Covered in Threadmalaka’s adventure in sewing

Although I like the way this bag turned out the first time I made it (here) I wanted to make it again with a few adjustments.  First, I didn’t love the fabric I used, second.. I wanted it to be less slouchy.. I like a bag to keep it’s shape.

I pulled out my favorite fabric to date, Sophia by Alexander Henry.  I used to be SO against using ‘big name’ fabrics but gah, this fabric makes me smile every time I see it!

Pictures do not do this one justice.  It looks and feels so gorgeous in real life:

Have I mentioned that making the same pattern a second time is so much easier?  Why do I torture myself and constantly make new patterns?  I guess there is just so much out there that I want to try I can’t stand it! But, I will admit again that making something I’ve already made before is a lot less stressful!

Anyway, the home dec weight fabric helped, but I also added medium interfacing to the exterior and fusible fleece to the interior.  The pattern uses a seperate piece for the upper interior, so I used heavy-weight firm interfacing for that.  It was a pain in the butt, but it holds it’s shape well!

Something new on this bag: I used a cotton/poly blend for the solid black interior and handles.  Why? Well, I noticed if I bought cheap black cotton fabric, lint would stick to it so bad that it was making me crazy.   I realized with a nice polyester blend, nothing stuck to it.. it is smooth and clean looking, and can likely handle spills better inside a bag.

Over the last few months, I’ve bought at least 15 yards of plain black material, so I needed something inexpensive.  I found the cotton/poly blend and it was cheap - on sale for $2.99/yd and I’m relatively certain that it’s not more than $4/yd normally.

The only problem I had with it was that once it was folded over several times for the strap, no machine needle I had would puncture it.  Last resort, I pulled out my ballpoint knit sewing machine needles, and that worked.  I don’t know why a ball-point needle worked when not even a jeans/denim needle would work.  I’ve sewed MUCH thicker fabric (upholstery fabric, backed & folded over several times) with my machine, so I don’t think the thickness was the issue.

After the holidays, I’m going to replenish my stash with non-black & white fabrics!  I look at all the bags I’ve made over the last few weeks and they’re ALL black & white!

Oh my goodness, I’m finally done with it.  I started a quilt for my nephew on Thanksgiving, and here we are, only a few days from Christmas.   That wouldn’t sound like very long, except this is a tiny quilt! It comes out at about 32×32… I should have been able to finish it quicker, but I honestly put it down for 3 weeks and didn’t touch it!!

After piecing this guy, I thought I hated quilting.  Honestly, I think I just bit off more than I can chew.  I wanted to make my nephew a baby quilt, but not a traditional pastel baby blanket.  So I used American Jane’s Recess charm pack.

It has bright colors and is totally retro, which I love.   I also love using charm packs, and this time I also used a quilt pattern for the first time.

The pattern is by Schnibbles, called Come out and Play.  I looked over it over and thought.. how hard could this be?  It’s small, it uses charm packs, and the instructions are right here for me.   I knew there would be a lot of cutting/piecing, but I asked my sister Elizabeth and my mom to help me when they were here for Thanksgiving.

Relunctantly, they helped ;)  Both of them hate quilting, and this one just concreted that thought in their head.  The whole time I was thinking ‘omg this is so fun!’ but they were thinking ‘omg, I want this to be DONE so I never have to quilt again!’

What I didn’t realize at first is that because the stars are not each their own block, I wouldn’t be able to piece this one like I’m used to.  Instead of piecing blocks, then rows.. I had to piece rows only.   After fixing it a bazillion times, my stars are still massively wonky.  In fact, I think I’m going to change the name of this one to ‘wonky stars quilt.’

I thought, this being my 4th quilt, that it would be my best yet.  It’s not my best yet, by any means! I’m sad that none of my stars look like stars.   I do like the way it looks from afar, without a quilting eye

And then there’s the quilting part.  This is what took me so long to finish.  It was going to be my first free-motion quilting project.  I was scared, but I was going to do it anyway - and I did.  Then I looked at my free motion stitches and they were terrible.  Now, before you start thinkng I’m too critical of myself, when I’m quilting I let a lot of messy stuff slide.  I know that most of the time the details get lost in the beauty of the finished piece.  But this was BAD, I had to remove them.

