Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

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Tote Bag Weave Along, Lesson 7

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Now we’re ready to sew the bag together! If you missed the last post on taking your fabric off the loom and wet finishing, you can take a look at it here.

*This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click on the link I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Lay the fabric out on the ironing board with the WRONG side facing up. You will notice that your fusible interfacing has a shiny side and dull side. It’s the shiny side that will fuse to the fabric, so you want to place the shiny side down so that it meets with the wrong side of your fabric. This is worth doing properly. If you place the shiny side up instead, you may find yourself in the market for a new iron!

It is best to place a presser cloth over the fabric and fusible interfacing before you begin to iron. I just use an old sheet for protection. Set your iron to “cotton” steam setting a press evenly over the fabric. You can peel back the sheet here and there to check whether you have a good bond happening. Bear in mind that the bonding is not complete until the fabric has cooled.

Your piece should look like this when ready. The interfacing is completely bonded to one side of your fabric.

Fold the fabric over on itself so that the sides are all touching. Line up the pieces to fit as best you can.

Press the fold at the bottom of the bag to make a crease. This will become your cutting mark. If you’re a bit worried about cutting your fabric, don’t be! The fusible interfacing keeps it all very secure.

Cut right through the fabric, using the crease mark you just made.

Now you have two separate pieces, or bag panels.

At this point you will also want to cut your lining fabric in half after ironing a crease in it as you did before. There are so many choices you could make for lining fabric but if you’re really not sure, broadcloth is a good option.

If you’re not sure where to find all the measurements, they are in the Essential Info PDF in this post.

The next task is to fuse your interfacing to the bag handles, using the same method that was used for the main bag panels.

Fold the bag straps in half lengthwise and press. Open out and then fold in each long raw edge by about 1/4 inch and press. Fold the whole piece to the middle and press again. The raw edges will now be encased.

At the overlocker (serger) I run over all the raw edges. You can use a zig zag stitch on a sewing machine if you don’t have a serger.

This is what we have now. 2 X serged bag panels, 2 X lining panels and 2 X prepared bag handles.

Place a bag panel on top of the other, with RIGHT sides facing. Pin around all the edges except at the top, where you need to keep and opening. Do the same with the two lining panels, keeping the top open and leaving about a 6 inch gap at the middle of the bottom for turning later.

You can also pin the bag handle pieces together just so that they are held in place when you begin to sew them together.

Now all of our pieces are pinned and prepared for sewing. Stay tuned for the next post where we will sew the bag together!

You can watch the videos for this post:

And if you feel you need to learn more about cutting your hand woven fabric, I have a post for that here as well as videos:

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Krokbragd Weave Along coming soon!

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Have you heard the news? I am currently working on an exciting weave along! The project is Krokbragd Mug Rugs for rigid heddle loom and I feel like a pig in mud (if you know me at all, you will know how I love krokbragd!)

Because I like to accommodate for weavers of all levels, the weave along will include two methods for weaving the mug rugs. One class will be for those who want to use one heddle, a heddle rod and a pick up stick. Class two will be for those who want to use two heddles. The finished mug rugs will be just the same, but the different methods will give you choices about how to weave them.
The mug rugs are minimal on the yarn, you only need small amounts and limited colours. Because of the interesting designs, you get something pretty awesome looking for a small investment. If you are interested in reading more about Krokbragd, I have written another blog post on this beautiful weave structure. 
This weave along will be for members only. To become a monthly member, visit this link, or to become a yearly member, go here.

You can also read more about the weave along here.

Once you are a member, you have access to the Member’s Community group on Facebook. 

The best way to stay updated is to join my email list.

A full materials list will be available prior to the commencement of the weave along to give everyone the best chance of starting together.

I’m hoping to commence the weave along early to mid August.

I really hope you can join me for this one, it’s going to be so much fun!

Happy Easter!

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Wishing you all a most blessed and happy Easter! If you are travelling, keep safe on the roads. 
Christus resurrexit! Vere resurrexit!  

Enjoy the Easter break and I hope you get some time for weaving. I’ll be working on this one, which is a new design for my next Etsy pattern. 

See you all soon!

Taking each day as it comes

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Life can be so up and down, constantly changing, imperfect.


This week, we started back homeschooling. Traditionally, Australians take a longer break over Summer but considering our disrupted year last year and the girls needing a solid routine, we decided to start back early. We had some new books to start on, the girls were excited about that too. 

I did a lot of pre planning again, hours of work actually, so I felt confident to start the new year. The first day went fairly smoothly apart from one girl needing an attitude adjustment (this is something we are consistently working on with this child). My youngest girl surprised me by getting stuck into her work with gusto and really enjoying it. 

Fast forward to Friday morning and, following a social engagement yesterday, the girls were late to wake and get started. After a fair bit of pushing on my part, we started our homeschool morning. It wasn’t very long before there was a complete meltdown and tears from the little one. I was disappointed, I had lessons prepared. However, experience has taught me that there is no point in making an overtired, unreasonable child sit and the table and work, so it was back to bed with her, and there she stayed for the whole morning reading. The upside is she finished one novel she hadn’t completed last year and got through another short novel. She was still learning, it was ok. I was able to continue the planned lesson with the other girls.

Plan A is a beautiful thing to the eyes of a homeschool Mum who has spent the time preparing, planning and researching. But, very often, plan B just has to do, and usually it is enough if we accept it as such. It’s not easy to let go of hopes, but often it’s the only solution.

