To sew

So, it's been a while, I know. I suppose I'm posting about once a month now - not quite enough to be able to rope in the readers. =]

I've been in a transitional period (is all life now transitional periods?) and I'm finally starting what will most likely be my new schedule for a few months, at the least. I haven't been crafting as much. I haven't sewn anything of note since I finished my new blue purse and my evangeline apron. (Or was it Emiline? Either way...) The Big Blue Purse is a tricky purse; some of the details are very 'professional', and I love how I was able to do some of the things (like the external pocket), but, because of the problems with how I sewed in the lining, the bag is not useable on an every day basis yet: the lining currently makes it difficult to fully zip the bag. Also somewhat problematic is that the ends of the straps weren't properly turned under before they were sewn. They've started to fray, which makes the bag look sloppier. The lining issues are my top priority now, but I think once I get that all settled, I might take off the straps and try and rework them. Luckily, because of the metal rings that the straps are attached to, that's not as difficult as it could be.

So, my goals for the big blue purse:
1. remove lining
2. re-add lining, preferably by hand sewing. Sew the following lines: sew lining to zipper end, sew the line between the top and sides of the bag, sew four bullets from the lining to the bottom of the bag, to help keep lining in place.
3. remove straps.
4. Fix straps.
*re-sew the end of the straps - if fabric needs to be cut to make this practical, do that. If interfacing needs to be removed, do that.
* sew an additional line below the metal ring on the fabric connecting the ring to the bag; that loop does not need to be as 'loopy' as it is now, and an additional line of stitching could help hide the interfacing that's peaking out.

Also in the to-sew pile, of course, is the rest of my Weekender bag. I've become a bit disenchanted with that pattern now that I'm at the step where I'm sewing approximately eleventy thousand layers of interfacing together. Once I get past that, I'm sure I'll like the bag again. It *is* a nice finished product, it's just somewhat shittily designed.

I want to sew myself a version of the clutch from In Stitches. Technically, I have a little black clutch already - which I need to remember to use when appropriate, like, say, last night. It'll really save shoulder pain! I'd like something a little more 'funky,' but my color preferences make that difficult. I could do something in a fun black and white damask print; that'd be au courant as well as matching with stuff. I could probably also do a brown and white print, or maybe something from the current Joel Dewberry collection, he has some nice patterns. I'm so picky with patterns, though! Since I'm not naturally a pattern person, I have a tough time justifying adding a patterned accessory to my collection - it needs to be a perfect fit with at least one thing I own, and a pretty good fit with at least a few others. I figure something brown based would be nice, because it could match my new sandals if nothing else. Oh I love my new sandals! They make me feel far more "grown up" than I think I actually am.

I suppose that's all the writing for now. I need to go get ready for my callbacks. Yay directing again!

The front of a weekend

Hello!
Since we last met our hero, she has been crafting up a storm!
We'll start with my weekender-in-progress:

There's a picture of the front and back 'main panels'. As you can see, I attempted to match up the pattern on the pocket and, for my first time, I think I did pretty well!
Here's a closer photo:

So far, I'm very pleased with my bag. I think my first attempt at piping went well, as did my first attempt at using heavy duty interfacing for anything but the bottom of the bag. I'm happy to report that so far, I've had no needle breakages or other major sewing disasters. Sewing a consistent distance from the piping is difficult and my seams aren't perfect, but I'm okay with that. In the end, my goal is to make a pretty bag that I'll be able to use, and I think I'm well on my way toward doing that.

One modification I've made already: Instead of sewing the handles onto the bag just by horizontal stitching, I made two little "x"s between two horizontal lines on each handle. I think they are quite stable, so I'm hoping I won't have the handle-falling-off problem some bloggers have reported.


Also in the sewing world, I finally have pictures of the 'project bag' I made for project spectrum 08, fire.
The open bag:

A side view:

The filled bag:

I made that losely based on the Drago[knit]fly box bag tutorial, but I'm planning on writing up a tutorial of my own that will explain how you can start with the size of finished bag you want, and work your way backwards to figure out how to cut your fabric.
My bag was made from two fat quarters from JoAnn Fabrics, a 12" red zipper, and some flannel lining. The bag itself has two layers of flannel, and the handle has four, so the handle is more sturdy than the bag, but as you can see, the bag is capable of maintaining its shape while empty.

