Abigails Crafts bookstore
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 On Wednesday, we took a look at lace knitting, for which stitch markers are a real help. Of course, you can get plain ones fairly cheaply – they are basically little plastic rings that you slide onto the knitting needle between the two stitches you want to mark. As you knit past those stitches, you slide the marker across onto the other needle.
But it’s much more fun to make your own! Plus, you can have lots of different ones to mark different sections, the start of a round, and so on.
To make your own stitch markers you’ll need:
- hard craft wire or beading head pins (like those used for dangly earrings)
- beads
- pliers
- wire cutters
- a form to bend the wire round – round-nose pliers are great if you have them, but if not you can use a pen or piece of dowel. The form should be bigger than you usual knitting needles, to allow you to slip the marker easily from needle to needle.
If you’re using wire, cut a length and bend the very end into a small tight loop. This will hold the bead in place, and if you wish you can attach another ‘drop’ to the loop to make a very dangly stitch marker!
Thread a bead or beads onto the wire, and make a sharp bend about 1cm above the topmost bead.
Using your pliers to grip the wire, bend it around the form to make a loop which meets where you made the bend.
Pulling steadily with your pliers, wrap the end of the wire around the wire between the bead and the loop. Trim off the end if necessary, and use the pliers to pinch and tuck the end in as much as possible so it won’t snag your knitting.
Slide the whole thing off the form, and you have a lovely handmade stitch marker 
 Lace knitting can seem pretty daunting to the new knitter, but all lace knits, from the simplest eyelet pattern to the complex designs of Herbert Niebling, from simple mesh dishcloths to the gossamer shawls of Eastern Europe, are all made up of the same basic stitches. Today, we’ll learn the basics of lace knitting, and make (what else – it’s the only hat style that suits me!) this light beret, perfect for the cooler evenings of early autumn.
Tips for knitting lace
- Keeping count – if your pattern stretches over multiple rows, it’s important to keep track of what row you’re on. Row counters, marking off the pattern, or keeping a tally on a piece of scrap paper, can all be useful. Check your stitch count often while you’re learning. Stitch markers are also a godsend for keeping track of repeats within a row. We’ll make some stitch markers on Friday!
- Lifelines – With plain knitting, you can often rip back and then pick up stitches fairly easily. Lace patterns, however, have yarn-overs and decreases which can be harder to pick up again if you make a mistake and have to frog several rows. A lifeline is a piece of scrap yarn, run through all the stitches in a row (use a darning needle to thread the scrap yarn through each stitch on the knitting needle) – if you make a mistake, you only have to rip back to the previous lifeline and simply pick up the stitches from the scrap yarn. You can put in as many lifelines as you wish, and easily remove them afterward by simply tugging the scrap yarn out.
- Learning to ‘read’ your knitting – as you gain experience with lace knitting, you’ll soon get a feel for the way yarn-overs and decreases combine and sit on top of one another. As you’re learning, pay close attention to how the pattern works, that way, if you make a mistake you’ll spot it very soon, and have a lot less to re-do!
Lace stitches – yarn-overs and decreases
Lace patterns are almost always made up of combinations of yarn overs and decreases. We’ve already looked at how to do right-leaning and left-leaning decreases, today lets take a look at the yarn-over, and the centred double-decrease.
To make a yarn-over (usually abbreviated as ‘yo’), simply bring the yarn forward between the needles, and wrap it back over the needle before knitting the next stitch as normal. On the following row, you’ll knit this loop just like a regular stitch, leaving a hole in your knitting.
To keep the stitch count even, yarn-overs are paired with a decrease of some kind. The placement and direction of the decrease is often important, so take care to get your right-leaning and left-leaning decreases the right way!
You may also need to do a double decrease at some points, turning 3 stitches into one. To make a centred double decrease, slip one stitch to the right needle without knitting it. Knit the next two stitches together, and then pass the slipped stitch over the stitch you just made, and off the needle. You may see this decrease in patterns as something like ‘sl1 k2tog psso’.
Beret pattern
For this hat you’ll need:
- 1 skein sport-weight cotton yarn
- size US3 circular needle or dpns
- size US6 circular needle and/or dpns
- darning needle for finishing
- stitch markers
Gauge – 21sts/10cm in stockinette stitch (makes large women’s size)
Cast on 84 stitches on the smaller needle, and join to work in the round, being careful not to twist.
