I got a little sidetracked while doing a Google for a rice cooker, like that never happens to anyone else, right? LOL Anyway I found these directions for using up those sewing scrapes for pattern weights. After reading the instructions I remembered that I have a 5 gallon bucket full of aquarium gravel.......no, I have NO idea why I have kept it for 8 years after the all the fish were moved on and the aquariums gone.........but I do and I think I am going to use that to fill these things and zip out a few gifts for my sewing friends. I'll make some for myself too, just to supplement the soup cans, books, vitamin bottles, extra scissors and uncooperative cat that has served this purpose up to now.
No batteries, no noise, no moving parts to break or loose, no cost........it just doesn't get much better than that! If you have a few loose embroidery hoops they make great targets for line toss games.
I went to a yard sale and found a very large basket of shells. Someone had apparently been to the East Coast or somewhere in a tropical land as the shells were different types and sizes. At the bottom of what were mostly whelks, there were little tiny snail shells, with a few small fan shells tossed in. These little shells I put in some very small empty jam jars. The jars were from a gift I received as some sampled jam. These make not only functional but pretty pattern weights. The larger shells I distributed to different shaped jars, even an industrial sized one, to make bookends or in the case of the large jar, a doorstop. I added a bow, and fabric to the top.
I've been following this thread, but I'm still not exactly sure how you use the weights......do you use pattern weights instead of pinning a pattern to the material? Sharon
Oh that sounds so pretty! I love things that are both functional and pleasing to the eye. Especially in my sewing room. Makes me feel all that more creative when I'm in there. ('Course with the flurry of Christmas sewing, I need to be in there with a shovel right now!! I could teach messy to Pigpen this week. *sigh*)
Yep, yep. It works great. Sounds like it wouldn't, doesn't it? It makes cutting really quick. And you don't poke holes in your pattern paper. This is really important with commercial tissue paper patterns. Wherever you get a hole in that tissue paper, sooner or later, you're going to get a rip. Then pretty soon, half the pattern piece has disappeared. :(
I have one more trick. This doesn't work for everything, but it's good for poly fabrics. (or anything else that gets clingy) I spread the fabric out on my cutting table. Then I iron the pattern pieces and quickly lay them out on the fabric. The ironing makes a little bit of static cling on the tissue paper. By slapping them down on the fabric fast, they cling to the fabric. Cool huh? For once static cling is a good thing. ;) The cling lasts long enough (you will have to experiment, I couldn't tell you which fabrics work best for this) that I can cut out the pattern without pins or weights.
I have a set of the "store bought" pattern weights. They are white plastic knob looking things. They have felt on the bottom. They work well, but they are spendy. Large washers work great and are cheap! A while back I was given a wonderful little thing to store them too. Another lady who used to post here frequently used washers like that too. Her husband liked to do woodworking in his spare time. So he made her a little wooden holder for her washers. It looks like the wooden paper towel holders. A base with a wooden spindle coming out the top. The base even has a groove all the way around that is the size of the big washers. That way I can just stack them on there. Nifty huh? She loved her holder and he offered to make one for me too. She had him do it and then she sent it to me. Was a wonderful surprise. I think of both of them every time I see it. :)
The guys in our circle have a game they play with these bean bags and these wooden boxes they set up in the driveway. The slanted tops of the boxes have a hole that you throw the bean bags through. Kind of like horseshoes without the work of digging the pits.
Anyway, it fell to me to make the bean bags. Now, I don't know what the deal is, but I can't for the life of me make these things last more than one or two sessions. I have made them out of twill, denim, & canvas. I have single, double and triple sewed the seams. I have folded the seams over and sewn them twice and STILL these things end up duct-taped before the guys are done.
Either the seams come loose, or the material frays. Any suggestions out there???
What about twill tape or bias tape on the seams? Maybe you're putting too many beans in the bags and the weight of the beans hits the outside and rips them apart. I remember bean bags as being fairly light with just enough beans to make them "fly" better.
I have used very smooth, flat, round rocks from the seashore for years and years. I glued google eyes on them so that we can tell them from the other rock collections.
hmmmm....there's a collection of small pretty colored pebbles with googly eyes, glued to a board, and a legend on the board: "Rock group" thanks to my younger son with the warped sense of humor.
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