So I sat on the sofa for 4 hours, removing all my free motion stiches.  It was painful.  I put the quilt down and didn’t pick up for 3 weeks.  The only reason I did, in fact, pick it back up last night, is that I am going to see my nephew in 2 days and HAD to get it finished.

I decided I was going to re-do the free-motion quilting, but I would go slow and steady.  I set it all up, got ready, and went to town.  I was stitching evenly and slow and I felt good about it.  Then I caught a glimpse of the back, and the damn tension was messed up so I had huge loops everywhere! Ugh!  Luckily this meant that the stitching was loose, and easy to rip out.  I had only done about a quarter of the quilt, so it wasn’t too bad to remove this time.

I couldn’t do it again.  I removed the quilting foot and put back on the old trusty walking foot and stitched in the ditch a bit and called it quits.

Here’s the back:

Hard to see, but I have squiggly line around the whole thing, then I just quilted boxes around the inside.  Good enough.

What I learned:

• I’m not ready for this kind of quilting, I need to keep with big blocks until I really understand everything that I’m doing.
• Quilt patterns are FUN and make life a lot easier.
• I need to practice free-motion quilting, a lot.

A revelation ocurred this week.  I picked up a couple of run-of-the-mill, non-boutique sewing patterns at the fabric store because they were on sale for $2 each.   The patterns both had 4 bag patterns in them, so I figured if I didn’t actually use the patterns to make bags, the pictures and instructions might be worth having for that big four bucks I spent.

I think I’ve proven to myself that I can sew a bag from start to finish without a pattern.  I’ve also proven to myself that it sucks.  The revelation?  It was that I ENJOY sewing from patterns!  After the Amy Butler Birdie Sling pattern, I was overjoyed.  I thought it was Amy Butler patterns that I loved.. but it turns out, I love sewing from patterns!

My history with patterns is bad.  I got frustrated easily and gave up.  Sometimes I didn’t give up, but I dulled many seam rippers in the process.  All of the times, I hated every minute of it.  Now, I like it, a lot! I still have to think a bit, but I get the lingo.  I understand the instructions, and it’s fun.  This might sound a little split-personality-ish.. but I kinda feel like I have someone there sewing with me, showing me how to do things.  When I’m sewing without a pattern, it’s all me - I have to figure it all out and there’s no reference at all.  With the pattern instructions, I have something to fall back on.

The other problem with non-boutique (I’m calling the designer patterns ’boutique patterns’) is that the examples are almost always using ugly fabric.  It’s hard to see past ugly fabric, I admit that I have problems with that, too.   Since these puppies were $2, I saw past the ugly fabric fairly easily.  These are the two I picked up this week:

I decided to start with the one I thought would be the easiest, and looked like something I might like - the leopard (cheetah?) print one on the Butterick pattern - Style B.  Style B is the same as Style A (the blue bag) except for the handle.

I really don’t like working with the tissue-paper patterns, I’ll say that.  I’d rather the patterns be on regular paper.  Cutting out the pattern pieces initially isn’t all that much fun, but I guess if I re-make the same bag over and over, I’d only have to do that once (I seem to be making a new bag pattern every time these days, though!)

After I finished cutting out (and figuring it out which pieces I needed.. 4 bags mean there are something like 30 pattern pieces to sort through) the pattern, I cut out the fabric.  After I figured out the exterior, the interior was easy, since it was nearly exactly the same.  I thought the gussets would be difficult, but they were easy.  This reminded me to try the Hobo Bag pattern again - the gussets gave me trouble but that was when I was a mere novice, now I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.  I think I could perfect that Hobo bag with my new skillz.

I am going to note that I needed nearly a yard of exterior fabric for this bag, and I didn’t want to use a  favorite in my stash because of all of my FAILS lately. I was worried I’d mess up again and be sad that good material was wasted.  This fabric is ‘eh’ — I like it enough that I’m using it as my daily bag for now, but i’m going to make it again with something I like better.

