Hi lovelies,
How are you enjoying our November stashbusting series so far? If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that along with using my stash, I’ve fallen off the wagon at least once! All the more reason to stashbust…so I can replace it with more!
We’ve also got a little competition running this month, so don’t forget to tag your makes #novemberdestashing to be entered to win!
For today though I’m going to show you how I batch sew, excellent for making multiples and making really good in-roads into that stash!
This is not a difficult technique to master, but if you want to make multiples of things it will definitely help you do that without feeling like you’ve spent forever sewing the same thing! I made 10 bibs in one afternoon batch sewing. It usually takes me an hour to sew each one, so that’s half the time it would have taken.
Elvis desperately needed some more bibs (especially now she’s using a proper cup!) so after a few weeks of moaning that I couldn’t find any bibs to match her fun personality I remembered I had these fat quarters of April Rosenthal’s Best Day Ever…perfect! I paired it with some flannel, mostly plain white, some with crazy monkeys on…but hey, stashbusting!
I used the Clover & Violet baby bib tutorial to make these bibs, but I extended the length by 1″ because Elvis is a toddler now and needs them slightly longer. They still fit perfectly width wise and around her neck.
Batch sewing is basically doing multiples, one step at a time. Cut all, pin all, stitch all, trim all, press all, finish all, rather than stopping after each step.
First I just cut one fabric panel from the pattern cut on the fold. If you’re using the pattern as it is, you could just print two copies off and tape them together.
Now cutting out you have two options. 1) You save time, or 2) you save fabric. I chose to save time and just stacked my fabric up cutting out multiples in one go. Cutting out can be the lengthiest process of any make and I just didn’t want to waste time for the sake of larger scraps of flannel when I didn’t have anything to use them for anyway! (Editor’s note: Please note this may affect the accuracy of your pattern pieces, so be careful when stacking your fabric!)
Once you’ve cut out enough corresponding pieces it’s time to pin them together (right sides together of course) and then start sewing!
To save time again, you’ll stitch one after the other after the other. Simply finish stitching then pull to the side and start the next.
Here you can see I’ve stitched all of the bibs. I basted through my turning gaps. I was thankful I had to many pins at this stage! (Thanks Emma!)
Next it’s time to trim all of the seam allowances. The tutorial calls for the curves to be clipped, but trimming with pinking shears is perfectly good.
Once they were all turned through I pressed them all and then top stitched them all. Then it’s time for the candy bright colours of KAM snaps. I love these snaps. They’re cute, cheap, easy to use and most importantly, enduringly safe.
I ended up with 10 bibs in total at the end of the afternoon (some may already have been seconded to the nappy bag & pram before this photo) just because I did all of the construction steps one after the other rather than stopping and starting.
If you want to see great batch sewing, you should check out Kristy from Rock Baby Scissors on Instagram, she often posts progress photos of her mammoth bag making sessions, very inspirational!
Now go ahead and get stuck into that stash, I’m sure you’ve got plenty of Christmas gifts to get started on, and don’t forget to tag your makes!
