, pause and give your machine a little bit of a dusting and an oiling.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So when you're taking out the needle to swap it out, take off the stitch plate too and clean around your feed dogs and get all the stuff out of there.

So I'm just going around this curve really carefully.

Staying in that dirt and coming up to those joints.

And so just stitching right over it.

Now is this a bias cut binding them to handle that curve.

Absolutely.

Yes.

That is important.

Typically like with quilts right.

We can be a little bit more hobby savvy.

But for a curve it is helpful to get that extra bit of stretch.

Yeah.

Otherwise it's not going to bend around the curve when you do the second step.

Right?

Right.

I will trim this off so we don't end up finding flying.

There we go.

We're in the homestretch.

And again I'm coming up to a bulky fit.

But I can just gauge that and stitch right over it.

If you struggle to get that needle back back out again.

Yeah I do.

My favorite tip yet so far here in the season is the needle pack.

Great.

I love to hear that.

And I'm really curious about how you can handle that.

Well, I will show you.

Let me just get right up here on the ends.

A little bit of a back stitch.

I'll pull this off and trim.

Okay.

So I use that nice red thread so you can really see.

Where attached.

So what I'm going to do is trim this off again about three quarters half inch right there.

And to fully encapsulate the end we're going to wrap it over and then fold down first.

Right.

Yeah.

So then we can bring this over and attach it.

But you brought something for me.

Yeah I think I want to just do this one more time.

And I think it might be easier seeing from the back.

So we're just kind of you've got your folded edge there bringing up.

I skip this for this in.

Yes.

Then bring it back.

So all that raw edge is hidden.

And then we're going to end up folding that over to stitch.

Yeah.

And you can fold in this outer edge second or first.

It depends kind of what doesn't matter which.

Oh so you could do this.

And then that and then over.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

You get that beautiful finished end.

Great.

Okay.

So yes I do have a fun little trick for you.

I love using a double sided fusible web to fuze my binding in place to hold it before I begin stitching.

Really easy to work with, so I just place it right inside the seam line.

Okay?

And it is sticky.

But you can also use a little use the little iron to apply it.

And then you just keep working around your project okay.

This is my new favorite tip.

Yeah.

This would be so nice with like really tricky silk something.

Yeah.

So yeah especially if you've got something that's going to leave marks if you put pins in it.

So you can just kind of glue it in place.

And I know you've got a trick for these curves, so I'm going to try and come inside of that curve there.

Beautiful.

I'm going to trim that down just a little bit.

Here you go.

So rotate this around.

And I'm just being really careful to not touch my mat.

It's just we have such thickness here that I think we're okay just being right on the fabric.

Although I just thought about the fact that you've got fancy fabrics in here I better be careful about.

They can be so ironed.

Can they?

Yeah.

Okay.

One of my favorite things about two peony is that these are actually scraps from baby carriers.

Oh, the important tend to be only baby carriers that you see, you know, so they can go through the wash they can handle here.

They're it's a very durable fabric that kind of has a bad rap fan.

Oh, that's really neat.

All right.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Wow.

I'm just going to change some hemming for me for a sure binding.

And I'm not supposed to say this, but if you're too lazy to actually hem your pants, you could just glue them to wow.

And then I get in trouble with my grandmother for properly hemming my pants.

But you know, it doesn't pinch.

I think hemming is probably the least fun part of sewing for me.

It is?

Yeah, just comes right off.

And people always think that because we sew, we should be obligated to have their pants.

And I just really objected to that.

Okay.

Yes.

So now I want to have your pants.

There you go.

You got it.

Beautiful.

Okay, so then we'll just fold this over like so and kind of stretch, stretch, stretch.

I might actually tuck it in just a little more right here just to really get that very neat corner.

And then I'm going to kind of quarter okay.

So you folded it back on yourself almost like a miter.

Exactly.

Yeah I really I'm getting rid of any of that extra edge right there.

Okay.

This is the one place that will feel a little bit fussy, but we're really trying to hide the raw edges of the fabric so it looks prettier in the long run.

Yes.

So then we just stretch stretch, stretch back over and we can iron that down.

Okay.

All right.

Yep.

Right.

There we go.

Get the corner for you.

I'm.

Okay.

It's working.

Cool.

So we use it.

Well.

Continue all the way around with.

Yeah.

You got it.

There we go.

Oh.

Teamwork.

Right.

I love the metallics in this binding as well.

It's really pretty.

Oh there's metallic fabric.

Yes.

It's like a little bit of.

It's really neat.

Okay.

All of this is from the scrap pile.

That's just a very nice and super useful scrap buster.

And we can move that right up here too, since we're kind of on the edge of the table.

Can maybe get a little easier.

There we go.

Then we'll just really give it a go.

Yeah, navigating the curve is the hardest part.

It is those turned out really beautifully and so smoothly.

Yeah this is a really cute.

So what did you make out of this pretty metallic floral I actually don't know.

I think it was given to me okay.

It was deep in the stash and I said hey I have a use for it.

It goes really beautifully with all of this and thinking about your silk two peony baby carriers.

And I'm wondering what other amazing things that you use these other fabrics for.

I have done, I've done lots of zip bags and things for gifting because, you know, nice special little things.

And then I've also done some stuffies for each of my kids of their special, the ones that I enjoyed carrying them the most.

And that's really sweet.

This little memory box.

That's awesome.

Okay, so I'm trying to get your raw edges tucked here.

Sure, we can also kind of push that through when we get to the end.

There we go.

We got it.

That's beautiful.

