Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
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I spent some time sewing yesterday in between soccer and a movie. As a result, I finished the Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker Tote. I keep thinking of it as the Julie tote, since Julie looked high and low and found the blue Denyse Schmidt fabric for me. She may get a gift. 😉
As I mentioned in my review, the construction of this tote is amazingly elegant. Putting the straps on was no exception. There is a part where you fold over the top and that becomes the channel for the straps. I am still completely in awe of AMH and her ability to imagine the construction of this bag.
In the photo below, I tried to show you the channel. Aside from having to turn the straps inside out, which is a big pain in the patootie, I got the straps on and the bag ready to carry stuff in a couple of hours.
My only concern is that the way the straps are held on means that I won’t be able to carry heavy stuff in it. I don’t plan to use this for groceries, but I routinely carry:
I don’t think the above list is outrageous…. I do have to have my stuff with me.
I plan to make another one now that I know the drill. I have ideas for different ways of combining fabric. I ended up buying some of the Peltex 2 from SewThankful (I think), so I need to do something with it. This Multi-tasker tote bag is a nice change from the Eco Market tote.
If I didn’t think Anna Maria Horner was a goddess already, I do now. I spent the day on Sunday, minus a short chauffeuring task, with the Multi-tasker Tote (AMH MTT), a recent pattern from Ms. Horner. As I suspected, I did have trouble understanding the directions. It is the way I learn and not completely about the directions. I do think there were a few tiny parts that could have been clarified just a little bit more. I know they have a certain number of pages they can use to create a pattern and have to worry about font, enough photos, etc, so I really am not going to complain too much.
In all fairness, I think making 20 or 30 of the Eco Market Totes gave me a feel for what should be going on in the tote making process. Doing a multitude of those totes and making little changes in the pattern made me understand the bones of tote-making. The AMH MTT is much different than the EMT, but in the end they are totes and their goal is to carry things.
In general, however, this is an amazing pattern. The way it goes together looks completely mysterious one minute and the next minute it is gorgeous and elegant. I was completely blown away, because it made me think about tote bags in a new way. I don’t think it is a beginner pattern, however I would say that any intermediate sewist who has a few tote bags under her belt could use this pattern to make a bag.
In the above photo, you can see the bit that is folded over to accommodate the straps, including my lovely top stitching. 😉 I haven’t finished the straps yet, so there is another photo of this project to which you can look forward!
One of the steps I had trouble with was step #8. I really couldn’t figure out what the directions were trying to accomplish. Finally, I realized that she wanted me to sew the bottom of the pocket together! To accomplish that I had to pop the pocket (pattern piece is called pocket panel) out a certain way. When you do orient the section correctly, the whole thing looks like the section above.
Remember I mentioned the gusset tutorial in the Bag Bazaar book? I didn’t have a chance to try it out. I found AMH’s directions to be stellar. You press a crease into the side of your bag, then you line up the bottom seam with that crease and you have a perfect triangle. I drew a line (not part of the directions), because of my A type personality. Perfect box bottom. I did it before I realized what was happening and was amazed at the results.
I love the fabrics that I chose for the current tote, individually. I am not happy with the two of them in combination in this project. Too many flowers, I think, which means that none of them stand out. Yes, I will be making another! As I mentioned in a previous post and as you can see from the photos, I used the Denyse Schmidt fabrics as a trial run.
My biggest challenge with this project is the requirement of Pellon Peltex Double-Sided Fusible Ultra Firm Stabilizer #72. I didn’t have any in my fabric closet, which didn’t worry me. I sewed and fused two pieces of Timtex together and the put Steam-a-Seam 2 on the outside and fused it to the bag. Having a stiff bottom is GREAT! It makes the thing stand up and much less floopy. Using my jerry-rigged method, I could easily see where something already stiff and fusible would be a lot easier. I searched the web and found it by the yard for $10+. I also found a bolt of it for $99+. Huh! I can’t make another of these using my jerry-rigged method, because I am out of SAS2. I have to decide whether to get a bolt (seems like overkill) or pay, what seems like, and exorbitant price for a yard. Anyone of you have any perspective on the price of Pellon Peltex Double-Sided Fusible Ultra Firm Stabilizer #72?
Kristin LaFlamme reviewed this pattern on her blog as well. It is a very complete review. She mentions a couple of the inconsequential typos I also saw and does some interesting things using recycled materials. Her rendition of the pattern makes me think about adding additional pockets to the outside. Adding a pocket to the outside would be especially successful when I don’t have a focus fabric (as shown on the pattern above) or fabric suitable for broderie perse.
Update: this was given to Dolores as a gift.
This was another pattern from All People Quilt called Grab Bag. We were invited to a party on Sunday night. I whipped one up to bring to the guest of honor. I have wanted to test this pattern, so it seemed like a good opportunity.
I struggled a bit with some of the directions, especially the last few dealing with the handle finishing. Eventually I figured out what they were trying to tell me, but not without a fair amount of ripping. It was a good exercise in patience for me. I am sure companies like All People Quilt struggle with making the directions short AND easy to understand. For my part, I am glad for some of these free patterns.