Work in k2p2 rib for about 2cm
Switch to the larger needle, and k2 kfb across the next round (kfb=knit front-and-back increase), kfb the first 2 stitches of the next round so you have a total of 108 stitches.
From the next round, knit the lace pattern 6 times each round:
- k6, yo, sl1 k1 psso, yo, sl1 k2tog psso, yo, k2tog, yo, k6 (sl1 k1 psso=left-leaning decrease, sl1 k2tog psso=centred double decrease)
- knit
 Or see the chart. A note on lace charts – lace charts generally only show the pattern rows, in this case, odd-numbered rows. Knit one row plain between each row of the chart.
Work this pattern until the hat is 4-6 ins long, depending on how slouchy you want it to be, and then work the decrease rounds, switching to dpns or magic-loop as the hat gets too small for the needle:
- sl1 k1 psso, k4, yo, sl1 k1 psso, yo, sl1 k2tog psso, yo, k2tog, yo, k4, k2tog
- knit
- sl1 k1 psso, k3, yo, sl1 k1 psso, yo, sl1 k2tog psso, yo, k2tog, yo, k3, k2tog
- knit
- sl1 k1 psso, k2, yo, sl1 k1 psso, yo, sl1 k2tog psso, yo, k2tog, yo, k2, k2tog
- knit
- sl1 k1 psso, k1, yo, sl1 k1 psso, yo, sl1 k2tog psso, yo, k2tog, yo,, k1, k2tog
- knit
- sl1 k1 psso, k2, yo, sl1 k2tog psso, yo, k2, k2tog
- knit
- sl1 k1 psso, k1, yo, sl1 k2tog psso, yo, k1, k2tog
- knit
- sl1 k1 psso, yo, sl1 k2tog psso, yo, k2tog
- knit
- sl1 k1 psso, k1, k2tog
- knit
- sl1 k2tog psso
Thread the yarn through the remaining stitches and draw closed on the wrong side, fasten off and weave in ends.
Block the hat over a dinner plate for best results.
 I saw some of these ‘swinky’ things in an accessories shop a few weeks ago, and thought they looked pretty, and easy to make yourself. They consist of two combs joined by elasticated strands of beads which cross over each other, and are worn by sliding the combs in your hair so that the elasticated part stretches across your ponytail, bun, or chignon, holding it in place. I’ve just made a very basic one today, but you could mix different types of beads, weave the strands into ribbons (using the same weave used to make bead rings), or embellish the combs as well, to make something really special.
You’ll need:
- two plain combs
- beading elastic
- fine wire
- beads
- wire cutters and scissors
- a beading needle may make things easier, but is not essential
Begin by making 4-6 loops or ribbons of beads (depending on the width of your combs), around 10cm long, by stringing the beads onto bead elastic and tying firmly. Hook the loops onto the teeth of the comb.
Cut a piece of wire, and twist it to attach it to the first tooth of the comb. Add 3 or 4 beads, and wrap the wire round the comb in between the next pair of teeth. Add more beads and wrap again, continuing along the whole length of the comb, and wrapping so that the elasticated strands are attached to the comb. When you reach the end, wrap again, then tuck the loose end under several of the wraps and trim off.
Now to attach the second comb. I’ll number the attachment positions from top to bottom – 1, 2, 3, 4. Take the top strand, and hook it onto the teeth of the second comb at position three. The second strand is then hooked on at position 4.
Take the third strand over the second and under the first, before hooking it to the second comb at position one at the very top of the comb. Finally, the fourth strand goes under the second and over the first, and is hooked on in position 2.
Wrap the second comb with wire and beads in the same way as the first to finish.
 Making your own stamps can be so much fun, to add a personalised touch to cards, gift tags, scrapbook pages and other craft projects. Small and medium-sized stamps can be carved from erasers, which are easy to obtain, and have the advantage that they don’t need mounting on a wooden block to be used.
To make your own stamp you’ll need:
- White plastic eraser – other types of eraser can be used, but white plastic is both easy to carve, and long-lasting
- exacto knife, scalpel, or similar straight, fine, pointed blade
- V-shaped gouge – these can be found in many craft stores, and are the only piece of specialised equipment you’ll need.
- Soft pencil or ballpoint pen
- image you wish to turn into a stamp. For your first attempt, you may wish to choose or design an image made up of blocks of colour, rather than one with fine lines.
