Card-woven belt

Among the card-woven bands I made a few years ago was a narrow long band that was supposed to become a strap for a bag, I think. Doesn't matter what it was planned to be, it's now a belt. I ordered a plastic buckle of suitable size, which arrived yesterday.

One end of the belt is to be fixed into the buckle, so I sewed it in place securely. The other end allows for adjusting the length, so it just needed something to make it neater and easier to get through the openings in the buckle. As the band had pink in it and I had some bright pink leather, I thought that would be a good combination. In the photo below, there are two pieces of leather glued around the end of the band. I used PVA glue as it should work fine for something like this.

When the glue was dry, I cut off the excess leather, so the end is the same width as the band. In the picture below, that end is also in place in the buckle and has been adjusted to fit my waist. It's nice to have some extra length for adjustment, although I hope I'll never need it. In the picture, you can also see better how the other end was sewn in place.

More cases using card-woven bands

The older mobile phone case differs slightly from the other cases I have made using card-woven bands. I didn't use a zipper and left one end of the bands uncovered. The picture below shows the case front closed & front open, and the back of the case. I made the bands from leftover yarn, so I had to combine several different colors. It works great when you divide them into dark and light colors and then make the band the same way as you'd make a two-colored one.

The mobile phone case is made of 100% cotton yarn. I have also experimented with combining that and a wool/polyester blend (the dark read yarn in the picture below). That experiment ended up to be a case for PlayStation Vita. It's similar to the Kindle case, except there's a little less padding in this one.

Mobile phone case

I made a mobile phone case out of card-woven bands for my previous phone, but my current phone is bigger, so I needed a new one. This is a variation of the Kindle case I made earlier.

I sewed two lengths of band together and pressed the piece flat (see the earlier post). Then I added pieces of fabric to the ends to make them neat. First you sew the fabric and band to each other right sides together. Then you cut off any extra fabric and turn the fabric around the edges and sew it in place. In total there will be two seams in each end.

In this case, I added loops to the back as this is meant for hanging from a belt. I used sewing machine for sewing all the fabrics in place as it's easier and faster. The only hand sewn seams are the middle seam and edges.

Before sewing the edges together (see the earlier post), I sewed the button in place and made a loop for closing the case. It's easier to do that first and only sew the side seams when everything else is done.

This was much faster to make than the Kindle case as I left out all the padding. The case is made of just the bands and the green fabric. I intend to put the phone in with the screen towards me, so there isn't much risk of it breaking inside the case. The previous case worked for that phone fine this way, so I'm expecting this to be fine as well.

Kindle case

At the end of the previous post, I had a picture of a protective case for a Kindle. This post explains in detail how I made it.



The first step was to cut the bands to correct length. I first sewed across the bands to keep the ends from fraying and then cut them.



Then I pinned them together for sewing. As the bands are a bit stretchy, you need to pin the ends first and then the rest of the length spread evenly.



Next step was sewing the bands together using the yarn used in the edges.



Here are the bands sewn together.



To remove all unevenness, the piece needed to be pressed. I used a regular iron and ironed through a damp cloth.



Here you can see the reverse side. The seams are a lot flatter after ironing.



Then I cut the lining and two pieces of sturdy bubblewrap for reinforcement.



I sewed the lining to a piece of wool fabric. The plastic pieces went between these two fabrics and the seam in the middle kept them in correct places.



Then I cut away all the extra outside the seams.



I sewed pieces of the lining fabric to the short edges of the outer piece.



Then I put the lining and outer piece together, turned the fabric to cover the edges and sewed all the layers together. At his stage the side seams were not yet sewn.



Then it was time to sew the zipper and side seams. The side seams were sewn by hand and only through the edge of the outer pieces, the same way as sewing the bands together. The sides of the lining remained open.

More card weaving

These are bands I have made after having a lot more practice in card weaving. I found organic cotton yarn at a good price, so I ended up getting quite a lot of it and experimenting with different patterns.

The frame I used for these was just two chair legs joined together.

The chair had four legs, so I got two frames and could work with two bands in parallel.

Here's a closeup in which you can see the cards I'm using. They are made of ordinary playing cards as described in this earlier post.

Most of these bands ended up becoming a handbag. The two side pockets are for a mobile phone and digital camera.

The pockets close with really big snaps.

Inside has a cotton lining and the bag closes with similar snaps as the pockets. There is a small side pocket inside the bag for wallet.

There were some leftover bands and they later became a protective pouch for my Kindle. I will write a separate post later about how I made that.

Card weaving

It's been a while since the last post. I'm currently doing the "big cleanup" at my Flickr account and as I'm removing a lot of photos from there, I'll be posting some here. Sometimes a long time passes between different stages of a project, so it's actually easier to get coherent posts this way as I can group photos from past few years according to the subject.

The first of these posts is about card weaving. These are some of the first bands I've ever made. I used inexpensive wool/polyester blends for my first practice bands, because I had no definite plans on what to do with them, I was just practicing the techniques.

