Hello!
Apparently, it's been a year since I last posted. And what a year it's been! Lots of changes, for one. Our eldest graduated from college in the spring. We sent the youngest off to that same college this fall. The lead-up to both transitions included last concerts, last sports meets, graduation ceremonies and parties and other things that were simultaneously celebrations and mini-endings. And now that the hours in my day no longer really revolve around precision-timed meals and after-school events, I'm finding myself in a transition of my own. It's good, but it's new and slightly weird, and I know it'll have to grow on me. Or maybe it's the other way around.
You're an empty-nester now, people have informed me. What will you do with all your extra time?
Well, I'm surprised to discover that I don't actually seem to have a whole lot of extra time. I mean, the day finds directions to go, so I follow it, and it leads me to supermarkets and the cats and appointments with friends, and side craft projects and who knows what else. What's more noticeably different, though, is the purpose and the structure in my day. I miss the energy in the house with all the kids in it. And I miss the two girls who are away at school - the freshman who left in a flurry of excitement and uncertainty, as is typical of first-years, and the sophomore who moved out a little more incrementally, having already performed the dramatic exit the year before.
In anticipation of this big shift, I'd started teaching some workshops at the Minneapolis Textile Center a couple of years ago. They were a bit of an experiment to see what I thought of returning to the classroom, as it were. Turns out I loved it, and it somehow felt like the most natural thing in the world to be teaching anything again, really, so this winter I'm going to be doing more of that. In the works are more sleeve drafting, and a new bag-making workshop. I'm also hoping to teach a couple of more entry-level soft toy and general sewing classes with community ed.
I've also organized my instagram accounts and started a new one that's for all my crafty, sewingy things. Come follow me here @ikatbaglab! There's a QR code thingy below and also in my sidebar. The feed itself is laughingly sparse at the moment, but it will fill up in time as I get my sea legs.
Speaking of sea legs, I made these sardines. The internet has informed me that since sardines grow to a length of only about about 6", these - at 10" - are technically pilchards. Same fish, but distinctly named for size. Just between you and me, I like sardines, so oversize or not, let's continue to call them that, OK?
As you can tell from all those prints and hues, I wasn't going for realism, but I suppose their colorfulness was what I subconsciously needed -
that, and the mass producing which, if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, is the sort of obsession that keeps me grounded in that same way that one feels most sane when one is doing something quite silly and frivolous.
So: manic bulk sewing as an antidote to missing one's brood, along with the patterns and familiarities of one's old life. I am happy to say that it helped. I filled the sardines with lavender, so they smell wonderful, which also helped.
These sardines are inspired by a very similar souvenir I bought on an international summer trip, and I didn't initially intend to make bunches more, but then the summer ended and college beckoned and, well . . . let's just say it was cheaper than therapy. I've been giving some away to friends and have also put some in the shop, but here also is a tutorial to make them. They are excellent stash busters and - if the response from the recipients is any indication - make great gifts.
First, download the template here:
And remember that, like all my other downloads, the templates do not include seam allowances, so you'll need to add 1/4" around all the edges when you lay them out on fabric.
Step 8
Step 1
Cut apart the head and body of the fish, so that you're working with two separate template pieces.
Step 1.5
Optional, but I thought I'd include this additional step of creating a plastic template for two reasons:
One, it allows you to print a very neat black circle for the eye with a foam brush, rather than trying to hand-paint it. I cut my plastic head template without SA (i.e. it's exactly the same size as the paper one), but you can add SA to yours if you like.
Two, if you happen to be mass-producing these for Christmas gifts, say, this will speed up the process greatly - both in positioning the eyes on multiple fish heads, and in neatly printing them all with clean edges.
The eye highlights still need to be hand-painted in,
but they are literally white blobs and dots, and don't need to be precise. I used acrylic paint for both the black and white details.
I should mention that you can paint the eyes at any step during the construction of the fish, even after the whole thing has been sewn up and stuffed. However, for mass production, this - before the head is attached to the body - is the most efficient point in the sequence to do it,
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| Fish heads with painted eyes drying |
so let's go ahead and call this Step 2 and insert it right here:
Step 2
Paint the eyes.
This is where we begin the assembly. You will need (remember to add SA around the templates!):
- Two x fish heads in white cotton
- Two x fish bodies in printed cotton
- One 4" x 1/4" ribbon
- Some polyfill stuffing and (if you want this to be a scented thing) dried lavender flowers.
Step 3
With right sides (RS) together, align the straight edges of one fish head and one fish body and sew them together. Press the seam open and then press both SAs to the head side. On the RS, edge-stitch on the fish head along the seam line and through the SAs. This is one completed fish piece.
Step 4
Fold the ribbon in half to make a 2"-long loop. Place its ends together on the tip of the fish head and sew them to the SA of the head. You're functionally basting the loop in place, but using small stitches because the attachment point is so small.
You'll sew the loop to only one of the head pieces; the other is left as is. Here is what the pair of fish heads would look like if I were mass producing; again, it is most efficient to attach all the loops to all the relevant heads before adding any bodies.
Step 5
Repeat Step 3 with the second head and body piece to make a second fish piece. This one will have no ribbon loop attached. Place the RS of the two completed fish pieces together, with the ribbon loop sandwiched between them, and align all sides. Sew around the entire outline except for the bottom edge of the tail fin.
Step 6
Snip or notch the SA along the concave sections of the seam (where the tail joins the body, especially) to allow the seams to lie flat. Turn the entire fish RS out through the tail fin opening. Press all seams flat.
This is my pile of flat fish, after pressing.
Step 7
Fill the fish.
The photo below shows the general Big Picture plan of what happens next, including the approximate ratio of lavender to polyfill that I used, but go ahead and adjust that proportion to your liking. I decided not to fill the entire thing with lavender up to its tail so that I didn't have to deal with lavender bits spilling out later when sewing shut the tail opening.
The tail itself is like a natural funnel,
but if you want to be extra like me, or if you're mass-producing (i.e. also like me), a paper funnel
attached to a tube will speed up the process of getting the lavender flowers all the way down into the fish head.
Fill up the tail fin with stuffing. This helps keep the lavender in place so that when you are sewing the tail, nothing spills out.
Using a 1/2" SA (not 1/4"; this will become clear later), sew the tail opening shut.
I took a ridiculous number of photos of the whole lot, in various configurations, because they looked so earnest and silly together.
Step 9
Use pinking shears to trim off about 1/4" (this is why we left a 1/2"SA in the previous step). I used my scalloped-edge shears but regular zigzag edge ones are great, too.
Here is the finished, stuffed sardine.
Come visit the shop to stock up early for the holidays! And check back here soon for more updates, including some very backlogged posts that have been sitting on my dashboard forever. I am determined that they see the light of day very soon!