 The first step is to transfer your image to the eraser. You can simply draw straight onto the eraser with ballpoint pen, remembering that an image drawn directly on will come out reversed when stamped. Alternatively, if you have an image on paper, cover the dark areas of the image with soft pencil, then lay the penciled side of the paper against the eraser and rub it. This will transfer the pencil to the eraser, and the image will also be reversed as it should be. If the transferred image is faint or blurry, you can go over it with ballpoint pen.
 The first part of the actual carving involves cutting the outline of the stamp with your straight blade. Cut lightly at first, and do not drag or force the blade as this can tear the surface, spoiling your smooth lines. Cut along all the lines, angling your blade so that the cut slopes down from the stamp image into the background. Cutting straight down will make a usable stamp, but it will not last as long. ‘Undercutting’, angling the knife so it actually cuts out some rubber from under the edge of the image, will produce a stamp that blobs ink and crumbles easily.
Curved lines will be smoother if you rotate the eraser rather than pulling the knife round in a curve. Any place two lines meet in a point, you should cut towards the point so that the rubber doesn’t get distorted as you cut. If you have a line where both ends form a sharp corner, start in the middle of the line and cut to one point, then come back and cut from the middle to the other point. Try, whenever possible, to cut away from your fingers rather than towards them.
 Where your lines are fairly close together, you’ll find that you can remove the background just by deepening the two angled cuts so that they meet in a V-shaped channel. You can only make the cuts so deep though, so for larger areas of background, you’ll need your v-gouge.Use the point of the gouge at a low angle (10-30 degrees from horizontal) to carefully carve away the background, a small sliver at a time. Be especially careful near the lines of your design, as trying to cut away too much at once may end up with you tearing the surface and spolilng your nice clean cuts.
When you think you’ve cut away enough, test your stamp on some paper. You can then refine the image with the point of your blade, and use a pin or sewing needle to tease out any small slivers of rubber that are still adhering to the surface. Continue test-stamping and refining until you’re happy with the stamped image.
You can label your stamp by stamping the image on a piece of paper and then sticking it to the uncarved side of the eraser.
N.B. Stamp-carving tools are sharp by necessity, and careless handling, e.g. pushing the blade too hard, may cause them to skip or slip unexpectedly. Young children should not use these tools without *very* close supervision.
Here’s 5 fun and useful ways to recycle milk or juice cartons!
1. Make a wallet
Cut down the side of the carton, and cut as pictured. Fold in half, and cut the bottom section up the centre, and v-shaped cuts in the centre of the middle section.
Fold the bottom section up, then the mid section. Fold down the flap along the top to make a neat edge. Tuck the side flaps in under the top flap. Fold the whole thing in half.
You now have a neat hardwearing wallet with two card pockets.
2. Make a flying toy
Fly this like a frisbee
Cut off the bottom of the carton and flatten it – do not cut down the sides. Cut four strips/loops from it, about an inch wide.
Loop the second strip over the end of the first. Loop the third strip over the second. Loop the fourth over the third, and slip the lond end through the end of the first strip, so that all four strips loop over each other. Pull tight, and glue if you wish (though it should hold together ok without glue).
3. Make kids play furniture
You can tape together blocks made from milk cartons stuffed with newspaper, to make sturdy and usable kids play furniture.
4. Grow root vegetables
 Some root veggies, such as larger carrot varieties, parsnips, and so on, don’t do very well in containers. A milk carton, however, is just the right size to grow a single root. Just punch holes in the bottom of the carton for drainage, fill with potting soil, and transplant your seedlings (or even sow direct).
Here’s a parsnip enjoying it’s juice-carton home!
5. Make floating shelves
Trim the end of your carton so it can be closed up flat, but do not seal it up yet. This lets you get your hand inside so you can pin or tack the box to the wall. Tape the end of the carton shut.
Alternatively, you can just apply wood glue to one side, and stick the box to the wall to make a shelf.
 Beaded rosettes are decorative discs of beadwork, traditionally used in Native American ceremonial and dance costumes. The rosettes are made by couching beads – that is, by stringing beads and then sewing them to a backing – usually leather or hide. Some people prefer a two-needle style, where the beads are strung with one needle and stitched down with the other, but today I’ll be showing you a one-needle style, where one round of beads is strung, and then sewn down with the same thread.