I filled the interior (I was too excited to see if this size was good for all my junk!) before I took a pic, so you get to see the inside ..with all my junk

I know, I’m thinking it too.. “Malaka, black+white & red is sooo overdone!”  But let me explain, I had leftover red from Shara’s Messenger bag and it looked better than any other solid I had (yellow or turquoise) so I used it, again.

Here it is, what I learned!

• Piecing gussets is not scary (stop folding, start piecing!)
• Commercial patterns don’t call for enough interfacing — I added extra and it is still a little floppy.
• Making the top piece of the interior match the exterior is super cute.  That left me with a hint of red instead of a LOT of red, and I like it.
• This pattern will turn out way too triangular if you don’t use the full 1/2 inch seam allowance on the gussets.  Use the full seam allowance!

Christmas is coming up, and we’re leaving town in 4 1/2 days.  I need to finish a baby quilt (just the quilting and the binding) before then, and make myself a nice travel bag.  Oh I need to make a bag for my camera too, since the last one was a big FAIL.  I think I’ll just go with a simple drawstring bag, and stop beating myself up over it.

I’ve been switching between quilting and bag-making for a few months now, when I get tired of one I go back to the other.  I’ve had ‘new throw pillows’ and ‘table skirt’ on my to-do list forever.  I found a nice neutral green that matches everything in my house on the remnants rack, and there was tons of it.  I bought all they had which was about 6 yards, for $5/yard! This stuff likely sells for $20/yd normally.

My cutting table is just a regular plastic retangular table.  My back started to hurt pretty quickly before I realized it needed to be raised up about a foot.  Richard pulled out the platform that we had in the garage and hooked me up!  I knew we were saving that thing for something.  It works perfectly.  The only problem? It’s hideous!  Add my MESS and it’s even worse.  So I started working on a skirt for it, but I was having problems getting it to stay on (even with sticky velcro, the fabric was too heavy.)  Finally.. I realized I should use the greatest invention ever: Glue Gun.  I love glue guns, I don’t use them very often but boy they’ve made my life easier!

It has an opening in the middle where I can get to my junk:

I decided to go ahead and make some throw pillows from the same material.  I could have wussed out and made simple pillow covers, with zippers so I can take them off and wash them when the dogs decide to lay all over them.  But, I decided that’s too easy.. I’m going to add piping! Piping! I’ve never done it before but how hard could it be?

Turns out, it’s not hard at all.  Leave it to me to make it difficult though, because nothing can be that easy.  I decided the right shade of brown fabric from my stash had to be used, instead of the 3 yards of not-quite-right brown fabric I have.  I had these strips that are way too narrow, especially for the rope I used (which I found in the back of Richard’s truck - he’s going to be mad next time he wants to tie something back!)

I had plenty of strips, which I pieced together just like a quilt binding, then rolled them over the rope and sewed it shut.  This was difficult because some of the strips were REALLY narrow.  After adding them to the pillows, THEN adding a zipper, I wanted to pull my hair out.  It would have been so simple if I’d have used strips that were wide enough.  Instead I had to fight with these things the whole way!  Oh well, they turned out pretty well.. (if you don’t look too closely.)

With Jasmin, again because she’s pretty much wherever I am, at all times.  In this photo, she’s saying ‘yummm new fabric to lick!’

I crossed off a bunch of stuff from my to-do list yesterday.  It felt good, normally I’m adding to it instead of crossing things off.  Of course, this morning my friend Robin and I had a discussion about what kind of camera bags people (like her) might want if their birthday was coming up in a few months.. so off I go to figure out how in the world to make a professional looking camera bag for a professional photographer!

People are always telling me that I’m rockin’ out with the sewing and whatnot.. but what they don’t see is a) the MESS I make and b) the complete and total failed projects.

I’m making a post about them because it helps me remember what I need to do and what I need not to do

Pattern fail: I still need to finish my Amy Butler Madison Bag, but I’m just not really into it right now. It is half finished and just sitting there, staring at me (for 3 weeks now!)

Wristlet fail: I tried to make a wristlet for Tia last week, but I didn’t have the right zipper for that either.  I have a bazillion zippers but they’re never the right size or color.  I have my eye on a few ebay stores that sell giant lots of them, I think I’ll just do that and make sure I always have what I need.  I’m also having problems with getting zippers on pouch-bags just right.  It seems like they don’t turn in right on the corners and there MUST be a trick to it that I’m not getting.