Running a business has been very much the same. Last week was huge, I released a new pattern, there was a huge amount of activity in my online weaving school, it was all very busy and exciting. This week, the complete opposite with practically no sales, very little activity and even social media has been very quiet. A newly released Youtube video has received very little attention.

Plan A for the business is that I can make a living doing this, that all the hours I put in will finally be worth it. The reality (plan B)  is, I have to keep pushing on and endure the good times with the bad and keep hoping. 

Many times I have wanted to give up on things that seemed too hard – whether it’s homeschooling or my business or something else. But every time I want to throw the towel in I say to myself “wait until tomorrow”. When tomorrow comes, I’m usually good to go again, the new day gives new perspective. 

I love the words of one of my favourite saints, Padre Pio – 

“Pray, hope and don’t worry”.


New Year, new pattern!

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Happy New Year to you all! What an exciting time to be alive 🙂
Although I spent New Year’s Eve in bed with a stomach upset, today I feel well and reinvigorated. 


Today I launched a new Etsy pattern and thought I would share some details of the process for you.

I started out with some gorgeous Australian Merino from Bendigo Woollen Mills and dyed it with Landscape dyes. I had a vision of the colour I wanted and it was almost spot on. It’s a very hard colour to photograph though, it’s not as dark as it appears here. I planned on having the colours split in the dye pot to give a subtle variation in colour and it worked out beautifully.

I absolutely love lace knitting and wanted to create something similar on the loom. A scarf that was light and airy with a pretty pattern and warmth and softness for wearing. 

I wanted all the finished details to tie in well with the design of the scarf, so the hemstitching was pulled extra tight to create space and the fringe was twisted. (See how different the colour looks here to the first photo!)

The end result is so beautiful! I was admiring myself wearing it in the mirror until my daughter came along and asked to try it. Well, it looks sensational on her, just the perfect colour, so she may get to keep it.

The PDF pattern for the scarf is now available in my Etsy shop, ready for you to download and start weaving! 



CONGRATULATIONS!

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I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I had a beautiful, quiet and relaxing day with my family.


Thank you to all who entered the giveaway, there were just over 1000 entries and if I could, I would give each and every one of you a prize, but then that would place me in bankruptcy, so I’m obligated to stick with just one winner!


A big congratulations to Christine Rose, who won the Ashford Rigid Heddle loom and a one year subscription to my Online Weaving School. I’ve been in touch with Christine and she is just thrilled to be the winner. 


Playing Santa Claus was fun, I hope I can do it again sometime!

10,000 subscribers giveaway!

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Welcome to this very special giveaway! To celebrate 10,000 subscribers on Youtube I have the pleasure of giving away to one of you lucky people, an Ashford 40cm Rigid Heddle loom along with a one year subscription to my Online Weaving School. How exciting! 




To enter, use the Rafflecopter widget below. You can choose the number of entries you get by completing the tasks – the number you complete is up to you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway will be drawn on December 26th 2017. Best of luck to you!

The point at which it gets really hard

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It  was really hard seeing our normally healthy 17 year old son rushed into the resuscitation unit in a medically induced coma.
It was hard having him transferred to intensive care.
It was really hard when he deteriorated and was placed in a medically induced coma.
It was hard seeing him come out of that coma days later.
It was hard watching as he was transferred out of ICU into the respiratory ward, but didn’t improve as expected.
It was awfully hard signing the consent for surgery to remove fluid from around his lungs.
It was hard seeing him experience the pain and discomfort of having a drainage tube in his back.
It was hard seeing him deteriorate again with fevers and low blood pressure and a high heart rate and having 2 larger tubes inserted in his side.
Today was a really hard day. Waiting for another, more major surgery to remove fluid again, followed by an epidural to numb his body for days (therefore numbing the pain) and then being told at the end of the day that the surgery was postponed to Monday.
Now we wait out the weekend, knowing that surgery is coming.






But you know what? I think all this has been harder on us than on him. Because he is a champion. He has endured countless procedures, needles, drugs, ups and downs without complaint. He always has a cheerful smile for us and looks forward to our visiting. He is resigned and accepting of his situation. His faith in God is strong and simple.
I think I have a lot to learn from this boy.


Please pray for the complete recovery of our son. Thank you to all those who have been praying, messaging and sending cards and parcels. We so appreciate your concern.


I’ve also set up a Gofundme campaign as a special surprise for when he can finally come home. Any donation is greatly appreciated.

Shop update

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I don’t get much time to update my little Etsy shop these days, and I must admit, it’s not my favourite task and gets put off a fair bit. But today I have some new items and they are all beautiful, so please take a moment to browse!

My favourite first – my newest silk scarf, oh boy, do I love this one! A blend of 60/2 silk in purple, fuchsia and orange woven in an undulating twill. Pure luxury!

Next up, hand dyed tencel (you have my permission to drool) combined with mercerised cotton in advancing twill.


Love the colours, love the sheen.

Another scarf, this time in cotton and a beautiful diamond twill variation.
This beauty was a labour of love – woven from my hand dyed, hand spun local Australian merino. The colours remind me of Monet’s Garden.

Is that enough to whet your appetite for now? There are more than what is pictured here, you will have to visit my Etsy shop to see the rest!