You can bead pretty much any design you choose – the tradition is, as with much Native American art, to choose colours and designs which have a personal or spiritual significance to the wearer. With that in mind, I chose the Yorkshire Rose, emblem of my home county in England. As many factors influence how the beads will fit together, I can’t give a charted pattern – if you do find charted rosette patterns, they will almost definitely be for square-stitch rosettes, which are made using a different method.
To make a rosette you’ll need:
- Backing – usually leather or deer-hide, but today we’ll use thick felt, which is a lot easier to stitch through. Once you’ve got the hang of the technique, you can easily substitute hide for the felt.
- Paper – this is both for the pattern, and to give an extra stiffening layer. I used washi paper as it is soft and flexible and so easy to sew on, but any kind of paper will do.
- Seed beads – a medium-sized rosette may well take a couple of hundred beads.
- Thread – waxed thread if you are working on leather or if you plan to use sharp-edged beads such as swarovski crystals
- beading needle
Start by drawing, tracing or printing out your design onto paper, at the size you want. If your design has many colours, you may want to colour your pattern.
Cut out your pattern and lay it on top of a piece of thick felt, cut to about the same size.
Thread your needle with a long thread – about 2 ‘armfuls’ or more if you can manage it. Knot the end, and bring your threaded needle up through the centre of your design.
String one bead, and take the needle back down through the centre.
Bring the needle up again to one side of the centre bead, and string as many beads as will fit in a circle round the centre bead. Most instructions I’ve seen online say 7, but I found I needed 8. You may need more or fewer depending on your beads.Thread the needle back through the first bead of the round, to complete the circle, and then take it back down through the backing.
Now you can tack this row in place by making a small stitch every three or four beads – bring the needle up inside the loop of beads, over the beaded thread, and back down again just outside the bead loop.
 The rest of the rosette is made the same way – string a circle of beads that fits neatly around the previous circle, complete the circle by taking the thread back through the first bead in the ring, and then stitch the ring into place. To work a design, thread a few beads at a time, matching them up to the lines of your paper pattern as you go.
When you’ve finished your pattern, secure the thread and then carefully trim the backing to match the outer circle of beads. On Wednesday, we’ll look at some decorative edgings you can use to complete your rosette.
 On Wednesday, I showed you how to make a heddle bead loom from cardboard. Today, lets take a look at how to use the loom.
Tension-loom beadweaving is known as double-weft. The weft thread passes through each bead twice. Heddle loom beading is double-warp – the weft thread passes through each bead only once, but the beads are positioned between pairs of warp threads, which holds the weaving together. The advantage of this is that rather than having to thread your beads one row at a time, weaving each row into place before starting a new row, in heddle weaving you can thread as many beads as you like – the entire pattern if you wish – in one go.
For todays project you’ll need:
- a heddle bead loom
- beads
- thread – ordinary polyester thread is better for heddle beadweaving, you should not use nylon beading thread as the weaving tightens the tension, causing your beads to bunch up when the piece is taken off the loom.
- sewing needle for warping your loom
- beading needle
First, lets warp the loom. Stick a pin or small screw under the comb at the bottom of the loom to anchor your warp threads.
Since heddle bead-weaving is a double-weft technique, you’ll need twice as many warp threads as beads in the width of your pattern, plus two threads. I’m making an eight-bead-wide pattern, so I need 16+2 warp threads.
If you like you can warp one pair of threads at a time, but this can result in differences in tension across the piece. For even tension, it’s better to warp as many threads as you can manage with one continuous thread.
Take a long piece of polyester thread, and tie one end to the pin at the bottom of the loom, and thread the other end through a sewing needle. Pass the thread over the bottom spacer comb, and through a slot in the heddle. Loop the thread round one tooth of the top comb, and, holding it between the fingers of the opposite hand to maintain the tension, thread it through the next hole in the heddle. Take it back down through the bottom comb, and wind round the pin, before repeating the process for the next pair of warp threads. Trying to maintain an even tension by holding on to your warp threads and the heddle while threading with the other hand can feel like you need three hands – I use thumb and forefinger for tensioning the thread, and the other three fingers and the heel of my left hand for the heddle, leaving my right hand free to do the actual warping.
Neighbouring threads should go alternately through the slots and holes of the heddle – an easy way to do it is to have the threads giong away from you go through the slots, and threaded through the holes as they come back toward you.
