Keep Calm

  Very calm at dawn this morning.

 My friend in Japan sent me a wee present in the mail recently.
See those tiny airplanes. ;-)
A little Budgie sticker decorating the package.

 Yesterday, another friend and I drove out to the Dahlia fields of Swan Island Dahlias.
They are in full bloom.

Bumble Rumble

 One of my dahlias at dawn. I got this bulb from my mom & dad's place.

I was feeling a bit sluggish today. After cleaning up a couple of flower beds by the house. No wonder!

After taking a shower, I lay down and read and then decided to read until I finished my book, "The Dressmaker"   by Kate Alcott.

 This afternoon, I thought I'd finish my foray into pocket tissue covers.
I thought this dotted red went well with my wee airplane fabric totally disregarding the fact that the red showed very clearly through the the white background fabric.
The red peeking through turns the white into dirty white. Not good.
I'd only sewn three seams in a continuous row of eight covers when I thought about it. Then I switched to the blue background and came up one lining short having sewn two linings onto an outer blue fabric.
God - where's the seam ripper?

 After tossing my house, I found it by the laptop and while totally broken in (lol), it worked well enough to rip stitches out.

There's a cap that goes to this seam ripper which pops onto the end to extend the handle. It always came off at a crucial moment, so it was retired first. I think I've had this seam ripper for at east a dozen years.

In all the sewing supplies I find at garage sales, I never, ever, find seam rippers. Because they break.
Looks like a trip to the fabric store is in order....


I put my sewing away because it's obviously not in the works today.


My daughter re-arranged the guest room opening up some floor space where I am now seriously contemplating the IKEA Button Rug that I saw on a recent trip there a few weeks ago.

Only $49

Stearman Biplane Cockpit Cover

This is our Stearman Biplane out of the hangar.

 I made the cockpit cover before I started the blog (in 2009 - I think I made this cover in 2006) and I wanted to snap some photos of it for posterity my use. Documentation - if you will.

This post is photo heavy - 24 photos. It's probably only interesting to me but you never know.
It's me at my best long-winded self.

The Stearman has been thrown out of the hangar because hubby needs some room to paint the wings of the J-5 Piper Cub. This involved a lot of maneuvering. Chiefly - extending the paint booth to get those long wings inside.

Tonight, in the humid sweaty airless evening, we moved the stearman back into the hangar as it will be over 100' this weekend and hubby didn't want plane to sit in the sun.
You can roll eyes any time here. Two neighbors helped us hang the J-5 wing so painting can commence.

The Stearman is expensive to take up and fly, so a plan was hatched to buy a little plane (the J-5) that costs much less in avgas and is enclosed so supposedly flying could be done at all times of the year. The Stearman is open cockpit so its a mite cold up there in the winter.

Some specs on Stearmans:
1942 WWII trainer. This is what the farm boys learned to fly in. Pilot flys from the rear cockpit but student can also fly from the front cockpit as well. Its like sitting in a huge bathtub on the ground with limited forward vision. To taxi, pilot must maneuver side-to-side to make sure nothing is in the way.

Its powered by a Continental 220 engine - what we call a round engine - lovely music - similar to Harley motorcycle music. This Wiki article is pretty in depth if you've a mind to know more.

This plane is built to survive farm boys crashing. We know this because we crashed two years ago. This plane is so well built and solid that chances are you will walk away from a crash. We walked away and rebuilt the plane.

It is lovely to fly and I really totally lose all stress when I am airborne. I am reminded of one of my favorite poems every time we go flying. It was written during WWII by a Canuck named John Gillepsie McGee, Jr., entitled, High Flight.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

It was a cloudy morning when I took these photos. We only ever use the cockpit cover at airshows if we stay overnight. For security and to keep things dry.
A friend had one and hubby wanted to buy one at $400+. Frugal me piped up and said, " I can make one."
You have to recall this is before I started blogging and I had not yet 'met' The Selfish Seamstress.

I did. I made this.

It only took all winter. I borrowed our friend's cover and made a pattern. I bought all  my fabrics at Rose City Textiles - RCT Fabrics.

I needed 1000 denier  Cordoba, something like fleece to go over the acrylic (easily scratched) windscreens, straps, buckles, stuff.

The gal at RCT fabrics was a huge help. I dragged in the cover and some photos and she zeroed in on all the particulars.

I believe I spent $115 to make this.

 Each buckle has a strap underneath it so it would not scratch/rub against the paint in windy conditions.
There are three long straps that go around fuselage up to other side. In addition, there are the front pieces that secure around the wing strut.

Yes, I burned all the edges of every strap so they wouldn't fray.

 Two sizes of strapping.

 All corners and centerpieces are reinforced with fabric. 
All seams are enclosed - welt seams.
All the edges are finished with grosgrain ribbon  - folded in half around raw edges of cordoba and stitched down the entire lengths.

