Tag Archives: bag-sewing

May18

One ball of yarn forward…

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…one ball back!

Here’s the Any Yarn Will Do Sweater after I split the yoke for the body and sleeves. A couple of people commented on my last pic of the circular yoke laid flat, wondering how it would end up as a sweater. Well, when it’s folded and you start working on only some of the stitches, it becomes a three dimensional shape.

Unfortunately, after taking that photo, I tried it on (a bonus of top down construction) and realised it was going to be far too big. I frogged all of the blue so that the last increase round was removed, added a few plain rounds, and tonight split the yoke again. It may still be loose on me but hopefully not ginormous. Because my stitch count doesn’t quite match the medium size count, I fudged the numbers by giving the front 6 more stitches than the back. Makes sense when you have boobs, anyway!!

Onward and…er…downward!

It’s been really smoky in the valley for two days now, with forest fire smoke wafting in from other parts of BC and Alberta.

The surrounding mountains weren’t visible and the sun was orange (my phone doesn’t quite manage to catch the orangeness).

Today I felt quite chesty due to the poor air quality. After my grocery errand, I spent the afternoon downstairs, faffing about with bits of vinyl and fabric.

The blue vinyl was a remnant that had a stitched join across it in a wavy line so I cut what I could to make a zipper pouch. And then I messed about with an even smaller bit and made a tiny pouch with an attached clasp.

And here comes the thunder. It just crashed outside and I’m going to go look for lightning.

Pause for relocation to deck to enjoy the storm.

Thunderstorms are a mixed blessing. We usually get hundreds of lightning strikes which can set off new fires in vulnerable areas. And if it gets windy it can fan the flames. But we need the rain to damp things down. Nothing like the smell of petrichor.

This was my other FO today. A pattern I already had. A remnant in the stash. And boom! A new tank top. Super easy and cute.

Take care, people!

Apr17

Itching to sew…

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With my crocheted Elevation Cardigan off the hook (photo above, it took 4 months to get finished) my knitted Sporto hooded sweater still on the needles (but at the point where I should decide what to do on the colourwork section) I just wanna sew!

Two evenings ago, I got home from work and after dinner ended up falling asleep on the couch before 9pm. Not really wanting to do the same thing last night, I went down to my sewing room and continued to work on a zipper pouch idea based on one I saw in a YouTube video. It has pockets inside, across both sides, to hold crochet hooks and interchangeable needle tips. I’m making mine with a zipper pocket on the outside too which can hold cables etc.

It’s nearly done and I’ll show it off next time.

This is a small drawstring bag that I made from more scrappy fabric. It’s nice to use scraps that would otherwise have gone in the trash. (You can probably see a bit of Olaf the snowman from Frozen in there).

And this is a “thing” that I made which is similar to a commercial case for an interchangeable needle set. The pockets were a bit loose so I added the nonslip vinyl but I don’t know if it was a good idea.

I really feel like booking a week off work and creating a sewing retreat…at home!

Apr6

The bag lady strikes again!

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The bag lady strikes again!

This week, a friend celebrated her birthday, so our gift to her was a sewing day at my house where we all made the same kind of bag and helped each other to finish them.

There were five of us with varying skill levels. I have made a crapton of bags but obviously some of my zipper skills are rusty. We had a lot of fun, despite the frequent cursing when someone was struggling with a technique, or ripping out a seam, or forgetting to open the darned zipper before sewing around the bag and turning it out <ahem>.

I started out with two of the make-up bags. We used a video tutorial by sewingtimes on YouTube. The chick one is small and the daffodil one larger.

Then, as I had time, I made a simpler pouch from a piece of fabric that I’d built from scraps ages ago. And then a keyfob/wristlet thingy which has a gorgeous rainbowy metal attachment. One of my friends had a whole bag of these plus the special pliers for attaching them. These wristlets only take about 5 minutes to make!

In between all the sewing and chat, we had lunch for which I’d cooked a vegan “seefood” chowder (with shiitake and oyster mushrooms, roasted potatoes, corn etc from Lauren Toyota’s book Vegan Comfort Classics) and a chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream icing and fresh raspberries.

Rather than put all my stuff back in my sewing room, I decided to leave it in the dining room overnight to encourage me to do more sewing. It’s so cold in the basement when the weather starts to warm up. The furnace doesn’t fire as often.

So I used another scrappy piece of fabric to make another zipper pouch and lined it with this candy corn print as there is a small piece of it on the outside of the bag.

And this evening I finished a project that’s been hibernating for a really long time. My oldest son bought canvas and thread to make himself a tool roll for wrenches. He started planning it out but put it aside and it sat around my sewing room for at least a year.

As it’s his birthday tomorrow, I decided I was going to finish the thing and when I pulled it out I found that half the sewing was actually already done.

I can’t remember whether I did it or he did it. But I carried on adding pockets for the tools and hemming the top edge and adding webbing and now it’s finished and he can actually use it.

It even has a little square of vinyl with his initials on it.

So many people are looking forward to time off this weekend but unfortunately that isn’t me! I’m working Friday, Saturday and Monday. The only reason I have Sunday off is that the store is closed. Working sure cuts into my crafting time!!

Feb3

Two FOs and a WIP

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Hello! I hope everything is well in your world.

