Fabric and Kraftex quick gifts

I have taken a break before the entire family hits here for 10 days to do some easy sewing. I am taxing this ship slowly onto the holiday season Big Sew runway and thinking of ideas.

One of the things I have decided to do is make a number of quick and easy projects with Kraft-tex for gifts this year.

Yesterday I made a couple of Retreat bags with this wonderful free pattern from Emmaline Bags, two in denim with a coated cotton interior, and one in a most beautiful periwinkle shade of Kraftex.https://www.ctpub.com/kraft-tex/

The fabric version required the body pieces to be interfaced and then fused with fleece for support. I didn't need to do any of this in the Kraftex bag because the Kraftex has so much body it stands up on its own - which eliminates steps and cost. 

I love this pattern so much because the large size is really big, will contain all your gear plus a hairdryer if you carry one, and so easy.

I alway add Emmaline's wonderful zipper ends and pulls because it adds a bit of finish for not much effort. Their website has how to install the zipper ends which are handy if you cut down a longer zipper to make one of these bags.

Kraftex is so durable as well as being easy to sew. My husband and I recorded some hilarious videos last winter that show us testing it, including driving over it on the RV, and it held up well.

Here is a wallet my husband made for me with some scraps a few months ago and I have been really enjoying it because it is so light. Another free pattern. Although it carries exactly what my usual wallet carries I often have to check my purse to see if it my wallet is there because I just can't tell by the weight. BTW Kraftex is machine washable and I see this wallet is due that after a summer spent in the bottom of the swimming pool bag.

I have decided to make a few of these wallets for Christmas and some other things like luggage tags (I always stand there with 80 other people at the carousel looking for a black suitcase). I am also doing picture frames (got some really neat ones in the works, watch for those) and frames for pictures with fridge magnets. The last is a grandmother special because when the kids make a picture I always say "I will put it on my fridge like that was a real honour. I am also going to make some passport/boarding pass holders for family members who are organizationally challenged like I am.

It's fun to work Kraftex too. These will be the little projects I can make when I claim I am off doing something else and want to disappear into my sewing basement for a few minutes...

Summer sewing list: bite sized goals

This happens every summer. 

One minute I am digging out the summer clothes and the next minute I  realize it is the middle of July and all those things I was going to get done over the summer better get done before the summer clothes get packed away again.

I decided today that in addition to my usual round of family sewing, I needed to think about good summer projects for myself.

Unusually I decided to get sensible. So instead of time spent on ambitious sewing projects I decide to be nice to myself instead. I decided to make some things that have been percolating for a while now and would actually be useful.

Most of these are fast projects I can fit in around my other activities. All of them are outstanding:

• A good bag for taking my cosmetic/shampoo etc. gear around with me in my travels. I have made nearly everyone in the vicinity a version of this free pattern, in the large size that holds everything, but why not me?
• At least one hat. Obviously these are important in the sun but I have a terrible time finding one that is big enough for my large head. All the ones I own really have to be jammed down. I have a couple of patterns but might try this one, again a free pattern, or this one, because they have several sizes. I can make the brim bigger in the bucket hat too if I want. I am even thinking of trying some foam, like they use for bags, for the brim. I read in expensive sites like Tilley's about hats that float and I can figure that one out.
• Some pyjamas and night gowns. I really need something cool for the summer and something decent to wear so I don't scare the children when I visit. I have Jalie's reliable old pyjama pattern for a start, again something I have made for everyone but me, and am thinking too of this Burda pattern. I need some cooler wovens, knits can get hot. 
• Some kind of housecoat (this is a Canadian thing, in other parts of the world these are called robes etc.) that is covering enough for travel and staying with people but doesn't take up a lot of room in the suitcase. I had high hopes for this Vogue pattern, such a pretty drawing, but even when I sized down it was big enough for three of me and had sleeves that looked like A line skirts. I would actually just like a pattern that looked like the picture. I could probably figure something out if I have to.
• And finally I really want to sew at least one decent handbag. I have danced around this one for a while. I always something more urgent to work on, but these patterns and bag creations really are what catch my eye most when I scroll through my Facebook posts on my phone when I am drinking my morning coffee. I think that after a person has liked say the Boronia bag 700 times she should probably bite the bullet and make one. 

So that's it for me. I am trying out a new and novel idea which is making sewing to-do lists of things I might actually make. I will let you know how this goes.

Now over to you.

What are your personal sewing projects for the summer? 

The comments are always the best parts of this blog!

How hard can it be?

The title of this post is the motto of my life.

For those of you who are wondering what my life motto is.

Well there you have it.

I am the sort of person who expects things to turn out, it's just my nature. When things don't I immediately figure it's only a matter of time.

This approach isn't probably as wonderful as it sounds. There are some pitfalls. For instance I have an appalling sense of direction and should be more organized in figuring out how to get places. Instead I mostly head out and assume I will find my destination eventually. Sometimes it takes hours. I probably married someone who was clearly unsuitable first time out with too for example. Oh well on that one.

Mostly I always expect that somehow I will figure things out. When faced with a new project or an opportunity, back to the motto, my first thought is - well how hard can it be?

I inherit this trait from my father.

My dad was a dedicated DYI-er. I remember once as a teenager watching him get ready to go off and teach cross-country skiing lessons. He had cut off a pair of navy serge dress pants and gathered them at the knees himself to sort of look like knickerbockers and was headed out the door.

"Dad do you know how to cross-country ski?" I asked him.

"Well I got a book from the library," he said.

"How hard can it be?"

This same attitude occasionally sends me off into uncharted sewing territory.

For instance I have recently decided to make bags.

My reason for doing this is that I haven't done this before.

I joined some FB groups of bag makers where I quickly discovered that making bags is a lot of hard work and requires some elaborate gear, tons of pattern pieces, and even more patience and perseverance.

I streamlined my expectations right away.

The keys I discovered are two things:

1. Getting in structure. Best are fusible fleece or foam interfacing (apparently this is also called headliner foam and you can get it at an auto body shop except I don't go to auto body shops so I got mine at Joann's in the US and I believe it is easy to get online.) With the foam I just zig zagged it on to the main fabric. This stuff saves the project from looking exactly like a home-made tote bag.

2. Hardware. The metal parts really are an easy way to make a simple sewing job look more professional. I got mine from the fabulous Emmaline Bags, which BTW also has great tutorials as well as the free Miss Maggie pattern I used for the bags below. Using some hardware, like rivets, is also an excellent way of getting around the bulk issue with things like sewing on straps. Purse feet are another nice touch and I think add to the durability of the bags.

The other big thing I discovered was cork fabric. This is really just cork laminated onto a poly backing (no it doesn't swell up in the rain) and sews like a double knit. I did find that a teflon foot was important to keep the cork moving smoothly under the needle but that was the only technical adjustment I made.

The natural bag pictured here was made with some packaged cork I got in a machine dealer's store in Texas but the black cork from MM Cork is a much more superior quality. MM also sells remade straps too which might be handy, although I sewed my own.

The concealed zipper application in both bags is from an Emmaline add-on tutorial.

I also made my husband a new wallet from some scraps using this pattern from Mrs. H.

So really in the universe of bag making both of these bags are very, very simple but I have developed a work around by deciding that simple is more classic and looks more expensive.

Justifying laziness is near the top of my list of challenges I line up under how hard can it be.

Actually in the case of bag making, really not all that hard.

Quarter note clutch

To add to the list of things that I am guilty of (this is not a finite list) would be to get so busy sewing that I neglect the blog posts about my sewing.

This is not my intention but one day leads to the next some times.

Also I have been in a minor slump for a while now, my boys moving far away, the end of my summer school term and releasing another crop of students, my husband coming to the end of five months working away from home only back for a bit on the weekends, thinking about Nancy Zeiman, the grandchildren back at school, the leaves turning. The usual.

Now I have to say that getting down, which I absolutely believes runs in families, does not run in mine. I also believe every family has their theme and we run pretty busy and intense instead. More burn out that worn out. Truth is we are probably more likely to cause depression than suffer it ourselves. That said for about a couple of weeks I felt like I was at loose ends, knocking around in my own head a bit, so I decided to put all the ruminating aside and just sew.

I have my wonderful niece living with me and as she passed by she laughed at me, you're just not stopping are you?

Got that right.

I made the bed and swept the floors and cooked things I could eat for two days every two days and I took care of the dog and did the babysitting I could.

But apart from that I just sewed my brains out.

Like  always I picked right up, more or less right away. Life got back to looking exciting and the changes, like opportunities.

Not exactly sure how this works but something about giving myself over to sewing completely always fixes me up and gets me back to normal.

I have a theory that there is something fundamental about creativity that not just resets but outlets. 

There is a direct flow out of yourself into the world when you make something that just has to happen. In fact I would go even further and say that when that ability to be just making something gets blocked, which in my case occurred because I had a long period of being too overbooked to sew, something backs up inside you and makes you off kilter or, if it goes on too long, actually some kind of sick.

Does any of this make any sense to you?

So getting to some of the things I made during this mighty restorative couple of weeks I will start with my out of my comfort zone project, a leather clutch purse with a detachable chain strap.

First, because it's about time there were pictures, here they are:

I used my regular machine, a long stitch length and a leather needle no problem but the last step of topstitching the flap to the bag opening was too many layers to get under the presser foot. As a result I used Chicago screws instead for this step

Closed up and ready to wear

As a bag maker I am a newbee.

This was a great pattern however, very easy to do, from the wonderful Janelle Mackay at Emmaline Bags

I have read a lot of sewing instructions in my day and I have to tell you Janelle's are the best, really, really clear and thoughtful with all the handy hints built in.

The hardware, the large flip lock and the chain with hooks attached also came from Emmaline bags. Hardware is key of course to making a first time home made project just a lot less so.

Because this was a completely experimental project I used scraps - in this case some Liberty of London lawn left over from a blouse project and some leather from a thrift store coat.

With a 4.0 stitch length, a leather needle and walking foot I had no problem at all sewing the leather except for the multiple layers at the top of the bag front where the flap folds up to meet the bag opening. The issue there wasn't so much stitching as I couldn't raise the presser foot high enough to get it all under to sew.

Since attaching the front flap (actually this is just a long clutch that you fold up to make the folded look) mattered I resorted to rivets, or in this case Chicago screws. I used a Clover punch I bought years ago to insert garment snaps to make the holes and unlike rivets, which have to be sort of hammered on, the Chicago screws just screw together- I like them a lot, far less traumatic.

I interfaced the lining with a woven fusible. I fused some fusible fleece to a sew-on interfacing (minus the seam allowances in the fleece of course) and stuck that to the wrong side of the leather with fusible tape.

I used fusible tape, the sticky kind you unpeel the paper from (anyone have a source for this in big rolls BTW?) a lot for this project, to attach the lining to the leather before stitching for instance.

Leather isn't hard to sew but it does stretch, like a knit, and you do need to stabilize the stitching area. I found the fusible tape helped with that a lot too.

If I did it again the only thing I would do next time is use a firmer interfacing like a foam. Didn't have any on hand or available locally for this project and was sewing too quickly and randomly to order it in (I needed a 20 minute delivery time once I decided to start making this bag).

Next week we are headed off to the US for a fall road trip with a destination at a wedding in DC next weekend (my son's brother-in-law) and we will certainly be hitting a few fabric stores en route- although I doubt if we will have time to get into NYC and the garment district this trip, as much as that breaks my heart.

As always I will be crossing the border with a supply list.

