This is Not a Duck

Ah, but it is duck cloth. Sorry, Magritte. And it's what my new snack bags will have as their lining. This is 100% organic undyed cotton duck cloth. The cotton was grown and woven into cloth in India. I bought it from a US company that sells only organic fabrics.

What is duck cloth, you ask? Cloth for ducks? Um, no. I did some research. Turns out "duck" cloth was originally a linen fabric called "doek" in Dutch, which refers to a heavyweight canvas once used as sailors' clothing. Those Dutch were always travelling the world by ship, conquering lands, and needing good outerwear, but that's another story. Duck cloth is strong stuff. It has a special weave and uses thick threads in the weaving process. The heavier weight varieties have been used in hammocks, sails, tents, and sand bags, while a lighter weight version, which is what I bought, is perfect for snack bags! Besides being tough and rip-resistant, it also (drumroll, please) resists water just a bit! In the photo below you can see some water droplets beading up on it. I took the photo myself after splattering the water, so it was several seconds between when I splattered the water and when I focused the camera and took the shot.

The combination of the strength of the fabric, the fact that it is organic, and this slight water resistance is what drove me to switch from using the uncoated nylon I had been using previously in the snack bags. I am very, very happy not to be working with the nylon anymore. It worked well enough in the bags, but over time was prone to ripping, and sewing with it is a big pain. It's slippery, you can't iron it properly because it will melt, can't put pins in it because nylon doesn't recover, blah blah blah. The fact that our food can now all be protected by organic material is also a huge plus. And the new bags feel soft but substantial.

Originally I planned to use only the serger to construct the bags rather than using that nice strip of white binding you're familiar with:

Old style bag with nylon inside and pretty white binding along edges.

I spent the better part of two whole work days refining the new snack bags on the serger, trying to master that lovely curve around the front of the envelope, getting the threads to be just the right length and width on both the front and back of the fabric, and experimenting with different snack bag shapes. I used more duck cloth and more beautiful mill fabric than I wanted in this effort. It was not fun and I nearly cried with frustration. The serger was not being nice to me. Or rather, my inexperience with it was showing. It kept getting tangled and needing rethreading, and it made some very unhappy noises. Once it broke a needle clean off in the middle. Good thing I was wearing my glasses!

Practicing curves on some random linen.

First attempts at bags with serged edges. nope, ugly!

Oh my gosh, no.

Finally I got the machine figured out and was able to sew some decent seams. I did come up with three different bags that I was mostly happy with but which did not excite me. They were serviceable and well made but I found I missed the very clean look of that white binding from the old style. So I went back to using the binding and sewing that on with the conventional sewing machine, which has always been difficult because of the thickness of the fabrics. Now the fabrics are even thicker and my machine is really showing its age, but I find that trim look just cannot be replicated with even the most perfect serger stitches. It does take longer to sew the binding on than to use the serger, but I find value in a functional object that is also beautiful and I hope you do too.

One serviceable bag. But see the little fabric bits poking out? I don't like 'em!!

So this is where we are: new snack bags with 100% organic cotton lining, bound securely with bias binding, with beautiful hand screened fabrics on the outside. I will make several sets before posting them all in  my Etsy shop. When I've got them ready for sale I will let you know and I will give you a pile of ideas of what to put in them. I know I am always looking for new things to send to school, and I don't know any parents who aren't.

Ahhhh, now this is more like it!!

Happy sailing!

There's No Fabric Like Mill Fabric

beach cover up pattern from Scientific Seamstress, fabric by Lotta Jansdotter

Yesterday I made a beach cover-up for HG for her birthday. I bought some completely delicious Lotta Jansdotter fabric for it. I have been coveting her fabric for quite a while. I really, really like her patterns. You can see them here. She sells all kids of fantastic things in addition to fabric. Anyway, I was thrilled to have an excuse to purchase a little bit to make into this coverup (pattern by the awesome Scientific Seamstress). And I think it came out very well. I serged all the internal seams! Even the curvy sleeve attachments! Yay for me!

But, and this is an important but, the fabric itself--the cotton--was simply not as nice as what I am used to from the textile mill near me. Nothing is. I have worked with plenty of fancy designer fabrics (Marimekko, Moda, now Jansdotter) and they just don't hold a candle to the luscious stuff the mill produces.

