Covered in Threadmalaka’s adventure in sewing

I’m excited about opening my etsy store, but I’m holding off until I can ramp up my inventory.  I just feel like so many people are waiting for the store to open that I need to have a good selection before I officially open.    Unfortunately, life has been full the last few weeks, so I’ve only been able to get 5 bags made.

This weekend I should have lots of time for sewing, and I’m excited.  I’ve got some sketches of bag designs that I’d like to try to make.  When I work without a pattern, I end up taking way too long and getting pretty frustrated… I hope I don’t burn myself out.

My friend & photographer Robin (http://www.robinganslephotography.com) has given me some pointers on taking pictures of my bags, but I haven’t had a chance to implement any of her suggestions yet.  I need to though, because my picture taking sucks.

2 Birdie Slings, I love these bags - they are so beautiful in real life but I cannot capture it with my camera, frustrating!

2 large shoulder bags, same material.. I was experimenting here, I wanted to see how easy it would be to make 2 identical bags at the same time.  Turns out, it’s not fun.  I felt like I was repeating everything 8 times (I was, 4 for each bag - 2 interior, 2 exterior)…  I made the bags slightly different, but they used the same pattern.  I haven’t put handles on them yet because I’m thinking I want to make them long, or adjustable straps — but I need to get the appropriate hardware for adjustable straps.

The bag in front isn’t my favorite, but I was overjoyed yesterday when I finished it.  I’ve never put a flap on a bag before, so this opens up a lot of possibilities.  I mostly did it because I don’t like this pukey color brown I used (but it matched the bursts in the blue) so I figured I’d use this bag as an experiment.  It worked, I learned a few things about adding flaps to bags.

Maybe it needs a little applique on the flap, hah.  It definitely needs something, I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m making a flap.  I have two requests for this style bag… well two requests for a short messenger bag with a flap.   Now that I’ve taught myself how to do flaps, I’m ready to take on these other projects!

So much to do, so little time!

After nearly completing 6 bags, I felt the need to break from being a bag lady and get back to being a quilter.  Applique, how many times have I thought about doing it? A million - I’ve read and researched and looked at pictures online for months.  I even gave it a short-lived try once, I quit before I even had the pattern cut out.

The issue, that I recognized, was that I started with an applique pattern that was way out of my league.  Let me dig it up.. oh yes, here it is:

I know, I know.. it looks easy!  I purposely picked an easy pattern.  The problem? Those red petals and green stems are TINY.  Tiny = difficult in the world of applique.  I gave up, very frustrated and didn’t think about it again until a few weeks ago.

My instructor at The Stitching Studio said that Freezer Paper Applique was the best technique, so that’s what I’ve been “studying” since day one.  It requires tracing the pattern onto freezer paper, then ironing it to the fabric (the waxy substance adheres to fabric but can be removed and re-fused without problems), then cutting it out, with a turn-under seam allowance.  If your pattern isn’t symetrical, you have to keep that in mind when you’re transferring back and forth.

I finally found a pattern that looked nice and big and easy, and figured I could do something cute.  I could obviously have started with a square or circle, star or heart.. but that’s boring.

I used a charm pack that I had laying around (5″ squares for quilting) called “farmer’s market” - there were tons of cute prints and I figured they made good flower petals.  This thing is huge, it’s a 12″ block finished.  I had the choice of 8 or 10 petals, I chose 8 because I was worried about the frustration factor ;)  I’m glad I picked this pattern, by the 8th petal I was able to get the point just right and the curves look like curves.

Then came the applique part - attaching it to the background.  I did some research, and as usual, there were several different machine stitches to use.. all of them had their pros and cons.  I chose zig-zag stitching because I love it - it’s forgiving.   It turned out to be not that forgiving when you’re using cream colored thread on a dark brown background.  I debated using bright pink or dark brown and every color thread in between.  If I’ve learned anything in this adventure, I’ve learned that less is more - so I used white!

I like the way it turned out, I might play around with some other applique stitches next time, just because I’m not 100% thrilled the way the zigzag stitch looks.

The next task was to cut a hole in the background fabric and pull out the freezer paper that is fused to the fabric.  Yeah, right.  I cut the hole (it was difficult, everything in my being said DONT CUT THE FABRIC) but the damn freezer paper will not budge.  I can’t even get a hold of it.  I’m not sure how on earth I’m supposed to accomplish this task, but the good news is that I don’t have to - I can leave it in there.  If this was a real quilt, I probably wouldn’t want the crunch crunch sound of the paper, but it’s practice so I won’t stress over it.

This just opens up SO MANY possiblities! Applique’d pillows! Applique’d bags! Quilts, quilts quilts!

I had planned on making my Mother-in-Law a purse for her birthday, which is today - Jan 2.  What I didn’t realize was that from Christmas until today my schedule was jam packed!  I actually wanted to make her a new pattern, but because that takes so much extra time, I made her the Butterick 5109 Large Bags - B style which I’ve already made twice before.

I carried this bag, so I knew what I did and didn’t like about it.  I knew it needed a few more modifications.  The second time I made it, I added more interfacing which gave it a more solid form, which I loved.  I didn’t love that it was so hard to sew in the gussets because of the heavyweight firm interfacing.  This time, I used 2 layers of lightweight interfacing on the exterior and a medium-weight on the interior.  It has the perfect amount of firmness and was easy to sew!

Because of the ‘facing’ on the interior (the top of the interior), the pockets are too low inside the bag.  This is fine for almost everything, but I wanted my cell phone pocket to me more accessible. I winged it and added a little bitty pocket on the facing interior.  I think next time I do this, I’ll make it a little bigger because it fits my phone perfectly but I’d bet there are some out there that won’t fit in it.

The gussets seemed too small.  I wanted the bag to big a bit wider at the bottom, thus I modified that pattern piece to be almost twice as wide as the original.  I also have this issue where I’m constantly scared that my bag is going to get dirty because it’s fabric.  To solve that, I used a solid cotton/poly blend on the gusset/botton.  It looks awesome! Hard to take a picture of, but it adds a bit of interest while serving the right purpose.

I admit, I did start to use red on the interior of this bag.. again! I changed it up to blue because my MIL seems to love blue and I’ve done the b&w + red so many times I’m sick of looking at it.  People seemed to respond well to my other b&w + blue Hobo Bag so I did it again.

I’m really loving this cotton/polyester blend lining material (black) that I’m using.  It seems so professional, but it’s so much cheaper than a 100% cotton.  I tried cheap 100% cotton and every piece of thread, lint, and hair stuck to it which made my bags look so ratty.  Nothing sticks to the cotton/poly blend, and it’s so smooth.  I AM having trouble sewing with it when it’s layered up (like for the handle) but I think that’s just not knowing what tools to use.  I emailed my sewing instructor about it, lets hope she has some good ideas and doesn’t just tell me that my machine sucks

Anyway, I LOVE this bag.  It’s my new favorite.  Do I say that every time?  Perhaps.  I figured I have to love them or else they’re no fun to make.

I bought a ton of material the other day, I think it’s time to start making inventory for my etsy store.  Well, my non-existant etsy store at the moment, but it’s coming.. I think.