Sewing With Nancy

More robust than a typical scarf a wrap can provide a laid back look jazz up a formal dress or keep your shoulders warm. My guest, Mary Mulari joins me again to apply her magic to sewing fabric wraps. Welcome back, Mary. Nancy, it's great to be back with you. This time, to show with a rectangle of fabric we all can create functional to fashionable wraps. Let's begin with a simply shaped wrap that could be paired with jeans or a little black dress depending on the fabric you choose. Named the Rita Wrap, this casual version is made from soft, plush fabric and will not slip from your shoulders, "All Occasion Fabric Wraps," that's what's coming up next on Sewing With Nancy. Sewing with Nancy, TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman is made possible by Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting and special-effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover, making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 30 years. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. During the two episodes on sewing fabric wraps you're going to see a variety of fabrics used. Mary, you have two excellent examples of really not traditional fabrics used. The first is a plush fabric. Yes, this is really nice and soft. And it's easy to work with when you know the tricks. I'm going to turn back the corner to show that it's hemmed just with one turn-over of fabric and then we form a mitered corner. We hold the wrap closed temporarily with buttons that have magnets on the back. Then our second sample here is more for a dress occasion. It's a lined, there's lace on the outside chiffon inside with rick rack trim. Then we have a magnetized flower here as well. You'll see how Mary puts those together. The rectangle of fabric that you're going cut from tissue paper is-- The size measurements are-- They're 24" by 52" and our pattern piece shows that here we place, on this edge the pattern is placed on the fold. Then there's a cut out section for the neckline opening. Now this becomes the center back. That's right, Nancy. Just to get your orientation on this. The main sewing is to finish the edges. Right. We'll pull this back and then one corner of this will just show that I chose about a approximately a 1/2" hem thickness. I'll just put a pin here. Then we cross it over here with another hem. But this is a little bulky. Sure. So what I would do would be to cut out a small square here in the corner so that then we can make a fold miter more easily and can continue on with the hem. Because the fabric will not ravel you don't have to double fold it just one single fold. Now this is a knit. It's got a lot of stretch to it. So to stitch here you can see that I'm using a walking foot and the elongated zigzag stitch. I really like both that foot and the stitch for finishing off the edging. Now you may not have this big a piece of fabric to place on the fold. Mary, you have another suggestion. Yes, for all these wraps, Nancy this is great from your stash. This piece was only a yard so I seamed it at what is the center back of the wrap. Now if we look at the purple one you'll see it has a seam. It's offset because we kind of have the wrap a little bit off the shoulder. But it's not noticeable at all. Yeah, that's right. It just blends into the fabric. In closing, let's show our viewers how you have the closure on the wrap. Yes, here I have a pair of earrings. I've clipped off the back post and I have magnets on each side. They clip together very easily. Put one underneath the fabric and one on top. There you have the closure for the Rita Wrap. Cleverly designed arm hole openings give this wrap two wearing options. The first option sports a small drapable collar with a longer graceful length. Or wear the wrap with the longer length above the shoulders and a shawl collar magically appears. You can see why we call this the Go-Two, T-W-O, wrap. Now when Alex was modeling this great wrap you didn't see the transformation, Mary. It flips 180 degrees. Let's start with the first version she showed us. This first view shows the smaller collar. As I turn the mannequin we see that it drapes quite long in the back. To change this up we're going to remove it and flip it, as you say, 180 degrees. The bottom now is the top. We'll put this back on and show that there's a much deeper drape here in the front. The other thing to point out here, Nancy is that the hemming process we use for this one is just like the one we used previously on the Rita Wrap. This is knit fabric. It's 60" wide. You need that width to get the coverage and the drapability. The length of the piece of fabric is 42". That's like a yard and a fourth. That's right. And I would make sure to cut off the salvage edges for this project as well. The heavy edges have been trimmed off. You need a little sewing buddy to measure your back width between shoulder blades. That's right. That might be an average of 15" to 17" something like that. We have the fabric folded in half meeting the long edges. Then measuring 10" down from the top. Yes, from the top what will be one of the neckline edges. We have a mark here. Then we draw a 12" line for the length of our arm hole opening. Now we are not really measuring equal distance but if you measured 16" it would be 8" from the fold. Yes, our fold is here and that would be 8". So that's the first step, and then we need to cut out some interfacing stripes for our arm holes. This is fused over the length. The length of this is-- 15" and then we