Susie's Sunroom: Learning to make Hexies

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Learning to make Hexies

What do you do when you get sick and really don't feel well enough to sew up a big project ? You find some hand sewing to work on!

I looked up several tutorials on Hexies and decided to try sewing a few. When I started out, I didn't have a specific project in mind. Echinops and Aster has quite a few projects and tutorials on making hexies. After reading her blog, I sort of lost my fear of making a hexie, and decided to make a few and see where it led me.

I found some great free hexi patterns at Echinops and Aster, and decided to print out the 1 1/4 " size on computer paper .

My fabric pieces tended to be about 3 1/2 " x 3 1/4 " , to wrap around my little hexagon paper template. I enjoyed basting them by hand , while watching tv. They only took a few minutes to starch and press into shape.

After I made 8 hexies, I started playing around with them, to see what shape to put them in. I ended up liking the straight line. I realized that if I put three in a row, that would fit on the front of an eyeglasses case.

Last week, I made a simple eyeglasses case , for little "A"....

Pouch set including an eyeglasses case

I had attempted to make a more tapered pattern.... from a pattern found at About.com Sewing. But it had a part in the directions that I ~~couldn't figure out~~ messed up... and so I ended up adapting this case...by making it 2- toned on the outer fabric, and straight across the open, top side.

I decided to try this glasses case again, and then decorate the front and back sections with a row of 3 hexies.

So, I whip stitched the hexies, 3 in a row. I fused them on the back with HeatnBond.
I ironed them onto the front and back of the outer fabric, and stitched them along their outer edge to the fabric. I then simply stitched the outline of the hexi string, a scant quarter of an inch from the outer edge.

I had some problems again, finishing the case, at the junction where the the lining and outer meet (step 5), and sewing up the lining-to-lining and cover-to- cover edges. (step 6 in directions). (the pivot area she refers to in the directions)
After several attempts at trying "something different", I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I didn't look at the pictures in the instructions. I used "common sense".
And it worked!
So I WROTE IT down quickly, so I wouldn't forget what I did! And took a few pictures.
I went to my computer and began to study the online tutorial. I realized it was from the early 2000, and it was not as detailed as we make our tutorials today. I then found a "related" link below, and it mentioned "printer friendly" eyeglasses case. It was actually the same directions, but had DIFFERENT PICTURES to show the steps, and was all on one page , for printing. USE THIS ONE: About.com Sewing Make an eye glass case

If you make the pattern, use this link Make an eye glass case , and these pictures will make sense. (And a more experienced sewer would probably know this already!)

The other directions showed sewing the 1 inch seam on the right sides of the fabrics in step 5. I finally figured out that it needed to be wrong sides

Step 6

My hexies glasses case

I like this pattern, because the right corner (seen on left upper corner in my picture), is shorter and shows the lining peeking through. (This is the hard part I had in the pattern. )