Sewing With Nancy

Just for fun, think of your sewing area as your sandbox. Time to play with no rules. You can even throw sand outside the box! That's the philosophy of my guest who has taught me to play while adding sewing embellishments. Please welcome Vicki Tracy, a playful stitcher. Thank you for being with us, Vicki. Thank you for having me, Nancy. I love fabrics, embellishments and trims. I find them to be a creative opportunity.

My mantra is

"If I sew it together, it goes together." One of my favorite palettes to embellish is a tricked out T. After some resourceful cutting of an ordinary t-shirt we'll show you how to add carefree couching to this uniquely shaped artful shawl. "Embellish Outside the Box" that's what's next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy, &nbspcelebrating30 years of sewing and quilting with Nancy Zieman

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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, makers of sewing, knitting quilting and embroidery products for over 25 years. Experience the Clover difference. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. The perfect palette for Vicki's carefree couching technique is the tricked out "T" that she was modeling. Vicki, that's very clever. Thank you, I'm glad you like it. Let me just show you a close-up. There's a t-shirt under all of this. The t-shirt starts off with the neckline. Here's the rib neckline that's moved to be armhole. What was the sleeve, the armhole of the sleeve which we'll cut off, becomes the neckline. To do this, you may think, how is this going to be done. Well, you start with a whole t-shirt. It can be used. It can be brand new. You trim off both armholes and cut up the seam allowance or the seam of one underarm seam. If you'd like, you could straighten that edge. It might be a little bit curved. Vicki is going to begin by stitching, couching and zigzagging over the hemline area. You have your machine threaded with appropriate thread. Why don't you tell our viewers about that. Right, the best thread to use probably would be monofilament because that is going to show less. It's going to mean that you don't have to change colors all the time. So, there are two kinds of monofilament, basically. One that is a smoke color, use that for medium to darks. The one that is a clear color you'd use that for white to pastels. Just use all-purpose thread in the bobbin. Use up bobbins that are half-used. Absolutely, that would be a great way to use those. This gives you a chance to buy things outside your normal comfort zone. Outside the box. All the time, because even if you're not a knitter you love shiny fabrics and shiny fibers. So you can buy yarns. You can buy seam trims. You might have laces. You can twist two together. You can mix colors. This is a great way to play and get colors that mix together beautifully. As you begin, the first row can be right along that hem line that is already established by your t-shirt. That is a coverstitch hemline and that gives you a good place to start. As you start, you will be zigzagging over yarn. It can be one strand or if you decide, you can twist two strands to work with that. If you're more comfortable marking, that's fine, too. I usually just like to eyeball it. Once you do that first row of stitching and you would complete that line then you would decide to make that second row about a hand's width apart. Usually, I start with one type of trim and complete the whole palette with that type of trim and decide about how far apart I want to put it and do that throughout the whole palette. That gives you a lot of thinking and stitching time, That's kind of comforting, sometimes. You don't measure. Not at all. You just eyeball it. If you are more comfortable with measuring and marking do it your way, but you can eyeball it. Because this trim is all over the place, it works out great. Then, once you do that you will decide on another type of trim. Maybe you want to add another color. Maybe you want to combine a couple of colors. In between this line of stitching we're going to add a little bit of seam tape. You would go from that line of stitching to the seam tape. This is where that monofilament thread really comes in handy because you're not changing threads all the time. As you mentioned, if you want to use up old bobbins if you want to use weird colors of threads in the bobbin that's fine, because that's not really going to show. Then, at some point in this process you probably won't like your project. The only thing that you need to do is add more stuff! This is all about covering a palette with all kinds of things. You can see from this finished shirt that there are all kinds of things added on here. In the shoulder adornment you even used portions of the sleeve and cut it apart and knotted it. You added trim and fringe. Let's look at the hemline. Buttons. The buttons add a little bit of weight. That way, when you're wearing the garment it drapes beautifully. We have to share with our viewers this. When I first met you, this is what you were wearing. You explained to me, this was your painting shirt. Absolutely, it was one of those old silk shirts. Here's a little paint as a memory of it. It is, and I could cover that up but I like remembering that. You see many other embellishments that are added to this tricked out T. We're going to be sharing that with you throughout this series but we wanted to share with you how to disassemble a shirt and add the carefree couching just zigzagging and randomly stitching on the shirt. Vicki has been known to say, "Add just a little bit more." In this case, it's more buttons and more trim that add a touch of wow. Button collages, whether