A Macrame Seed Bead Idea

This project is a little departure from current fashion and a trip down memory lane to the happy hippy homemade era of the sixties.

And I may be dating myself but, I LOVED the whole creative, express yourself, be unique vibe of  those days. 

Hey, I was only in elementary school so all the bad parts of the sixties was over my head.

Anyways, I was driving past the Bead Store in Laguna Beach with time on my hands when I remembered a necklace I had seen and wanted to recreate.

It required strands of seed beads, string ( I bought hemp ) and some jewelry findings.

Luckily I had a book on macrame ( a French word meaning knotted lace ) to refresh my memory on macrame skills learned as a Girl Scout so many years ago. With a little practice and good written illustrations I relearned the secret to knotting a twisting design in twine.

The seed bead strands were tied to a large jump ring and then the twine was artfully knotted onto the jump ring and the knotting began...

At one end of a 3" section of twisting, macrame twine a clasp was tied on and a jump ring was tied to the other twisting macrame end.

And my new macrame seed bead necklace was complete. 

And I have rediscovered my love of macrame. 

And I am now thinking of knotting up an eyeglass case next...

Thought from Narnia

Summer Sewing

Project #1

Since apparently I am NOT going on a vacation for my three quick weeks off from teaching I have decided to dedicate myself to quick, easy sewing projects.

Boxes overflow with fabric I have purchased so it isn't hard to find something to sew.

This striped single knit would be nice paired with this polyester strip remnant from a student.

Let the sewing begin... 

First stop was my t-shirt drawer and finding a t-shirt that did not have set-in sleeves ( if knit garments get any simpler we will all be back in togas ). 

I simply folded my fabric with right sides together ( remember single knit edges roll towards the right side when stretched ) being careful to lay the stripes right on top of each other. 

Next my t-shirt was placed on top for a cutting guide lining up shoulder points and hem points and then I cut my fabric adding a 1/2" seam allowance as I cut.

The neckline was measured while fabric was flat on table because neckline will stretch out once it is not flat. The flat neckline measurement was used for the neck binding which was cut at 2" wide. Important tip for sewing ends of binding together; instead of a straight seam sew a slightly < seam and when binding is folded in half the top of the binding will be smaller than the bottom of binding so it lays more flat against the neck.

The shoulder seams and side seams were overlocked together and then the neck binding was placed right side against right side of neck and overlocked together. 

Since garment neckline was stretching I marked the binding in four even sections and pinned at CF, CB, and each shoulder seam, easing any stretch before I overlocked.  

To keep binding flat I edgestitched the binding seam allowance to the garment.

I like to mix up the direction of stripes so sleeve cuffs were cut twice as long as needed and then folded in half. Right sides of cuff was placed against right side of sleeve and overlocked together. Again I edgestitched the overlocked cuff seam to the garment for visual continuity.

And that was that! I added a tube of fabric on the back so the top would not slide off my shoulders. I toyed with using the polyester remnant as a big tie at the back but, decided against it. However I did still really want to incorporate the polyester pop of color...adding woven fabric to knit is always dicey.

So in the end I was crazily inventive LOL and added the polyester remnant to the bottom of my top.

This project took about 2 hours and the end result is pretty sweet.

 I think I actually like it :)