where was i?  oh yes…pouf.

the other thing that the pouf was going to let me do was a zipper!  i wanted to be able to send her just the fabric piece and that way she can buy and stuff it so shipping is more afforable.  but i didn’t want to make her sew it closed so i thought that i could do a zipper.  eeeks.

first off i used this tutorial for the pouf.  i have made one before for elle’s room but wasn’t super crazy about how it turned out.  i learned some lessons and (hopefully) applied them this time.

i decided to line the fabric with muslin just to give it another layer of durability.  it has a heavier feel now and i feel it will stand up better and last longer.  so i cut 8 pieces in the outer fabric and muslin.  then i sewed right sides together (doubling the outer fabric with the muslin).

i sewed one side of the piece and repeated that for 3 other pieces.  i now have 4 sections of 2 pieces sewn together on one side.  i then put right sides together and sewed 2 sections together so i now have 2 halves of the pouf.

this is where it got a little tricky since it was time to put the zipper in.  eeeks.  i followed the directions on my zipper package as well as used this tutorial.  first thing i did was start to sew the two halves together and then once i got to where i wanted the zipper to go i increased my stitch length to the max amount and went the length of the zipper (marked with pins).  then i pressed the seam open and glued the zipper face down.

next step was to use the zipper foot and stitch the zipper in.  it was fairly straightforward but it does get tricky when you are stitching around the zipper pull.  i tried to do the trick in the tutorial but because i started at the top i couldn’t pull it down because i hadn’t stitched it in yet.  sigh.  so it is a tad wonky but it seems to work.

once the zipper was in i then flipped the pouf back to right sides together and finished closing it up.  then i opened the zipper and voila!  only downside is that i have no stuffing to stuff it to make sure it looks ok!  whoops.

i think i will finish it off with something on top…a fun vintage button perhaps?

I do have proof that I have done it before though….I just don’t remember how.

but i am somewhat bummed because i can’t make one big enough for what i wanted one for.  wah!  the tie of the pinafore is 2″ and it looks like the biggest button hole my machine makes is about 1.25″.

here are some pictures of my adventure in button hole-ing:

this was the default setting on my machine so i went with that for the first hole.

here are the 3 test holes i did with the settings.  on the far left i reduced the stitch width as much as possible keeping the stitch length on the auto setting.  on the middle i kept the auto settings.  on the right i increased the stitch length as much as possible keeping the stitch width the same.

all in all i liked the auto settings best.  here is my final assignment ready for turn in.  if only i had a spare button!

i used my snipping scissors to clip the fabric.  these are also what i use when i snip the edges of my rag loveys.  i have much better control over these than i do my general fabric cutting scissors…

first attempt was marginally successful. i did make a buttonhole, and it was exactly the right size for my button.  yay!  i’m not entirely happy with the results because it’s a bit sloppy-looking and i don’t quite understand how to make it look cleaner.

how did you guys cut the fabric down the middle?  i used a seam ripper, but it seems a little unfinished.  i also seem to be having some issues with my camera today, but it may have something to do with the intense sunlight coming in through the window.  all-in-all a good exercise!  still need to practice.

ok, i answered my own question.  gotta turn the stitch down to the smallest size on both settings.  duh.  (see photo below)

but not really.

who is with me to practice sewing button holes?!?!  don’t all raise your hands at once….  you can make whatever you want or even alter something you already made but let’s see those button holes!

post pictures and any tips you learned along the way please(andthankyou)…

and to help us all out…here is a handy dandy post on the topic from a blog i enjoy.

happy button-ing!