Wednesday, September 7, 2011

It's Never Too Early

I have no choice but to think about Christmas NOW.  I figure for me it starts in early November, with 2 markets that month, and 2 markets and 1 art/craft show in early December.

I thought it might be fun to do some Christmas stockings, and do them My Way, with really bright fabrics, some selvages (naturally), lots of embellishment, that sort of thing.

  This collection of patterns seemed like a good place to start.




There's only 1 problem though-- it's a sewing pattern, so of course it's TISSUE PAPER.





YUCK.  I hate these fragile, rippy things.  I will never understand how folks who do Real Sewing manage to use these.

I definitely want to be able to use this pattern again and again.







  Time to break out the cardboard and find a long term solution.  Luckily, my husband got a new pair of sneakers (packed in a large box) in the mail yesterday, so we had a fresh supply of cardboard available.

I taped the pattern to the cardboard, and started cutting.






I did find after a while that the Exacto knife really helped in cutting out the pattern, especially a piece with a lot of curves like this stocking cuff piece.  Be careful where you do this, though, or you'll have a nice pattern cut into your table top.  I had a second piece of cardboard underneath the piece I was cutting just to be safe.






After everything was cut out, I applied clear packing tape over the whole top of the template.  It's well protected but I can still see the printed directions.

Problem solved!  I think these templates will last a long time and be easy to use.  I can't wait to start sewing these stockings!

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