So the first snowball is well on its way. I'm pretty happy so far. It has been going great with really no frustration -- yet, knock, knock. I said I would discuss missteps and mistakes here, so I would like to point out that the middle little fussy-cut snowflake is changed from my previous post. I changed my mind after I only had about 4 selvages on the first one, so it wasn't much at all to change. -
In the photo above, the outside ring of selvages isn't sewn on, but they are just lying there. My method is to choose the selvages one complete ring at a time, then sew a round of eight pieces in place.
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I have been ironing after each round to keep things flat. Or close to flat anyway.
So after I pick my eight selvages I pile them up in order and head to the machine.
Then I sew. I use white thread. My sewing machine is set on the standard default stitch of 2.5. I sew as close to the edge of the selvage as possible and watch carefully. If I go off a little bit, I go back and go over that area again. If I go off a lot then I seam rip and do it all again. I am actually quite good at sewing the selvages straight now, just from practice.
Then I flip up the selvage I've just sewn on and trim back the underneath a bit to reduce bulk.
Here's what the back looks like.-
I'm not sure how big this will get. This is the snowball for the base of the snowman so it will be the biggest. It's over 12 inches in diameter so far ...
And finally, see the *magic button* my new sewing machine has to fix all your mistakes ... hee, hee. Wouldn't it be fabulous if you really could just press a sewing machine button to fix up all your problems?!?!-
The real purpose of this button is of course to stitch several stitches in place and 'fix' the thread rather than backstitching ... I didn't have this on my old machine and it is a nice new feature.
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Thanks for stopping by! Happy Quilting!
