The Sewing Room

susan946

mandy_moo_1 wrote: »

its not so much thats its too thick to go thru the machine, its that its so big! its about 3 metres by 1.5 metres

i've never heard of stippling, so will try and find crazymoms blog and have a read of that....thanks guys

Can you roll the quilt tightly? The 'roll' might then fit in the machine. If that would work I think it would be easier to quilt in straight lines as if you stipple you would need to move around the whole quilt but a straight line could be parallel to the roll. Not sure I'm explaining this very well!! If you want to quilt in diagonal lines you can roll from the corners. Remember to quilt from the centre out. That way you smooth any excess fabric to the edge where you can trim it off before you edge it (binding for example).

If this doesn't make sense let me know and I'll try to explain differently!!

Sue

rufusdog52

Thanks Pootle, yes I think you should tell HMRC as soon as possible. I am going to ring them this morning, I wasnt expecting to sell anything that quickly. I dont think I will have to pay any tax on what I earn as no other income but you still have to let them know. Folksy say that if you are just using up extra fabrics etc that you have bought to make something out of and sell the items for cost price then you dont need to tell them but if you are adding on a profit margin then you do.

Thanks for telling me about the vinyl too, looks like I might be able to sew normal seams on it then. I want to make a bag like the pink starry one I made with the Cath Kidston fabric. I will have a look up town and see if I can find any belts to use as a strap.

Thanks Claire, Pixie and Irishgirl too xx

Edit to add - I have just rung tax office and they have registered me, said you cant register until you actually start your shop. Said you dont have to pay NI if your earning less than something like £5000 a year, they are sending me a form out to fill in for this. I got the phone number from the HMRC website.

avstar

Thanks Mooloo for the business advice tips, very interesting and a good point that we must price our work as hand-made indivudual craft/artisan items rather than try and compete with mass produced prices.

Well done Rufus on your sale :T Wonder how the the £5k threshold works if you already have a job & pay tax?

And good luck everyone who is thinking of starting a wedsite to sell items

MissPixie

I finally sorted out the pictures of my labels and bag

http://misspixiecrafts.blogspot.com/2011/05/fabric-labels.html

http://misspixiecrafts.blogspot.com/2011/05/super-organised-sewing-bag.html

About tax I know my fianc! owns arcade machines and he does not pay tax if he earns under £6300ish but I don't know how it works when you are working too as he is a student.

mandy_moo_1

susan946 wrote: »

Can you roll the quilt tightly? The 'roll' might then fit in the machine. If that would work I think it would be easier to quilt in straight lines as if you stipple you would need to move around the whole quilt but a straight line could be parallel to the roll. Not sure I'm explaining this very well!! If you want to quilt in diagonal lines you can roll from the corners. Remember to quilt from the centre out. That way you smooth any excess fabric to the edge where you can trim it off before you edge it (binding for example).

If this doesn't make sense let me know and I'll try to explain differently!!

Sue

thanks sue....but i tried that and its still too massive!! looks like my first attempt at a quilted throw has to look like a padded blanket instead lol!!

rufusdog52

Mandy - would you be able to pin the quilt together through all the layers and then tack it with some big stitches to hold it all down and then hand quilt it? Might make it better than just leaving it. Usually with a quilt you would do all this before binding the sides so that you can push any excess fabric out at the edges and trim them off. I have been making denim quilts which I put together like you have with this one and I tacked them and then hadn quilted, I used quite a large stitch for the hand quilting as the layers were thick to get through but tried to make it look like decorative stitching.

I have finished my Dad's quilt, have uploaded some photo's on my blog.

avstar

I've just reserved these funky children's curtains from Argos for a few projects I want to do, £5.99 for a good bit of fabric. Hope its Ok to sew with, not sure what 50% cotton/50% polyester is

Thanks to BloomingFreezing2 on the grabitnow board

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500002701&langId=-1&searchTerms=RED+FLORAL+CURTAINS

mandy_moo_1

thanks rufusdog.....i think i'll have a go at that

do i just hand sew squares on, the same as i would on a machine? can imagine it taking me forever lol!

rufusdog52

Yes you could sew squares or if you start in the middle and do a straight line across then work your way along either side leaving a gap of say 6 inches and doing another line then when you have all the lines going one way you can then decide whether you feel like doing the ones the other way.

I prefer hand quilting my quilts but have done a couple on the machine but think the hand ones look better. They do take a while to do but I usually do them of an evening while watching tele xx

clairewop

I went to home bargains and they had cutting mats for £3.49 so picked one up,