I’m very pleased that this beanie is finished. The moose and trees look a bit lumpy – not my best colourwork ever – but I like the way the text and snowflakes showed up.

You may recall that this was a free pattern on Ravelry. And the name of it is obvious: it’s called Fuck the Cold hat. I knitted it with 3.75mm needles using Lion Brand Mandala for the background and Stylecraft Special DK for the contrast.

If I made this exact hat again, I would use 4mm needles. And I’d start the Mandala yarn at a different place in the cake so it didn’t jump from turquoise ribbing to the dark shades and back to turquoise at the top. I used the colours as they came, but I did trim some yardage in places so that I’d see as many of the colour changes as possible.

The granny throw is still growing and it’s my favourite project for these winter evenings. It’s about 56″ square now. I still have quite a lot of grey and black yarn left, and a basket of colours, but my choices are getting more limited. I know this is a stashbuster but I may need to supplement with a few new skeins!

Finally, a sewing FO. This took a couple of hours this afternoon. One of the ladies at work has an 80th birthday coming up so I made her a bag. This fabric is heavier than the usual quilt cotton and I liked it so much I bought a metre to add to the stash. Now I’m getting to use it along with a piece of vinyl that was damaged at one end.

I thought she’d use a tote rather than a zippered pouch or drawstring bag, and I added a magnetic clasp and a D ring on the inside. Next I think it would be nice to get some chocolates to put in it.

Tonight I’ve had my bean burrito and salad and now I’m cosied up for some crochet time. Heaven!

Jan30

Spring-y scrappy bag

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This was an intense amount of sewing. Whilst pulling out fabrics for my little gnome quilt I found the leftovers from the quilt I made last year with the zippers for tree trunks and the flying leaves and butterflies. There were some pieces of patchwork already sewn together and some long strips.

I spent a little time before a late shift building up fabric from all the pieces and then continued the next day until I had a large rectangle-ish shape.

I had a big enough chunk of the leafy fabric to make the lining without piecing.

I quilted the patchwork to some cotton batting with simple diagonal lines and trimmed everything to the same size.

I wasn’t sure when I started what sort of bag this was going to become but I ended up adding casings for a drawstring and a handle (set in diagonally as I’ve seen in some other bags).

It’s huge. It could hold a lot of yarn. A sweater project at least. And I love how cheerful it is.

Jun22

A bit of everything

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A bit of everything

There’s been knitting…

Since I took that photo, it’s grown quite a bit. This is Age of Brass and Steam which is a free pattern that I found via Ravelry. It’s very popular with thousands of projects linked. The yarn is Cascade Ultra Pima Paints, a lovely tonal cotton.

There’s been crocheting…

I won’t say too much about this because it’s a test for someone. But it came out CUTE!

And there’s been sewing…

A vinyl zipper pouch based on a Crafty Gemini tutorial (YouTube) called a pinch pouch.

And an actual garment which gave me grief and I had to redo the neck binding but I think it’s wearable now!

Gawd, it’s 34 degrees today with a forecast high for the weekend of 38. What the heck?!?!?!

We don’t have AC so the only way to be sitting here and not dripping is to have the big floor fan going. Downstairs, where my sewing room is, is somewhat cooler. I can see the big maple tree in my front yard blowing about in the wind and I can imagine it’d be like standing on front of a giant hairdryer right now.

And now I have to make dinner so the fan is getting moved to the kitchen!

Jun11

FO: another project bag

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There was a free oddment of vinyl lying around in the staff room yesterday so I brought it home. It was only 7″ wide so I cut it up for a bag base.

The quilting cotton has been in the stash for ages and is one of my favourite fabrics. I have already made a few things with it.

I used a Microtex needle and a slightly longer stitch and it just glided through the vinyl like a dream, even when I sewed through 8 layers for the D ring tab.

Fantastic!

Day 1 of a three day weekend. I need to wash a couple of pieces of fabric so that I can sew two tops, so the bag was a slight diversion! Hoping to get started on a garment tomorrow.

Apr28

Dodgy bag MAL 2021

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Dodgy bag MAL 2021

As I was sewing my Flower Power bag, which I told you about in my last post, I was listening to Ali of the Little Drops of Wonderful podcast on YouTube.

How fortuitous that she announced the start of her annual Dodgy Bag Make-along during that podcast!

She has a group on Ravelry and there is a chatter thread for the MAL. I posted a photo of my bag in there, of course.

And today, I have another bag to add to the event. I followed her zippered project bag tutorial and made this…

I had this fabric in the stash, bought on a whim because it’s cute. Ditto the lining.

The base is denim and the handle is part of a zipper, the working part of which has previously been used in another project.

I love the name “Dodgy Bags”—so named because she is not accurate in her cutting and if a seam doesn’t get sewn properly the first time she doesn’t mind turning the bag through to redo it. (When I see her using a ruler, set square and scissors it makes me want to send her a rotary cutter, mat and gridded ruler on the mail!)

It’s very freeing to see that even if your cutting and stitching is a bit wonky and your bag isn’t perfect, it still comes out looking pretty good! It’s easy to get caught up in ideas of perfection rather than just having fun with it.

Of course I left it until late in the day to start mine. I’ll make another on the weekend, I think, when I’m less tired.