Hey it’s Vanessa for Crafty Gemini Creates.
And I’m back with another fun and functional project to keep that sewing machine foot pedal
in place. We are calling this our non-slip foot pedal pad. Now depending on the different
types of floors that you can be sewing on. I know some of you like to sew barefoot out
there. Some of you like to sew on carpet or on linoleum. Whatever the floor is, you’ve
probably had this happen to you before, where you’re kind of feeling for the foot pedal
with your foot and it’s just inching its way away from you. Well this is a great little
solution to it. And it’s also a cute little mini swap gift or even a gift to give to just
any of your crafty friends that have sewing machines. So when I started teaching my son
how to sew, I would just throw a piece of this stuff down on the floor so that the foot
pedal will stay in place for him. So then I decided, you know what? Why instead of throwing
this chunk down there, let’s pretty it up a little bit and make it like a more legit
type of project. So we’re going to be working with this really
cool product that you can pretty much get at the dollar store. They call it, it’s
like a non-slip grip liner. People will put it in their drawers to keep stuff from sliding
around in there. So just pick up one of these in whatever color you want to use. And then
you’re going to cut out two pieces so you can see this is doubled up. Now the size that
I started cutting out here fits this foot pedal for the machine that I’m using. And
just to give you an idea, I think that a lot of foot pedals are around this size. I started
off with two rectangles that measure six inches by ten. If you have a really chunky or bigger
foot pedal then definitely lay it on top and kind of just eyeball the space around it.
If you want to start making more of these go ahead and make yourself a pattern. But
it’s such a quick project we don’t need to do all that for it right now. So after
you have these two, I like to round off the edges. I kind of like the way that it looks.
It almost looks like a little slipper. And it’s just going to be a cute project to
have on the floor in my studio. So we have our two rectangles. We need to round off these
edges, ok? And to do this you can definitely grab a saucer or a plate or something. But
I’m just going to fold it in half. I’m going to start with my rotary cutter. Let
me show you on this. Start with the rotary cutter off the edge. You see how it’s not
on the fabric itself. And then I’m just going to bring it in and just cut myself a
slight curve. And that way it should be about the same all the way around. So let me line
this up again. And this can totally be trimmed. This is not like a perfectionist project,
ok? I’m going to line this up again. On the other end, start off the edge. Don’t
cut your fingers. And give yourself just a slight curve. Alright and I think that looks
good. After you have that, you’re going to have
to bind this to hold those two layers together. So to do that let’s make some bias tape.
We’re going to be working with a one inch bias tape maker. Now you can read the manufacturer’s
instructions of whatever bias tape maker you have and it’s going to tell you the measurement
at which to cut your strips for it. So the first thing is let’s talk about bias. So
when you have your fabric. Here’s a square. And I’m starting off with an 18 by 18 inch
square. And that works out nicely for this. We’re only going to have to sew up two strips.
Real simple. So I have an 18 inch by 18 inch square. So if you tug on your fabric, and
I can tell I don’t have the selvedges on here, but I can tell by the amount of stretch
that I’m getting when pull that this is the crosswise grain. So that tells me that
my selvedge would be here and here. When it has some stretch, it’s crosswise, when I
tug the other way you can see it doesn’t have any stretch. That’s the lengthwise
grain. Now if I tug on a diagonal, this is a 45 degree angle, this is the bias. And this
is where you’re going to get the most amount of stretch. So that means that we need to
cut our strips on the bias. To do that, I’ll just fold it on a diagonal. Here’s the bias,
that 45 degree angle. And then I just will fold it in half again. And then I just turn
it so that I can have a straight angle on my side here. Let me grab my ruler and my
rotary cutter. We have a fold right here so let’s get rid of that first. And then the
strips that I need to cut out measure 1 ⅞ inches. So let me grab another ruler. Alright
so 1 ⅞ . And if you don’t know what the ⅞ measurement
is on your ruler, let me give you a quick tip because sometimes you’ll run into these
measurements when you’re quilting. The measurement between one inch and two inches, you’ll
see eight little hash marks. And that just means ⅛, 2/8, ⅜, 4, 5, 6, and the one
right before the next inch increment where I see two, so the little hash mark before
means ⅞ because the next inch increment is 8/8 which is one. And that’s how you
get your inch increments. So ⅞ is just a little ⅛ hash mark right before the two
inch mark. So that’s what I’m going to line up here, 1 ⅞ . That little mark right
before the two. And I’m just going to cut one full strip of this. Because it’s doubled
up you’re going to end with two strips and that’s all you need for this project. You
can cut more and use that bias for something else but for this one we’re just going to
need these two strips combined. Now to piece these two guys together, you’re
going to line them up like this. We want it to come out so we have it on the mitre and
so we have one continuous strip of fabric. So here’s how you do it. You lay one strip
in front of you vertically, pretty side of the fabric facing up. And then the other one
is going to go horizontally with the pretty side of the fabric facing down. Now if you
look closely here you’ll see how I’ve lined it up. From the edge of this fabric,
this little tip sticks out about a quarter of an inch. And then from this edge the top
strip is on top and the one under is sticking out about a quarter of an inch. And you need
to have these little points sticking out, a quarter of an inch here and a quarter of
an inch here because otherwise they won’t line up perfectly, ok? And so that’s what
you end up with there. Now to use the bias tape maker in this we’re
going to head over to the ironing board and press that seam open. I find that it just
works easier that way. And we’re going to press this seam open. Just so it’s flatter
and lays smoother for us. Alright. I’m going to trim away the little dog ears that are
sticking out here. So I have just one continuous strip. Now we’re going to grab our one inch
bias tape maker, again at the ironing board. You’re going to lay with the pretty side
facing down. And this little tip, on the wider end is where you’re going to want to insert
that first tip. And if you see that you’re having trouble getting the strip to go inside,
there’s a little opening right here where you can just scrap it with a pin. And you
can see that I can pull it through until I get enough of a tip sticking out here. Alright
so once I have that I’m going to grab a smaller pin and kind of just anchor down this
tip so it doesn’t slide back on me when I go to press it. And this is one thing, actually
I’m looking for the glass head pin right here. So this is a good time to use glass
head pins because when you hit it with the iron you won’t melt the little plastic ball
on top of it like some of the plastic ones. Alright. Bias tape is done. Now there’s a lot of different ways to attach
your bias binding to whatever project you’re working on. We’re going to do it super simple.
