OhMyGodMail!

So one of my best friends is getting married in about 5 weeks, and since she's a short arse, she decided that us bridesmaids could all wear flats while she wore heels. I'm cool with this, since heels at a wedding pretty much inevitably mean either strappy ones or pumps, and I try to stick to boots when it comes to heels. But looking around the mount and a few shopping days in Adelaide hadn't turned up anything, so I had a look on ebay and found these.

I'd ordered them about a week ago and today when there was two blue parcel cards in my post office box I just assumed that, because I hadn't made it to the post office on friday, they'd accidentally just put one in both days. But no. As well as a little pink box of shoes, there was also a big brown box.

With cookies!

And gold lame fabric! And a crocheted snowflake, but I forgot to take a photo and yeah, I'm blogging from bed. But it was white and waaaay more symmetrical than any of my misguided attempts last year.

And it had come all the way from Thea in California! There was a card in there saying that she had thought of the gold fabric for my rock star-looking jacket from ages ago, but I'm not sure that it has enough stretch for the elbows so I think I might make myself a badass new pub bag with it. I might even use some studs on it. And a fierce, chunky chain link strap.

It might take me a while to get to though, because it feels as if I'll be spending the next five weeks in the lead up to the wedding making ties. Because I'm working in the afternoons when the other bridesmaids could help out with making invites and table decorations and so on, and also because I'm the only one that can sew, I agreed to make the ties for the boys in the satin to match our dresses. It's taken some trial and error with patterns and interfacing and such, but I've got my patterns sorted and now I've just got to work through the hours and hours of handsewing that the damn things need*.

I may resume quilting in a procrastinatory rebellion.

*I only need to make 5 regular ties, two boys ties and a baby tie, but blergh, they're so boring.

Tablet sleeve test

Mum, Dad and Maddy are off to Bali on holiday in a few days, and Mum bought herself a tablet to take with her, which arrived a couple of days ago. Tonight, I had a go at making it a sleeve, and I'd have a go at an idea I had a while back for a zip down handle, which could make it be a bag too.

The zip curves around the entire top of the bag, and only the bottom side of the zipper is sewn for the whole length, while the top zipper is attached at either edge.

I like the idea. But I've realised that the top curve in particular warps the body of the sleeve a bit too much fr me to be satisfied with, so next time I'll do it with two short zips so they only curve one way, and only in the middle of the bag as opposed to on the corners, where it's more noticeable.

Also, as usually when I make a sleeve for a piece of technology, it's ever so slightly too small. It fits, but barely, and it makes the edges where the closure zip is (I could only find one pink zip) stick out weirdly.

And now I'm off to play the moustache drinking game. Happy Thirsty Thursday everyone

:{P

Oopsies.

Even though I've done it for all bar about 5 of my days on earth, clearly I still need more practice at this whole "going to bed" shtick.

Possibly reading the entire episode guide to Game of Thrones on wikipedia wasn't the best idea at 4am, but it was still quicker than watching it all. Since each season covers one book, I think reading the books would be quicker than watching it: I can read an unfamiliar 400 page novel in about 4 hours, whereas it would take me 10 to watch ithe first season.

Anyway, before I got distracted I (thankfully) got some stuff done.

Target had 40% of pillows today, so I bought myself a new one. It was referred to as "dual core" and I use a dual core. Actually, I use 3 dual cores - desktop, laptop and phone are all dual-core, but in the pillow's case (pun not intended) it means that there's a foam bit in the middle of the regular fluffy bit. I wanted to make it a pillowcase, but, after getting out a half dozen fabrics and then deciding against them all, I got to work on the next bag, with a zip and interfacing.

This is without vita wheats, and all I used was some non-woven 1600F on the lining. It was a bugger to turn out though, but I didn't have to hand sew it, because I cleverly recessed the zip over the top of the turning hole.

I lined it in the same beige ripstop as the outer of the other bag is made from, since I think a lighter coloured lining makes things easier to find.