Camera bag fail: I also tried to make myself a nice padded camera bag, but failed miserably.  Well, Richard says ‘whats wrong with it?’ but to me it’s all wonky and ugly.  I tried adding a zipper to a curved edge, and although I was successful at that, it’s not centered and just looks retarded.

I have been busy, learning a lot, but not producing anything that I’d dare take a picture of ;)  I ditched the bag making for a little while and picked up some home dec stuff…

Made a skirt to go around my cutting table, so you can’t see all the junk under it (complete with pleats), and some throw pillows (with piping!) for my sofa.  I told Richard that yesterday was All for ME day, so I made a buncha stuff for myself (for once!)

Anyway, you gotta learn somehow and since sewing is kind of a solitary thing, there’s no better teacher than myself.  I have to learn how to do it before I teach myself, though.  It’s all a vicious circle but loads of fun for a masochist list myself!

I made these bags last week but had to wait to upload photos until my friend Shara received it in the mail.  There’s something about the surprise and making people wait for it that I thoroughly enjoy.  Does that make me a bad person?

Anyway, here’s the story.  Shara asked for a bag that could go over her chest when she’s riding her bike.  My specification list was short, she just wanted it big enough to fit a magazine, the strap long enough to go across her body, and she’s really not into flowers.  I almost got fabric with roses because although she says she’s not into flowery material, she has several rose tattoos!

But first, I needed to make up a prototype.  This ain’t my first rodeo, I know that nothing turns out right the first time.  Well, lets say that I’m still a novice, I know that constructing bags without a pattern doesn’t come out right for me until after a few re-dos.  I’m ok with that, it’s all part of the process.

I decided to make my bag a bit smaller, since I don’t have use for a huge messenger bag.  Also, my strap is shorter.. but overall, it’s the same bag.

I’ll get to the ‘things I learned while making this bag’ section momentarily, but I do have to admit here that I LOVE the material on this one but never again will I use white for a bag.  I’m currently using it as my everyday purse, and although I scotchgarded it heavily..  it’s still picking up marks here and there.

On to Shara’s bag.  I remembered seeing this geisha material at my neighborhood quilting store and made a trip just to get it.  I needed an excuse for it, and this was perfect.  The pattern on it was big, and really to use something with a big pattern like this, you need a big bag.

I “fussy cut” (made sure the geishas were centered) both sides of this bag and that means wasting a little material, but it was worth it.  I didn’t want to have any lopped off geisha heads or anything ;)  I think I ended up making this one a little bigger than she wanted, but I couldn’t make myself cut off any of the ladies or their parasols!  Shara received the bag on Thursday and said she loved it.  I hope so, because it was difficult for me to part with this one!

Things I learned from this process:

• I get very frustrated when I’m trying to figure out a bag without using a store-bought pattern.  I find myself saying ‘I’m never doing this again!’ but then when I do it again, I have a ball.  I need to remember that the first one is always difficult, the ones following are always fun.

• I thought making the liner smaller than the exterior would save me a headache later but it totally created a headache instead.  The diameter around the top of both the lining and the exterior fabric MUST be the same.  I should have known this, and I’ll never make that mistake again.  On the prototype bag, I ended up shortening the exterior width four times, which meant taking off the handles, shortening at the seams, putting the handles back on.. seeing that it still didn’t fit, repeat, repeat, repeat.    So I’m noting it here: lining can be shorter, but must be the same width.

• I only used 1/2 a yard of material for the exterior of the big bag!  I’ve always bought a yard of material for new projects because I worry about my ability to get it right the first time.  Even with the fussy-cutting, I still have some pretty big scraps left.  This cuts the fabric cost down dramatically.

• This bag really should have a zippered-closure but I haven’t figured that out yet.  Mostly, I need heavier-duty zippers because although I have some that will work length-wise, they’re a little flimsy to be using as the main closure method on a bag.

That same day, I made Taleen’s Birdie Sling, which I can’t post about yet because I’ll be bringing it to her when I go to Denver at Christmas.  It was  a long sewing day and I was in hog heaven!