they're sewn on by hand or machine are an ideal way to "Embellish Outside the Box." Buttons are probably some of the first things you ever played with at your grandmother's house. Sure. Sorted them, strung them, all kinds of things. They're still a lot of fun to collect. I think of everything as an empty palette. If there's not something on it, it needs to be covered or it needs to be finished. Even buttons as simple as these white ones, the shirt buttons and all those kinds of things that you think aren't very interesting can be layered and collaged in different ways. You'll see throughout this two-part series that there are buttons on everything that Vicki has embellished. You said this was a project without a sewing machine. Right, a weekend without a machine. Of course you know that all the shank buttons have to be sewn on by hand. The ones with the holes can be sewn on with a sewing machine. Most sewing machines have a setting for zigzagging a bar tack to sew on buttons. The width of the opening is always the same on all buttons. Most people think that if it's a larger button it would be a wider space. No matter what size it is, you can see here it just sets it automatically and you can zip through putting on lots of buttons at the same time. That's a real fast way to do it. But this is a good take-along project if you don't have a machine in front of you. I love doing buttons on things that dangle. So on the bag, these buttons add weight to these little things that dangle. If you're going to do that, you want to layer them. On buttons, you will put one on one side, and one on the other kind of sandwiching it. Wait till you see the back. This is "Outside the Box." This is you having a lot of fun playing with this. Rick rack trim, all kinds of things but all kind of finished with something like that. You can combine buttons and lace trims when you have something from your grandmother or find in an antique store. That really gives some memories to your sewing. This jacket is embellished with buttons all over the place and on the linens that are already stitched together. Then we added buttons to the very bottom so that it gives enough weight for that to be a little more impressive, as well. You'll see on the tail of that shirt or the blouse that are other embroideries and ribbons. We'll be getting to that. Throughout this two-part series we'll show you all these elements and then how Vicki combines them. So, button collages, working with trim, lace, handstitching it's just another way to embellish and add fun and excitement to your sewing. When you fully embrace the concept of embellishing you'll give yourself permission to play. For instance, toss out traditional bindings and add a sassy sandwich finish to edges. Sewing rules do not apply. Vicki, when I took a close-up look at this I didn't realize that these edges were all finished just by sandwiching bias fabrics. Bias fabrics are such a good grain because they're fluid they flow, they'll make the curves. Then you fringe later. Don't worry, you're not going to have to sew in between the fibers. Cutting bias strips, you've possibly done it. Some of you maybe have not, because you're afraid to. You have a fast way. A fast and easy way. Bias is sometimes a very misunderstood grain. It is the 45-degree angle of the fabric. So whatever size fabric you have it does not need to be a square. You will start by folding that on the true 45-degree grain. Some people would cut that off so you have a square but there's no need to waste fabric. We'll fold this other side over much like a quilter would fold a prairie point. Then, the main purpose of folding this again is just to get it on the mat so that you can use your ruler and rotary cutter in an easy and convenient way. We're going to start by cutting off that first fold so we'll have a very even piece. Use your rotary cutter and your ruler. Cut off that first fold. Then you will be ready to just begin cutting our strips at a 1-1/2" width all the way across just like you would slice a roll of slice-and-bake cookies. And look, this all becomes continuous. You have many strips. It fits on the mat this way, that's what I like about it. You can sandwich the edges of sweaters, of tops. I'll get to the right side here. Whether it's a straight edge or a curved edge we press a crease or a memory in the bias strip. You like to put this on in two steps. I think it's easier, because then you can really establish where that raw edge is going to be inside your bias and you can catch it for sure. We're going to zigzag this crease right on the sweater to put that first row of binding on, or bias. The second side shows that. You've used contrasting thread. But then you overlap the sandwich, the edge and zigzag over this area. With the second row, you can keep those two edges together so there's no need to press. You could also add couching. Here you can see that the second time we're just couching and adding the second layer all at once. Beads, trim any kind of extra color that you'd like. Some fabrics will ravel easily some you have to give a little encouragement to and rough up the edges. Stress it with a brush, a real stiff brush. A chenille brush works great. We have a little work to do on this but that will give us a unique look to that edge. I like it. Now, Vicki has another idea. Here's the sassy sandwiching technique on an over-the-top poncho. You can add a neck opening to a large rectangular scarf and then sandwich the outer edges. This is called a come-what-may technique. On this poncho, we have added a little bit of definition by using a fabric that is very striking, and then adding some border to it that is black and adding a little bit