That done, I auditioned some more fabrics, came to the conclusion that I really ought to use a whole yard, because having white on the back would look weird, and put all my choices to that point back on the shelf. I read an old Reader's Digest for a bit, resewed the armholes on Casey's shirt (she likes sleeveless workshirts, but they're hard to find, so I have to cut down long-sleeved shirts for her), ate some pineapple and finally admitted to myself that If I was going to go to bed tonight, I needed to get a pillowcase sorted out. I'm not ashamed to admit, I drool in my sleep a little bit.

Eventually I discovered a doubling up of this fabric, which I once used as my handbag for a while, so I figured I could miraculously use it while having it remain in my stash (because frankly, isn't that what we always want?) and so I went for it.

Then I completely forgot to go to bed anyway. Thank god I don't work Fridays :)

Saggy Bag.

I had planned on having myself a nice little rant tonight, but after catching up on the last week or so of TV (and I completely forgot I have a binding to hand-sew) and making that zipless test bag, I've tired myself out and I need to go to bed instead of getting angry.

However, here is the bag as it turned out, with no interfacing, no zip and a belt bought for $2 from the salvos for a strap.

It's a bit lackluster, though I shoved an empty box of vita-wheats* into it to get an idea of what it would be like if it had stuff in it, and it made a big improvement.

Since these are really mainly meant to be test/display bags for people to pick what fabrics they want, I'm leaning towards doing half with and half without. But I love the belts as straps thing.

*because I use boxes of vita-wheats for all sorts of things.

How dull.

Today, because it was on special, and there was only one there, and I am a sucker for either of those and both was making my nearly wet myself, I bought a new keyboard and mouse combo.

The new ones are the untethered ones.

No-one in the house knows though, and Casey has expressed a preference toward the corded kind (they're harder to lose) so naturally, I'm gunna wait till she's on the computer next and start moving the mouse counter to what she is. I'm mean like that sometimes.

I really only mention it because, despite a couple of hours hard work, this is all I have to show tonight.

One day, hopefully soon, it will become 8 satchel bags. The flaps are, for the most part, quilting fabrics, and I've already picked the one that I will either be keeping for myself or re-making. The body of the bag is cotton ripstop, which was $3 a metre at spotlight, and I still have to decide whether or not to add a zip - I want to, since I like zips, and they aren't even that much extra effort really, but I'm torn between the idea of having them be library bags (which is what they're really meant to be, for little kids who might not be able to handle a zip) or actual grown-up satchel bags (except that, even though they're fully lined, they don't have any interfacing, so the shape and stability of a proper bag just isn't there)

I think that instead of doing every step of all of them in unison, I might have to make one in it's entirety tomorrow night to get a better idea of the finished weight of one before I decide to add a zip.

I'm also using belts that I bought at op-shops around town as the straps on half of them, so we'll need to see how that turns out too.

Now with 67% less angst...

Spotlight didn't have any white. I threw my politest tantrum (breathing in and out through my nose a couple of times so my nostrils flare like an angry rhino's) and went home to sulk for a bit before work.

I spent a while tonight trying to work out something I liked with the half metre of white I have left, and gave up. Then I felt bad about not doing anything, so I made a bag.

 Even though it looks similar in design to the Angst bag, the construction is totally different. I'd say it was easier, but really, that's probably just because of the quilting (or lack thereof). The zip is set differently too, it's higher up and you need to thread the pull after it's been sewn, whereas for the the Angst bag the two sides of the zip never get separated. I could have recessed it, but I didn't cut the setting strips for the zip wide enough. Nevermind.

I used 2 rectangle rings to make an adjustable strap too. It's about 1m long at full length, but the bag is pretty floppy (I used a layer of quilt batting instead of any actual interfacing) so it curves around and makes it feel longer. The bag itself is about 30x40cm, and about 8cm thick.

