Wednesday, 18 November 2009

Opinions please

I have to confess to loving my Traffic Jam bunting. It was one of those designs that worked just as I'd imagined and I enjoy making it. I don't, however, particularly enjoy batch cutting and sewing, and the vehicles are pretty fiddly given the number of windows. So, I've been trying to rejig the pattern to reduce the amount of cutting and sewing involved but I wonder if the quality or design is suffering because of this. Could you give me your opinions please?

This is the bus as I currently make it:



and these is my proposed new design. Please bear in mind that I did this in about two minutes flat, so the zigzagging would be more even:




Thanks for your help!

Edit:

OK, following all your really helpful comments, here's my compromise which I think might do the job. I've taken on Martina's suggestion of the strip of felt under the zigzag and next time I cut some bus shapes, I will take on board the comments from my big sister about making the bus "chubbier":



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7 comments:

  1. Anonymous18 November 2009 at 05:41

    Hi Nicky. As you know, I have some of your fab traffic jam bunting and I would have been perfectly happy to have had the bus no2 with zig-zag. Know how you feel, I recently started using my overlocker where I have previously bound seams and I feel like I am cheating the customer but I think it's easy to go overboard in details that most people wont see in the overall design.

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  2. Nicky's Sister18 November 2009 at 05:47

    I am sitting looking out of my office window waiting for a bus to come by so I can compare to the original, and none has come...never mind, there'll soon be 3 at once.

    There we go - we've just had an old Routemaster Number 15 and a newer one. The newer ones don't have such big divides between windows so look more like your new one.

    I prefer your original, but mainly coz it makes it look more double decker. Perhaps if you did double or even triple width zigzag on the horizontal?

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  3. chiyo18 November 2009 at 06:15

    I LIKE THEM BOTH, BUT DO PREFER YOUR ORIGINAL DESIGN, BUT IF YOU DID DOUBLE UP ON THE ZIZAG LINES ON THE NEW DESIGN I THINK IT WILL LOOK JUST AS GOOD.

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  4. Kitschy Coo18 November 2009 at 06:40

    Hmmm, I like the first a little bit more but if I hadn't seen the first I'd like the second just as much (if that makes any sense!). Is it mostly the cutting that's adding all the extra time? Maybe you could find one of those fancy punch things that card makers use to punch the windows out rather than cut them? I like the sound of punching the windows out :)

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  5. Unknown18 November 2009 at 06:53

    I much prefer the first one as it looks like 8 proper windows than 1 window divided in 8 pieces.
    Why you don't sew stripes of felt under the zig zag stitch to look it more like the first design? just an idea...

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  6. Nicky's other sister18 November 2009 at 09:04

    I also prefer the first one, but don't think there'd be any complaints about the second(I agree with Kitschy Coo)! I think people prefer it because overall there is more red and the feel is more "chubby". I think if you made the felt at the top and side of the windows just a tiny bit wider that would give more of the bulky bus sense, and then the zigzag windows would be fine.

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  7. nickynackynoo18 November 2009 at 09:20

    Thank you all for your comments - they're really helpful. I agree with you all - I prefer the first, but think the second will do. I've just tried out Martina's idea of using a strip of felt under the horizontal zigzag line and think that really helps but still really reduces the time involved. Thanks all (especially sisters!) N xx

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