of "extra credit" so that you don't see the back. Or when you see the back edge, it looks like you're supposed to see the back edge. Vicki adds a lot of extra credit to her fabric and I think it's very charming. A scarf or a 45" square could work. Right. This is a smaller sample. You'd fold it in half and then fold it in half again. Along your right edge is the fold for the center front and the fold for the shoulders. In the book that accompanies today's program you get a little shape for the neckline. You just pin it, fold to fold, and cut it out. Exactly. You cut bias strips again. The same ones. You can have lots cut in advance, if you'd like because you're going to use them for everything. Even around that neckline you can add one layer. I happened to add the top first but you could add one layer and then add the second layer. This is of the green. Then you could just fringe it and work at it. It's really fast to put on. It is very fast to put on. This poncho is easy to wear. On this one, we've added a black ruffly fabric for one side of the edge. Then we're going to add a little trim on the back to cover that up. That could be just a bias strip. It could be lace. It could be any kind of trim that you like. The corners, you could make them very fast here. We can look at this. It's kind of like making a quilt. You just put it to one half. Even just chop that off. Exactly. So you've covered the undersides. So sandwiching, whether it's on a knit or a woven it's a really excellent way to embellish and add personality. If the thought of ruffles brings to mind precise and perfect feminine trim think again! Use bias-cut strips with unfinished edges to add a slightly edgy finish. Not limited to apparel, edgy ruffles can be glued tucked and stitched to add an unconventional accent. When you take a close-up look at Vicki's work on this scarf as an example there are one-inch-wide ruffles, very evenly stitched lots of buttons and doodads. Vicki, you're a pro at this. I always say, more is more. More is more! Very profound! To get the edgy ruffles, you can add more. We're going to use the ruffler foot. I often think this should be called the tucking foot because it makes tucks, not ruffles. It fits on the machine in the traditional way. Then this "U" or C-shaped clamp fits over the needle bar. You'll see that as Vicki is stitching. It looks like an earth mover for sewing machines. It has a gauge at the top where you can set it to one, six, or 12. At the "one" setting, it takes a tuck or ruffle at every stitch every six stitches; every 12 stitches. We're not going to make wimpy ruffles. Oh, absolutely not because we want a tuck at every stitch. But you can also adjust those tucks by the way that this little screw screws in. The shovel inside that ruffler is going to be adjusted. It will make that ruffle as deep or as narrow as you choose. Your stitch length also has something to do with that so you can play with that a little bit. We cut our strips we put the fabric in between the blades of the ruffler and then we kind of aim for the middle. You said they were stitched down very precisely. Thank you for thinking that. This is not an exact science, either. I don't mark, I just eyeball. Because everything is going to be so scrunched up if you make little wobbles it's not going to make any problem at all. You can do mounds and mounds of ruffles, if you choose because they are so beautiful in a bowl. You can let them sit there and marinate until you decide what you're going to do with them. We have silk dupioni that you're working with. This is a cotton voile. It's very lightweight, in fact it's two layers. That light, ruffly fabric really does create a charming ruffle. We're kind of building in this program. We learned a technique, and added another one. Well, here, we're adding ruffles and we're also adding the couching technique. On this scarf-- Vicki has a pashmina scarf that she split in half that was plenty wide. She pinned the ruffles to the edge. I'm twisting two layers of trim together. Using that couching treatment I've pinned the ruffle to the scarf. Then just zigzag over the edges. So, it's a combination of things. You get the idea. This is not difficult sewing. This is free form, kind of sewing on the wild side. You're not marking, because the next ruffle just goes right against the last. Speaking of wild side I don't think we've glued in ruffles before on Sewing with Nancy. What better way to accent some fantastic looking shoes? I think I'd be 6'2" in these so I'll let you wear these. You can see that this ruffle really is a fun accent because not only are you going to wear the shoes but you're going to carry this handbag that has the same fabric ruffles down the front. The nice thing about the bias edge is that the fabrics fringe just a little bit. They don't string out. But as you wear it and as you handle it those ruffles just get better and better. Now, more is more. We have the trim and silk dupioni. We're going to learn about the sealed edges on our second program. We've added silk ribbon. This is eye candy. It is, and what we did on that purse is we couched down rows of beads instead of the rows of trim. So if we take a close-up look inside there's a little bit more bling added a little bit more uniqueness not just zigzagging over a cord. So with "Embellish Outside the Box" there's a lot of playing to be done. Many years ago, I picked up a book entitled "The Quilter's Apprentice" by an unknown author. It was the first book for this author and I read it cover to cover. I thought it was fascinating. Someone had combined fiction and relationships with stitching, one quilt at a time. Little did I know that I'd come to know this author