Helen wanted me to have a go at some bookbags for kids, and I think this would be pretty okay.

Segues

So today I asked Meagan what she thought about making another baby quilt. She didn't think I should, and I'm inclined to agree with, well, all of you. I don't feel that I'm being invited for the right reasons, so I'm going to do the dignified thing, and run away. She hasn't set a date yet, but she offered to organise it around my weekends off (suspicious much?) and I'm quite happy to run away on any of them.

Speaking of, I'm already planning to run away the weekend after easter. It's my soonest available chance, and 3 weeks before Meagan's due, so probably my latest for a while. If Shay wants to catch up, I am willing to share my zippy knowledge.

And while I'm on zippy knowledge, (I'm getting good at segueing) I bought some more peeled cows (actually, I believe one of them is a peeled sheep) on ebay and etsy, so I'm gunna get a go at making the angst bag as it originally arrived in my brain, complete with raw edged zip sewing. It's the one kind of zipper I've never done before, but I figure that the leather won't stretch in the same way as cotton does. so it should sit nice and straight, and be thick enough to not catch in the teeth if it is accidentally too far over. I spent most of last night on etsy actually, with the initial intent of looking for a good gender neutral fabric to use for the quilt I'm not even going to make any more, but it didn't take me long to start looking at rainbow vintage flannels and embossed leather.

Not all segues are good ones. Well, that's not fair - these were good, but also quite expensive.

A Zen bit of Angst.

In a strange sort of way, I feel incredibly zen about the Angst Bag. Maybe the clue is in the name - the fact that there was angst before I'd even designed it meant that by the time it came to make it* I was pretty chill about everything.

Not that there were any huge dramas - one of the cross stitch cottons ran out half way through a quilting line but I just magically joined the next bit up and kept going. I made the lining 5cm too big, so I just trimmed it down. I stabbed myself with a pin, but hey, that's what sewing's all about.

It's not perfect. It has it's faults. Some slightly messy lines, the stitching going completely mental when I just sewed on the tab at the end of the zipper.

Whatevs. It's nice. I like it. I think it's going to be liked. I can't wait to make myself a mini version in black with rainbow stiching.


*admittedly, it was about a 5 day turnaround, but I like my emotional rollercoasters like I like my real rolercoasters - fast.

Lost: Linky Leader and Bloggy Friend. If found, please call...

Has anyone heard from Shay lately? I was all set to write tonight about how much I love a bitch session, but I just looked for something to link up to and there wasn't anything there.

I did read something the other day about a lady from Adelaide finally claiming a $900,000 jackpot that she apparently got as a christmas present but never got around to checking, so maybe that was Shay, and she's bumped up her Hawaii trip without telling anyone.

It's a shame, that would make a fantastic favourite things friday post.

Anyway, yeah, I love a bitch session. I know it's a bit mean at times, and it amuses he how some bitch sessions are about how bitchy certain other people are, but on the other hand, it's a handy way of reminding ourselves that the human experience is pretty much universal, and we really are all in it together, even when we're not. So yay for having a whinge to an agreeable ear.

We got the custom batch of monsters finished tonight, and yay for that too, and also a resolute "If I say I'm going to do monsters in the next 6 months, slap me."

And the fantastically named "Angst Bag" (thanks Thea) is coming along nicely: the outside's all done, the inside's nearly done and then it just needs a zipper to join it all together.

Actual sewing!

There is a problem in watching a new show (or even a quite old show) while doing the fiddly bits on monsters that are hella boring to do without some kind of distraction, and that problem is this: a movie goes for about 2 hours. A TV show goes for about 20, even if it was only moderately successful.

Anyway, I'm watching Life again, because I have no idea how it ended. Actually, that's a lie. Despite not containing the words "Spoiler Alert" anywhere in the page, the Wikipedia article on the show gives it all away. But I'm cool with that.

So yeah, monsters are all pinned ready to sew tomorrow, at which point I can turn them right way out, stuff them and they can start making their way to their new homes.