If you run out of thread, tie off the previous thread to the pin and attach a new thread. Alternatively, you can just tie a new thread directly to the old one, leaving long-is ends which you can weave in later.
Now your loom is warped, you can prepare the weft by threading your beads. When following a pattern, remember that the thread will go back and forth, so if you string the first row of yor pattern reading right-to-left, the second row should be strung reading left-to-right, alternating direction each row. String as much of your pattern as you like and you think will be comfortable to work with. You can do the whole thing now, if you want, or string extra rows or sections as you go.
Tie the end of the thread to the side of your loom, and raise the heddle so that the warp threads that pass through the holes are raised. A shed stick – simply a stick you can put into this space (the ‘shed’) to hold it while you get the beads in place – can be useful if you are working a wide pattern. I just used my finger to hold the shed open.
 Click the image for the full pattern Pass the string of beads through the open shed, arranging them so that there are two warp threads between each bead and two threads at the edge of the pattern. Now push the heddle down, so that the threads through the holes are below the others, opening the opposite shed. Pass the bead string through again, arranging the row of beads directly above the beads of the previous row.
These first two rows are likely to drive you close to demented as you try to get the beads in the right place, but do persevere, as once these two rows are in place, thereby spacing the warp threads properly, the process suddenly gets a lot easier!
Continue in the same manner, raising the heddle when weaving in one direction, lowering it in the other, and using your fingers to slot the beads into place above the previous rows, maintaining a pair of warp threads between beads.
Deal with the loose ends as you would for tension-loom beading, either weaving them in, or tying them off and tucking them away out of sight when sewing your strip to a backing.
 When loom beading is mentioned, most people think of tension looms, such as the box lid beadloom I posted a while ago. Beadweaving can, however, also be done on a loom with a rigid heddle. The advantage of weaving in this way is that unlike tension looms, where the thread has to pass through each bead twice, meaning that only one row at a time can be strung, in heddle weaving the warp threads are doubled instead, and the weft thread passes through each bead once. This means that if you wish you can string the beads for your entire pattern in one go.
Commercial heddle bead looms are few and far between, most being made by a dwindling number of craftspeople. This means that heddle bead weaving is not as well-known as it used to be, as the looms are expensive and hard to come by. With a little tinkering, though, I’ve come up with a heddle bead loom that can be made easily and very cheaply at home.
There are two big differences between a tension loom and a heddle loom. The most obvious is the heddle itself. In addition, the heddle loom needs to have adjustable tension – the weaving of the warp threads tightens them, so there has to be a mechanism to slacken the threads as you work. I’ve accomplished this by using a cardboard tube which is anchored in place with elastic bands – the tube can be turned by hand to adjust the tension, but should not slip around during weaving. There are other solutions to this, but using elastic seemed the simplest working option.
This loom is very much a prototype, and I’m sure many will be able to suggest improvements. You may want to add some extra struts for stability, for example. Instead of cardboard, the loom could be made from wood, if you have access to tools. But anyway, to make this loom you’ll need:
- Corrugated cardboard
- wood glue
- craft knife
- sturdy cardboard tube
- disposable chopstick or length of dowel
- two fine tooth combs
- strong elastic
- piece of sheet plastic, rigid but soft enough to be cut with scissors (I used a piece from the cover of a plastic folder)
- punch drill OR thick needle and a candle
- scissors
- tape
- small strip of cardstock
- pencil and ruler
Sandwich two or three layers of cardboard together with wood glue, and place under a flat weight (e.g. a pile of books) to dry.
While it’s drying, let’s make the heddle. Take your plastic sheet and cut it to size. It should be a little shorter than the width of your loom. With a pencil, rule vertical lines 3-4mm apart all the way across the plastic, and a horizontal line across the centre. Use a pair of sharp craft scissors to cut slots where you’ve ruled your lines – starting from the right-hand side (if you’re right-handed), make a cut 1mm or less to the right of the line, and then cut along the line itself.
When you’ve cut all your lines, put a piece of tape along the bottom edge. Turn the heddle over, and reposition the teeth of the heddle on the tape until they all lie flat and even. Now you can sandwich the bottom edge of the heddle between two layers of cardstock, using wood glue on both sides to bond it together firmly. If you wish, you can also glue some card along the top edge to make it more rigid.
