Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Since I have been revisiting gifts I have made, I thought I would do the same for gifts I have made for my sister.
I am not sure if this list shows everything I have made for her, but it is a good start. The Inside Outside pouch is the one I made her for Christmas.
Since taking a look at gifts I made for Gerre a week or so ago, I decided to look at gifts I have made for Mom and Julie. Here are the various gifts I have made for my mom. Many have the different artist fabrics I have collected.
Cutting out pieces for bags is the hardest part. It is also, for me, the worst part. I often make two of a pouch or bag at the same time. Cutting out two of each piece at one time doesn’t seem to be that much harder than cutting out one. That is how I made this pouch. I decided on the spur of the moment to make the same pouch for Lil Sissy for Christmas that I was making for myself. I didn’t think really hard about the fabric. I grabbed this Alison Glass fabric, which is super cheerful, IMO, and for which I hadn’t yet found a use.
I am on the fence about whether I should have used a different fabric for the zipper plackets. I have trouble figuring out where pieces are going to go and most independent pattern makers don’t really tell you beyond naming the piece. I think using the same fabric on this pouch looks fine. If I used fabric like the Dripping Rose again, I would probably use different fabric. The motifs get broken up too much.
I picked a specific inside for this pouch, because it is for my sister. She is an artist, thus the splatter print. She seems to like the bags I make for her, though I have always used Paris related prints for her. This fabric is a departure.
I put a gift certificate inside.
I finished the Percheron Pouch over the Thanksgiving Weekend, which was a great relief. I couldn’t show it because it was a gift for my mom and she reads this blog.
I gave it to her on Christmas and she really liked it. She filled it up with all of the other gifts she received.
I really liked the look of this bag, which is why I decided to make it for my mom. I like making her bags I think are interesting. She always seems to appreciate them.
I really struggled with this bag. As I said before, I cut this bag out in June. Then it languished for all the same reasons that other projects languished: workroom upgrade and work.
I worked on it a little, but was frustrated with all of the sewing and ripping that I had to do. I don’t know what the issue was with this bag, but I struggled with the pattern and the video.
Finally, over Thanksgiving, I decided to work on it in earnest. Yes, I still ripped and sewed and ripped some more, but I was able to finish it.
I thought it looked good enough to give away even if it isn’t perfect.
I gave Julie this Large Retreat Pouch for her birthday the other day. This is the bag I made over Halloween weekend, but couldn’t show you since she reads this blog.
The Retreat Bag is a free pattern from Emmaline Bags. It requires a frame and the frame is not free, but also not very expensive. The frame allows it to open all the way, providing easy access to the contents.
I realized around that time that I needed to get busy and start making any gifts that I wanted to make for the holidays. That weekend, this was one of two Large Retreat Pouches that I made. As I mentioned then, it was the first time I had made the large version of this pouch. I added a leash to this one, because I thought it would make the bag more useful.
This is a pretty large bag. It would be great for a few balls of yarn and knitting needles as well as some EPP. I think it could also be used for a sponge bag or makeup kit.
The lining actually fits pretty snugly though it looks baggy in the photo.
I used some of my favorite purple fabrics since this was going to one of my favorite people.
I know it wasn’t that long ago that I wrote a post about the gifts I have made for my friend Gerre. I have made her a few more gifts this year and wanted to post them all together again. Surprisingly, I had forgotten to list a few of them, like the travel pouch, so I have added them.
I have enjoyed revisiting gifts I made for Julie and my mom. I haven’t made as many gifts for Gerre, but I decided to revisit them anyway.
I enjoy making gifts for other people, especially useful gifts. Revisiting them is just a way to enjoy them again. I also like to see what gifts I tend to make for multiple people.
At work I have a team meeting every Monday. For some reason I started to show whatever items I made over the weekend to my workmates. Now it is a regular feature of our meetings.
After showing the bowl cozies I made for the BAM swap, a big discussion ensued about what they were, how to use them. I offered to make some for everyone, but only my boss took me up on them. I finished them yesterday.
I am really pleased with the fabric choices. I am glad she wanted red and black!
