This panel was made using a pattern designed by my quilting tutor Melanie Hughes. She doesn't have a website, but does have a facebook page. Several people in the class made this panel, and it works really well with a wide variety of fabrics. A similar free pattern can be found Here..
Makower cool yule advent panel
I made this advent calendar with a pre-printed panel. It was very easy to make. It comes with instructions printed on the side of the panel, but these are very brief, so I also used a tutorial on you tube for a bit of clarity. The panel was made very quickly, the slowest and most tedious part was knotting and tidying all the thread ends. Automatic knotting is definitely high on the wish list for my next sewing machine. To add a little more sparkle, I outline quilted some of the details with shimmery thread. I am thinking about adding some seed beads and sequins by hand too.
The two threads I used were guterman dekor metallic thread and Guterman sulky holoshimmer, shown in the picture below. The dekor is at the front.
Of the two, the best by far was the sulky thread, which is probably why it cost twice as much. It is made of a single flat ribbon of shiny plastic, so it does not fray, and is easy peasy to thread through the needle. The metallic thread looks equally beautiful, but was horrible to work with. I had to use a needle threader to get all the strands through, and it frequently frayed during sewing, leading to only some strands being sewn, and the broken ones accumulating in a big knotty clump at the needle. I then had to cut the thread, pick out the mess, re-thread, and start again.
Apart from price, the only other advantages I could see of the metallic thread are that it coped better with heat. The holoshimmer thread went a but crispy when I ironed over it. I was worried it would melt to the bottom of the iron, but it didn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment