"Sleep now, and dream of the ones who came before"
Things I had forgotten about sewing, especially non-clothing:
- Corners are HARD! Especially when your lovely homemade piping has to line up at them - sorry, Mom, it's not quite right, but I did the best I could ):
- The presser foot never gets up quite high enough to get all the cornerey layers under it comfortably, so there's a lot of fighting.
- Cheap pins bend.
- The worst part of making a 3D object is when it starts to actually use the 3rd dimension, and you have to manhandle it into pretending to be flat for one more seam.
- Your seam ripper is your friend.
- Following the directions is something you always do the first time, but almost never thereafter (I am still not convinced that putting the zipper in before even assembling the lining was the right way, but I'm not done yet, either)
For those of you playing along at home, I am making this bag with some super adorable matryoshka fabric I got in Minneapolis for lining and the handles(like this, only with a beige background). The body of the bag is solid grey duck canvas with black grosgrain ribbon-piping (it would have been matryoshka, too, but there's not enough to make a gazillion 1½" bias strips and the lining for another bag), and I added an external pocket between the handles on the front panel (which I forgot to add yesterday and needed to rip out the handles to put in today), which I embroidered with a matryoshka (I like them, okay?). I also embroidered some flowers out of Mom's Ukrainian Embroidery book on the back panel for more interest. The embroideries are not filled in, just line art, and they're predominantly red, black, and yellow. I know this is a lot of visual in text format, and I'll try to post pictures when it's done, but I'm really pretty pleased with my progress, plus it's the reason my fingers are sore and that I watched like 5 hours of My Fair Wedding today. There are things I'll change in far-future variations, but mostly I really like the bag, and the level of detail it demands. I've even ordered silver matryoshka-shaped charms from eBay to make zipper pulls.
Once this one is done, I've got two identical bags on deck, one in spring green with the same lining (and possibly grey handles) etc, and one in summer blue with a SUPER adorable lining: navy blue with ridiculously spherical owls on it. I've got owl charms all ready to go for that one, too XD
In other news, it was Dad's birthday yesterday, and it went all right - the gluten-free Boston cream pie was actually pretty good! Surprisingly cohesive and non-sandy for a gluten-free baked good. I got him a stuffed black-and-white Steamboat Willy, which he seemed to like (at this point, the only things I know he likes/will use are stuffed animals and music, and I forgot to order any CD's in time). I think that's about everything going in this tiny corner of the world. I can't tell you how much my left hand hurts. I'm going to have clubbed, arthritic hands like my grandmother because I apparently can't keep myself from developing the same hobbies that did that to her. Oh, well - here's hoping it subsides overnight.
- Corners are HARD! Especially when your lovely homemade piping has to line up at them - sorry, Mom, it's not quite right, but I did the best I could ):
- The presser foot never gets up quite high enough to get all the cornerey layers under it comfortably, so there's a lot of fighting.
- Cheap pins bend.
- The worst part of making a 3D object is when it starts to actually use the 3rd dimension, and you have to manhandle it into pretending to be flat for one more seam.
- Your seam ripper is your friend.
- Following the directions is something you always do the first time, but almost never thereafter (I am still not convinced that putting the zipper in before even assembling the lining was the right way, but I'm not done yet, either)
For those of you playing along at home, I am making this bag with some super adorable matryoshka fabric I got in Minneapolis for lining and the handles(like this, only with a beige background). The body of the bag is solid grey duck canvas with black grosgrain ribbon-piping (it would have been matryoshka, too, but there's not enough to make a gazillion 1½" bias strips and the lining for another bag), and I added an external pocket between the handles on the front panel (which I forgot to add yesterday and needed to rip out the handles to put in today), which I embroidered with a matryoshka (I like them, okay?). I also embroidered some flowers out of Mom's Ukrainian Embroidery book on the back panel for more interest. The embroideries are not filled in, just line art, and they're predominantly red, black, and yellow. I know this is a lot of visual in text format, and I'll try to post pictures when it's done, but I'm really pretty pleased with my progress, plus it's the reason my fingers are sore and that I watched like 5 hours of My Fair Wedding today. There are things I'll change in far-future variations, but mostly I really like the bag, and the level of detail it demands. I've even ordered silver matryoshka-shaped charms from eBay to make zipper pulls.
Once this one is done, I've got two identical bags on deck, one in spring green with the same lining (and possibly grey handles) etc, and one in summer blue with a SUPER adorable lining: navy blue with ridiculously spherical owls on it. I've got owl charms all ready to go for that one, too XD
In other news, it was Dad's birthday yesterday, and it went all right - the gluten-free Boston cream pie was actually pretty good! Surprisingly cohesive and non-sandy for a gluten-free baked good. I got him a stuffed black-and-white Steamboat Willy, which he seemed to like (at this point, the only things I know he likes/will use are stuffed animals and music, and I forgot to order any CD's in time). I think that's about everything going in this tiny corner of the world. I can't tell you how much my left hand hurts. I'm going to have clubbed, arthritic hands like my grandmother because I apparently can't keep myself from developing the same hobbies that did that to her. Oh, well - here's hoping it subsides overnight.