Something Special Part 2

Several processes to finish this project including decoration, personalisation, assembling and binding. With the size of this project it was fairly faster to complete. These are the last processes in completed, I will save the big reveal for another post.

The inside pockets were designed to fit two writing implements, business cards as well as paper, receipts, sticker sheets and paper clips. The design is very simple with the writing implements and business cards to be stored on the right and the rest on the left. As my client (Shhh... she doesn't know yet) has her own business and needs to have everything on hand I have allowed this to be a kind of business wallet for her designs and her contacts details. I included a small decorative stitch on the top left pocket for some added flare. It is of similar colour to the fabric but I believe if it stood out in a different colour it would look a bit tacky. Hence the gradient quilting thread.

The next decoration was a small hexagon flower for the inside of the portfolio. So instead of 7cm hexagons that are on the front panel, I downsized to 1" hexagons. I'm currently also working on my first all english paper piecing quilt using 1" hexagons so I had a ton of these templates.
Sewing all the petals to the middle hexagon, I then sewed the sides together. After I carefully irons the flower with an iron before taking out the tacking thread and paper templates.
I appliquéd the the flower onto the top right hand corner. This was a slower process as I had to be careful to stitch outside the lines. The flower is so small there was a lot of turning, I put the machine on a slow setting and using the pressure foot to run the machine instead of the start/stop button. I sewed around the edges and in the seam ditch to secure it to the inside of the folio.

After putting the finishing touches on the inside, I followed on with the outside personalisation. So I will show this part in the reveal, (as my client may be reading this) but "Thor" (my new machine's name) can stitch letters! So I can now do a level of personalisation without hand stitching! For my quilts as well, this is a life saver as far as labelling goes. The process is all automatic using the start/stop button and all I had to do in this project was make sure that the name was straight. I was able to personalise the portfolio with the client's name with out any time wasted!

Once that was finished I then squared the lining of the portfolio to the front panel carefully so I could close the folio with ease. This included testing with a book and a few pens inside. Pinning with huge quilting pins, I trimmed the excess fabric of the front panel and zig-zag stitched the edges together. I do not normally do this with quilts as in most circumstances the quilting keeps the edges together. However in this case there wasn't anything keeping the lining and the front panel together. I didn't want any slipping so this was a necessary step.
Next came binding! Has anyone used these awesome binding making tools? This is one of my favourite things to use other than my scissors. This one creates 1" width binding which is what I always use and I wish I knew about these things years ago when I started quilting.

You simply cut a width of one and three quarter inch strips and sew the binding strips to get the length you need. I cut the end of the binding on a 45 decree angle and then pull the fabric through the binding tool. Using an iron you carefully iron the fabric as it goes through the opposite side. It creates the folds in the fabric to make ready to sew binding. It still takes some time but it beats folding the fabric in half and then   fold those halves into half again. Anyway so sewing the border was easy with the secure of the zig-zag stitch.

The hand stitching was pretty quick because of the size. I was watching Scrubs while I did this. One on my favourite parts of doing sewing is having the excuse to watch DVDs while still being productive.
So it's finished! I'm very happy with the result. I'll reveal the final accessorised product once the client has received it. It's exciting to complete something for someone.
Stay tuned for the reveal and my client's reaction. I can't wait!

Miss Mae.