Before I got started though I made a bag. Not a very good bag, since it was really only a mock up version of the bag that I spent a goodly portion of last night working out as I lay awake in bed, unable to sleep, but still.

It has a very pretty embroidered top which I like a lot a lot.

Which is made by winding half a skein of variegated cross stitch cotton onto the bobbin and sewing it from the underneath. I felt that it would work in theory, but I really wanted to try it out. You've only got 4m of sewing distance though before you have to put in a new bobbin.

Unfortunately, I made the flap too short anyway. But it's nice to know that it all works in theory, and that most of my maths was right (though I cut it a lining twice and got it wrong both times, so I gave up on lining it, zigzagged over the inside seams and used the fabric to set the zip instead)

But I realise that my problem with the lining was the confusion inherent in using a 30cm long see-through ruler and measuring 17.5cm as 13.5cm. Usually, my ability to read backward, upside down or mirrored words quite easily is a handy talent, not so in this case.

Still, the most important thing is that it should scale up nicely to make the bag I was angsting about the other night. I guess that's why I couldn't start it then; a better design was waiting to be thought up.

Does anyone have a therapist they can lend me?

I find myself getting more and more anxious before beginning a new project. I don't know if I got it before and just didn't pay any attention to it, or if it's just a recent thing, but I've been so worried lately that if I start something I'll only screw it all up and waste all the fabric, that I just... don't. I get out a heap of fabrics, come up with a bit of maths, and then demure, and look at super magnets on ebay, and watch comic-con panels on youtube until it's too late to start, and then I put my fabrics away and go to bed. It just seems easier.

Couple my newfound unwillingness to start anything with an apathy toward binding anything, and I'm a bit stuck. The monsters have provided an alternative, but I'll be honest, I'm not a lover of machine applique, and the fact that they need it is what keeps me from doing them more often. I find I'm better at starting something if I use freshly bought fabrics (probably because they can be replaced if it does all turn to shit) but I still get worried about the amount of money I just spent on them.

Still, there are things that need making, and tonight I sucked it up long enough to make a strap. For a bag, which was a bit too much to ask of myself tonight. It's for a gift, so I want to get it right. Except I haven't actually decided what it's going to look like yet, and that's never been a good start to a project. Hopefully it'll be a quiet night at work tomorrow and I can sort it to my liking. I'm using new fabric at least...

Oh, and last night's post was #700. I knew it was coming up, but I forgot to check exactly when, and now we've missed it.

It worked!

I had told myself that I was going to piece the backing for the blue and grey quilt tonight, but after going out to dinner with a friend I hadn't seen since high-school, I got home and wasn't really feeling it. I finally got around to sewing down the fold over binding for the sunset quilt now that I've bought some more hot pink cotton, and then I got into a flat bag.

I'd done a test version with just the lines drawn on the other night and nearly finished it before I realised I was doing it all wrong - trying to sew it like I'd sew a lined pouch with a zipper instead of constructing it like I used to make laptop bags with the top flaps. So tonight's version worked much better.

I still have to sew a clasp into it, and I'm considering maybe making the gusset go the whole way around as opposed to tapering off to a point just beyond the corners, because they're a bit messy. That photo is actually stuffed, well, It has my spare phone and car keys and a lip gloss and a pack of quick-eze in it, which is pretty much everything, except for money, that I need for a night out.

I think next time I'll do an edged handle too, because the black kinda vanishes. I considered using piping on all the edges, but I got lazy.

Still, as a proof of concept, coloured in with fabric markers, I'm pretty pleased. Next one I'd like to try one of the side zipping ones with two handles, but I think tomorrow I should try get that grey and blue quilt backed.

Good. Nice. Likin it.

My favourite thing this 5am Saturday is the fact that the latest batch of monsters are all finished. But I'm also a big fan of fabric markers, and HSTs, and insisting that my 48 year old machine is as good as most of the machines in the $400 range of the market today (and I wonder how many of them will still be going in 48 years?)