I used an old large flower print for the outside and a Marimekko for the lining.
There are two major changes, and one minor change, that I would make on future Grab Bags:
Above is a view of the inside. You can see a bit of the pockets and the Marimekko print.
I am pleased to have tried two new bag patterns. I think it has allowed me to feel sufficiently successful and warmed up to try the Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote, I discussed in yesterday’s post.
As you know, I have been thinking of branching out from the Eco Market Tote bag pattern that I have a been using for the past 1.5 years. I saw the Over the Top bag in a recent issue of Quilts & More magazine. That mag is on Facebook, so I get more notifications about what they have going. I saw their promotion for Quarterly Challenges, which reminded me of this bag. A couple of things came together, including watching their little tips video, so I downloaded the pattern last Friday and made the bag, mostly, on Saturday.
I am pleased with the way it came out. It is the perfect size for a small handwork project tote. As with all things I sew from a pattern, I found that the first piece is really a test piece. I rely heavily on TFQ and her garment sewing experience when it comes to 3D projects, so deciphering this one alone was a challenge.
There were a few things I didn’t really understand in the pattern and, thus, skipped. I don’t see that it made much difference in the long run. There were some things that the pattern said to do that I would do differently a second time. I would add more stiffness to the bottom, perhaps something like Timtex. The pattern says to sew only to the dots, which are about 1/4″ away from the edge. This makes sense for the bottom seams. It is necessary in order to put the Y seams together. It isn’t necessary on the top of the bag and actually turned out to be a pain. since the top seams weren’t crossed by another machine stitched seam, they started to come apart after I had the bag mostly together. I ended up hand stitching the tops of the seams.
I think that this pattern has a lot of opportunities for embellishment, which could be fun. I keep thinking of a picture I saw in either thr3fold journal or Quilting Arts, where Laura Kemshall did a beaded edging on one of her bags.
In anticipation of loving this pattern, I bought enough magnetic clasps to make 4 bags total. After making it, however, I am not sure whether or not I will make any more. In some ways I want to make the bag again, so I can perfectmy construction techniques. On the other hand, I don’t think they style and size would be that useful for me, so I am not sure I want to have a bunch of them hanging around the house. They may, however, make nice gifts.
As you may remember, I bought some fabric at Always Quilting on the day I went to longarm.
After finishing the Clear tote, I looked around for my next project. I had tote bags on the mind, so out came the fabric and off I went.
I cut out two totes. This is the one where the main outside part of the bag is made with the flower print from the Ginger Blossom line by Sandi Henderson. I have used the stripe fabric from the same line for the accents and the lining [inside].
One GREAT thing about this project, aside from geting a new tote bag out of the work, was that I learned to use the button hole function on the Jem. It is much easier to use than the button hole function on the 9000. Now I don’t have to go to Seattle in order to make button holes! TFQ’s machine makes GREAT button holes. The Jem button holes will be a suitable facsimile, not as good as going to Seattle, but suitable.
I have enough of the stripe to make another bag. It is already cut out, but I didn’t do very well making two bags at once, so I just cut both out and lined them. Once that was done I limited myself to sewing one at a time. I’ll sew the other one this weekend.
I also have some blue flowery fabric that I bought for a tote. Perhaps I will get that done as well. It feels like a good time to make tote bags. TFQ asked me if I was still using the Favorite Things Eco Market tote pattern. I am, but she made me think that, perhaps, I should dig out those other tote patterns I have purchased over the past year and try one of them out. I really want to try the Liesel tote. I am a really big chicken when it comes to 3D things, so I’ll have to gear up.
As you may recall, I made this lining for the Cupcake Tote, but ended up not using it.
After finishing the Eggplant/Lemon tote and embellishing the Chocolate Flower Tote, I, once again, turned my attention to this troublesome lining. It wasn’t intentionally troublesome, but the colors turned out to be a problem.
I looked through my fabric, not really sure what to pick. I pulled out these dots from the Timeless Treasures Basix collection. I love these dots, though I love the ones with the white backgrounds more. I thought I would use them, but when I looked at the three pieces together, I decided that making visually decisions visually was a good idea. The colors in the cake fabric didn’t go with the dots. No purple or pink in the dots and no turquoise or orange in the cake fabric. Too bad, because I have a lot of black dot fabrics that I haven’t used at all. The outside fabrics had to go with the lining, though.
After looking carefully at the focus fabric and looking through my black and white fabrics, I found this red batik and this violet dot.
This is the grouping that I picked. I wanted the fabrics to all go together without being too matchy-matchy. I also wanted to use some dots. The violet dot is very thin and I don’t like it forpiecing. I don’t have much of that red batik, but think it will be nice as an accent. I completely ignored the aqua pockets that I already sewed to the inside of the lining. Nobody will see them much except the owner.
Stay tuned.