There was something else I used at the edges - about 2" wide to stabilize the edges but I can't recall now what it was. It's underneath - I'll have to go peak underneath later.

You can see the weird angles here.
Couple of camel humps topside to manipulate fabric around. Those are the acrylic windscreens.

 This is where we climb up onto the wing to get into the cockpit. 'No step' is on fabric. Please step only on the black stuff next to the fuselage.
No Step is just to remind you to watch where you step.
This is a fabric covered airplane. Sewing was involved and ironing to shrink the fabric.

 Our round engine.  Propeller is upper left - wood.

Throwing the last of the photos in. If you read this far, thank you.

"...reach out and touch the hand of God..."

Airplane Sewing

We are re-covering the wings of our Stearman biplane.  We're using Stits Polyfiber and some felt for the leading edges. I kinda wish we had stits fabric for garment sewing because you basically drape it on, secure it with dope and then use the iron to shrink it to shape. Wouldn't that make sewing so  much easier - shrink to shape!


The fabric is rough-cut and secured with the dope (glue), shrunk with the iron until it forms the wing surface. Yes, the wings, fuselage and elevator are all fabric.
This keeps the plane lighter by covering the wood & metal frame with fabric.

After shrinking it, it gets a coat of dope, then the sewing begins: Rib-lacing.
Basically, you are sewing with an extra long needle to secure the fabric over the ribs. 

A wing has over a dozen ribs. There are two wings to the left & right of the center section (fuel tank (made of metal)) plus the lower wings (left & right). Four wings in total. We are just recovering the top wings this winter.




Those vertical lines are the ribs under the cloth.


Close-up of one of the rib supports.
The fabric on one side comes to the edge and another strip goes along the edge covering the first fabric edge.


You have to cut the fabric away from working metal surfaces. This fabric frays a bit but not much and the dope keeps it in great shape. There will be additional coats of dope (Poly-brush), an UV coat, then three top coats. I think there are 8 coats in all. This fabric will be pretty substantial by the time we are done. Taut as a drum!



Here's my sewing! 
The rudder needed a rough sewing to fit an envelope around the shape. The iron shrinks it the rest of the way. This one has already gotten the pink coat of poly brush.


This fabric has been laid on and clamped to keep it from slithering around.

The bottom wing, which is not going to be re-covered is in the background. The tail feathers are in the fore-ground.





And, here's our other project: J-5 piper cub. Much smaller, enclosed, fits two people, but uses much less fuel to get somewhere. Both pilot and passenger can fly: they sit tandem (one behind the other).

Both cockpits in the Stearman can be piloted, however, when there is only one person, they must fly from the back cockpit. {weight & balance: I tried to find an easy-to-understand description but failed. Basically, you need to pay attention to the center of gravity for an airplane, calculate your load and the stearman is designed to be flown from the rear cockpit.}

The J-5 is also a fabric covered airplane. The photo below shows the rear portion with my luggage compartment.

The wood lid pops up to reveal approximately 1 ft x 2 ft x 1 ft space. The stearman has a wee bit more luggage space. (Pack light)





I had some of my auto-immune issues the last few days but I have picked out my pendleton fabrics to get a tote bag done for SewExpo (FRIDAY!!!!).  

One of my symptoms is a very weepy eye with goobers which makes sewing and reading difficult.

Lunch Sewing

I had today off to sew. There's an overwhelming leaning aspect to the sewing room that keeps me out sometimes. I desperately need a little elf to sort and straighten.
After my doctor's appointment, I did go in and came up with fabrics to sew Ayumi's Lunchbag fairly quickly. Ayumi (aka Pink Penguin) has written other tutorials and she is fantastic at piecing together fabrics if she doesn't have enough. And the fabrics she has are beyond cute in the way she mixes them.

This bag reminds me of the chalk bag I sewed for my son. It also incorporates a drawstring closure to keep the contents in/safe/dry. You should also read the comments for this tutorial post. Several sewists dropped by with their links to the bags they made.

Made December 2010

This is a small bag that can be used in many ways. I plan to sew a couple more as part of my trip gifts (summer trip to Sweden & Finland). Along the way, I will change up some details.

1. The bag bottom was two pieces of fabric sewn together. It can be one piece, embellishments can be sewn prior to construction. The seam on the bottom does make it easier to make a precise box corner.

2. I did sew a touch bigger seam on the lining and this worked perfectly. Sometimes when linings are made the same size as the outer bag, you get a lot of waddage hanging around inside instead of a slim fit within the other.

3. You see the pocket I added? Hidden.  I might add a zip pocket or at least a pocket with a flap. All of my bags have tipped over (overloading - moi?) at one time or another so a flap for the hidden pocket would be good.

4. Some exposed seams on the cover which I would turn under one more time so no fraying threads keep sheering off, bugging me, making me twitchy.

5. The linen I used could be stamped on with a word or two. . . .

I love how easy this was to make. It turned out fabulous with ideas on how to take it to the next level percolating.