Tomato sauce is pretty good too, as are facebook groups and spontaneous sewing gatherings.

Lipsmackers which are comically oversized amuse me, as do magnets, when you try to stick them together the wrong way. I am easily amused.

And realising that you made your test bag all wrong is a bit annoying, but then when, 5 minutes later, your brain points out that you know exactly how to do it, since you did it this way all the time about 3 years ago, well, it's a nice feeling to know that it will all be better next time.

Bribing myself.

Tonight after I got home from the gym I told myself that I had to at least sew the strips of the blue and grey quilt before I started sketching 2D handbags.

It worked. But my clipping it up didn't, really. I need more coathangers (what look like the across seams are sewn.the down ones aren't, but the threads between the strips are still attached, so it's like a big net at the moment)

And I've started sketches too.

Bag with flap won't need a zip = yay, but single handles make me sad.

And now that I'm going to bed, I'm not going to draw any more bags till after all those seams are pressed out, at the very least. And pinned too, preferably.

Want. With changes.

Have any of you heard of Jump From Paper? They make these amazing bags that look completely photoshopped.

That's an actual, physical bag.

And dammit, I want one.

Thing is though, on the backs they've left them black. I suppose, technically, since it appears to be a 2D object, the back shouldn't matter. The angle is important when it comes to "looking" right, and since it's really only meant to be seen from the one direction, not going to any effort on the back would seem somewhat logical.

However, if I'm going to pay $70 for a bag, I want it to be double sided. I'm pretty sure that it would be possible to have the design reversed on the back. I'm pretty sure that you could put another zipper on the back too, even if the pocket was completly flat and attached wholly to one side of the gusset. I'm pretty sure that I could make something similar, but a bit smaller, and double sided, and I'm not totally sure about the "side pockets" on theirs, I think I'd ommit those. I really only want one to use as a pub bag, because I live to mess with the minds of drunk peeps. Also, I love my regular handbag too much to replace it fully, even though the magnet clasp is broken. How the hell can you even break a magnet?

Making a double sided, half size version of this is going to be my side project, that I basically spend all my time thinking about. It may even finally get me spoonflowering.

Lying.

Have you ever made someone something and then been all bummed that you don't get to keep it?

Any of you that said no, I'd like to remind you that Santa is watching, and you've only got yourself to blame if you don't get anything on Sunday. If I know you're lying, then Santa does too.

I've been working hard* on Casey's bag tonight, and I want it. Want want want. Sulk. Maybe I will steal it later. It's not yet finished yet, and I have some distractions, maybe I can pretend that it can't be finished, and then sneaky finish it and keep it for myself.

The distractions I mentioned are a sudden call for lots and lots of monsters, in the next 4 days. Helen put them on facebook, and people went and bought them all, and wanted more. And they're not having Alex (he remains my monster) so I'll have to see what I can do.

*Just because I spent long periods of time getting distracted by making myself a new headband, cooking some rice, playing with some zippers, painstakingly cutting some fabric on the grain, and wrapping a couple of presents, doesn't mean I wasn't working hard, y'know, in between all that stuff.

Progress

I think I might be bored with HSTs now. I finished the top of the christmas quilt and pressed it all and thought, well, that was fun, time for something new.

Except, well, I can't really start anything new, since I have a whole lotta stuff still to be done in the next week. I did pretty good today though - after I finished the top I got it basted and quilted - now all it needs is trimming down and binding. I've already got the strips cut, and I've got the strips cut to bind that red and green one I made a few weeks ago to see how much I disliked wool batting, but I'm puting it off. I hate binding.

I got the other three christmas sacks finished today too. We always used pillow cases as a kid and then we would lug the pillow cases around to wherever christmas was that year, so this year I have made us some ones in pretty christmas fabric that are still the size of pillow cases, but have squared off bottoms and handles. Handles are handy, as the name suggests.