This made me think that perhaps you'd like a tour of the mill to see where the cotton comes from, their printing process, meet some nice people who work there, etc. etc. Well, me too! So I've asked the mill's manager if I could come and take a tour. Very, very sadly, he said no. There are apparently safety/insurance issues. I am also not permitted to tell you the name or exact location of the mill, because the fabric designers do not like it to be widely known that their fabrics can be purchased directly from there. So I can't send you to their website.

I can, however, repost some of the photos from their website, paraphrase some of the content of their blog and some videos they have, and try to summarize what Jack the manager has told me about the place. Below is the mill's building. The little red add-on building at the bottom is where they have their retail shop.

The mill has been a family company since 1937. It is one of a very, very few handscreening mills in the United States. They work with both established and emerging textile artists. They have low minimum yardage requirements, which means people who are new to textile design can have small amounts printed there and then go off and do whatever they want with their few yards of printed fabric--sell it, sew things themselves, whatever. They silkscreen all the fabrics by hand. They work mostly with cotton, linen, and cotton/linen blends. The linen all comes from Belgium and the cotton comes from a variety of places. Some of it is grown in the USA, but not all. Occasionally they do something in silk or even acrylic. You'd use acrylic for an outdoor application like patio furniture pillows.

They work with the fabric from start to finish. That means that once that extremely high quality, high thread count cotton or linen arrives at the mill they have to prepare it for dyeing--prewashing it, removing natural waxes in the fabric, stuff like that.

The prewashing stage.

Then they do the silkscreening. In the silkscreening process, two people walk 50 yards from one end of the building to the other with a single screen, which is that flat box between the two employees in the photo below (I think they need some new aprons from me, don't you?). Each screen places a different color on the fabric, so each screen is a different section of the whole pattern. I think I learned that they can print up to 30 colors on a single fabric. For each section of the fabric they pull the dye across the screen with a kind of wand-like thing, then lift the screen and do it again. And again! The screens themselves live at the mill, so when the designer wants a new run of the fabric, or wants a different colorway, the screens are all there.

The silkscreening stage.

Here is some Lulu DK fabric going up to the next step in the printing process.

After the dye goes on, there is a finishing stage which will either give the fabric a kind of luster or a matte look, and which will soften the material. This must be the stage that is important to me, because it's the softness and the creaminess of the fabric that makes me so happy. If you go to the regular fabric store, even ones selling the very popular, higher-end designers like the Lotta Jansdotter I bought, you just don't get fabric that feels this good. That feeling is called the "hand" of the fabric, by the way.

The inspection stage, maybe? I am not sure.

When I purchase the fabric from the little red building, it is on rolls a little smaller than the one you see above. We take it off the rack and cut it at the big wooden cutting table they have there. Then I take it home!  Even though they have preshrunk the fabric before printing it, I put it through my washer and dryer as well. I use plant-based detergent. I take it out, iron it, and it's good to go for a project.

I love, love going over there and taking a browse. The people are extremely nice and helpful, the fabrics are usually way too gorgeous to pass up, and even when I'm ironing it I'm happy. Sorry Lotta. Love your patterns, but there's no fabric like mill fabric!!

Interested in Sewing? Hope You Like Ironing!

Today I made three pencil rolls in my new style. These hold twelve pencils or pens (or makeup brushes), even wider ones like fountain pens, and the roll has a flap that folds over the contents so they can't fall out when rolled and tied. Each roll uses three coordinating fabrics. That's my favorite part of making these--choosing the fabrics for them. There are so many possibilities!  If you'd like to share any ideas, please leave your thoughts in the comments. You can have a look at the fabrics available in my shop and see if there are any combos you can think of that I haven't considered.

Main fabrics, left to right: Unison "Larch," Albert Hadley "Fireworks," LuluDK "Minerva"

While I was making these today I thought (again) about how much sewing time is actually ironing. I don't really like ironing. There are napkins and tablecloths and dress shirts that have been sitting around my house for months waiting to be ironed. But ironing while sewing is essential. I would guess that I spend about half my construction time cutting and ironing at different stages rather than sewing. So I took some photos during the process of making the purple pencil roll so you could see how much ironing and other not-sewing is involved in just one little item for my shop.

