Carry Lunch In Style

I made a lunchbag! I followed this tutorial from Pink Penguin. This was a request but I'm really tempted to keep it for myself!
It looks huge in this picture but it's only about 12x12x6 and that 12 inches is with the handles included. It's not insulated, but it is lined with the same fabric as the brim. There's also a cover that pulls together as a drawstring. It's the first time I've done anything like that, so I didn't fiddle with the pattern but followed it exactly.

A terrible shot of the inside, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.
I was initially going to add the recipients initials but I decided to just go with a detachable flower instead. It's a kanzashi style flower based on this tutorial. It took me a lot longer than necessary because I kept missing the folded in bits when I stitched it together. But now that I have the hang of it I can see myself making them when I need a pretty embellishment. The flower is just tackled on for the photo. I need to find a pin of some kind for it.
Because I wouldn't be me if something didn't go wrong: I ran out of black thread and I have no orange, so I had to do all the stitching in white. The topstitching was a nerve-wracking job since mistakes were going to be incredibly obvious. I cut the outside in the wrong size, but was able to repurpose it for the cover which is an inch smaller. I forgot to change my needle position from my last project so the seams were 3/8 instead of 1/4 inch. And I already mentioned the flower issues.

But all in all, it was an evening well spent and I'm very pleased with myself!

And in case anyone is thinking of making this themselves, the tutorial is very easy to follow, except that her instructions on boxing corners aren't very clear.

While I Wait For Perfection

I'll make do with average.

I am currently working on a new bag*. A really nice green and black one with yoyos and trim. The key word there is working. The outside is done. I just have to make the lining and then assemble it. However I've come to realize that I have issues attaching outer shells to linings. Somehow that's where it all goes wrong.

So while I dither on that, I made this:


This is what happens when you take an old sweater that's too big and cut it up. I think it was supposed to be red, but now it's more of a really faded pink. Not something I want to carry anywhere I'm trying to impress someone, but perfectly fine for when I want to hit the drugstore.


The top of the bag (originally the bottom of the sweater) folds over and widens the bag out, but I probably will keep it unfolded. Since all that pink was boring I tacked on a flower. (Thanks Nima!)


The inside is this yellow/gold that I quite like. Sadly I didn't have much of it so there's only one pocket. This is a bit of an issue since I carry a lot of smallish junk and I like to put them in pockets and this pocket is too small to hold everything.


As a bonus, I finally learnt how to use the fancy stitches on my machine! Woohoo. I remember reading that it's better to stitch stretchy fabric with a zigzag stitch...


There's no closure, since I couldn't figure out what kind I wanted and was too interested in finishing to put it off. I initially hadn't planned on boxing the corners but once finished the bag really needed it, hence the outside. And yes, the flower and the triangles are attached with white thread. I really wanted to take it out today and couldn't find my red thread. That will be fixed eventually.

While I very cunningly remembered the zigzag stitch for stretchy fabric, I seriously underestimated how much the stuff I carry weighs. The result is that the strap stretched out to a ridiculous degree, hence the knot. There's no way I'm undoing anything, but if anyone has any creative suggestions to shorten the strap that'd be appreciated!

*Technically I think I have 4 bags on the go...

In the Nick of Time

I just managed to stitch the Mushroom bag. A very good thing since my brother flies out tomorrow morning.



The short drawstrings are as per his request. The inside is a barely patterned black. It actually doesn't close since the batting makes it too fat at the top.

A perfect indication about the eye of the beholder: When I gave it to him I gave him a heads up that the top was very wonky and that the opening was a bit of a tight fit and that the top was wonky. He couldn't care less and was too thrilled by fact that it held his DS and was custom made for him.

For Everything Else There's Mastercard

Black satin		$ 1.00
White satin ribbon		$ 0.70
Clear beads		$ 1.00
Flower embellishment		$ 0.20
Velco		$ 0.20
Something that fits my specifications		PRICELESS

*Cost estimates based on fraction of material used. eg. 1/5 of $ 3.5 dollar ribbon. Small errors may be visible upon close examination. Beadwork cannot be rigorously handled. Washing is not recommended. Shelflife depends on amount of use.
**Giftcard for demonstration purposes only, not included.

Failing to Accept Defeat

Let's begin by admiring my new lined pouch.


Isn't the green lovely? And that gorgeous crocheted flower that Nima sent me as part of her giveaway?
Look how successfully I've used the zipper foot for the first time ever!



Let's not notice how the "rectangular" pouch is actually more of a very strange quadrilateral. Let's dwell on the fact that it can hold my calculator and pens. And that I used photos which minimize the non-rectangular nature of the pouch.

Let us conclude by acknowledging that I can't sew using a machine and that it's a very very good thing I stitched my ladybug bag by hand.