I made the lining for Casey's bag, and devoted some time to berating myself for deciding to make hers a fancy bag.  Bags without pockets and with handles that go from one end to the other instead of up the sides are much, much easier, but she wants a little bit of leather from the back of some jeans sewn to hers and for whatever reason, that makes me feel like the bag has to be as fancy as the pants it came off of.

And I made a stubby holder, just to see if I could remember how to do it. I can - yay me!

Unfortunately, at some point while I was doing all this my phone went flat, so I couldn't take any pictures. It's charging now though, so I'll take a heap in the morning.

Uuuummmm...

It's much harder to choose a fabric for someone else than it is to choose one for yourself. And it's much more difficult again to choose a single fabric. A quilt, where it's a whole big cohesive thing, that's practically easy compared to picking a single fabric to make a bag for someone.

Two someones actually: I'm planning on making a bag each for Casey and Becky for Christmas. Casey thinks that maybe she wants a red, blue and white check that I've already used to make an identical bag for Meagan, and even though it would look a bit different if I put it on point, it's not that different. And I don't really like re-making things. And all the other yarn dyed* checks at Spotlight are horrible crappy loose weaves that look scratchy and horrible. Except gingham, and that looks a little bit too cliched.

Becky's even harder to pick for, mainly since I don't really get on with her that well, and therefore have no idea what she likes - as far as I'm aware, it's the colour orange, taking my things without asking and making a mess in the bathroom. And I've failed (unsurprisingly) to find a fabric that encapsulates these things.

I'm gunna have to pick something fairly soon though - I have 3 days off this weekend and then just next friday off to get everything done.

I think I'm still a bit thrown about it being less than a fortnight away cause we still haven't been out to get a tree yet. Yes, that's right, I'm the only person in the blogosphere still without a Christmas tree. 

There has to be someone who's last, right?

*Unless it's printed on point, in which case it's okay, a printed check just doesn't look as good as a woven check. I can't explain why, but it looks more "right" - actually I can explain why. It's because it is right.

Damn.

Oops, it's after 3am already. But I have a lovely new gym bag. Rainbow, too.

For the record, I'd just like to say, seersucker doesn't fuse well. But it looks damn pretty. Also, you can't see it in the picture, but I had to use black zipper pulls. Hot pink ones are damn hard to find - the zipper itself was actually a pulled apart one of those purses that unzip forever - $3 from Cheap as Chips, making it about the same price as the off-the-roll stuff from Spotlight, except only one zip pull, and the wrong colour. Damn.

In other news, lappy's running again. While I'm very glad that it's working again, if it would stay broken long enough for me to go get it looked at, maybe I could get it properly fixed.

Two days.

So last night, before my laptop decided that It really really didn't like it's graphics driver, I told myself that under no circumstances was I to do any dressmaking. Dressmaking is slow and messy and gets in the way of stuff I should be doing, like finishing stuff off for the market on sunday.

So I made a little box out of some yellow ribbon.

I put my pins in it. Then later I took them out and put them on their magnet, because that's where they live. But it seemed easier at the time to make a little ribbon box than get up and take the two steps over to where my pin magnet was on the floor. Tonight, it's full of little black beads.

And last night I also made a quilt top. When it was done I spent about 15 minutes staring at it lying on the floor and realising I'd done it all wrong and considering unpicking it, but then I couldn't be bothered. It's still nice the way it is. I just need to find something for the back. I'm gunna quilt it lots, just wavy lines. I think it wants to be crinkly.

I got a half dozen of the bags about 95% done last night too - I just needed to zigzag over the edge seams tonight. And even though I kinda want to, I didn't make a start on another skirt pattern tonight.

I just spent 45 minutes sorting through 10cm squares instead. I made 10 cute little bundles that I might piece into pillow covers. If I don't get distracted by something else in the meantime.