Busy week and weekend
Oh boy did I do a lot of sewing and knitting this past week and weekend. I had 5 days off and I used them wisely to help me with holiday gifts, some, um personal gifts as well, and to relax. I started out working on a child's sweater in blue. Wow, I couldn't believe how fast kid's clothes knit up. Really cool and I'm loving the sweater, but I'm not going to show that since it is a gift.
After knitting for two days, on Friday I switched over to sewing and sewed myself a purse, but before doing that I had some difficulties with my every-loving and helpful black cat, Snowball. Hey, my husband named her, not me! My husband just laughs at us and tells us to behave and quit fighting. He tells us this a lot since she is always in my face when I am doing something interesting. I always tell him that she started it!
To start with, we had a disagreement about what an ironing board is for and who can use said ironing board! She decided it was the greatest place to observe all happenings in our sewing/computer room. I decided she didn't need to be on an item I needed to use. Who won? Well, take a look.
After a while she decided that maybe the ironing board wasn't the place for her, especially since the iron kept hissing at her. I had it set for steam. At one point, she hissed back. I'm just glad she didn't try to mark the iron. Well, after leaving the ironing board, she decided to plop herself down in another area and settled in for a good snooze (left image). The fabric she is laying on is the extra fabric from the purse I made (right image). It's a Karen West pattern, called "Split Purse-onality". It's a great purse and reversible too! I love the batik fabric I used, purchased from Thimble Pleasures.
Well, that was my Friday after Thanksgiving. No shopping on Friday, no plans to shop the entire weekend, but then plans change. Friday night I also cut some fabric for a couple of bags and found out after washing the fabric I was short some inches, so on Saturday I went out to the dreaded, possibly crowded stores. Amazingly enough, it wasn't so bad. Got some great deals on some fabric too.
On to project two, a bag for a friend. But I can't say for who. But of course, you know who couldn't stay out of my way and here she is snoozing while I work on straps for the bag, that is in pieces underneath her sleeping head. She wasn't happy when I pulled the pieces out from under her, let me tell you.
Sigh, but I messed up royally on this bag. I made a rookie mistake. I forgot to check my size of the mesh before sewing. Here's the front of the bag (left) and the side of the bag (right). Can you see where I made a royal mess? The side seams are off by about 1/2 inch or so. It's really easy to see at the bottom of the bag. But, the bag's staying as is and the giftee will still appreciate it. It's not for Robin, but she knows the person. The bag is called "The Beach Tote" and is by Robin Quilts, Etc. I don't have a link that is working for this company though. The pattern was purchased from the Bunney Hutch in CA.
I learned one other important factor when using mesh, other than to check that the size of my mesh screen matches for both front and back pieces before sewing. I learned that a walking foot is my friend when sewing fabric to mesh. However, I didn't learn this until I talked with my mom after making this bag. So, there is some puckering in the fabric due to the fabric not feeding evenly in my machine. I did use my walking foot on the next project with mesh and it worked great.
And finally we have Sunday's work, some zippered pouches using Nancy Ota's pattern "ZipIt Screen Play II". I love these pouches. I made up the pattern on the one in the corner with the kitty and the yarn ball. I had a blast making these and yes most are gifts, with a few for me as well. I'm always in need of pouches for scissors and other odds and ends for knitting and spinning.
I'm not quite done sewing up gifts and knitting gifts. I'm still working on some things, but I'm having a blast learning new things.
That's it for this week's post. Hope to have another this coming weekend. Have a great fibery week, whatever you do!
After knitting for two days, on Friday I switched over to sewing and sewed myself a purse, but before doing that I had some difficulties with my every-loving and helpful black cat, Snowball. Hey, my husband named her, not me! My husband just laughs at us and tells us to behave and quit fighting. He tells us this a lot since she is always in my face when I am doing something interesting. I always tell him that she started it!
To start with, we had a disagreement about what an ironing board is for and who can use said ironing board! She decided it was the greatest place to observe all happenings in our sewing/computer room. I decided she didn't need to be on an item I needed to use. Who won? Well, take a look.
After a while she decided that maybe the ironing board wasn't the place for her, especially since the iron kept hissing at her. I had it set for steam. At one point, she hissed back. I'm just glad she didn't try to mark the iron. Well, after leaving the ironing board, she decided to plop herself down in another area and settled in for a good snooze (left image). The fabric she is laying on is the extra fabric from the purse I made (right image). It's a Karen West pattern, called "Split Purse-onality". It's a great purse and reversible too! I love the batik fabric I used, purchased from Thimble Pleasures.
 |  |
Well, that was my Friday after Thanksgiving. No shopping on Friday, no plans to shop the entire weekend, but then plans change. Friday night I also cut some fabric for a couple of bags and found out after washing the fabric I was short some inches, so on Saturday I went out to the dreaded, possibly crowded stores. Amazingly enough, it wasn't so bad. Got some great deals on some fabric too.
On to project two, a bag for a friend. But I can't say for who. But of course, you know who couldn't stay out of my way and here she is snoozing while I work on straps for the bag, that is in pieces underneath her sleeping head. She wasn't happy when I pulled the pieces out from under her, let me tell you.
Sigh, but I messed up royally on this bag. I made a rookie mistake. I forgot to check my size of the mesh before sewing. Here's the front of the bag (left) and the side of the bag (right). Can you see where I made a royal mess? The side seams are off by about 1/2 inch or so. It's really easy to see at the bottom of the bag. But, the bag's staying as is and the giftee will still appreciate it. It's not for Robin, but she knows the person. The bag is called "The Beach Tote" and is by Robin Quilts, Etc. I don't have a link that is working for this company though. The pattern was purchased from the Bunney Hutch in CA.
 |  |
I learned one other important factor when using mesh, other than to check that the size of my mesh screen matches for both front and back pieces before sewing. I learned that a walking foot is my friend when sewing fabric to mesh. However, I didn't learn this until I talked with my mom after making this bag. So, there is some puckering in the fabric due to the fabric not feeding evenly in my machine. I did use my walking foot on the next project with mesh and it worked great.
And finally we have Sunday's work, some zippered pouches using Nancy Ota's pattern "ZipIt Screen Play II". I love these pouches. I made up the pattern on the one in the corner with the kitty and the yarn ball. I had a blast making these and yes most are gifts, with a few for me as well. I'm always in need of pouches for scissors and other odds and ends for knitting and spinning.
I'm not quite done sewing up gifts and knitting gifts. I'm still working on some things, but I'm having a blast learning new things.
That's it for this week's post. Hope to have another this coming weekend. Have a great fibery week, whatever you do!
-- posted by Annette @ 11:36 PM
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