Morning Fog
Fog, As Usual
I like the way the fog shrouds everything in a mist and makes it look softer. I needed to get out of the house for awhile, so I prepared a fog tea to be taken outside.
I used all my foggy-looking tea things.
A tea-light fit perfectly inside this chippy old egg cup and added a glimmmer in the fog.
This is Irish Breakfast tea with a date bread. I used a nut-bread recipe, minus the required sugar, and put chopped dates in it. I highly recommend it. Yesterday I found primroses at a local garden center, and you can see them behind the teapot.
This is what it looked like at 8 o'clock in the morning, showing car lights on the distant highway.
As it does not look like it is going to get any brighter outside, I'm going to sew. You may have seen another post I wrote showing how to apply piping to a neckline. Below you see packages of piping. I've opened up one package to show what it looks like. It is a strip of bias fabric with a string in it. One side is folded, with the string in it, making it nice and rounded, like the piping on an upholstery chair. The other side is the raw edges of the bias tape.
Sometimes it might be necessary to make your own. You might not find the color you want at the fabric store, or it just might be too expensive. So here is the first step in making your own piping:
You will need a special kind of string for this, so I would suggest that the next time you are in the fabric store, that you ask one of the employees to show you the string for making your own bias tape. Or, you could open up a bit of left over piping and pull out the string to carry with you to a fabric store, and then go over to rolls of string, ribbons, trims, etc. and match up the string from the piping, in order to purchase something the same. It is very low priced; about 35 cents a yard or even less. Most packages of piping contain about 3 yards of piping.
Lay a ruler on two layers of fabric, right sides together, and the "wrong" or pale side up. Lay the ruler on the cross-wise direction of the fabric, which is diagonally. You can tell what the diagonal way of the fabric is because it will have a greater ability to stretch. Draw a pencil line on each side of the ruler. If you need a lot more tape, just lay the ruler against the last line you drew, and draw along the other edge. Repeat this for several rows of bias tape.You can also use this same method for making bias tape. Open a package of bias tape and have a look it is pressed. That way, you will be able to do it yourself.
Cut along the lines to get two strips of fabric. Join the ends together like you see, above, or cut the ends straight across and sew them together straight across, keeping right side of fabric even with right side of presser foot, as you go.
Press the seam open.
Lay the string down the middle of the bias tape you just made. This is the inside of the fabric showing.
Fold the tape in half, pushing the string to the folded side, and pinning with straight pins close to the piping to hold it tightly inside. This is the outside of the fabric showing.
Keeping the left side of the presser-foot even with the left side of the piping, sewing a straight line. If you are using the same size string as inside store-bought piping, the needle of the machine will not sew through the string, and the stitching will land just snugly on the outside of the enclosed string. Keep the left side of the presser foot even with the left side of the fabric. Do not worry about watching the stitching. Just keep your eye on the left side of the fabric as it runs through the machine. Keep your eye on the left side of presser foot and the left side of the tape, pulling out the pins so that they do not get too close to the needle. Pull the pins out as you progress.
You might be able to see what this looks like if you click on for a larger view.
If you need further help, try looking for instructions on you tube sewing channels.
Card from Dollar Tree. Click on for a closer view.
I found out today that most of the cards at the local Dollar Tree are only 25 cents each, while some are only a dollar. They are made of high quality material,
by American Greetings, and are made in the U.S.A. Even though the back of the card indicates the price to be $1.95, it was only 50 cents.