have the 12" space marked also with marks. The next sample has been fused on. Now you can see that you're going to be having-- Whoops, let me do this once more. For the second opening it's fused into place and then you're going to pin along the fold. That's right. This is going to be pinned in half. This is how we proceed then to-- And it takes four hands to do this. Yeah, it's best, right. So we're going to take this now to the sewing machine. Stitch a 3/4" seam from the folded edge which we have here. I'd like to point out, Nancy that the red thread in the center of the 12" is a long basting stitch. I keep the thread tails so I can more easily remove them later. Then cut along this fold. It's kind of magical what happens. I start about an inch above the end of the arm hole. I'm going to clip through here. Sometimes it goes a little smoother than others. I'm following my line and I'll stop about an inch past. Then you press it open. Yes. Whoops, sorry. We're fighting over this. These stretchy fabrics are sometimes hard to work with. Then you've pressed it open and at the very top, stitched across the end. Yes, so a little bit of a triangle for extra strength. Then now I'll take this red thread that I have and pull it out. It's going to then be magically an opening in the fabric. A little bit of effort here. I'm just going to pop that a little bit. You can see there is the opening that would begin. Finish the edges, as Mary said then you have a wrap to wear long or short. Transform a long, flat rectangle of fabric into a wrap that cascades around your shoulders and gracefully twists at the center. Use knits or woven fabrics. It doesn't matter at all. If the fabric has a distinctive right and wrong side create a double twist. You get to decide. For this particular project you need a 1-3/4 yard of fabric. You can get two wraps out of that length. We have two options over there were we have the knit fabric. It has the single twist as you can see draping in the front. We didn't even need to finish the edges on that because it didn't ravel. Then you have a silk/cotton combination which is really pretty stunning, Mary. It looks great. Yes, it does. We've chosen to have the shiny side showing on this particular wrap. So with this fabric edge that we're showing you the cotton/silk combination it has two different looks to it. The edges have been finished with a rolled edge. Here's a close up of using the rolled edge stitch on the serger. Just trimming off a little bit of fabric and getting that nice smooth edge. You could also just turn under and top stitch if you wanted to. That's right. I really like this very narrow edge on the fabric for this particular wrap. We'll show how we make the twist. This is the magical part of it. It's folded in half. I'm going to take this edge and twist it, bringing it to meet the long edge here. We'll put a few pins in to indicate how we'd sew this together when we're assembling the wrap. This can be a really narrow seam, Nancy for this particular fabric and wrap. Then I think we can show that, when this is held up you can see how that twist develops. Let's get that up. This would be the neckline. Right. And with this twist, a single twist you have the wrong side or the other right side and the intended right side. So maybe you want to change your mind and show both shiny sides. So then we'd proceed to make another pinning here of our fabric. We're going to make yet one more twist. After we unstitch it. There we go. We're going to show both shiny sides of our wrap. I think then we can look at our model here which has a double twist where both shiny sides of the fabric are up. Then I'm wearing another version of the double twist. My scarf has only one nice side. Sure. It's a light-weight shawl, elegant. As you can see with just finishing the edges doing the twist or double twist sewing one short little seam. You would just be sewing around the very little edge of the finished edge. You will have an elegant, versatile wrap. On a cool or a partly cloudy day wear this wrap as another layer of comfort. When it rains put up the hood. For another option you can wear this wrap to the beach. Adapted from a beach towel it becomes a bathing suit cover-up. How's that for versatility? Now fabrics really very here, Mary from beach towel to the hooded version which is nylon. That's right. This is ripstop nylon. We can use any kind of water repellant fabric for this. Obviously, you're going to use a big beach towel but if you were working or buying fabric for the hooded wrap, you buy two yards and it's 16" wide. Right, and the piece for the body of the wrap is 57" long and 54" wide. We have a fold already placed. That's how the fabric comes to us. Then we need to make a second fold. That's to fold, actually the whole piece of fabric in quarters. So we have the folded edges meeting the raw edges then you just pin mark near the intersection of all these folds. Right, and then we need to find the pattern for the neck hole opening. We're going to align that on the fold. There's this horizontal line across. That will align with the fold of our fabric. We'll trace that and continue our line of a 1" width all the way down to the bottom of the fabric. When you made the spa or the beach towel cover-up you cut this out and then you bound the edges using some knit fabric. Right, and it was really fast because the towel had all the other edges-- Let's just take a quick look at that. All the other edges are finished and the other edges are just bound or you