First, I have to iron the huge swaths of fabric that I've purchased and hang them or store them neatly (ha! neatly!). But even before doing that I wash and dry everything. I didn't think you'd be too interested in seeing a photo of my washing machine, so I've skipped those steps. I usually try to do that right when I've brought the fabric home anyway. Next, I cut the fabric pieces according to the pattern I've made. For a pencil roll, that's seven pieces. I use my rotary cutter, which is like a pizza cutter, and a big ruler to make straight edges. I've got a number of smaller rulers I use regularly too.

Next I iron what's called interfacing to one layer of the pencil roll's fabric (no photo of this either because I forgot). Interfacing comes in many styles and adds weight and structure to what you're making. For these pencil rolls, I use a cotton interfacing that irons directly onto the back of one piece of fabric. Even though I use very high thread count fabrics, the interfacing makes the pencil roll just a little more hefty. The end product feels good and strong. If you're interested, here is a nice introduction to the different kinds of interfacing out there.

Next I iron all the little strips of fabric that make the ties and that enclose the top of the pencil pockets. Don't they look nice in the photo all together? Each of these pieces is folded (and ironed) once down the middle, then opened, then each long edge is folded (and ironed) again toward the middle. Finally, the whole thing is folded (and, yes, ironed!) again down the middle. I pin the pieces while I do the next ones so they don't undo on me.

Finally! A sewing moment! It is hard to believe how much non-sewing goes into sewing. Below is a photo of that piece of binding at the top of the pencil pockets getting sewed on. First I sew it to the pockets piece along one of those creases I made in the last step.

Then I fold the binding piece up and over to the back of the pocket piece. Naturally, I iron the seam I've just made. Every time you sew a seam, in fact, you have to press it. Every time. It sets the thread in the fabric, making it more secure. 

Above is what it looks like folded over and pressed. Below is the stitching I then did on top of the green fabric to secure that piece completely to the purple/white fabric. I try to get as close to the edge of the green fabric as possible, and I try to be really, really straight. When I first started sewing, this was not easy, but I am much better at it now. There is, by the way, a more conventional way to sew this seam below, which is to put it on the purple and white fabric, right up next to the green one, catching the green fabric underneath on the other side. It's called "stitch in the ditch." But that, I have found, is enormously difficult to do well by machine, so I just sew on the green. I think it looks very neat and trim.

 If you flip it over, it looks like this: 

See? The last set of stitching I did caught the green fabric on the back, securing it completely to the purple and white fabric. Once again, I iron. 

Then I move on to making the ties. I sew along both long edges because I think it looks better. Some people only sew along the open edge of a thing like this, but I like to do both. 

And guess what? After sewing those seams down, I go and iron the ties. 

Next up, marking where the slots will go. I use my pattern with the pencil lines and make a little blue dot with my disappearing ink pen at the top and bottom of each pocket. 

Then I join the dots with stitching, up and back on each line. I'm now attaching the pocket piece to the solid purple, which will be the inside, or lining of the pencil roll. 

When that's finished, I spray the thing with water to take off the little blue dots I made, then--woo-hoo--iron again. We are getting close to the end now, though. 

Next up, I pin the pockets/lining piece to the outside piece. I put them together so that the good sides of the fabrics are facing each other. That way I can turn them inside out later. See my cool pin holder on the left? That is a magnetized piece of Rimu wood from New Zealand that I got on my honeymoon. One of my favorite things. 

Now you see I have sewn around most of the pencil roll, leaving a space for turning it right side out, and I've clipped the corners so they will more likely come out as a point. If you don't do that then the fabric gets all bunched up there and looks pretty bad when you turn it right side out. With my trusty chopstick I poke out those corners and make sure all the edges are nice and straight. 

The very last step is to sew along the edge again, making a nice white stitching line all the way around, and closing the hole that allowed for the turning. Wait, that's actually not the last step. The real last step is, you guessed it, ironing around that new stitching along the edges. 

I didn't realize when I started these today how great they all look together, but I love the jewel tones all next to each other, don't you?

They'll be showing up in the shop soon!  Don't forget to suggest some new combos for more pencil rolls!