Fabric fail

Sometimes the fabric that you think will work brilliantly fails dismally. Such is the case with the basket in the Auntie Green center.
Since I could see my pattern markings from the back, I tacked  the underlying pink fabric on from the back of the piece just outside the sewing line. The next stage was to sew the bias strips through the layers.
It's all going smoothly until I took a long hard look at my progress from a distance, as you do.

The brown and cream fabric doesn't look right to me, I would say because there seems to be an equal amount of cream and brown in the print. It was getting blended with the pink and looked kinda mushy to me.

Check out the picture below of the real Auntie Green basket.

If I can't live with it, it has to come out and here was the perfect opportunity to try out my new seam ripper. It has a rubbery end on the ripper and the case and the idea is to rub back and forth over the broken stitches and voila, they loosen and pull out.

It might seem a bit gimmiky but it actually worked quite well and I do hate picking little wee thread ends with my fingers.

Here's the basket all finished with the new brown fabric which I'm a lot happier with.

In case you were wondering, I appliqued the inside edges of the two outside pieces, trimmed the excess pink fabric and bias stems off and then proceeded to applique the outer edges if that makes sense.  That way I knew I wouldn't have to worry about covering everything or being too short on my seam allowances. It's happened to me before so it pays to leave more on than you think you need.

I just need to audition a couple of fabrics for two center circles on the blooms but that can wait until later.

I just can't sem to get a better photo of the colours in this one but you get the idea. It looks creamier in real life.

Class is tomorrow and I'm enthusiastic to get the next stage of the pattern to work on.

 

Until next time, happy stitching, Janet