could even just turn them under if you wanted to. But if you want to make the hooded rainwear wrap then we have another piece cut out along that edge. These are big pieces, you know, 54" by 57". We have it folded in half. Mary, you did some trimming before you did the finishing of the edge. That's right, I rounded out the corners. Whether you're overcasting on the sewing machine or on the serger it's just easier to work your way around rounded corners. Then I also after doing all of the serging or overcasting, I just turned back the edge. Here we have a sample of how you'd just turn that back. It's a long seam, but you sew all the way around the edges of the fabric. When you'd open this up, it's big. It's the wrap. Oh, yeah. It only makes sense, Nancy if you're protecting yourself from the rain. In this area we're going to add the hood. The hood, I'll fold this back so our viewers can see where it's going to go but you have some pieces cut for the hood. The first-- It starts out very simply as a 15" by 24" piece of nylon then we're going to do a little stitching on the edges. The top edge here has been stitched and then serged. The bottom has been serged and then overcast. We're going to do one other seam. We're going to form a gusset here in the back corner. We're going to actually sew a 3" seam across that. We'll just put in a couple of pins here to indicate that. So you don't have the little point on the back of the hood. Right. Then on the opening we have 1" wide seam allowance. Then just for fun and this is going to be inside the hood we'd cover that up with some decorative trim. As we look at the finished hood that you saw us work with, or saw Alex model for us we found the center and here's the pin, we put the center of the hood to the center of the wrap and then just overlap the seams and top stitch it into place. It really doesn't get any easier than that. Simple sewing with great results. Start with a pashmina shawl a rectangle of microfiber plush or luxurious silk and in minutes you'll be wearing an off-center wrap. Alex is showcasing an ombre silk that is shaped with a single seam that has an added draw cord. This off-center wrap is the first of our one seam wraps. This fabric is great, beautiful fabric. But you can, of course choose fabrics of your choice. You have a rectangle. I do, Nancy, and there's a single seam. It's stitched here with, in this case a 3/4" seam allowance. We stop that so that we have a neck opening, of course. That would vary between 12" and 15" depending on how loose and open you like the top of the wrap. Now this is a smaller piece of fabric but you're original piece of fabric-- This is leftovers. Your first piece of fabric was-- 20" by 60". So you meet the 20" ends and then 12" down from the fold you did this 3/4" seam. That's the single seam. You'd finish the edges first. But now to do that draw cord this is pretty interesting. Yes, we have cord sewn on the top of this seam allowance area. They're anchored in here. Then we'll fold this over to show how on the second seam allowance on the other side we've pinned this down because you're going to prepare to sew it. Then you'd sew from the hem, around the neckline just top stitch that seam. It also encases the draw cord. Then, on our mannequin, you can see that the draw cord has been pulled. You could leave it flat. It gives that asymmetrical look but interesting idea. Stretch fabrics with continuous rows of ruffles are a perfect choice for this next shawl. The texture of the fabric gives the focal point while you just cut out the patterns and stitch a single seam. Mary, when I see this fabric in the store I can hardly resist it. Oh, yes, I couldn't either so here's one piece I purchased. I've discovered that there's space between the ruffles. We're going to take advantage of that in placing our pattern. The pattern shape is a parallelogram. It's 12" wide, and in a parallelogram shape obviously, with that angle at the top. We're going to place the top edge of our pattern in the space between the ruffles. Then the other thing we need to do, Nancy is smooth out the ruffles so that when we cut this they're all going to be facing down. Cut with the ruffle or obviously, pin them down. To cut the next piece, it takes a bit of yardage but you have to do the mirror image. You have to flip it. Then position it at another area on the fabric. That's right. After cutting the two pieces as we've done on this ruffle. Ta-da! We're ready to sew our single seam. That's here at the top edge. Just a zigzag with a slight stretch in it. If we look at the mannequin the seam in the back it just drapes beautifully because of the parallelogram. Yeah, the seam is hidden because it falls in the ruffles. The front cascades down well because of that angle, a little longer in the front. It is a very classy way of working with this fabric. And you didn't even need to finish the edges. That's really a nice part of it, Nancy. It drapes and as long as you're careful in cutting it's a great shawl. One seam wonders using a long rectangle of fabric and making a neck hole opening, adding a draw cord or using a specialty fabric parallelogram pattern and one seam. The story of the American quilt trail featuring quilt squares painted large on barns across North America is the story of one of the fastest growing grass roots public arts movements in the US and Canada. To tell about this folk-art phenomena is author, Suzi Parron. Welcome to Sewing With Nancy, Suzi. Thank you, Nancy. This is a fun book to read. It's