and soon be interviewing her on my TV show. Welcome back Jennifer Chiaverini for her 18th book. "The Wedding Quilt" what a wonderful, charming story. It intertwines, interweaves, past experiences and future. That's right. This book really does tie into the first one you read. With Sarah. Right, Sarah was the bride in the first novel. Now she's the mother of the bride. Right, we do leap into the future a little bit in "The Wedding Quilt." We get to see Sarah oh, about 30 years after she first came to Elm Creek Manor and launched that wonderful quilter's retreat Elm Creek Quilts. All of the family friends, and Elm Creek quilters past and present have gathered in order to celebrate this very, very special occasion of the wedding of Sarah's daughter Caroline. Now, fictional Sarah never had a wedding quilt. No, she did not because there weren't any quilters in the family. When she got married it was before she learned to quilt herself. Her first quilt was a gift for her husband to celebrate an anniversary. But she wants to make sure that her daughter has a wedding quilt of her own. We don't want to give too much of the story away but I love the way you bring characters from the past books and as you said, look into the future then also bring in the element of quilting. That's absolutely true. Of course, at Elm Creek Quilts with all of these quilters gathered together for such a momentous occasion in the life of a family quilters always make sure that there are quilts to make and quilts to give as gifts. Part of the process and then part of the gift is in the giving. You have two quilts featured in this book. Let's talk about them. In "The Wedding Quilt" I always do like to make the quilts that my characters make in the story because it's fun for me. Then it's also fun for my readers to see. One of the quilts in the story is a double wedding ring. But it departed a little bit from the traditional pattern in that it has some beautiful floral appliqus in the center of each of the rings. Very charming, and the color combinations that you have the roses and forest greens blend together so well. I thought it would be a nice combination for a bride's quilt. It is very nice. Then, there's the memory quilt. That's right, the memory album quilt. This is a quilt that Caroline is not going to receive on her wedding day because it is still in progress. Sarah has decided to depart from the double wedding ring tradition and make a quilt that is sort of a wonderful memento of the wedding weekend itself. So what she does is she takes a traditional album block pattern called the memory album and she and her friends when Caroline is busy doing other things they go around with fabric prepared for signatures and special pens. They have all the wedding guests sign these pieces of fabric. On the sly. They don't want to spoil the surprise for either the bride or the groom. Then, after collecting all these wonderful messages and good wishes and congratulations she and her friends plan to stitch them all together in a beautiful quilt that would be a wonderful keepsake of that really special day. You've brought one of the rectangles. Yes, that's right, what I like to do-- I find that it doesn't work very well to give someone a loose piece of fabric with no stabilization. So what I like to do is take the fabric that you're going to sign, or have your participants sign, and I like to iron it to freezer paper. Sure. I usually start with a page that's about the size of an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper. Then I trim it down to the size of the piece in the pieced block including the seam allowance. Then you've masked out the seam allowance, very smart. Absolutely. This is 1/4" tape, it's good for marking quilts. I don't worry about putting it flush to the edge. In fact, I put it in a little bit just to give me that extra allowance. Then you give a boundary to the message, the signature. Exactly, I can tell people especially if someone's not a sewer if I say. "Don't write in the seam allowance" that might be unfamiliar terminology. So instead, I say, "Stay within the tape and you'll be in good shape." Well, someone can make a memory album quilt for a wedding or an anniversary. A graduation. But they really should get a nice little story behind it. This is charming, as all of your books are. Thank you. Thank you for being a prolific author. My pleasure. And writing about a topic that's dear to many of us. Jennifer, I appreciate you being our guest. It's my pleasure, thank you. You can find out more about all of Jennifer's books

by going to our website

nancyzieman.com At the site, click on Nancy's Corner and then the 2600 series. You can find Jennifer's information. Also at nancyzieman.com you'll be able to watch online videos, video on demand of the last 52 shows of Sewing with Nancy. Thank you for watching us, watching our program. Jennifer, again, thank you for being our guest. Hope you'll join us again. Bye for now. Nancy and Vicki Tracy have written a fully-illustrated book entitled "Embellish Outside the Box" that includes all the information from this two-part series. It's $14.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373

or visit our website at

sewingwithnancy.com/2616 Order item number BK2616 "Embellish Outside the Box." Credit card orders only. 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, &nbspcelebrating30 years of sewing and quilting with Nancy Zieman

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Baby Lock Madeira Threads Koala Studios Clover Amazing Designs, and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Oliso. Sewing with Nancy &nbspisa co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.