Sunday, January 20, 2013

Leather & Hexagons

This evening I tried doing some free motion...not quilting, but stitching?  Anyway, I tried it on leather.  I was just curious if it could be done.  Wait, scratch that...I was pretty sure it could be done.  I was curious to see if it could be done by me on my little domestic sewing machine.

I tried it on my Singer 115, which is in a treadle base.  I use the 115 for free motion work, and I kind of have it in my head that the 115 is "dainty"...maybe because I only do fancy free motion quilting on it.  But the truth is, the 115 is just as overbuilt as the rest of my antique machines, and free motion quilting is hard on a machine.  The 115 was able to handle this without a problem.

Full disclosure: I stitched this with an inappropriate needle (a quilting needle, not a heavy leather needle) and inappropriate thread (just regular poly sewing thread, not heavy thread) so that may have impacted the results.

First I stitched two hearts.  The one on the right was my first attempt...as you can see, I lost track of my thread on the left curve of the heart.  The heart on the left turned out better.


I also made a daisy.


After that I practiced a few more seams.  I suppose that the next step for me will be to find a leather project to do, and practice some of the techniques used in that project.  What is the most basic, easiest project someone can sew with leather?

Last weekend was my local Modern Quilt Guild sew day, and I made a few log cabin quilt blocks.  I also nearly finished the hexagons I need for my husband's quilt.


I don't need a ton of hexagons...they're just going to be in a line down one side of the quilt.   I need to make three purple ones, and then I'm done!  I need to get some background fabric.

2 comments:

  1. I want to make some shoes on my treadle, cloth body with leather soles. I just need to buy the supplies.

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