A couple of projects

After much research, I finally bought a serger. It is a Juki 654 DE, and so far, I love it!
It's taken me a couple of tries to get the thread tension right- my studio trashcan is full of strips of fabric that have been serged on both sides... From wool sweaters to waxed canvas and every fabric scrap in between, my little serger has serged everything.
The big plan is to use the serger to seam the large Weekender I have been working on. I was toying with a couple of different ideas:  #1, using French seams, or #2, lining the bag.
Solution # 1 will not work very well because of the thickness of the canvas and the bulkiness of the bag itself- it will be hard to put through the sewing machine; solution number 2 will add weight to an already pretty hefty bag. Hence the serging of the inside seams...Brilliant!

Back to today's projects. Spring may be coming soon to your neck of the woods, but here winter is not giving up. We had a small blizzard yesterday, and even though the sun is out today, it is below freezing. The high winds make it feel like Siberia- not that I have ever been there, but I can only imagine...

I found a stash of old wool sweaters that *somebody* must have put in the dryer at some point. After looking for design ideas on the internet, I came up with my own pair of arm warmers-

Are they cute or what???
BTW, it is really hard to take a picture of one's arm :)
The most difficult part was the thumb hole. You have to serge the edge of two strips of wool (the ones around the hand, in my case the brown strip and the narrow striped strip) from the seam side for about 1.5" before you seam the strips together. Of course you will stop the seam where the edging begins. When you do your long seam- the one that goes along the arm- , you will have what looks like a buttonhole on one side of the seam through which to put your thumb.

My other weekend project is to finish making a cover for a vintage camp cot that I purchased on ebay last Fall.
I removed the dirty white cover and made one out of 12 oz. canvas in graphite. The cover in the picture is actually the second try. The first cover was way too tight and the fabric resonated like a drum if you dropped a coin on it - yes, we tried :)
I was afraid that the seams would give away if someone over one hundred pounds sat on the cot- it is supposed to serve as casual seating in Julie's new house.

The pillows really complement the gray color. The front is a large mod floral pattern, the back is  a tiny cream and black check- see picture above. The pillow covers are removable to allow for a change in color scheme. I guess I'd better get cracking on more pillow covers.

So many fabrics, so little time...

Let me know what you think of my projects.
G.