I worked on some totes this weekend. The Chocolate Flower tote was completed this summer (wrote about it on July 26), but something was missing. In general, I am also not liking the big blobs of fabric that the big outside pockets tend to become. I found a random piece of ribbon with the perfect colors. I used it to embellish the tote’s outside pocket last night. When I auditioned it, I thought the ribbon made the green in the flower print stand out.
In future totes I want to work on making the outside pocket less of a big blob.
My newest tote is the eggplant/lemon tote. I started it on my summer vacation, but didn’t work on it again until this weekend, .
The lemon flower fabric is from a recent Moda collection (Fresh Squeezed by Sandy Gervais??). I love the colors in the vegee/eggplant fabric. It is a very fun fabric that I would, probably, never use in a quilt.
Here is the inside of the bag. I have started to put large pockets on the insides of all the bags in addition to the small pocket. They are very useful.
Here is the finished cupcake tote bag! The cupcake fabric is that which I bought from Clemetine’s Dry Goods a few months ago. I originally thought I would use a black cake fabric for the inside and I went so far as to construct it, but decided that it really didn’t go with the delicate aqua of the outside and changed the lining to this lovely turquoise cake with stands fabric. I bought that fabric at Capital Quilts AND at one of the shops in Connecticut while I was there.
Since I have not been able to figure out how to use the buttonholer on my machine, the buttons are decorative only. I put them there to break up that large expanse of pink. I have to go and get some more of these buttons as I love them. They have some style! They are vintage buttons from Britex and there are a couple of different styles available made out of the same material.
Before I put the large white buttons on, I tried these pewter teapot/coffee cup buttons. They were ok, but the bag required some bolder embellishments.
This is the original lining for the cupcake bag. I decided, eventually, that it just didn’t go with the light aqua and abandoned it for the turquoise gateau fabric lining. I’ll use this for another bag. Not sure which yet.
Next bag is the eggplant/lemon bag. 😉
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I was at Pacific Fabrics yesterday and saw this great bag from K & C Company and Amy Butler. It is called the Creativity Bag and says it was designed for scrapbooking.
TFQ and I liked it because of the interior dividers. I don’t think I would want to carry it around all the time, but it would make a nice travel bag. Frankly, I would just like to try to make one. Either the design or the fabric is licensed, so, after discussing with TFQ, we are skeptical that they are also selling a pattern. It seems like they would just want to sell the complete bag. I’ll have to look carefully, though, on the Web to be sure.
TFQ found a pattern she bought several years ago, which is similar. It has the dividers inside, but doesn’t have a really good variety of photos of different angles.
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I was pleased to see that this pattern actually worked when made up. I am still not a fan of the hard handles, but I do like the look of the bottom of the bag. I especially like the way there seems to be one bag inside another. The colors on this rendition are quite appealing as well.
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I had resolved to look at all of the Pineapple blocks yesterday in order to see how many I need to remake in order make progress on the Pineapples. It has been kind of a Pineapple disaster couple of weeks and I wanted to get back to it.
But, I didn’t.
Instead I worked on the easy project and finished a bag and made another whole bag. Yes, start to finish. I am going to use it today.
This is the bag that I had been working on. It is kind of part of a small series of bags made from fabric that I bought from Fabric.com. I was going to keep this one for myself, thus the dots, but I don’t think I will. I like it and find it to be well made, but the colors aren’t me. I need a another bag for a gift and will probably use this one as the gift. I also decided that I don’t really like the paisley fabric that much. I was happy with the way I centered that one paisley on the pocket.
The white dots had been languishing in my sewing room for awhile and I wanted to get them into a bag. I, originally, wanted to make an entire bag out of them, but didn’t have enough of the dot fabric. One of the fabrics I bought on Saturday was destined for the inside of this bag. I also used the webbing straps I bought at Britex for this bag. They made the sewing go REALLY fast. However, I melted one part of a strap and got goo all over my iron, so I may not use them again. I also don’t like the limited color selection. Anyone know of a good source for these straps? How about nice colors and NOT made from plastic?
This is the inside of the bag. Isn’t it fun!?! It is a very sedate bag until you open it and then it gives you a little punch. I love this fabric, because it makes me feel cheerful when I look at it. I was shocked to find that it is a Judy Rothermel Aunt Grace fabric!
I cut out the pieces for another bag and will use this cheerful flower fabric for the outside of a bag as well. Yes, I am going bag crazy.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I bought fabric to make a bag for my SIL for a gift.
TFQ and I were emailing back and forth about the EMT bags and she mentioned an easier way to make the straps. The method she found on another pattern has you make them quadruple the size of the finished strap, fold in half, open, fold each raw edge towards the middle and press. I used this method for making straps for my latest bag (above) and after about an hour of work I am ready to apply the large outside pocket and sew the bags together. The straps are on the outside, the pockets are positioned. TFQ’s method, while using more fabric, made the process amazingly fast. I didn’t think that the process explained on the pattern was terrible, but making the straps was terrible and this is much better. I think I will have time to make a couple of other bags for people I will visit this summer. YAY!
This is a good example of why collaboration is so important. As you can see, I have made a lot of progress on the project.