More project photos to follow in the next few days.

Promise.

Small big project

Bag and me on location at the Superstore parking lot

I am trying something new these days. 

My sewing time is constricted right now because I am trying to spend as much time as I can with the kids before school starts. 

Lots of days at my house, sleepovers (when are they going to invent a kid who waits until 8:00 a.m. to leap out of bed? not that I don't want to start projects before breakfast) and tea parties where we discuss moral issues and big ideas. 

My best of those tea parties this week involved explaining the concept of communicable diseases, specifically TB that had wiped out sections of both families only two generations ago, the role of sanitariums and cold air, the invention of antibiotics, as well as why some kids are mean at recess, the role of karma in the lives of kids who are mean at recess, not to mention extra ingredients that improve the taste of egg sandwiches (this is from the 5 year old who is an excellent cook), and why books for small children are funny but books for early readers are boring and always trying to teach moral or socially responsible lessons (like karma I guess) rather than being funny and interesting instead which is why more kids don't read more at the library's summer reading club.

This means I have had a lot less time to sew, not to mention that my entire mason jar collection has now been turned over to labeled jars of potion made of grass, water, dog food pellets, dried chipotle peppers, grapes from the vine around the window, quinoa and food colouring. 

That inventory and cleaning up after the witches went home seriously cut into the sewing time.

It also meant that I have had to reassert my focus, meaning I am trying something new these days and that is doing some sewing that will fill some gaps and what at the moment is my very real life.

I started with a little bag for myself, the Butterfly Sling, from Emmaline patterns - a wonderful, interesting pattern.

Garment sewing skills are not immediately transferable to bag sewing I can tell you. 

I found this bag pretty hard to figure out, spent a full afternoon folding a rectangle of fabric trying to make credit card slots for example, because I have no prior experience points of reference.

That said here is what I have learned about bag making as a new person doing this:

1. A lot depends on lots of interfacing. Different stuff like fusible thin batting and interfaced linings and yes, interfaced credit card slot pieces.

2. The pattern may tell you to trim away half of the interfacing from the seam allowances but you really need to trim the whole thing away from the seam IMO. Also cut out the corners and cut out the slot where the zipper will be sewn in. Trimming away a fusible fleece is not really possible to do after stitching well, I think - that interfacing needs not to be there in seam allowances if you want neat turns to the right side.

3. Hardware is the real secret, even if it is nerve wracking to install and involves things like glue and tiny screw drivers. A so so product like my first bag looks an awful lot better with real looking latches and bag type fasteners. Also learning how to use these new notions sort of makes a person feel as if she has expanded her world.

4. Find some good zippers. Right now I would kill to be living in the garment district and getting my hands on some Riri zippers. This pattern called for dress zippers and really since they are visible they are IMO design features and need to look sharper than this. Got to find myself a good online source.

5. The first one can be really rough while a person works it out. I learned enough here to know I want to do this pattern again and do it right.

OK enough talk here is the bag. Made in some scrap yellow denim and very much a rough and trial run version - now I have this figured out there will be more of these. My daughter who has good taste and as a result rarely asks me to make her one just like mom's has already ordered one.

This is a brilliant design and I have to say the pattern is beautifully written.

It has two zippered pockets with card slots inside (6 in each pocket) and a change zipper pocket a bill pocket, and a little ID window.

This whole unit folds in half (did I mention it is fleece interlined so is firm and soft) and is held in that way by two magnetic snaps and closed again with a strap with a turn latch.

the interior part of the bag opened

Oh and this is a cross body bag with a long, adjustable strap.

back view of the bag

I have to say this is fantastic, useful bag. It holds my phone safely ( have dropped this bag and due to the fleece nothing broke which is new for me, I can't remember the last time I owned an iPhone without a cracked screen), it has two great compartments for cards and stuff ( I am even thinking on my travels of having a US and Canadian side for my money) and is comfortable to wear.

I am feeling something just beginning here.