Thursday, December 18, 2008

Bags

I got a sewing machine for Christmas last year and couldn't use it for months because of our kitten. He is really interested in what we are interested in or what we will be interested in. When we walk through the house he tries to predict which room we will go into. He loves people! Well, he's scared of them when they first come over, but he warms up quickly and gets into anything they bring over.

Onto the project at hand. I have used the machine a few times. I made quite a few reusable coffee filters out of unbleached organic muslin and they work perfectly! An employee at a local fabric store treated me like I am stupid when I asked if they had fabric I could use. "Why not just buy the paper ones at the store?" "So I can reuse them and not waste." "I don't think you're going to get good results. What about those gold screen filters?" "I have one and it lets too much through." "We don't have what you're looking for, sorry. Try those screen ones again." Yeah, won't be going back to that store. I should, just so I can show him the filters and tell him how perfectly they work, but I don't care to see them. They didn't even act like they wanted to help me. I am about to go on a long rant so I digress. I will just say that they need customer service training.

I also sewed some napkins, but I made them before a friend fixed the bobbin case and they look terrible. The stitches look like knotted loops. I knew I could sew better than that so I am glad she set the machine straight.

The bag I sewed today took me many hours. I'm sure it will get easier and the amount of time working on a project will go down. I only have one spot of messy stitching, that knotted loop look, and I'm not sure why it happened. I got better and better at keeping my lines straight throughout the project.

I used fabric from the dreaded and horrible WalMart. (They are the closest store with fabric, the next closest store is the store mentioned above whom I refuse to go back to.) They didn't have a lot of zippers to choose from. I could either have small or large of the color I wanted so I went with light blue being the next best color for the bag and the size I wanted. I have one pocket on the inside made with soft fabric with frogs on it. I made a flap instead of using a button, zipper, velcro, or any other way to close a pocket. While making this bag I realized I don't like working with purse lining fabric. I'm glad I didn't get too much of it. I never want to sew with that stuff again! It was really hard to deal with and luckily no one will see that it isn't sewed straight. There are pleats here and there.

I don't know if other people use Heat 'n Bond for purses and bags, but it is what I used. It says not to wash/dry in heat and not to dry clean. I can handle that. The bag is smaller than I wanted because for some reason I thought I was done measuring when I made some pencil marks for certain lengths and cut the fabric. I'm going to make a bigger bag like I originally planned to and have a small version and a large version. Our "kitten" Debo is the inspiration for me to sew zippered bags. He really wants the yarn I am working with right now!

I also couldn't find a pattern I wanted. I did this completely on my own.

Here are some pictures of the bag




And here is Debo checking out what I am doing




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