Tune in again to hear the story of what you see IN the bag, my new favorite sock knitting book, and the story of the fastest sock I've knit yet!

Just checking in...

Sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. I was hoping to get a nice post in once I got my knitpicks order, but sadly it has yet to arrive. I have to say, the tracking portion of their website is incredibly confusing: it suggests my package arrived already, when I know for a fact it did not!

Although I have yet to start my official project spectrum socks, I do have one knitting FO and one sewing FO to take pictures of and post about, but those will have to wait.

For now, I'm going to write about my most scary exciting sewing project ever: tackling Amy Butler's Weekend Travel Bag! I've admired this pattern ever since I saw it, and when I was in New York at the end of January, I bought the pattern from Purl. A few weeks ago I bought fabric (well, my first round...I'll explain THAT in a bit) from JoAnn's and I've just been waiting for some inspiration to start cutting. Last night I found the inspiration! I was looking through the Flickr group for UHandbag blog's Amy Butler patterns and I found some *beautiful* weekenders I'd like to share with you:



1. Weekender, 2. Weekender Bag, 3. Weekender Bag, 4. Melissa's Weekender Bag, 5. sew11, 6. Weekender Bag front view, 7. weekender1, 8. Amy Butler Weekender Bag, 9. Amy Butler Weekender Bag, 10. amy butler weekender bag, 11. DSC_0302a, 12. Amy Butler Weekender bag.

Simply beautiful!
So, last night I started cutting my fabric. I decided I was going to approach this project slowly so I wouldn't get too frustrated or intimidated by it, so my goal for last night was just to cut out the exterior fabric. All went well, and I even managed to (somewhat) match up the patterns for my front pockets! I tried matching the side pockets, but that didn't go quite as well. Oh well!

This morning I started cutting out the lining fabric. The way the pattern is written, you're supposed to be able to cut out both the handles and the main panels on the same side of the fabric. (If you have the pattern you'll know what I mean.) Like the instructions said, I started by cutting out the handles, but once it came time to cut out the main panel, there simply wasn't enough fabric left. I'm usually overly conservative when cutting fabric, but this just turned into more and more of a disaster. I've cut out all the pattern pieces for the actual lining, but I need to go out and buy more fabric for the piping. I'm sure this is my fault, but I'm not pleased.

The other thing I'm frustrated about has nothing to do with the pattern exactly, but has to do with the help at my local JoAnn's. (Yes, I know large chain stores aren't as nice as smaller local stores, and if I *knew* of any small local stores I'd be there in a heartbeat, but we work with what we've got!) I'd brought the pattern with me when I was buying all the fabric in hopes of getting some help with the Timtex and the interfacing. The woman at the cutting counter very nicely helped me select something for each of them, but somehow I didn't notice until today what she gave me for the interfacing was actually tear away stabilizer. Argh! Maybe I am a little bit frustrated at the pattern for this...so far as I can tell, Timtex is out of business. The replacement is, inevitably, Pellon, however I haven't found information *anywhere* about how to know *which* Pellon I want to replace Timtex, or what I should buy when a pattern just says "heavy weight sew in interfacing." That's my rant number two.

My rant number three is completely the pattern's fault. In the materials list it telsl you you need 1 sheet of Dritz 12"x18 heavy duty template plastic, which I happily found and purchased. However, once you cut the plastic, you are supposed to be able to cut *two* pieces of 7"x16.5". I realize I wasn't a math major, but I'm pretty good at basic arithmetic, and there's no way you can cut two pieces that size out of the sheet of plastic I bought. 7+7 is not <= 12! I'm going to make do by just using one piece of plastic for the bottom, but I'm a little frustrated about that problem with the pattern. Though my other issues with the pattern are at least partly my fault, that one is not. (And yes, I did read through the entire pattern before purchasing materials, but I hadn't caught that because when the pattern said "cut two pieces of this size from that plastic" I trusted I could do it. So much for trust!)

Well, enough writing about the problems - I'm going to go to the fabric store and get all the extra stuff I need. I hope they have the fabric I want in stock still! I'll try and have some photos of my own stuff in the next post. Later!