So it does take a little bit of time to go through and do that.

But in the long run, you know it really holds steady.

And then you can come through and stitch it around.

Yes.

Very worth it for that beautiful finish.

All right.

So again with that check my presser foot is really totally floating up.

So I'm just going to put my needle down and add that in a little extra.

Backstitch.

So I'll just zip right around where you.

Stand when you play with the decorative stitches on your machine at all, and I do.

I really love those.

There's a lot of, there's a lot of ways that you can add and like a little bit of extra around a collar or maybe all around your pants, that a pocket collapse garment.

So that's where I'm always going.

Top stitching for your pocket would be adorable.

I love it on bags too.

Even that even that triple straight stitch is actually really pretty for top handbags as well.

It really is.

I've made some beautiful jeans and used that and not had to switch to a top stitching thread, which can kind of be sometimes a little bit fussy.

Right?

And you also don't have to go back and forth between your different needle and your different settings, right?

Which can be cumbersome in the middle of a garment system.

All right.

So I was kind of edging around this last little curve right here.

I like to like sink my needle in and maybe do just a tiny bit of a turn to get that really nice corner.

Yeah.

He just pivot really slowly.

You'll have a much smoother curve this looks.

Great.

It's quite nice.

And I don't know in the red thread it adds a little bit of pop of some of those colors in that mix.

So I mean let's just do a accents and we are ready for a button, Excellent.

Yeah.

I'm really excited to see you with the buttonhole, because that is one of the things that scares me the most.

Sewing I hear that.

I hear that often, but it's a pretty quick swap out.

So we're just going to put our buttonhole foot on right here.

And then we're going to go into the menu on our machine and adjust the size of the buttonhole.

However you do that on your machine, a lot of the modern ones make it.

So it's really pretty painless to adjust your size.

Mean.

Yeah.

So this is one where you can read your manual or figure out how to put that buttonhole on.

And then we're going to just place our starting point right here.

You kind it right under, you're putting your buttonhole on before the button.

And that way it doesn't matter if you have perfect placement with that buttonhole.

The button goes on after, since it's only one buttonhole before.

You can just do that.

The machine's really going to do it for you.

And I noticed that you use the start stop button for the button down.

So that's how I do it.

Makes it very, very painless.

You know, it just does it for you.

You don't have to wonder when the button is done and stop sewing.

It just does.

All four sides, the bar tag, everything.

Yes, I've done this.

The only thing I'm really keeping my hands on the fabric for is just to help make sure it's not going to stitch, right?

Yeah.

So there we are.

We have a beautiful, nice bright red buttonhole.

That's amazing.

True.

Okay.

And then I'll be ready to open it and add a button.

Add a button.

And so you're just going to cut it open and then position for your button placement.

And you've got a cute little laptop sleeve.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Grab a pencil tips and other useful information.

Coming up next.

Okay I love this little tip.

And this note from Doris Eversole of Manville, Ohio.

She says, Sara and Angela, I want you to know how much I enjoy your quilting show.

You're both so talented.

I've learned so much.

And she says, thank you.

And your staff in Boise write about that, because it's everybody behind these cameras that makes us look so good, she says.

Recently, I discovered or I decided to cover my sewing machine and decided to make my own out of a quilted pillow sham, and she just put a little drawstring cord on the side.

It took no time.

And so she made one for her daughter, too.

Thank you.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

All right, Sara, check this out.

I'm going to I'm going to tap one out here.

This is Eileen Ruden from Mitchell, South Dakota, and she says I was looking for something to clean my feed dogs with.

And to my surprise, this, little soft nubs on the side was a perfect size.

It cleaned out my lint feed dogs, and the soft picks come in a little case that holds several picks so that I can keep it by my machine for the next cleaning.

P.S.

I love your show.

It makes my Saturday mornings complete.

Exactly.

Yeah, it's machine nerd approved.

Yeah, okay.

I love this one too.

And this is from a fellow Michigander in Saint Clair Shores, Suzanne Ladouceur And she says she collects salvages from her own projects and from her friends, sells them into strips to create fabric yarn.

And then she crochets them into trivets and rag rugs, repurposing a throwaway.

Thank you.

Nice.

This one is from Blanche Sprague from Mill Valley, California.

She says I make a lot of charity quilts and I have a lot of leftover fabrics.

As a result, strip quilts are a great way to use that leftover fabric, and I found it's much easier to make them when you can see what you have.

So what she does is she'll fold strips, hang them from a coat hanger, using safety pins to hold them there.

It's easy to see there's no wrinkles.

And she says, thank you for your program.

Thank you Blanche.

Great.

Thank you that I see what you have.

Okay, so this one, you definitely told me that you have seen these before.

This is Anne Melamed of falls in Maryland.

And she says, hey, girls, I love watching your show.

Thank you.

Something new to learn.

Every week these little plastic pieces come out of the handles of milk jugs.

I've not seen these before.

You said you have.

Sure.

Yeah.

And she said she really likes those for finger pressing, especially with small.

Seems pretty cool.

Oh, I never thought of that.

Yeah, I have seen that.

Yeah.

We love it when you send your tips in and we hear from so many viewers that it's their favorite part of the show.

So if you have one to share with us, you can send it to the address on screen.

And of course, we love a little picture or a visual to go along with it.

Yeah, we'll see you next time.

Thanks so much.

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If it can be imagined, it can be created.

APQS longarm quilting machines allow you to express your creativity.

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The Warm Company manufacturer of battings and fusibles for quilts, crafts and wearable arts.

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