By Janome Artisan: Sarah Ann Smith
A while back, a Janome contributor made a delightful citrus garland (https://www.janome.com/inspire/projects/festive-orange-slice-garland/). I made several as gifts, and I love the cheery burst of citrus color hanging on my mantle in January, reminding me of warmer days to come. I thought a summery garland of buoys and florals—after all I live in Maine!—would be a great summer decoration. The buoys in the photo are slightly larger than the measurements in the pattern. I reduced the size because mine are a bit large, and so that you could get two felt backgrounds out of a single 8 x 12” sheet of felt.
Supplies:
- Janome Sewing Machine, preferably with a zigzag stitch
- Optional: Janome non-stick presser foot for your machine
- Janome walking foot or AcuFeed foot, open toe works best. If your materials don’t bunch up, you can use the F2 open-toe applique foot.
- Fabric scraps
- I recommend choosing a theme. It can be “totally scrappy” to “conversation prints dealing with the sea” (or a place, or food, or birds…whatever!) to “checks, plaids and stripes” to “solids in a color scheme—rainbow, blues and greens, fruit salad, 50s retro kitchen, anything! The decorative woven cloth top of each buoy measures about 3 ½” wide by 10-11” long. You can make yours smaller, shorter or both! Alert! These are kinda like potato chips, you always want another!
- Fusible web
- I prefer MistyFuse, but WonderUnder also works.
- Batting scraps
- I prefer wool or a wool blend for its “puff-osity” but you can use cotton or polyester. Be careful with too much heat from the iron with poly—it can melt or compress.
- Glue stick, acid-free, washable is best
- I really like UHU because it is acid-free, but you can use plain old craft or school glue sticks since this is for a fun project, not an heirloom.
- Felt, 4×11” for each buoy plus a strip if using for the “stick”; one 8×12 sheet will work for two buoys at full size
- For the backing, to simplify the project and speed it up (no edges to finish!) I chose wool felt from my local fabric and art supply store (www.fiddleheadartisansupply.com). You can use any felt for this, but if you choose acrylic felt be careful of your iron settings so you don’t melt it! In some places you can buy felt by the yard. I had a large scrap of a warm leaf green, so I used that for all my buoys.
- Thread for piecing and decorative stitching
- I used my Superior 40wt trilobal (shiny) polyester, but use what you have. I wanted my stitching to be a dense satin stitch (zigzag) that contrasted but coordinated with the floral print. It’s your choice if you want it to be shiny, matte (like cotton), or invisible. You can also choose to use a decorative stitch or just a simple straight stitch.
- Stabilizer if you opt to do a satin stitch on your hanging loop
- Narrow cord, string, ribbon, heavy perle cotton, rattail cord, cotton yarn or whatever works to hang the buoys.
Making the Buoys:
Buoy Units
Pre-fusing and cutting:
In my world, I use the F words: FUSE your FABRIC FIRST. Prepare your woven fabric with fusible, then begin cutting and fusing. Each finished buoy is about 3 1/2 “ x 11” plus the long “stick” (anywhere from 7-11”) and the hanging loop or ring.
- I chose to have each of my buoys to have two or three pieces of fabric, pieced horizontally. I placed the floral on top and the sorta-solid hand-dye on the bottom (You do YOU).
- I rough cut the florals about 4” wide and the length I wanted before applying the fusible web. For a buoy where the woven fabric is 10 ½” to 11” tall, I cut the sorta-solid anywhere from 1½” deep to 4” (you can shorten the buoy later if you want).
rough cutting some pre-fused fabric for the top of the buoy
- The floral then made up the difference of the 11-ish inches. (See template)
- Once you have rough-cut the fabric, apply the fusible web using the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Trim your fabric to 3½” wide making sure you have removed any straggly bits of fusible (if any) on the edges. Also trim across the top and bottom of the rough-cut sections to remove any fusible goobers there as well. This helps keep your iron clean!
- Cut your felt into 11½” x 4” backing pieces or, if you have extra felt, but them a bit oversized and trim after stitching is complete. No fusible needed on the felt. Note: if you make your buoys shorter than mine, cut the felt 4” wide (or a bit more to permit precise trimming) by about ½ to ¾” longer than desired finished length.
- Cut batting into rectangles that are about ½” narrower and ½” shorter than your desired finished top / buoy unit. You want the buoy unit to be about ¼” or a bit more wider on all sides than the batting. You’ll trim the top curves later.
Sewing:
- Place the non-fusible sides of each buoy together and sew the top to the bottom using a ¼” seam. If you have the non-stick Janome presser foot, this is the perfect use! I am calling this the “Buoy Unit.”
- If you don’t have a nonstick foot, depending on your fusible, you may be able to use the regular foot. If the fused side of the fabric wants to grab onto the bed of the machine and/or the bottom of the foot, sandwich the fabrics between thin paper (adding machine tape, photocopy paper, baking parchment). Even up the edges of the fabric and the paper on the right to get a nice seam allowance and use a shorter stitch length, perhaps 1.8-2.0. If your fabric is wider than the paper, tuck your hand under the fabric on the left so it doesn’t grab on the machine bed surface.
