Tag Archives: bag-sewing

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.