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.