history, quilting, beauty. Tell me how you got started on this. Well, I was actually on a camping trip. I was traveling cross county from Georgia to Yellowstone in a tent with my dog. I saw a barn with a quilt on it. I thought, my goodness, what is that? Sure. The woman who lived there actually told me a little about the quilt trail. Then you got in contact with one of the first people that had a barn quilt. Yes, in looking into it I got in contact with Donna Sue Groves and she is actually the one who conceived of the idea to honor her mother, Maxine and their quilting heritage. She actually ended up taking the idea to her community and having them create the first quilt trail. Here's Donna Sue's quilt, wooden quilt, on her barn called "The Snail Trail." Yes. One thing about the barn, it's funny that Donna Sue said, it's such an ugly barn. She had to dress it up for her mom. And indeed she did. She certainly did. Now some of the interesting barn quilts that you have found include a breast cancer awareness quilt. Yes, the one that we talked about is one that an entire cancer coalition came together to create. It has all the names of the people who created it. It was very much a community effort to raise money to actually have mammograms for women in that community. Many states have quilt trails. Oh, yes, about 47 states actually have them. Counties have them or communities. It's fun to get a little map from the Chamber of Commerce or online. Absolutely. So what's another favorite barn quilt of yours? Well, there's one that I particularly love in Ohio that's painted right on the barn doors. It's something that an individual artist spent so much painstaking time to create that. It has a lot of dimension. I'm going to convince my brother that he needs one of these on our family farm. I wonder if he would do this. Not all the barns that have quilts are retired barns. Oh, not at all. A lot of them are working barns on working farms. People do, when you go to talk to them about their quilt barn-- A gentleman will get off his tractor and come over and give you a tour of the farm. I've learned a lot about barns and how they're constructed. You're touring right now for your second book. Yesterday you were in Iowa. Yes, I was, a beautiful, beautiful day in Iowa I enjoyed a wonderful time. And I will be back in Wisconsin in a couple of weeks to see some of the larger quilt trails here. As you're traveling, you find most of the barn quilts are a certain size. Yes. They're usually 8' by 8'. A sheet of plywood is 4' by 8'. Sure. So they'll put two of those together that's kind of a natural size, being 8' by 8'. The trick for me would be to decide what pattern I'm going to put on the barn. A lot of people say that because there are so many. Eventually you do have to decide on one. It's not like your clothing for the day that's going to change tomorrow. Right. Not just individuals do barn quilts but it's a learning tool for art students. Yes, there's a wonderful group of kids in Kankakee, Illinois who worked together. They were actually home schooled but they had art lessons. They worked together to create an art project. It's just phenomenal I mean, so many people look at it an say that's three-dimensional. It's got to be. When I saw that quilt in the book I thought, uh-uh this is a quilt hanging on the barn but it is dimensioned. So they learned not only from the flat quilt they put a drape into it. Yeah, they learned the methods that the old masters would have used to create a three-dimensional effect in their artwork. What do you find the most fascinating thing about what people say about barn quilts as you travel around? I think one of the major things is that barn quilts bring communities together. We're so fragmented now and everyone is into electronics and all that sort of thing. But this is something that kind of brings people back to their roots. So many people have told me I have all these new friends because we paint together. Oh, wow. It reaches their lives on that level that they get to know one another and spend time together. Well, Suzi, thank you for sharing with us your barn quilt story. Maybe when you have your second book complete you can come back and share more adventures of finding folk art and grass roots inspiration on the trail. Thanks so much, I'd love to do that. Thank you. I hope that you've enjoyed this program of Sewing With Nancy on fabric wraps. If you'd like more information, re-watch this program or many season's worth of programing you can go to nancyzieman.com, watch the videos. Find out more about the barn quilts and Suzi's adventures by clicking on "Nancy's Corner." And of course you can join me on all things social media. You can tweet with me, Facebook, and of course, watch my blog. I'd like to encourage you to come back next time. But for now, thanks for joining me. Bye for now. Mary Mulari has written a book entitled "All Occasion Fabric Wraps." That is the reference for this two-part series. The book includes 14 easy-to-sew wraps and shawls. It's $14.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373 or visit our website at sewingwithnancy.com/2813. Order Item Number MP44 "All Occasion Fabric Wraps." To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at nancyzieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman has been brought to you by Baby Lock; Madeira Threads; Koala Studios; Clover; Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Pellon. Sewing with Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.