I’ve tried to figure out how to flatlock fleece on my serger for a while, never achieving much success. After my favorite pair of fleece socks passed the two holes in the bottom mark, I decided I either needed to get it working or buy new socks. I searched online, finding helpful sites telling me to adjust my tension and so on. They all sounded like they knew what they were talking about, but my serger is a BabyLock Imagine. There is no tension to adjust. (Yes, I know I can make some adjustments to the needle tension, but that wasn’t relevant here.)

Once again, I pulled out my trusty manual and carefully followed the instructions for flatlocking. I just couldn’t get the fabric to lay flat. I decided to look at the other stitches. The blanket stitch and ladder stitch looked like possibilities. Would they be strong enough? They are described as decorative stitches and I’m trying to keep a sock together. The blanket stitch instructions involved water soluble stabilizer and more fuss than I wanted, so I went with the ladder stitch first. I’m so glad!

Check it out -

A hot topic of discussion lately on one of the forums I frequent has been JoAnn’s processing of buy one get one free items. It seems they have recently implemented a new computer system where all the lowest priced items are free in a buy one get one scenario. At first glance, this seems like a reasonable process. But, a closer look and one quickly realizes the flaw. If there are only have two items in the transaction, the lower priced item should be the free one. If there are multiple items, the distribution of discounts needs to change. Huh? Here’s an example.

Ann has filled her basket with buttons, which are part of the buy one get one free sale. Gold buttons are $10. Red buttons are $4. Blue buttons are $3. Yellow buttons are $2. Ann picks up two of each, expecting her total to be $19, as follows:
Gold buttons $10
Gold buttons $0
Red buttons $4
Red buttons $0
Blue buttons $3
Blue buttons $0
Yellow buttons $2
Yellow buttons $0

Total —–> $10+$4+$3+$2 = $19

Instead Ann is charged $28 when it is calculated this way:
Gold buttons $10
Gold buttons $10
Red buttons $4
Red buttons $4
Blue buttons $0
Blue buttons $0
Yellow buttons $0
Yellow buttons $0

Total —–> $10+$10+$4+$4 = $28

Ann questions the total and the cashier explains that is how the computer does it, but if she rings each set of buttons separately, Ann’s total will be $19. Of course Ann would prefer to use her $9 to get lunch on the way home from shopping, so the transaction is canceled and rung as four separate transactions. Ann leaves the store, having paid what she expected but is frustrated by her shopping experience.

There are several things wrong with this. (Or, this is why JoAnn should care about this problem.)

1) It’s a terrible customer experience.
You either pay more than you expected or suffer through multiple transactions.

2) It’s an inefficient use of store labor.
Cashiers are either ringing multiple transactions for one customer or ringing returns and new transactions after the original.

3) It’s more expensive to process all those transactions on several levels.
a) Ringing multiple credit card transactions is more expensive for the merchant than single transactions.
b) There is a higher amount of data needing to be transferred/kept on the servers. Even though they are smaller transactions, there are still many more of them and each one has transactional data attached to it.
c) Customers given 5 receipts for 10 items are more likely to lose the receipt they need (one of the five, undoubtedly) and need assistance.
d) see above re: store labor cost inefficiency

4) It distorts the store’s sales numbers. By having so many more transactions, it skews numbers computed about the average per transaction. The average transaction’s sales dollar total goes down, for example. The attachment rate of other products goes down – if Sue buys 10 b-g items and 3 associated items, the cashier rings 5 transactions. The first 4 transactions are only b-g items. The fifth is b-g and 3 other things. So, in quick data analysis, it looks like 4 people came into the store and only bought b-g items.

This one is for my nephew, whose birthday was Friday. Kwik Sew 2918 in size 2T. Hope it fits!

Happy Birthday Parker!

13 is challenging. On the one hand, you want your mom to do stuff for you just like she does for your siblings. On the other hand, you’re 13 and you want to wear cool stuff. This generally means sewing for Alex is pajamas.

This is Kwik Sew 3045, size XS. Based on the pattern information, this should have been much bigger on him. It’s fine, but if I make him another one, I’ll probably go with a size small. This is view B, which was to have hemmed rather than cuffed sleeves and a drawstring at the bottom hem. The drawstring was deemed stupid, so I didn’t bother with it. Hoodies have cuffs on the sleeves, so I added a 2″ cuff. Adding the cuff was probably a good idea since it also made the sleeve length more comfortable.

Fabric is 100wt microfleece from Malden Mills/Polartec. Very nice material, probably the best microfleece out there. It’s actually a pretty dark navy color, the camera flash kind of pops the color. Definitely a good color for Alex, though. Check out the blue eyes on this boy.

This is the answer to the request from Zoe for something cute for picture day. While I thought she had plenty of “cute” things that would be lovely for picture day, she apparently felt differently. I would have appreciated her sharing this information sometime earlier than the day before picture day, but what fun would that be? This picture is about a week after picture day. I’m not sure if these were the tights she had on for picture day, and I’m pretty sure we picked up this pair of shoes after picture day. The shoes are hot pink shiny numbers from Target.

This is a standby pattern – Farbenmix Olivia. The hood is lined in the same color as the sleeves. The main fabric is a purpley-blue with pink and purple fairies all over it. Size 122/128.

Playing a bit of catch up here –
I did make this one again, adding length to the sleeves and body. It appears that I forgot to take a picture after I hemmed it, so you get this one where I was trying to decide if I would hate it unhemmed.