After making these using the same tutorial I used before, I am thinking of making bowl cozies as family gifts. I could make gift bags as soon as I finish the bowl cozies and I wouldn’t have to do anything in December. If I start in January it won’t be so bad. You can remind me of my big plans when I am moan about family gifts in December. 😉
I bought this Purse Organizer pattern from Sotak Handmade sometime in December 2020 when she was having a sale. It was an impulse buy. I thought that the bag would be useful in my work laptop bag for carrying my wallet and some items I would normally put in my purse. When you don’t have a desk, everything has to be portable and carrying a purse in addition to a laptop bag and a lunch bag makes me feel like a small pack animal.
I cut out this pouch on New Year’s Eve eve 2020 and sewed it together on New Year’s Day 2021. Once cut out, it was an easy project.
The excellent thing is that I was reminded how easy Zipper slip pockets are to add! Tim and I have talked about these types of pockets, but I was reluctant despite the cool zipper ruler I bought. This pattern got me back into the swing of those zipper slip pockets and I feel more confident that I can put them into any bag. I did have trouble keeping the zipper straight as I sewed it, so that is something to work on.
I also should have clipped the corners of the bag before turning it as I couldn’t poke the corners out and make them look sharp.
I decided to make this as a gift for my mom for Mother’s Day, but ended up giving her something else, so it was a Christmas gift.
I have gifts on the mind. Time is short for some winter holidays so gifts that have not been started have to be quick. I don’t like to give handmade gifts that are only quick. I like to give things that people will use.
Here are the Mega Pinnies I have made.
I have an idea to make another one. Maybe for the Door prizes for next year?
Resources:
As I said the other day, these were a pretty fast gift to make.
The tutorial is one page of instructions plus the template for the darts. The tutorial makes total sense and isn’t difficult or complicated. I wanted to see what other tutorials were available so I put “bowl cozy tutorial” into Duck Duck Go (a search engine that doesn’t track your movements) and got a number of blog posts and videos.
Crafty Gemini has a video tutorial for a more more petal shaped cozy. The Caffeinated Quilter tutorial has thinner triangles for darts and the back is pulled around the front for a border/binding. Tara Reed’s blog post tutorial reminds us we can use orphan blocks or ‘made’ fabric as parts for the bowl cozy.
One reason I like this pattern is because of the angle of the darts. It would fit one of my soup type bowls really well. We have some larger bowls that we use for chunky dinner (not leftover) soups and stews. Those might fit better in a larger cozy with steeper sides. The good thing about this pattern is that you can adjust it and use the same directions. They only thing would be to keep the angles of the triangles consistent.
I think you could also adjust the shape of the corners to make different looks.
I am trying to decide if I want to make a bunch of these for DH’s cousins and siblings. While I can make them quickly, I would still have to pick out fabric. That takes time just because of the logistics. As well, most people won’t know what they are, so I would have to make a little tag to let people know how to use them. I also think one is kind of a mean gift. What happens if one gets dirty? I would want to make two for each family. I suppose I could start with one and see how things go. I’ll have to talk to DH and see what his thoughts are.
Try one out. Even if you decide not to make them as gifts, you will have something useful for your kitchen.
Awhile ago, Mrs. K made me a bowl cozy.I never thought I needed such a thing, but I use it all the time and it is very helpful.
Someone told me about a bowl cozy tutorial and reminded me of that great gift. I decided to try it out over the weekend.
They are fairly easy to make. The process goes quickly.
My issue was sewing. I wasn’t sure whether to sew all the way to the corner, so I didn’t do it at first, because of the change in height of the layers. The batting bunched up as my sewing machine foot got to it, so I started sewing from the batting on the other corners. This looked bad, so I went back later and sewed to the edges.
While this is the first Large Retreat Bag I have made, it is the third Retreat bag I have constructed (total). This is a free pattern from Emmaline Bags that requires a frame. The frame is not free, but also not very expensive. The frame allows it to open all the way (widemouth), providing easy access to all of the contents.
