Monday, March 2, 2009

A few projects...

My latest sewing escapades:

1. Little Boxy Pouch
Tutorial here (a wonderful tutorial by the way, I highly recommend it)





I made a few mistakes while sewing this bag:
A. I chose a fabric that was completely wrong for this pattern. I should have realized that the bag (which didn't have a lining included) required a stiff fabric, but I instead chose a simple, thin cotton print. It ended up making a very unstable bag (note how it is squashed down in the 2nd photo).
B. My zipper was a little short so I placed it on the short side of the fabric, rather than the long side, resulting in a bag that is wider than it is long. Looks a little odd, and doesn't help the sagging created by mistake A.
Verdict: I will probably rip this bag, and re-use the zipper and fabric (as lining fabric this time!) in a simple rectangular bag for my random knitting supplies.

2. Triangle bag:
Tutorial here. (I recommend this one as well)



This one turned out better, but I still made a ton of mistakes.
I didn't cut the fabric wide enough and thus had some zipper troubles (see the last photo). The bag is also a little oddly-shapen, for some reason it doesn't stand perfectly flat on the table...I suppose this has something to do with my lack of precision whilst sewing the corners.
Verdict: I like the way it turned out, definitely usable at least! I had intended it for my knitting supplies, but it's a little short to fit my crochet hooks so I'll find another use for it.
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Over the course of sewing these bags, I became very good friends with my seam ripper, which is a wonderful tool that made ripping out hours of hard work virtually painless...well, maybe I wouldn't go that far, but it is handy.
Both bags were very quick-to-sew (about an hour each, minus ripping seams and resewing them of course), now I want to go to the fabric store and pick out some cute prints and sew a few more (I'm thinking these could make great gifts)!
Last note, I managed to discover an extremely useful tool while I was flipping through my sewing machine manual.



It's a little gadget that attaches to the sewing machine to helpfully point out what your seam allowance is as you're sewing. I love it. I of course discovered how to use it after I free-styled the corners of the triangle bag.

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