- Remove paper if you used it.
- Finger press seam open, then press on top of a nonstick pressing sheet. DO NOT IRON WITH THE PAPER attached or it will fuse permanently to the cloth –erk!
- Place each buoy unit on a nonstick press sheet or baking parchment fusible side down and press the seam flat.
Trimming:
- Determine where you want the top of the buoy to be—at the very top, so full length? Or make the top or the bottom a little shorter—it’s up to you!
- Use the template to mark the right side of the buoy unit with the curved top at the desired height. I found a chalk marking pencil or blue washaway pen worked well.
Marking the top of the buoy unit. Make sure the horizontal seam isn’t tilting.
- OR mark on the back side on the fusible. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise with the fusible on the outside. Cut along the curve to have identical curves.
Marking the bottom of the buoy unit. Folding in half to cut guarantees symmetry!
- Align the horizontal seam, pin to prevent wiggles. Trim the top of your buoy, cutting along the marked line
trimming using my favorite Karen Kay Buckley serrated scissors
- I use my rotary cutter and ruler for the sides and bottom:
more trimming
Build the Buoy:
- Place your batting rectangles on the back of the buoy unit. Trim so that the batting about ¼” narrower than the buoy unit top all the way around.
- Center the batting on the 4 x 11 ½” felt rectangle (the backing). DO NOT trim the felt yet! Use some glue stick to hold it in place.
glue stick the batting onto the felt, then iron the buoy on top
- With the walking foot on or AcuFeed engaged, use an open zigzag to baste the batting in place. I used 2.5 mm wide and 3.0 stitch length. A stiletto or similar pointy tool will help hold the edges in place as you sew. Place the tip about an inch away from the needle and let it glide across the top—don’t push down hard—and always keep the tip outside of the presser foot for safety.
- Place the buoy unit on top of the felt+batting so that it is centered. Fuse the buoy unit in place on top of the batting. Using the tip of the iron, fuse the edges of the buoy unit to the felt where it extends beyond the batting.
For the “stick”:
- There are all sorts of options here from sewing a painted (or not painted) popsicle stick (with a hole poked in the top) to the bottom of the buoy to making one of felt (which is what I did) to anything you can dream up. I cut strips of felt ¾” wide, then fused ½” wide strips of fabric on top. I fund it a lot easier to fuse the fabric to the felt first, then cut it out with a 1/8” reveal of felt.
fusing ½” strips to the felt to use as the “stick”
- If you use a felt strip or cloth, tuck the TOP of the “stick” under the center bottom of the buoy before fusing that edge in place. If you forget like I did, carefully peel up the fuse fabric, tuck it in, re-fuse with a hot iron and presto, you’re set.
- Because of the narrow width, I simply used a straight stitch to sew down the woven cloth for the stick.
For the hanging loop:
- Cut a strip of felt ½” wide and tack it in place behind the top of the buoy. You can have the loop layers fold on top of each other,or set apart like I did (see below). I opted to decorate using a satin stitch, but it would look just as good and be faster and easier plain. Using stabilizer helps prevent the felt from distorting. (See photo) I also satin stitched the second side after removing the stabilizer (since both sides show the way I attached the loop) for full coverage.
I used stabilizer when making a decorative stripe on the felt hanging loop. I used a 3.1 width and .40 length on my stitch.
- Alternatively, you can also sew a plastic ring on the back when everything is done, use yarn, string, slender rope, or perle cotton to make a loop—whatever works.
The FUN Stitching Part:
- Use SCRAPS to audition decorate stitches, satin stitch width and length, and thread colors. For my 40-wt shiny polyester thread, I use a 3.3 stitch width and .40 or .35 stitch length. (see test samples)
Auditioning thread colors for satin stitching.
- I stitched my buoy units to the felt with a dense satin stitch—I just love the pop of color. These would be just as lovely using Janome’s buttonhole stitch—the big one if you want it visible, the smaller one if you want it to be unnoticeable (use a matching thread in that case), or any of the fun decorative stitches
- Trim the felt around the curved top to a width that matches the sides and bottom, about ¼”. It’s a good idea to mark with a chalk pencil where you want to trim. I used my Karen Kay Buckley serrated scissors which make trimming a breeze.
trimming the felt.
- Next, attach the loop! The two best ways for me were to use either the zipper foot with the needle moved to the far, far left OR to use the open-toe applique foot, aligning the needle so that is almost kisses outside edge of the satin stitching. I used a matte cotton or a super fine thread that matched the green felt so this stitching simply disappears.
The MOST FUN Part:
Trim any stray thread tails, load your buoys onto your string, and hang them up to enjoy!
In the garden, in the dining room, anywhere!