Remember this is not a perfectionist project, this is just a quick functional non-slip pad
that we need for our sewing projects, ok? So you’re going to layer the two layers
of your grip liner in place. And then you’re just going to start, I just sandwich it into
where the little gap opening is of the bias tape. And you just sandwich it in there. Grab
your wonder clips for sure. This is a great time to use them. And you can just start clipping
them in place and working your way around it. Now one of the reasons that I use the
one inch wide bias tape maker is because you have about half of an inch on each side so
that’s going to give you a lot of play room. You don’t have to do a straight stitch.
I’ll show you how I did it in these samples, is using a zig zag stitch. That way you don’t
have to be super perfect with your stitching or worry about catching the fabric on the
backside. If you do a zig zag stitch you’re covering a lot more fabric space so chances
are you’re going to catch everything and I think that’s probably the easiest way
to do it. So here I have a sample that I started. And I just left a little bit of a tail here.
But I started, I just zig zag stitched all the way around. You can see I catch it on
both sides. Come all the way here. And I’m just going to take it to the sewing machine
and show you all how I finish this edge off, ok? Alright so I’m going to finish off this
sample for you all. And I’m using a zig zag stitch. Usually the default settings for
zig zag stitches are kind of a little bit narrow so I like to make it wider because
I have a chunky bias binding on there. And I want to make sure that I’m catching all
the layers. So I’m just going to up my stitch width here. I think a 5.0 on this machine
would work fine. Let me start where I stopped. And now because you have this non-slip stuff
on here, it’s probably going to get caught on your machine that has a plastic cover like
this. So just lift it a little bit as you work your way around and then it just kind
of eases in there. But stop every little bit, rearrange it especially when you’re going
around those curves. And then when you get to the straight sides it’s super easy. It
will go right through. And try not to pull on your bias binding because then you distort
it. And when you pull on it it narrows it up a little bit and stretches it out. And
notice how I’m stitching it, the zig zag is kind of in the center of the bias binding.
That way I’m not too far over to the left or off to the right and I can make sure I’m
getting all the layers I need. When I get around to the end, I’m just going to overlap
them. There’s no need for a fancy binding technique here. I’m just going to overlap
them. So I’m trimming off the initial end like the first part where I started. I’m
going to cut it a little bit longer here, just so that there’s enough to overlap and
a little seam allowance kind of edge here. So if you can see this I’m folding in this
raw edge and then just draping it over so it overlaps. Alright, simple as that. Trim
off your little threads. And if you don’t want it to look kind of wonky like with the
zig zag stitches all around, use a coordinating thread just like I used in this project. So
use a thread that matches your fabric. Alright so there is the base of the pad. And you can
use it just like this. Now sometimes, if this doesn’t work for
you just flat like this, you may find that the foot pedal kind of wants to inch forward
on you. So I like to put like a little border up here that kind of blocks that from happening.
And it doesn’t have to be much. You can really put down anything. A few different
layers of fabric with some batting or something. But what I like to use is the leftover strips.
So remember when we cut the bias binding, we cut out those two strips. We used just
enough to go around this base here. And then what you have left is going to be just enough
for us to do something here with, ok? So we are going to use the most out of the two strips
that we something. So let me cut these a little bit even. I am going to put in a piece here.
This is just ¾ of an inch wide. And this is a Peltex by Pellon. It’s a sew-in kind
of a heavy weight interfacing. This is the sew-in but it also comes in fusible. And I’m
just going to open up the bias binding here and place it right in there. You can give
it a press if you want to. You can even glue baste it into place. It’s not a big deal.
We’re going to fold this in half. Let me give it a little press real quick. Then I’m
just going to fold it in half, ok? Try to get those edges tucked in there. And then
you just place it kind of up close to the front, ok? The ends here, I just tuck them
under. Super easy. And my strip, I forgot to mention the measurement of my strip. It
measures about 12 ½ or 13 inches long. But you can eyeball it of course because if you’re
making a pad like this that’s bigger then you’ll want to switch it up and make it
so that it accommodates the, the width of your pad. So just lay it right on here. You
don’t even really have to use pins or anything. Just keep those edges folded in. And we’re
just going to topstitch it, top and bottom right on the edges. Let me line it up. Get
my straight stitch going back on here. And I’m just stitching at the top and bottom
on the long edges. Just close to the outer edge. Alright. So we have our nice little ridge
there. And your little foot pedal pad is complete. So I hope you enjoyed this video tutorial.
And that you’ll consider making some maybe for your crafty friends. Or if you’re teaching
a child how to sew this would be a great little gift to give them so the foot pedal stays
in place. And maybe you can give it with some other sewing supplies to get them started.
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and I’ll see you next time.