Doctor T Designs

So this post is going up a bit late because some people needed to receive a package before I could post certain pictures of my efforts. As such most of this sewing herein actually occurred throughout the summer, and before the onset of fall (or “fire season” as it is now know on the west coast of North America). There’s nothing super exciting in this post, but I wanted to document things for my own sake.

The Cricut Cover

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After making my quilt, I went back to sewing a lot of smaller items, including more face masks and a Cricut cover. I used this tutorial from Jennifer Maker, which I stumbled across on YouTube quite a while ago. She uses the Maker to cut out the fabric, which, honestly, was more of a PITA than use the rotary cutter would have been (I spent as much time cutting the fabric to fit onto the mat/fixing things when the fabric got jammed because it was sticking too far off the mat as I would have to just cut it out myself. While I think the Cricut could be a great tool for fabric cutting for appliqué or a lot of repetitive cuts for quilting, or for someone who may have difficulties cutting because of a hand injury, physical disability, etc., if I made this again I don’t think I’d use the Cricut to cut anything other than the iron-on vinyl design). Anyway, once the fabric is cut out it goes together pretty fast, is nice to keep the machine mostly dust free, and also is a great way to use up any fun quilting cottons that haven’t been chopped up into masks yet. The pockets in the front a great for holding tools, and it is supposed to fit under the machine and hang off the table as a handy tool holder as well. I haven’t really used it like that (I don’t know if I will), but I do really like it as a dust cover for the machine. Next time I’d use a less busy print to make any iron-on designs really pop, or I should use a more contrasting color or bolder font.

Cricut Face Mask Designs

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Since I had my Cricut out, I decided to use my vinyl scraps to do some mask decorations. It started with my mom asking me to decorate her masks (she was given some plain black ones by work and didn’t want them to get confused with a coworker’s mask just in case). Of course, then my friend saw this and also wanted some custom designs. Since both my mom and my friend are essential workers, they need a lot of masks, and the designs also help them know which masks are clean and dirty too! (Note: Aside from the blue mask I am wearing in the above picture, I did NOT make any of these masks and would not recommend the use of synthetic or neoprene materials for mask making. These were all masks provided by businesses for their employees, so I just assisted in decoration and left my personal feelings about mask materials out of the discussion…)

Face Masks & Face Masks

I tried the 3D/Aplat style mask that a lot of people have been raving about (I followed this YouTube tutorial). Personally, it’s the style I most enjoy sewing because it’s fast and fabric efficient, but it’s not my favorite style to wear. It does fit my boyfriend, dad, and grandmother really well though. My mom and I prefer the curved style face masks (not as easy to sew, but we like wearing them more, so… whatcha gonna do). Here are some of the masks I’ve made for my mom:

Anyway, in the middle of all of the face mask sewing my sister asked for a face mask of a different sort – a sleeping eye cover mask! She berated me with Breakfast at Tiffany gifs until I acquiesced, and so I got a pattern from this tutorial (because it popped up first on Google and I wasn’t going to be fussy) and went to town. Of course, if I was going to get sassed with Audrey Hepburn gifs, then I was going to sass back with an Audrey Hepburn mask. It is, of course, not nearly as ridiculous as the mask in the film, but between scraps of leftovers from this coat lining, this coat lining, the quilt batting, some Cricut iron on vinyl, and a bit of rick rack I had lying about (found in the recent sewing room re-organization project) I don’t think it’s too bad of an attempt at sassing back.

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The project should have been easy but I, of course, picked the two worst fabrics ever to sew so it’s not exactly the best product I’ve ever put forth. But in terms of being comfortable against the fact and providing a better sleep experience while getting my point across… it’s probably fine.

So summer sewing doesn’t feel overly productive… It was full of a lot of little things like masks and small crafts and waaaaaaaay too much quilting cotton. Happily, I’m back playing with some nice beefy knits and lovely garment fabrics, which I have missed so much! With any luck I’ll have some finished garments to post about soon!