I like this bag, but the Large size is LARGE. I am not sure what I would use this size for so I don’t know that I will make a large one again, though I have another frame, so I might.
The pattern doesn’t call for it, but I put in an interior zipper pocket. Tim thought up the idea of an interior pocket to use to turn the bag. This means I (we) can turn the bag without leaving the bottom seam open. Yes, the bottom of the interior zipper pocket is left open, but it is much more hidden than the bottom.
It has been awhile since I made an interior zipper pocket (also called a flush pocket), so I screwed up a few times on the first one. I definitely didn’t remember how to do it at all and had to get Tim to remind me which resources he used. I did find a couple of tutorials, but they were lacking.
The most helpful tutorial was Sara Lawson’s video (of Sew Sweetness), which is the one Tim uses. I started out using the directions in the book, the Bag Making Bible** by Lisa Lam. The part after the zipper installation are a little skimpy, so the video filled in the gap.
I made two of these bags over the weekend and the second zipper went much more smoothly. Now I have a couple of gifts ready for the holidays. As a result, check back to see the whole bags.
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My guild had their first in person meeting over the weekend. Maria organized a swap as a fun thing to welcome everyone back. I joined and was assigned Maria who wanted potholders.
Potholders are almost the last thing I would consider making. When I use potholders I want them to protect my hands from the heat and I have not found that homemade potholders do that. Still, Maria wanted potholders, so I made potholders.
I had some Insulbright on hand, so I used that in addition to two layers of batting. The sandwich was super fat. I didn’t want to do very much thread sinking, so I didn’t quilt it as much as I could have, but they turned out pretty thin in the end. I hope all the layers will protect Maria’s hands.
She also wanted lime green. Since I made her a pillow before, I decided to stick with that theme and use the same block. I had to redraw the block in EQ8, because I couldn’t find my block from the swap. The proportions came out a little different in this piece, but I think they still look good.
I didn’t think about a hanging loop until it was too late to put one on. Oh well.
I added in pink because I like pink and it made the potholders look cheerful and celebratory. The theme of the swap is Celebration! so the colors fit. I made a gift bag in the same fabric as the binding. The gift is ready to go.
While this is Mom’s UCAB, I tested it on my travel sewing machine bag to see if it would work for me. The key is to adjust the back sleeve to fit over your rolly bag handle. I have no idea if there are standard sizes for those, so make sure you check before you sew everything to the exterior.
I plan to put my smaller items in the UCAB. I am not sure how I am going to reconcile this bag with the Tupperware box.
The picture below shows the bag empty, but trust me when I say I filled it up. It isn’t completely filled.
I need mine to contain all my to go items – notions and rulers, etc. I put them in the various pockets of the sewing machine bag, which has a lot of pockets, but it makes some of the zippers hard to open.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to be saying that I finished the UCAB for my mom and gave it to her for her birthday! This bag goes with the set of items I am making from the Paint Tube fabric.
I am so excited because I spent a lot of time on this bag and got everyone excited about it, then the pandemic hit and all the excitement died.
I finished the bag on September 12, 2021 after spending September 11 ripping out a lot of what I had sewn the prior week. I spent the Sunday morning of the 12th thinking about construction and how I could avoid putting the bag together the way Natalie does. I know she has had success putting together a million of these bags, but the construction did not work for me. I can’t believe how flat she gets her binding.
What I ended up doing is putting the binding on before I constructed the whole bag. I know the binding is supposed to cover the edges of the sides. This made no sense since the sides were finished.
After thinking about how I could construct the bag without killing myself, I decided that I would put the binding on the exterior, then sew the side section to the exterior. The sides were already finished and the process worked very well. I lined up the bottom of the sides right next to the binding and clipped the living daylights out of it, then sewed that section to the exterior. It looked a lot better than my previous effort, which was a big mess. My effort is not as neat as Natalie’s, but I am happy with what I did. I am not embarrassed to give this bag as a gift.
The other thing I thought about is not finishing the bottom of the side panels. This would mean that only two layers of fabric along with the thickness of the exterior would need to be under the binding. I might try it that way on the other version of the bag.