Day 3 of Tour de Couture - All about the bunts

More bunting.  I am giving in and calling this week bunt marathon.

I have all of this to break down - 1 dress, 1 shirt, 2 sheets and several metres of mauve and white gingham (not pictured).

I would love to be in a position to say the cutting is done by the weekend.

Day 2 of the Tour de Couture - more bunting

A busy day with family obligations meant that today's Tour de Couture achievement was again bunt cutting.

A need a lot of bunting - this may become a common post.

Today I broke down two shirts and some scraps of fabric donated by a friend.

To maximise the number of bunts per garment I am happy to have some evidence of the fabric's former life showing.  I find it quite charming, really.

In the photo below you can see part of a shirt pocket and some of the sleeve stitching in two different shirts.  In other bunts there are seams and buttonholes.

Tour de Couture

While many of my fibre friends start the Tour de Fleece today, I have too much sewing to do.

Welcome to the Tour de Couture.

Since 2007, spinners have been participating in the Tour de Fleece.

The brainchild of blogger Katherine Matthews, the tour is immensely popular with spinners and knitters (hand –cyclists) alike.  The organisation is now in a Ravelry group .

I have been intending to participate for years but there is always something to prevent me.  This year it is wedding preparations.  I have WAAAAY too much sewing to do to indulge in spinning.

So I am the sole entrant in the Tour de Couture.

Every day of the Tour de France I will sew or engage in sewing preparation.  A majority of this sewing will be related to our wedding which is 5 months away.

Today I cut out more bunting.

Our decorating colours for the wedding reception are purple, green and white.  I have been gathering old textiles in those colours.  Many donations have come from friends, but most have come from the free clothing bins at our tip shop.  I am choosing mostly cottons in all shades of purple green and white, laundering the (mostly) garments and sheets and cutting out bunts.

When all the bunts are cut which will be when all the fabric runs out, I will sew the bunts onto strips of old white sheeting.

The larger scraps left from cutting the bunts are becoming other wedding decorations but they will wait for later posts.

Improvised thread cone holder

So I thought I needed one of these which cost about $80 and have to be mail ordered.

commercially available thread cone holder with heavy base

What I really needed was to identify the function of the item I desired and look around me.

So I made this, for nothing, and don't have to add another unitask object to our home.

Lazy Kate threaded through the loop of a safety pin on the sewing machine's reel holder

Large sewing projects just became more efficient by not having to change the thread.  And this weekend I have half a house of curtains to make and then there are 14 or so tablecloths and several hundred metres of bunting for the wedding to sew soon, too.

Here I was winding bobbins and taking photos.  It sews better when the Kate is on the floor.

The old Husky has been serviced and is such a work horse for jobs like this.

Another improvised thread cone holder is documented here.  May give it a go as well.

Resolutions 2015

1. Marry the love of my life
2. Kill no-one

These resolutions may or may not be related.