Here's another practice piece.

These bands were left unused for a long time, but then I decided to make a small bag for my BJD doll. The lining is wool fabric and there's some padding between it and the outer part.

Sewing the large vest

I started sewing the vest for Brother Dreary. The picture below shows how to sew the card-woven bands together. The thread goes from left to right and back between the threads of the first and second card, always going forward and never going over the edges of the bands.


The two bands in the part where the lapel was going to be caused a bit of a problem. As the lapels are turned, the side where the edges of the band are visible needs to be changed at a point where the change will remain invisible. I started from the upper edge with edges of the band on the outside, sewed a little bit to make it easier to turn the lapel, and checked where the change should be made.


The next picture makes things a bit clearer. The point of change mentioned above is visible on the side that will be the inside of the vest and under the lapel on the outside. This way, everything that is visible stays neat. The inside of the vest and the parts under the lapels won't show, so they don't matter.


I also had to try making socks for the Baha Cat, although I had already deemed the idea mad. It wasn't easy, but I managed to do it. Of course this is just the first one, I still need to make the other.


As you can see, the sock doesn't have a proper heel. I just made the decreases on one side only to give it this wedge shape.



Related earlier posts:
Brother Dreary project
Socks and the beginning of the vest
Parts of the vest
Baha Cat's vest and stuff for Brother Dreary

Baha Cat's vest and stuff for Brother Dreary

As I was planning the Baha Cat's vest, I realized that I needed narrower band for the pieces that go up to the shoulder height. So I made yet another band with just enough length for the two narrow pieces you can see in the picture below.

Then I sewed the pieces together and made the back piece from wool fabric. I treated the edges of the fabric with Fray Stay, although the fabric does not fray easily. I just wanted to be sure the edges will stay neat. Before sewing the back and front pieces together, I pressed the front pieces.

The picture below shows the finished vest. The buttons are fake and the front closes with two tiny snaps.

 
Brother Dreary's sweater has progressed a bit. This is the point where the front and back pieces separate and where the opening in the back piece starts. I'm not sure how big armholes are needed to be able to get the sweater on the doll, but I guess I'll find out sooner or later.

I got the socks finished on Saturday. Here are views from different sides.




Related earlier posts:
Brother Dreary project
Socks and the beginning of the vest
Parts of the vest

Parts of the vest

I made the first band too short, so I had to make another one to get enough material for the vest. When the bands were ready, it was time to measure and cut the needed pieces. First, I measured the required length and applied Fray Stay to the uncut band (on both sides of the place where it was to be cut). When the band was dry again, I cut the band in the middle of the treated parts. In the picture below, you can see two parts of a band treated with Fray Stay. The places where it was later cut are marked with black lines.

The parts where the direction of turning the cards was changed (to remove twist in the threads) cannot be used for something like this. Because of that, it is a good idea to plan beforehand and place the reversals so that you can cut the band there. All it requires is that you know the lengths of the required pieces and measure the band as you proceed.

For example, I needed one 6 cm piece, one 12 cm piece and two 10 cm pieces for one side of the vest front. I started by making the 12 cm piece turning the cards forward, then I made a little over 20 cm turning the cards backward (removing the twist created earlier and adding some new in different direction), and then 6 cm turning forward (again removing some twist). Even using this method, I had to open the far end of the setup once to remove twist.

I used Fray Stay for this as it is much better for the purpose than Fray Stop. Fray Stop is really glue and looks and behaves a lot like PVA glue. It's thick and remains visible, unless you dilute it heavily with water. Fray Stay is a bit thicker than water, but still leaves an even surface and is almost invisible when it's dry. (Fray Check looks similar to Fray Stay, clear liquid in a bottle with fine tip.)

The picture below shows all the pieces of the vest front, except the collar pieces, which I haven't cut yet. These need to be hand sewn together and pressed. I'm planning to practice that with the leftover pieces of the band, which I'm going to use to make a vest for the Baha Cat. I want everything I make for Brother Dreary to be as perfect as possible, so I'll try stuff in a smaller scale with the Baha Cat and it may end up having the same kind of costume.

The mail delivered today my order from Little Trimmings. Unfortunately, the buckles I ordered were much too small for this purpose, but they are still very nice and I can use them for some other doll's shoes. Here they are shown with a buckle that's too big. I really need to find something in between these sizes.

I had much better luck with buttons. The ones on the left are those I ordered earlier and plan to use for the vest (the yellow ones). The gold colored are from Little Trimmings and they are perfect for the jacket.

I also ordered some fabrics and simple white buttons for Brother Dreary's shirt. There are enough buttons for two shirts as I ordered two sets of 10 buttons, so I'm planning to make a shirt using that tartan patterned fabric. I still need to find suitable white fabric for the shirt to go with the folk costume. I'm not striving for strict accuracy, but I still prefer using fabric that has the right kind of look and feel.

Related earlier posts:
Brother Dreary project
Socks and the beginning of the vest