Paper Robot

I decided to start a real textile arts blog, Paper Robot! Over there, I'll be writing some basic fabric and sewing tutorials, projects I've worked on, as well as patterns I hope to sell. Come on by!

Pinkerton Shawl

Time for a knitting post! This is a purple Pinkerton Shawl, knit with Cascade Heritage in plum. I didn't check gauge, and that might be why this version isn't as big as it ought to be, as I ran out of yarn. It blocked out pretty nicely, though! I do wish I had knit a border along the top and side, though, since no amount of blocking would stop the edge from rolling, but I think in the end it was OK! It was a pretty gorgeous shade of purple, too!

Placemats!

This was a simple placemat project for a friend. I made two of each of these designs, sized around 14"x18". The panels on each are the same size, just arranged differently. With a seam allowance of 1/2", the larger rectangles are 15"x9" and the green strip is 15"x3". 

Action shot! 

Yarn Boxes

I made these little bags sized to hold a single ball of yarn, with sides sturdy enough that when open, they would sit upright. They start with a simple shape base: square, hexagon, and octogon. The octogon proved to be a bit tedious to sew, and didn't stand up as well as the other two, but I'm planning on turning the squre and hexagon into actual sewing patterns for other people to use.

Square Tablecloth

Our dining table is 48"x48" square, which is actually fairly irregular. We had it custom made from Room and Board, sized to be the perfect board game table–and it is! The only problem is, it's difficult to find square tablecloths that fit. Rectangular ones are both too long and too narrow, and circular ones look a little bizarre on the square. 

I did a few quick searches, and found that standard table widths are around 35"-40" wide, and tablecloths drop around 10", give or take a few inches. So if I want a 12" drop on each side of my table, I would need a tablecloth that is 60"x60".

I've had this blue and silver batik fabric around for quite a while; I had bought it two years ago at Christmas as a furoshiki cloth, and I think I used it for that purpose just once. At 44" wide, however, it was still too narrow, but I found a mostly matching blue cotton in my stash to fill out the ends. A bit of measuring and cutting (OK, I got lazy and ripped. At least I was on grain as a result!), and I was ready to sew.

Sewing the ends together

Trimming to move the seam allowance under the more opaque solid blue.

Topstitching with some silver thread I found.

Add a simple hem to the edges and voila!

Really Ending Radio Silence

Kind of funny that I would write a post claiming to end radio silence, and then not actually post anything. But here I am, making similar claims yet again, three and a half years later. But I mean it this time! I already have some sewing posts queued up, and I've been diligent in the past few months to actually document some of my projects. I just keep getting distracted by actually making things and forgetting to write about them.

A lot has happened in the last few years. Most significantly, I started my master's degree at the School of Information at UC Berkeley in August 2012, and I have just graduated as of this May. I am looking forward to having weekends again, and have a bunch of projects lined up and ready to go. And they're going to show up here! For real!