The last step is to make a hole in the centre of each tooth of the heddle, using the horizontal line you drew earlier as a guide. These holes need to be just big enough to pass a threaded needle through. If you have a punch drill, this is fairly straightforward. If you don’t have a punch drill, you can do what I did and heat a needle in the flame of a candle, and use it to melt a small hole in the plastic. Make sure to do this in a well-ventilated area, as melted plastic fumes can be toxic. The holes will be rather sooty, but you can clean them off a bit by passing a needle threaded with thick cotton or embroidery floss through each hole.
That’s the heddle done – now to make the loom itself! Cut the shapes pictured from your glued-together cardboard – you need two rectangles with cutaway sides for the side of the loom, and a narrow strip for the end. Cut vertical slots in the narrow strip, the same width as the thickness of the cardboard, and slots at a 45° angle at the smaller end of the side pieces. You also need to cut a notch in the top for your cardboard tube to sit in (v-shaped, but with the side of the v closer to you should be vertical so the tube doesn’t roll toward you as you weave), and a small notch inderneath for the chopstick or dowel.
Slot together the main pieces of the loom, and sit the cardboard tube in the notch on top. Take two lengths of elastic, loop them round the tube and a dowel or chopstick in the notch underneath, and tie them firmly so that the tube takes a little effort to turn.
Finally, attach a comb to the tube so that its teeth point away from you, and another to the front strut at the bottom of the loom so that the teeth poke just above the strut. I used wire and tape to fasten the combs in place. The combs will space your warp threads evenly.
On Friday, I’ll be showing you how to weave on your new loom
 A tesselation is a collection of tiled shapes which fill a space with no gaps and no overlaps. This concept translates beautifully to patchwork, where the fabric blocks which make up the pattern must fit together to allow the finished quilt to lie flat. Today we’ll look at how you can use paper, scissors, and simple tesselations, to design a large variety of patchwork patterns. We’ll also look at how to make an irregular patch.
The simplest kind of tesselation is one of the three regular tessellations – made up of squares, equilateral triangles, or hexagons (which are themselves made up of tessellated equilateral triangles). Simple as these may seem, when we add colour (or different fabrics), there are a huge number of patterns that can be made up using only one of these three regular shapes. Here are four patterns made up of just equilateral triangles in three colours – you can see the scope for variety.
These three regular shapes can also be combined, if their sides are the same length, to make a number of other tilings. Here are four different patterns made up from a simple arrangement of squares and triangles.
 Many other shapes, regular and irregular, will tesselate if combined in the right way – all four-sided shapes will tile quite happily, for example, and even shapes that will not tile regularly, such as regular pentagons, will tessellate in combination with other shapes. A quick image search for ‘tessellations’ will give you a snapshot of the many beautiful designs that can be made up by simple repeating geometric shapes.
Today, let’s have a play around with just two shapes, a square and an equilateral triangle.
You’ll need:
- Paper and pencil
- ruler
- protractor
- stiff card
- origami paper or other coloured paper
- scissors and glue
First we’ll draft our two shapes – making the lsides of both shapes the same length. An equilateral triangle, you’ll remember, has three angles of 60°. Trace the shapes onto card and cut them out.
You now have two stencils which you can use to cut out a stack of coloured paper squares and triangles – if you already have your fabrics in mind, use as many different colours as you have fabrics.
You can see from the image below how I began by finding a way of fitting the shapes together that I found pleasing. I then changed the colours around until I liked the result, and pasted them down so that I could easily remember my design.
All my shapes fit together to make larger shapes – a rectangle, a hexagon, and a large triangle made up of three small ones. I was able to use my small shape stencils to make some larger stencils for the actual quilt pieces. Shapes can also be cut in half, as well as combined, adding two different right-angled triangles to the mix.
Finally I traced the stencils onto the fabric, and made up my patchwork. You may remember an earlier post on how to hand-piece patchwork.
As well as tiling regular shapes, you can design irregular shapes which will tessellate. Here’s one of the easiest methods to do this.
You’ll need:
- Paper
- Pencil
- scissors
- tape
Begin with a small piece of paper – square or rectangular is fine. Draw an irregular line from top to bottom edge, and a second irregular line from side to side. Cut out along these lines. Lay out the paper as it was before cutting, and then swap pairs of corners diagonally, so that the square corners are now in the centre. Tape together, and you now have your stencil. The shape, though quite random, will tessellate as you can see (allowing for some irregularities in cutting).