So the story goes something like this.. I made the Amy Butler Birdie Sling for my sister Jameela, and then my sister Elizabeth got upset (in a non-upset sisterly kinda way) that I hadn’t made her a bag yet.  The issue here is that Jameela saw the purse she wanted and I bought the pattern and made it.  I have NO IDEA what kind or size Elizabeth would want.  I improvised.

I took the Birdie Sling pattern and scaled it down dramatically.  Seriously, this bag is likely 1/4th the size of the original pattern.  I loved it so much that I asked Tia what I should do.. keep it or give it to Elizabeth?  I showed her a picture and she said SHE wanted it.  Oh goodness.  I stomped back upstairs and made 2 more, using the same pattern.  One for me, one for Tia.  The one for Tia looks -exactly- like the one I made for Elizabeth.  I used a different fabric on mine — I was sick of looking at that same fabric and I didn’t want to be twinkies with either of them.

This is my blog so I don’t need to make a long story short — I’m keeping it long!  Elizabeth got here and claimed to love the one I made for her but wanted to learn how to make one for herself.  She also LOVED the material I used for Jameela’s bag… so we trucked on over to HoneyBee Quilt Store on Black Friday and bought up some more material.  I’m glad she appreciated the quilt store fabrics as much as I did.  We literally sewed for 2 days straight, taking breaks to eat and buy more supplies.  It was fun, but I was left with a HUGE mess in my sewing room.

Oh I need to make a note here about the quilt store.  They have those frequent buyer punch card thingies, and after something like 15 punches (I think you get a punch for every yard of full-priced fabric you purchase) you get $25 in store credit.  I had about 1/2 of my card punched, then adding what I bought, plus what my sister bought, I was only a few punches away from filling the card.  This nice lady who was also shopping there, from out of town, asked the sales clerk if she could put her punches on my card since she lives out of town.  They agreed and she bought nearly $200 worth of material!  This filled up my current punch card and half of another.  I wanted to kiss the stranger but I think just chatting with her about quilting was enough to make her day

We also purchased another Amy Butler pattern, her Madison bags.  We both started one but I haven’t finished mine.  She took her supplies back to Houston, so I’m not sure if she’s finished it either.  Overall, it was nice to have someone to sew with, but at the same time.. it’s nice to know where everything is.  When someone else is using the scissors, seam rippers, etc.. they get lost in the mess!

Right now I have so many works in progress: Nico’s quilt, my Civil War Crossings quilt, and the Madison bag.  Of course, I’m supposed to make another Birdie Sling for my brother-in-law’s cousin, by Christmas.. and I promised a purse to my mother-in-law as well.  Oh yeah, I forgot about Shara’s shoulder bag.. ahhh!!!  I guess it’s good that all of our TV shows are ending for the season, I have a lot of work to do!

Color-coded stash!

My sister came in town this week for Thanksgiving and brought me a garbage bag full of ’scrap’ material.  I thought they’d be little shreds, but they were all pretty large pieces! I’d say most of them were at least a fat quarter, some bigger.  I spent the day organizing them, along with my own stash to make a nice, color-coded stash shelf.

I was ridiculously giddy after this task.  It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for so long, but I have so many works in progress that when I have time to sew, I want to sew.. not organize.

So much sewing was done over the Thanksgiving holiday that I was a little burnt out, so I cleaned the sewing room and organized everything.

With the help of my mother and sister, I’ve almost completed the baby quilt for my nephew.  It was ambitious - even though it’s only 36×36, the pieces are tiny and I probably bit off more than I can chew.  Oh well, the top is finished and it’s ready to be quilted.  Alright, that’s a lie.. I started quilting it and decided my free-motion wasn’t looking good so I spent about 2 hours last night picking out the stitches.  I think I’ll practice more and try it again soon.

I also have 45 pinwheels that I need to piece together for my Civil War Crossings quilt.  I love that material, but I’m stressing over how to arrange the triangles.  Do I really want pinwheels?  Do I want to make it Flock of Triangles?  I’ve got the triangles ready but I have to figure out the layout, which is the most stressful for me.