Saturday 20 February 2016

Out of the Ordinary Sewing

When Mr TMW asks me to sew for him, it's usually something out of the ordinary - nothing fancy or grand, but a practical item which he will use a lot. The two most recent are his hat sweatband and reducer, and arm protectors, both for the garden. I asked readers to tell me the strangest project that they had ever sewn and today I'm going to show them to you.


Carole, from the blog From My Carolina Home, was asked by her husband to turn a pillowcase and bed cover into a wall hanging for his garage. The helmet was originally on the pillowcase, and the body was the bedspread.


This is the perfect wall hanging for a garage. So much better than the calendars that men sometimes have in their garages! In case you haven't heard of him, the Stig appears in the British motoring show, Top Gear.


Kathy, from Running with Rocket, made a chalk bag for her son to use when he is rock climbing. The bag hangs off his belt, staying open while he climbs, so he can dip his hands in as needed. When finished, the bag cinches tight.


Barbara, from At Home by the Baye, was asked by her minister son to make a prayer kneeling pad. She's even incorporated a zipper for ease of removing the denim cover, and a layer of Pellon for extra comfort.


Rochelle, from eSheep Designs, fashioned a winch cover for her husband, using three store bought covers as the base. The store bought covers were too small to fully cover the winch, and so Rochelle modified them to form the one cover.


She even made a second cover as a spare!


I'm quite confident that no one will ever ask me to make an airplane cockpit cover, like Kathy has. Her husband wanted to buy a cover for their plane, but Kathy volunteered to make one instead.


There's no such thing as a pattern for a cockpit cover, so Kathy borrowed a friend's cover to make her own pattern. It took her all Winter to make, but she saved a lot of money.


Kathy, from Running with Rocket, has also made a luggage bin for another airplane. Guess what's stored in there - airplane stuff like oil cans and rags.

Six out of the ordinary sewing projects - whether they were made as a custom item, or to save money, they are not what you think of when you imagine sewing. Well, not me anyway.

Let's face it though, our ordinary, everyday sewing skills come in very handy. Well done, ladies!!! I am super impressed by your out of the ordinary sewing projects.

... Pam

14 comments:

  1. Thank you for featuring some of my items.
    My friend sometimes sews for Michael Curry Designs whose teams make giant animated fire-breathing dragons and Cirque d'Soleil items to big and amazing. If you want to see unusual. (MichaelCurryDesigns.com)

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  2. Wow, these are really clever! I think this is the fun part of sewing, to be able to create the things that we need vs buying a pattern for clothing. I love buying patterns and see them almost now as a collection of sorts, but my most gratifying sewing comes from thinking outside of the box. Bravo to the ones featured above!!

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  3. This is a neat collection. Fun to see the possibilities! Kind of amusing to see how many of these were guy-inspired, too.

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  4. Thanks for adding my project to the collection, Pam. Yes, those men in our lives have some pretty peculiar and particular requests... some of which we may not be thrilled about tackling. I will say in their defence, however, that the finished items are definitely used. (Unlike some of my creations for me!)

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  5. These are awesome! It reminds me of my Mum sewing things when I was a kid. My brother wanted to be able to take his computer to friend's houses with him. Back then we didn't have laptops - his was a keyboard, big tower and other bits and bobs. Mum cut up an old camping mat covered it with denim and made a carry bag for this big bulky computer and all its parts! That has inspired me to this day that you can make anything you want yourself with a bit of creativity!

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  6. My husband asked me to make a steering wheel cover for him.

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  7. I admire all these VERY TALENTED ladies, Thank you for showing those lovely and useful projects, It makes me feel very humble with my sewing. mirjam

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  8. What a brilliant collection of projects Pam, a true mix of ingenuity and practicality!

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  9. Awesome and brilliant ideas. Years ago, for my ex, I made a cover for his antique car. That was back in the day when muslin, the bleached cotton we use to use for backing quilts, was super cheap and car covers were not.

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  10. These are fun! My boys sometimes ask me to make unusual things, but nothing like this! Great job, ladies!

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  11. WOW that is a fun collection of goodies - and yes - our men come up with some cool things, lol. About the only thing my husband has asked me for is to mend his work pants ... and to always add rice to the soups I make, LOL!

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  12. Wow these are all fantastic projects. Well done ladies!

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  13. Wow, these really are out of the ordinary!

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