May 20, 2022
Last Wednesday, the young Chinese lady at home asked a favor if I could help her do her sewing homework since she was busy studying for their upcoming examinations and the deadline will be today, Friday. A person who loves art and craft, of course, didn't decline it. Besides, it's been a long time since I made artwork and crafts. At first, I thought it was just simple school homework, but after finishing the second part of the craft, I found out that it will be donated to the chosen foundation. I felt happy upon hearing it because it would be my first time donating my own made craft to a foundation.
There were several sewing techniques to choose from, and I need to apply three of them. I opted for applique, patchwork, and buttons/beads after checking some ideas online.
Applique is a technique for decorating pieces of fabric to create patterns or any designs you want, pictures for instance. Meanwhile, Patchwork is a technique where different pieces of cloth in different designs, colors, or textures are sewn together. Any sewing method which involves patching pieces of cloth is also a kind of patchwork, like patching holes in your pants and whatsoever. Lastly, the Buttons&Beads, is, of course, a technique of combining buttons and beads and forming them into a craft.
I thought I'll be doing three different crafts using the three different techniques, separately. So the idea in my mind is to make a craft that forms like a frame for patchwork and applique techniques separately. And for the buttons&beads, I found an old bracelet and thought of sewing buttons on it.
I started making this whole craft at around eleven in the morning.
The Preparations and Procedures
The materials used for these three sewing techniques include old clothes, needles and threads, buttons and beads, and a white cloth canvas. Of course, scissors for cutting, pencil, and paper for drawing patterns. We only used resources available at home.
Buttons/Beads
The first I did was for the buttons&beads. I gathered all the materials, threads & needles, buttons & beads, an old bracelet, and an old shoe bag. After laying out the buttons to form a pattern, I started sewing them on both sides of the bracelet's laces. I was supposed to put beads on top of white buttons, but something came up and I opted not to do it. The third photo was the finished product.
This became wasted, just read the whole story 😅
After finishing this bracelet with buttons, I was told that three techniques should be combined in one sewing craft. They only gave me another problem to solve, lol. So I created another idea in my mind again. I found an old shoe bag, and that's what I used for my new idea.
Applique
I resumed doing my work and thought of what pattern to make for the applique. I searched for ideas online but only saw patterns of animals, flowers, and others that I don't like. A lady in a long dress came to my mind, so I opted to look for drawing patterns online and chose a simple and easy one.
I draw it on white paper, cut it out, then draw the pattern on a white cloth canvas for easy sewing.
Then I took an old red cloth for the dress. I actually planned to make it multi-color since the applique technique involves using different fabrics of different designs and colors. But due to the limited amount of time, I opted to only choose one red color. It looks easy, but it's so d**n hard. The smaller the size, the harder it is to sew.
After drawing the pattern on the red cloth, I cut it out, giving some allowance on the sides for the sewing part. I turned the allowance to the inside and stitched it.
Seriously, it took me more than an hour to stitch the sides, not even done yet!
I took a break for lunch and my boss brought me to a sushi restaurant, along with the young Chinese lady. That was already late lunch since it was already past 1 in the afternoon. The queue was long in the Genki Sushi restaurant, so we finish eating at around 3 in the afternoon, lol.
Burp! They bought more sushi for me. Payment for sewing? I thought, Lol
I resumed sewing at around four in the afternoon and continued sewing the sides of the lady pattern. It was five-thirty in the afternoon when I finished sewing all the sides using the running stitch method. Then I used the backstitch method for the lines of the dress which made it long to finish. I paused to prepare for dinner, and of course, ate, and took a bath.
At eight-thirty in the evening, I started sewing the dress on the canvas. I pinned the sides first to make the dress more accurately placed while stitching.
Then the lady saw it and said,
"Jane, don't make it perfect. My teacher won't believe me that it's my work."
"But it's my work." I replied.
"But it's my homework." She replied.
K fine. I forgot that I'm just doing a favor and it's not for myself, lol. But it looks perfect already, good luck to her.
And the finished product, tada! Pretty, isn't it?
I was supposed to use skin tone and brown colored threads for sewing the body and hair parts. But since she complained, I opted to color them using colored pencils. It was in my favor actually, since it will not consume more time.
Patchwork
After making the applique, I took out the old shoe bag and old clothes. I cut them into square sizes, and formed a pattern on the shoe bag.
This was my first idea. Put the lady pattern on top of the patchwork. But I decided to change it. Just read the whole story.
I pinned the jean cloth patterns and sewed them, followed by the pink and green cloth patterns. I used the simple and easy running stitch method here.
As you noticed, I didn't mind the sides since the lady requested not to make it perfect.
And here's the finished product. The backside of the bag. You can see that the sides are not perfect, lol.
/
After doing this part, the lady mentioned that this will be donated to her chosen Foundation since their school will be giving out donations to different Foundations.
I was like, "you should have told me earlier, I should have made the patchwork better."
Attaching the lady in a red dress applique pattern was the next part. I was thinking of whether to pursue my first idea or make a new one. In the end, I opted to make a bag pocket using the white cloth canvas with the lady in red dress applique pattern to cover the existing shoe bag design.
I pinned the sides first before sewing. A white thread was used so the flaws won't be visible since I was in a hurry to finish it, lol.
Here's how it looked like. I'm almost done, yey!
What happened to the button bracelet?
Since only one craft will be submitted combining all sewing techniques, I opted not to use the button bracelet anymore and removed some buttons from it for my next idea.
On the upper right corner of the pocket, I stitched the small buttons and glued a flower button I took out from a hair tie. Below the flower button, I opted to stitch the leaf and heart pendants I took from the cheap bracelet I bought that day, intended for this craft.
They perfectly suit this craft and I like the heart pendant with the words, "made with love."
Let's take a look at the finished product!
Photos of both sides of the bag
I was supposed to put slings so it'll become a tote bag, and more buttons or beads designs. But since there wasn't enough time, I just put it that way.
The lady asked me the name of my creation for her worksheet, I said, just a bag. Then she named it a multi-purpose bag which is a brilliant one. Whoever will receive this craft, she/he can put school books inside, then stationaries in the pocket. If not, it can be used for keeping clothes and other stuff or simply used as a bag for accessories.
So this was the reason why I was offline yesterday and last night. I was busy making this needlework craft. I felt glad upon knowing that my needlework craft will be donated to a Foundation, and a less fortunate kid will receive this. I felt like my effort was worth it. Besides, it's my first time making this kind of needlework craft.
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