I hemmed a shark!

My neighbor, Jeff, is an entertainer.  He puts on educational shows for pre-school aged children.  His newest show is about Great White Sharks.    He bought some black fabric and with a little help from me turned it into an actual size shadow/outline of a Great White.  He had come to me at first about how to keep it from fraying.  I offered to hem it for him, however he had enough shows that it took awhile to get it to me.  I'll get a picture of it all rolled out and post it for you. This was by far the most indepth hem job I've ever had. Not even Gramma could top it. There was lots of fold, iron in place, fold, iron in place, sew in place, Pick really big piece of fabric up and turn. Find sewing machine, figure out where the heck the I left off.  If I forgot to gather the excess fabric up it pulled, and when I turned it, it didn't always end up where I thought it would.  If he asks me about an elephant I'm going to move.

  WOW.  They are BIG.  Like, really big.  My sewing room is 15X10, and it's not big enough to open the whole thing up!  22 feet long is very long.

Sorry I didn't take more pictures, it was a big black wad of fabric most of the time to make it easier to move 

around.  The tail fin is the width of my sewing desk!  As I was sewing, I kept looking at the size of this thing and finally came to the conculsion, I'm no longer comfortable with the idea of swimming the ocean.

 

My Thread stash

Sew Mama Sew is doing a "survey" about thread, and since I have way more thread than any woman should, I 'm going to fill out the survey and hope it justifies my thread collection.


* How did you select colors for your personal thread collection?
  
I inherited most of my thread, but what I choose for myself I did by project.


*Do you always match the color perfectly to your project?

Depends on the project.  Sometimes seeing the thread won't look good, and sometimes the stitches won't be visable.

*Do you ever use contrasting thread?

Yes!  That can really step up a project!

*Do you use the same color in the bobbin as the upper thread?

Usually, but that's another thing that depends on the project.  Some projects have contrasting fabrics, and matching thread to those looks nicer.  Sometimes it doesn't matter.

*What if a fabric has big areas of very different colors?

Either try to match the background color or one of the colors in the fabric.

*Do you have any tips or suggestions about choosing thread?

Know your fabric type, and what kind of thread to use with it-this makes or breaks alot of projects. 

*Can you show us a picture(s) of your thread collection?

 The wooden rack is all my thread, most of the wooden spools were my Great-grandmother's, but I think some of it was also my Grandmother's.  This is what happens when you have a grandmother seamstress that grew up during the Depression, and therefore, cannot throw anything out.

Remember the good ol' days when thread was 15 cents?  Yeah, me niether.  The variety of spools my Gramma had.  There's the tatting spool, a metallic spool, styrofoam spool, and of course, the beloved wooden spools.

*Do you ever buy thread because you fall in love with the color (without a particular project in mind)?

Who have you been talking to?!  Don't tell anyone!

*Do you “invest” in thread?

Yes, I spend way to much for thread for some projects, mostly special occasion.

*What types of thread do you have? (elastic, quilting, all-purpose, wool, etc.)

Yes, to the above, plus metallic, and the mystery thread.