Let us also acknowledge that this failure is not going to stop me from trying again.

Cute Ladybugs

I have piles of 1/2 yards of fabric. They're gorgeous and I adore them and I haven't been able to cut into them. It's quite quite pathetic. Last week I decided it was time to grab my scissors and get to work. I failed to cut into any of them. Instead I cut into one of my fat quarters. I stood holding my scissors and thought I can't do this. And then I thought "Oh for crying out loud! It cost me less than $2 dollars! So what if it goes wrong?" and I cut away.

I used Rae's Buttercup Bag freebie. I prefer my linings to be bright, so I went this cheerful yellow.

Since people will only see the outside I took extra care to make sure everything looks good outside (and slightly less care inside). The pockets are... well, not proper. I have realized that I can't stitch two pieces of square fabric, turn them inside out and get them flat. So I just used some iron on interface and stitched.

Instead of a magnetic snap I used an elastic hairtie and this cute ladybug button. The strap turned out a bit thin (mostly because my fat quarter wasn't 18"x22").


I took it out today and it fit a whole bunch of papers, my Ipod, wallet and keys with lots of room left over. About the size of my other small purse. If everything is in the middle of the purse then it gapes at the sides when closed, but as long as I make sure my junk is balanced it stays fine.


The whole thing was stitched by hand because I'm not all that great wrestling the sewing machine.

Tune in tomorrow for my attempt at using the sewing machine to make something.

And before you wonder at the frequent posts, I'm just making up for the camera-less time. Tomorrow will the last of the "catch up" posts and then it's back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I was a bit surprised by the number of folks who commented that "he" (my dragon) looked good. A bit sexist, I suppose, but I've always assumed that a dragon hoarding chocolate would be a girl! I think I know one guy who cares about chocolate, everyone else can take it or leave it. Unlike most of the girls, who are aficionados!

Bag it

"Spring" break has been rather unproductive in terms of visible stitching progress and vastly productive in terms of sleep and general laziness.

However I did manage to drag out my sewing machine and put together this:



I absolutely adore it! The outside is a home decor fabric, and the inside is a silky red. However it's a lot floppier than I expected! A lot floppier!



Here it's being propped up by about a dozen paperbacks


I probably should have added some black ribbon/strips to accent. And if you're eagle eyed there's a tiny part near the bottom that didn't meet that's been fixed by hand. And the black straps aren't exactly aligned.
But that's being very nitpicky and this bag looks and feels gorgeous! I can't wait to take it outside~

I didn't use any interfacing because the outside material was heavy and the lining so silky that it was a pain to get them aligned and I'd have never managed if there'd been interfacing.

As I said: it's floppy and the sides fall in. But if I actually push them in it looks good. You can see that a bit in the first picture.

Edit: Switched my comments format after someone mentioned that they were having problems. Drop me an email if there are still issues~

Success at last!

Actually, success was last week, but after dancing like a madman around my sofa I put it away carefully and forgot to take pictures.

What am I babbling about? Why this:



Ages ago (October to be precise) I mentioned that I was trying to make a patchwork bag which wasn't working out too well. Meari demanded pictures, I nodded my head, and ... didn't follow through (I'm sorry, but it's all done now~~~)

A short while ago, I whined about my Space Invaders having problems. A lot of people told me to buck up and take it like a man. (OK, no. They said that 3rd time's the charm and they were right!)

I went back to my patchwork and finished it~



The "S" in the middle is from Passione Ricamo's free Arabesque alphabet. It's on 18 count aida with two strands of black. The dimensions of the bag are 10.5" x 11/5" x 2.5"

It has a layer of heavy sew-in interfacing so it stands up by itself, even with the heavier-than-they-look handles. It has one pocket inside, which I placed a bit too low. I also cut the inside and the outside to the exact same dimensions, but when finished the lining is actually a tiny bit bigger, so it's a little loose on the inside. Next time I'm going to make the lining smaller, so that it fits properly. I forgot to take a picture of the inside, but it's the same fabric as the handle loops.The handles can be slid out of the loops so I can switch them onto another bag.

I haven't actually taken this out of the house. It's getting colder here, and I like to keep my gloved hands in my jacket pockets, so no handbags in winter. But when summer comes this will be going places!

Stage Two Failed...Try Again.

Today I dragged out my sewing machine and got everything together to assemble my Space Invaders bag. As I was cheerfully threading my needle I glanced at my cut fabric and came to a sad realization:

When you square the bottom of a bag, the width of the bag decreases as part of the width becomes the sides. I had not accounted for this decrease. Which means that my bag doesn't have sides. I thought about the logistics of using my strap as the side, and this seemed to be a good idea until I got my tape measure, did a bit of pretzel-like twisting and figured out that the resulting strap would be too short for my purposes.

