Busy hands | Disquiet mind

Well, they do say "start as you mean to go on", so I humbly present, that most rare of creatures; a blog post.

I picked up another Gléasta bag making kit at the craft fair a few weeks back. They cut up all the fabric (in cute combinations), so all you need to do is pull it out and sew. Far less preparation. And in the manner of easing myself back into making, I dusted off the sewing machine and opened up the kit. Start to finish only took a couple of hours.

Reversible Shopper
Photo by chebe

I have a few long overdue posts on past projects that I hope to get up in the next couple of weeks. Until then, let this past year burn, and welcome the new!

The Knitting'n'Stitching Show has come and gone. I was only there briefly, but still managed to achieve my goal: acquire a new sewing machine. I also picked up a tote bag kit from Gléasta (they had a much greater range of fabrics and colours at the Show than are currently on their website. Hopefully they'll update it soon.) You know, to put my new machine through its paces. It did admirably, and now I have a new sewing bag!

Finished Bag
Photo by chebe

( Some brief details )

I made another bag! The last ones were so small I think I've over-compensated and have gone too much the other way. This one is a laundry bag from a project in 'A Bag for All Reasons'. I deviated a little from the instructions. The two-compartment design wasn't going to suit me; most of my clothing is darks and brights, with a handful of whites/pales/delicates. So I doubled up the internal divider to make a small third section in the middle. For the darks section I chose a black and grey striped fabric, and for the brights a nice colourful printed patchwork fabric. Then at the every end I got lazy, and instead of two parallel lines of stitching 5mm apart I used a twin-needle in one pass. It's mostly straight lines and different sizes of rectangles, which makes the cutting out easier (thank the rotary cutter), but makes the actual sewing rather boring (not even any seam finishes). The end product is approximately 50cm x 60cm, and fully lined. It's quite pretty and ultimately functional, good result!

( Pictures! )