Whew! I finally finished making my friend's farmers market banner.
It's about 22 inches by 9.5 feet and made of nylon flag cloth, which is uncoated and radiation-proof.
He'll eventually have it in front of his stall so people can tell where he's at. The Columbia Farmers Market is kinda screwy in that you can get a different spot each week.
All applique, all the time. This is the first project on my
Singer 20u and it worked great.
And from behind.
Here's his original sign. I traced this and then standardized all widths and angles. Then made patterns for all the letters, and then cut 'em out and pinned them in place. Whole lotta work. I think there must be faster ways of making banners. I've seen pictures of people sewing first and then cutting out the letters. I didn't want to risk cutting the banner, though...
Here it is laid out sans thread.
Speaking of thread...
I bought a 65-piece set of Isacord polyester embroidery thread (by
Amann) before I started the banner, assuming that there'd be a plain yellow in the lot, but no: apparently no one wants plain yellow. Just creamy golden yellows. Luckily there're people on eBay who have just about any color you'd want--and the shipping's cheaper. So now I have like nine different yellows. Yep.
Seems like I spent about a week researching thread before I bought this. I knew I wanted polyester thread (for strength), but there're a bunch of different brands out there, so it took me a while to sort 'em out. Isacord seemed like the best so I went with it. A&E and Coats make pretty good embroidery thread, too.
If you're looking for the stuff, I thought these two places had pretty good kit deals:
www.embsupplies.com & www.threadetc.com
And if you just need a 1000m tiny cone, eBay's the place to go.
And here's what 100 size L bobbins looks like.
Mmm, produce.
Sorry about the solitary so-so photo. I had to catch a World Cup game and then drop these off.
With recycled bike tube pockets. Leif Labs cares.
He'll eventually have it in front of his stall so people can tell where he's at. The Columbia Farmers Market is kinda screwy in that you can get a different spot each week.
All applique, all the time. This is the first project on my Singer 20u and it worked great.
And from behind.
Here's his original sign. I traced this and then standardized all widths and angles. Then made patterns for all the letters, and then cut 'em out and pinned them in place. Whole lotta work. I think there must be faster ways of making banners. I've seen pictures of people sewing first and then cutting out the letters. I didn't want to risk cutting the banner, though...
Here it is laid out sans thread.
I bought a 65-piece set of Isacord polyester embroidery thread (by Amann) before I started the banner, assuming that there'd be a plain yellow in the lot, but no: apparently no one wants plain yellow. Just creamy golden yellows. Luckily there're people on eBay who have just about any color you'd want--and the shipping's cheaper. So now I have like nine different yellows. Yep.
And here's what 100 size L bobbins looks like.
Mmm, produce.
Bike tube pockets.
Acrylic-coated polyester outside.
This should've been the first thing I ever sewed. Ha.
And one for my cutting table.
Another thing I should've done a long time ago... 