Since I have no fabric left, it's off to Fabricland on Monday.

This is the second bag I've attempted and the second one with "issues". I think the universe is trying to tell me something...

Stage One complete

A total of 1 hour frogging, 7 for the border, 2 for the text and 1/3 for removing the waste canvas and I'm done!



You'll notice that some parts look puckered. They are. I'm trying to figure out how to flatten it. Possibly an iron and some interfacing?

Assembling the bag will either be tomorrow or Tuesday.

Thinking of using waste canvas? Learn from my experience:
1. Try finding an alternate way. Maybe stitch it on your linen/evenweave/Aida of choice and patchwork it?
2. Baste around the edges and then baste in a grid pattern. This will hold the waste canvas close to the fabric and reduce buckling/puckering.
3. Use a frame/hoop. Also to keep everything flat.
4. Use a very pointy needle.
5. Use tweezers to pull out the waste canvas. Might just have been the waste canvas I had, but when wet the canvas feels very gluey, utterly disgusting, and hurts your fingers when you pull it out. It has to be thread by thread because it's too tricky trying to pull multiples.
6. Try finding an alternate way.

Will I use waste canvas again? Probably. Do I like it? No.

Anybody have any waste canvas tips/experiences?

Cosmic Horror!!!!!

Moving on from the abuse of the exclamation mark!
(OK that's enough)

I started the "Space Invader Sampler" today. It's a
freebie from Sprite Stitch, a blog documenting video game based crafts.

The quote is from the epilogue of "The War of the Worlds" by H.G.Wells, and the little guys are from the old arcade game, which I have never actually played. But the geekiness and the quote were just irresistible.



The fabric is black twill, the waste canvas is 12 count, and the floss is B5200. The white on white makes taking a picture nigh(word of the day) impossible. The chart gives a better idea of what it is.

What follows is a skippable epic backstory:

I want an over-the-shoulder black bag with a flap, but no zips. I leave zips open, so why add one? Went to Fabricland last week to look for black canvas. Apparently canvas only comes in white and tan, and Fabricland carries only tan. So I asked the lady helping me if I could just buy a bottle of black dye and turn the tan into black. She very gently and firmly suggested that I change my idiotic idea and pushed me towards black twill. Stopped off at the LNS and picked up 12 count waste canvas.

Forward to last night when I spent about an hour figuring out the dimensions for my bag. I've already mentioned my inability to "get" the measurements right. On to today morning when I went to cut the fabric and realized that I had exactly enough to make the bag. And by exactly I mean the strap, the inside, the outside and possible a pocket. With nothing left!

So I happily cut my waste canvas, basted it, and started to stitch. Two aliens later I realized that twill has a right side and a wrong side. I was, of course, stitching on the wrong side... Frustrated sigh and then 15 minutes of frogging later I was ready to get started. Again.

Because I felt gung-ho, I decided that "sticking with masking tape" counted as basting and found the centre with the very scientific "that looks about the middle". I happily stitched until I reached the edge, and realized that I was running out of canvas...in fact the leftmost rightmost stitch is actually out in space. Not only was "about the middle" not the middle, I'd brilliantly managed to cut the waste canvas too narrow (it's .25" wider than the stitch count). At this point I was incapable of shock and accepted it with a calm Zen-like manner. I'm now halfway done and am aiming to finish by tomorrow.

Yet another project.

Well, technically I just went out and bought waste canvas and fabric to make my "Space Invader Sampler" bag. While at my LNS to pick up the waste canvas I picked this up:



A kind of farewell to TW who's moving to bigger and better things. (Than cross stitch! What sacrilege!) Anyway, my best wishes to her and my thanks for all her awesome patterns. I haven't stitched very many, but they are on my list.

And for Pumpkin, who wanted to know. Bluebell is on 32 count Waterlily Jobelan. I picked it so that she'd match Poppy (who looks awesome IRL but not so much in that photo...)

And remember last time I mentioned that I was getting a bit bored of Witches? I looked at everything else and went right back finishing it. I'll probably be done tonight tomorrow.

I have no willpower...

Just 10,000 ways that don't work...

I've always wanted to quilt/patchwork. Since my crafts are all self-taught, I've been trying to teach myself. Unfortunately I'm not good at spatial visualization, and can never get the seams right. I usually forget to add them or if I do I somehow miss them when I stitch. I have a few unfinished pieces(ie utter failures) lurking in a pile.

Today was going to be different. Today I was going to succeed!

I sort of did. I originally planned to make a bag about 14"x12". It appears that it will be about 10"x10" in reality. About an hour in I started making mistakes and so put it away. Still I haven't royally messed up (besides the unexpected resizing). I won't be able to work on it this weekend but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this bag will come out fine!