Joanna Duhaime designed and made these Christmas handbell ornaments, and she kindly granted permission for me to share this information with you for personal use. You can also order ready-made ornaments from Joanna; see below. Continue reading Christmas handbell ornaments designed by Joanna Duhaime
Tag Archives: handicraft
Bass bell boxes by Rudy Rodriquez
Rudy Rodriquez designed and built these bass bell boxes to help his son ring large bells, and he kindly granted permission for me to share his instructions and drawings with you to download for personal use. Continue reading Bass bell boxes by Rudy Rodriquez
Table covers – making your own – separate top/skirt
See the other articles in this series, especially Table covers – choices, which discusses the most common fabrics used. Also search online for articles and videos about working with your chosen fabric, as well as any sewing techniques you want to brush up on.
Separating your table covers into top and skirt portions facilitates handling and storing large covers, practicing on your performance table tops without the skirts, and laundering the top when needed (or even shaking away dust and lint). The classic attachment mechanism is Velcro. However, this isn’t required by law; you might try snap tape, for instance, or hooks and eyes, or even pins. Continue reading Table covers – making your own – separate top/skirt
Table covers – making your own – gathered skirts
See the other articles in this series, especially Table covers – choices, which discusses the most common fabrics used. Also search online for articles and videos about working with your chosen fabric, as well as any sewing techniques you want to brush up on.
Some background: My sewing machine is a Pfaff model 6122 with a walking foot (helpful, but not essential). I have many years of experience sewing, having made my own clothes in high school, plus a decade of making things for the boat, using heavy fabrics without patterns. I would say this project requires a medium-duty machine and sewing skills beyond basic, but much less than expert. A quilter used to dealing with large pieces of fabric would have no trouble. The exception would be working with real velvet (instead of a substitute like velour); I feel prior experience with that fabric is needed for such a large project. Continue reading Table covers – making your own – gathered skirts
Table covers – making your own – buying supplies
See the other articles in this series, especially Table covers – choices, which discusses the most common fabrics used. Also search online for articles and videos about working with your chosen fabric, as well as any sewing techniques you want to brush up on.
Making your own table covers isn’t as difficult as making a wedding dress or a tailored suit. However, you must feel confident making things without patterns. If you hesitate to improvise, mock up the covers in muslin first. Test your ideas and make all your mistakes on muslin, which is cheap. Then buy the expensive fabric and use the muslin version as a model. If you baste the Velcro in place with large stitches, you can remove it to use on the real covers. Continue reading Table covers – making your own – buying supplies
Table covers – choices
Almost the first thing the audience sees at your concert is your table dressing. Make it convey the image you want to project. As a beginning soloist, you’ll probably use table covers provided by whatever organization lends you bells. If not, you can buy a length of heavy black cotton corduroy, cut to the length of your table plus 1 yard. Hem the cut ends, and lay it over the foam. Once you’ve settled on your table configuration (including height), it’s time to start thinking about performance table covers. If you decide to make your own covers, you can incorporate your piece of black corduroy as the table top, or continue to use it as a practice cover. Continue reading Table covers – choices