Sewing - the introduction

I'm starting off small with my sewing projects. I used to do quite a lot of sewing, but this is way back in time, over twenty years ago! I was an enthusiastic member of the sewing club at primary school, where I learnt to use a sewing machine and how to use a pattern, plus we did a bit in textiles classes at secondary school (although I seem to remember dyeing cotton and using it to make a bag, before we spent weeks writing business plans for a hypothetical farm shop, which was rather boring, if probably useful. The school trip to the farm where the hypothetical farm shop was going to be was quite fun though, lots of cows to see!). And in my early teens I made a few things, but then I must have got swamped by GCSEs and then A Levels and then university and then career, as I have done very little since.

So, with a new sewing machine to get used to, I started off by making another one of those bags, this time for a friend's birthday. All went well, and I was impressed with how much easier it was using a zipper foot on the new machine. I'd bought a more complicated zipper foot after a consultation with the saleswoman in John Lewis - this one swops sides and is adjustable, unlike the basic one that came with the machine. It definitely seemed worth buying the extra foot. I also got some thread that properly matched the fabric, thanks to the OH and his Superior Colour Matching Abilities.

I then spent quite a while finding some chocolate that just fitted in the bag! I only got a few funny looks whilst I was shopping.

This is project two, a drawstring bag for a knitting project. I wanted a slightly bigger one, as my existing ones are fine for sock projects, but not bigger things like jumpers. This was a free pattern from Quilting Bees (opens as PDF) and is lined with a cunning channel incorporated into it for threading the drawstring through. So cunning that I only made a hole for it one side, so couldn't actually use it for the drawstring. Oops. So I used a strip of the lining fabric to make an external channel, which does the job (although then it ended up taking ages longer to make the bag as it would have done if I'd not misread the instructions). *sigh*

Next on the list of things to do was to wash my existing fabric stash! The Tilly and the Buttons book suggested washing fabric as soon as you get home with it (which seems a bit excessive on the washing machine front, maybe I'd wait and put it in with a load that's going on anyway?), but it seemed like a good idea to get the stash washed and ironed so that it would all be ready for future projects.

At the moment the fabric stash is quite small, just a few purchases made from two lovely fabric shops I found on holiday, and some organic fair trade corduroy I found at a ridiculous discount online. I'm intending only to buy fabric that I already have a plan for, and not to buy too much as I haven't got room to store it. Unlike yarn shopping, there is a haberdashery in Staines, and there is an absolutely enormous haberdashery/fabric store (Fabric Warehouse) not far from where I work, so there feels like less of a need to stock up as I can get a lot of things without going too far or having to buy online.

Another finished item and a bit of sewing

This is Wee Liesl, and was actually knitted in the summer, for my god-daughter's birthday in November, so I had to wait until now to post pictures. It took almost four skeins of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn, which I love knitting with as it's so soft. And big daisy buttons, in the hope that they won't come undone too easily! I really enjoyed this pattern - there's enough going on for it to be interesting, but it's relatively straightforward. I now want to make a Liesl for me.

It fits!

I have another finished knitting project, but this one's a Christmas present, so I can't reveal it yet. I've been doing a lot of sewing in the last few weeks too - I've got my sewing machine all set up on a table so it can stay out instead of having to be put away every time we want to eat a meal, which has, funnily enough, dramatically increased the amount of time I spend sewing! I must take a picture of where I've got it set up. I've been referring to this as the "sewing room", but the OH is insisting on calling it the "small bedroom" still.

I've been working on a secret project (this is just a sneak preview), but I'm especially pleased with it because I've been watching videos of how to do things, and have done things like gathers for the first time on a sewing machine. At first I thought it was going to be a bit of a pain gathering on a machine, but it is so much simpler than that, and I'm really pleased with the finished results.

One project I can reveal is this little bag, which I made for my knitting group's secret santa exchange out of some cotton fabric I bought several years ago in Penrith. I've used the instructions on the Flossie Teacakes blog, which I've used before, but this version came out a lot better. I used lightweight interfacing this time, and the iron-in version rather than sewing it. I even managed to iron it on without attaching it to either the iron or the ironing board!

I was pleased with how it turned out, although the sewing machine struggled with the zip - I don't have a zipper foot for it.

Hopefully I'll get time for some more crafting over Christmas, as I only have two days left at work now.

Folksy and Misi

I've been admiring things on Etsy for a while, but the dollar pricing put me off, especially once the exchange rate began to move in the wrong direction (for me).


Then I read on Nic's blog about Folksy, which is like a UK version of Etsy. And I got hooked stalking things on that. A couple of weeks ago I bought a couple of things from Nic's shop, NicsKnots, pictures below:


A needle roll for DPNs with SEEPS on it!! BAAAAAA

And this really cool cat drawstring bag:

I'd also followed Nic onto Misi (which is similar to Folksy) to have a look. And ended up stumbling upon the perfect present for a friend, from a seller called Mad about bags

Haven't sent her it yet, I hope she'll like it!

Thank you for all the comments about my last post - we enjoyed reading them (he does read my blog, and yes, he has seen the size of my stash. Although he's only seen the boxes and chest etc that it's stored in, rather than the whole lot strewn all over the place, which would look far scarier...)

I'm missing my garden. I've been reading people's updates about gardens and planting things, including Yarnstorm's gorgeous pictures, and I'm missing doing things in my garden. Waah. I'd only just discovered that I liked gardening, so I only really had 18 months of doing it, but I enjoyed it in that time (we'll ignore all the Sunday afternoons I spent moaning about having to go outside to do stuff instead of curling up with a book).

So I planted some herb seeds for my windowsill:

It's not really the same, is it?! Now the weather is better I'm also missing having the garden for hanging washing outside. The airer is a bit of a permanent feature in my living room. I want my garden back!! I hope my tenant is taking good care of it...