Starting with just a few paper shapes, you can create a boundless number of lovely and unique quilt designs. Have fun!
 So far this week, we’ve looked at how to draft a bra pattern, and fitting your bra pattern. Today, lets make up the pattern to sew a finished bra.
Your bra can be sewn by machine or by hand. I chose to sew by hand, as my machine has a push-button control that makes it hard to sew precisely, but machine sewing has the advantage of speed and a neater finish.
Most of the supplies you need can be either bought from a craft store or specialist supplier, or salvaged from an old bra. I managed to save wires, straps, hook-and-eye tape, and a small amount of powerknit fabric for the back band, from a past-its-best bra.
You’ll need:
- non-stretch fabric for cups and (optionally) the front half of the band. A fat quarter is ample unless you are making a particularly large size.
- stretch fabric (preferably ‘powerknit’ or similar) for either the whole of, or just the back half of, the band. For a half-band, about the size of a pocket hanky is plenty.
- underwires
- channelling – if you can’t find or salvage some underwire channelling, use knitted interfacing, folded double.
- bra straps, or elastic and sliders to make straps.
- 1-2cm wide elastic for bottom of band – up to 50cm (if elasticating the full band)
- approx 0.5cm wide elastic or lingerie elastic for upper edge of band and arm edge of cup – around 1m
- hooks and eyes – you can buy these loose or in tape form, or salvage from an old bra
- ribbon, lace, or piping for top cup edge. This stabilises the edge and stops it stretching on the bias.
- pattern
- scissors, pins, needle and thread, etc.
The first step is cutting out – don’t forget to leave a seam allowance, and make sure your left and right cup pieces are aligned the same way on the grain of the fabric, to avoid odd cups due to the fabric stretching on the bias. For the cups, you’ll need to cut 8 lower cup sections (doubling the lower cup for added support) and two upper sections. For the band, you can either cut the entire band from stretch fabric, or cut the two of the front half (from side-seam to side-seam lines on your pattern) from non-stretch fabric, and two of the back section (from side-seam line to centre-back) from stretch fabric. Leave seam allowances at the top and bottom edges, but not at the side edges, as you need some negative ease in the band.
To assemble the cups, double the lower sections, so you are actually sewing four pieces together. Sew the centre seam, then press the seam allowances apart and topstitch bothe sides of the seam. Sew on the upper cup section, press all the seam allowances to the upper side of the seam, and topstitch the seam allowances into place.
If you’re making a half-band, sew the two layers together along the bottom edge, wrong-side-out, then turn right-side out, press and topstitch the seam. If you’re making a full stretch band, you only have one layer so you can skip this step.
 You can now sew the cups into the band, taking care that they are both aligned the same way. You don’t need to topstitch this seam (yet) as it will be hidden and reinforced by the channelling seams.
Cut pieces of channelling (or doubled-over knit interfacing) about 3-4cm longer than the underwire. Baste into place along the outer edge of the cup seam, covering the seam allowances, then sew into place. Sew back-and-forth across the centre end of the channels several times, then thread the wires in through the underarm edge and sew over that end several times as well.
Measure your back elastic by holding or pinning the bra up to you, and then stretch the wide elastic across either from sideseam to sideseam (half-stretch band) or underwire-to-underwire (full stretch band), so that it is tensioned but not uncomfortably tight. You can then cut this length of elastic in half to get the right size piece for each side.
Pin the elastic to the band fabric at both ends, on the right side (start on the wrong side if using decorative elastic), then stretch so the elastic and fabric match and pin along the whole length. Us a stretchy whipstitch to sew the lower edge of the elastic to the fabric, then fold the elastic to the inside of the band and sew in place with a zigzag stitch or other elastic stitch. If you’re making a half-stretch band, you can now sew the sideseams once the lower elastic is in place.
Use the same technique to sew narrow elastic or lingerie elastic from the back strap point, under the arm, and up the armhole edge of the cup to the front strap point. Sew the strap across the centre back edge in the same way, as pictured.
Sew the fronts of the straps in place, and sew hooks-and-eyes to the ends of the band, aligning the hooks so that they won’t scratch when worn.
Finish by sewing lace or ribbon across the entire front top edge, and for the professional touch add a small bow between the cups.
Ta-daah!
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