In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t an issue of my not wanting to hem it. It was a thread color issue. I didn’t have an acceptable match (in my eyes) in my collection of serger threads. After some digging, I did find a suitable match in my sewing machine threads. I popped the spool and bobbin on the two spots on the coverstitcher where I’d normally put serger thread cones and then went with the darkest purple woolly nylon I could find for the underside. Worked wonderfully. Perhaps one of these days I will remember to snap a picture after it goes through the wash. Right now I’m too lazy busy to go dig it out of the dresser drawer upstairs.

I’ve been putting this one off because the v-neck on it made me nervous, but it really wasn’t too bad. I made this one for me, tracing out a size U. I added 1.5″ to the sleeves. If I make it again, I’ll probably add another half inch. I didn’t add anything to the length and it falls right about where most of my RTW tops do, but next time I’ll add another inch, maybe an inch and a half.

This particular knit claimed to be 100% cotton when I bought it, but I suspect there is some poly in there. Some day I may get around to burn testing it. Mostly I’ve been using it to try new patterns and check the fit and sizing since it’s not really my favorite color anyway.

Anyway, playing with the photo editing software so you don’t have to see all the other junk on my table –

Here’s a close up of the neckline, which turned out pretty well, I think.

Snack Bags!

We’re going to make 3 snack size bags, but once you have the process down, you can make them any size you like.

Aplix/touchtape/velcro closure snack bags
1. Start with a Fat Quarter (FQ) cotton woven, which will be approximately 22″x18″.

2. Fold it in half, wrong sides together, so you now have a piece that’s 11″x18″.

3. Press the fold. In the picture, the fold is on the bottom.

4. Leave it folded and cut into 3 pieces. You will have 3 pieces that are 11″x6″ when folded.
First cut line:

Second cut line:

All cut!

5. Cut a piece of 1.5″ wide aplix loop (ie, the fuzzy side) 4″ long.
Attach aplix to fabric 1/2″ from fold, and center across (about 1″ from each edge).

I use an 80/12 universal needle and a medium zig zag stitch.

Put the piece back on your table, aplix side down, folded end closest to you.

6. Bring the fold up 4″, so your top flap is 3″.

7. Draw your rounded corners on the top flap. Quilter’s templates, round pattern weights, french curves or canned goods from the pantry all work well as tools to help you draw a smooth curve.
I start my curve about 1″ from where my folded fabric is. Look closely at the arrows and you should be able to barely see where my air erase marker lines are already fading!

8. Starting at one end, serge all the way around. (If you are using aplix, you will have already attached the loop part. I was putting a different closure on this bag.)

9. Attach the hook (scratchy) side now.
Attach about 1/2″ from top of flap, centering. I use 1″ hook for this side rather than 1.5″, just because it’s a little easier to pull apart that way, but if you only have 1.5″, that will work, too.


Alternate closures – snaps, buttons, elastic
Skip step 5, unless you want to attach your buttons at that step. I like to use two and attach them 1.5″ from the top of the fold and 1.5″ from the edge.

Attach closures at step 9.
Buttons – sew buttons on if you didn’t do it at step 5. I like to use two and attach them 1.5″ from the top of the fold and 1.5″ from the edge. Create button holes on flap. You can also use one button in the middle.

Snaps – same placement as buttons. I put sockets on the flap, but it’s really just personal preference.

Elastic – 5.5″ of 1/4″ elastic, attached with a short zig zag. Attach wherever your curve started. 1/8″ elastic will also work. 3/8″ is kind of big and may look a little funny on smaller bags, but it will do that job.
(You can attach the elastic at the same time as you serge around if you like, I just feel better about the tacking.)

After my assistant put a couple legos in it:

Foldover Closure Snack Bags
Steps 1-4 from above
5. Fold fabric right sides together and sew/serge raw ends together
Folded:

And serged:

6. Turn fabric right side out and press seam.
7. Lay flat and bring original folded end up to create 3″ flap at the top.

8. Fold seamed side under 2 3/4″ and press
In the picture, the 2 3/4″ side is underneath. See how there’s a 1/4″ between the original fold and the new fold we just made? That gives it a little wiggle room when we flip it over to close the bag later.

The back now looks like this:

9. Serge both open sides.
Here’s the front:

And here’s the back

To close the bag, take the back flap and flip it over the front.

It will look like this:

All done!

These were serged with a 80/12 ball point needle using a 3 thread overlock stitch. I used Wooly Nylon in both loopers and Maxi-Lock in the right needle. On my machine, I set the stitch length just past 2 and the width at 3.5.

Want to make it in a different size? No problem. To make a single bag, first decide how wide you want it to be. Then decide how tall it should be. I usually make the flap 3/4 the size of the height of the bag, which gives room for the curve. If you do it that way, you will need a piece that is the width you want by the length * 5.5.

Snack Bag Tutorial by Kelly Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Size 122 again, just a boring hem through the coverstitcher for the sleeves and bottom on this one. This print is kind of growing on me. It’s been in my stash for a while and I’ve been lukewarm about it because of the streaky coloring. It’s a nice weight, though, and very soft. Zoe hasn’t seen it yet, I cut it out this morning while she and Jack were at school and just hemmed it this afternoon while Jack is napping. Hopefully Zoe will be pleasantly surprised when she gets home from kindergarten today.

This one fits Zoe wonderfully in size 122, without any adjustment. This pattern has a crossover front option, which I may make for the next one. The first thing she did when I had her try it on before I hemmed the bottom was complain that I put long sleeves on it. I told her that since it’s the end of August, she should expect that her clothes will have long sleeves for a while. Lettuce edged, her favorite. Her sleeves look to be about a half inch too long, but she’s growing like a weed, so I doubt that will last too long.