Running With Scissors

Womens

Hello and a New Year's Eve Dress

7:34 AM

How To Finish Leather Edges

4:12 PM

I have been trying to find leather for months for a little project I'm revealing later this week.

I thought the best place would be to get a leather belt from the thrift store, but haven't found any I had in mind.

I'd also been drooling over this gray semi aniline hide that is on sale.

If you saw on my instagram {@runningscissor} I bought a cat pee couch a few months ago and thought this gray leather would be perfect to re-upholster.

Luckily, I got talking with Jennifer, the rep from leather hide store and she's graciously allowing us to host a giveaway for you guys!!

I got a 13 sq foot hide in dark copper mountain saddle.

The remnants are nice because you can see a picture of the actual piece on their website to get an idea if the dimensions will work for your project. The straight edge on this piece was perfect for my plans, and I could cut it more efficient than other remnant hides.

Leather Hide Store were great to work with. I got a samples before I decided.

I was looking for a lighter warm brown.

They shipped the samples and my order really fast which is always nice.

The ones I was looking at were soft and around 1.0 mm thick, more on the thin side as I'll be using my remnant hide for accessories and hopefully clothing!

HOW TO FINISH LEATHER EDGES

So next, I wanted to learn how to finish the edges of the leather to look professional.

It seems lots of DIY leather projects can look homemade with the fuzzy underhide on the edges.

So I did some research and found Bob. He has a video here on finishing the edges of thick, stiff leather.

Supplies:

I bought these supplies online from www.leathertandyfactory.com

Bevel Edges

To round the edges, you need to bevel the top and unfinished side.

I bought the smallest beveler, size 2.

It worked well on the austin smoke upholstery leather, but I didn't really need to bevel the softer, thin stuff.

So for my softer leather, I did the following:

1. The natural hide back has the fuzzy texture that sticks out even when you cut the edge with a rotary blade.

2. Since I couldn't bevel, I needed to trim the backing at an angle.

I did quite a bit with a straight razor, then finished using scissors on the edge to barely trim the excess fuzz away.

3. Wet the leather edge with water, or the gum tragacanth.

Quickly rub the wet edge in the edge slicker to burnish the leather.

As the gum tragacanth dries from the heat and friction, it makes the edge smooth and shiny.

4. The Edge Kote is a flexible sealant to the edge.

I applied it with q-tips and if any got on the finished side of the leather, I quickly wiped it off with a paper towel.

Once dry, it's ready to use!

Can't wait to show you what I made with these leather strips!!!

about

Lynette is Joining Running With Scissors!

11:03 AM

This blog has been dying slowly. But get ready for an amazing resurrection!

My little sister, Lynette is coming on board and we are going to join forces!
So you'll get to see what each of us is creating!

Grandma's House late 80s

Maybe you don't know Lynette or remember her blog, Thinking In Shapes, which she deleted a little over a year ago.
Basically comparing the two of us, Lynette is Mr. Miaggi, and I am Daniel-son.

Get ready to be amazed by the master if you've been at all impressed with the apprentice.

HOW THIS CAME ABOUT:

We live 2 hours from each other, so we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, as that would probably be every day if possible. But Lynette was over for a sleep over and after we watched Little Women and our kids were in bed we were chatting about motherhood stifling our creative capacity, and how we each love different aspects of blogging, but it's a lot of work. Lynette has recently started delving more into DIY and home projects (building her own bed) and wanted to share all her ideas. I was feeling burned out from blogging and after 7 years have been considering over and over just ending it and being done...but I always just keep coming back. So that night we both decided we'd both love working together and sharing our ideas with you.

the girls of our family: Lynette (9th grade), oldest sister Heather, Jessica (12th grade)

I think we both have things to share, and we're both excited to work together. She's the authority on sewing and she's who I call for my sewing or garment questions. She calls me with furniture and DIY questions. And let's be honest, we both call our mom with both. So get excited because we're going to have Sheila mom features coming too. I'm so thrilled about all the changes and feel like fresh energy has given my blog life, we're even getting the fuzzy header revamped and making things look like it's not 2009 anymore around here.

So I thought it would be fun to introduce Lynette. I'm sure in no time you'll realize she's the better sister creatively and as a person....anyone who knows us in real life can attest to that.

Lynette with our awesome dad, Scott

Here's a few of my favorite projects she's created just to brag about her a little:

And she's got a whole stack of posts in draft form waiting to bust out for you so get ready!

There's more new and exciting changes in the works, but this post already has too many adjectives so we'll save them for another day. I haven't been this excited about this blog in years!! So look out, here come the Kelly sisters with sewing machines, drills, paint, fabric, and scissors I guess.

Running With Scissors just got a whole lot better.

Womens

Fair Isle Reindeer Sweater

4:04 PM

The semester is over!

Going back to school as a mom has kicked my trash, but I survived and passed all my classes, even the horrible statistics.

On to history and social sciences next semester where my brain can be more comfortable.

So I am thrilled to get to dedicate some time these next 3 weeks to sewing again!

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First up is a little knit sweater for the holidays,

a fair isle reindeer print simple blouse!

Actually, it's really a t-shirt, posing as a sweater.

The knit is from Girl Charlie and comes in red and green as well.

It seems fair isle prints are big this winter, popping up in leggings as well as traditional sweaters.

I love it for the nerdy Christmas vibe, but not quite passes the "ugly sweater" line. I chose the turquoise and charcoal print rather than red/ green so I could wear it throughout winter and not stop after Christmas.

Fair isle always reminds me of this scene in Dumb and Dumber as well.

{source 1} {source 2}

Sewing with striped fabric can be a pain because you have to pattern match when you cut out.

It's not too hard, I usually use the horizontal lines at the top of the side seams on everything since that is a junction of front, back and sleeve.

With this print I cut the front first to ensure the stripes would land to avoid reindeer prancing across the largest part of my chest, so they went above and below.

The back and sleeves were then matched to the front as far as stripes go.

As for the pattern, I used the simple blouse one size smaller to account for using a knit that stretches.

I raised the neckline for more of a crew neck.

The wide sweater ribbing finished it off since to try to make as it's a faux sweater really.

Now for my exciting announcement:

I've given myself a deadline for releasing the simple blouse pattern!

It was really done in September when I taught the class at Sewing Summit, but since then my plan has grown to be bigger and better. Rather than just a pattern, it's turned into a whole series on adding variations to a simple base. I'm thrilled about the options and can't wait to share everything in the next few weeks!

GET READY FOR AN EVEN BIGGER AND MORE EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT IN MY NEXT POST!

I probably won't be able to get a picture with my mouth getting wider than this last announcement, but it's going to be good and has been in the works for a few months.

This blog is going to be a lot better in the future!!!