Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Hobby Blog, Part 2 -- Sewing

Do you see that even when I have a concrete idea for a blog, I blink and a month goes by? If you also tend to drop into black holes for indeterminate lengths of time, and you missed Hobby Blog 1 on drawing, you can find that here.

For hobby two, I wanted to focus on sewing, specifically machine sewing. For some reason, I despise having to get out a needle and thread to sew cloth together, although I do enjoy embroidery projects like cross stitch. I can make no sense of my targeted aversion to hand sewing. One time, I had an idea to make bears out of old clothes, so I found a blogger's pattern with how-to pictures and turned pair of my husband's old camouflage pants and khakis into an adorable bear.


 The ears in particular were magical the way they sewed together:


Just take my word for it. The ears seemed impossible, yet they worked just like they were supposed to.

99% of this bear was machine sewn, and it went great, and I had visions of making them as Christmas gifts, but then I had to attach the head to the body with a needle and thread, and it all fell apart. It only partly literally fell apart. Mostly, I just lost motivation.

All I needed to do was buckle down and learn how to do the correct stitch so the seams wouldn't show, but it just wasn't fun and I didn't want to. The head is attached, and the bear looks nice if it's sitting still. Projects that involve hand stitching to finish are not for me.

So, for my birthday, a wonderful friend of mine (who probably took the time to read this blog) gifted me a craft class. Machine sewing is one of those things I "can" do but have never "learned how" to do, so I jumped at the chance to walk through the most complicated travel bag of all time.


This thing must have consumed its own weight in thread with the number of times each piece was sewn and resewn and attached and sewn again and sewn at least two more times in the binding stage (the most heinous of all the stages.) I did basic quilting and worked with pockets and mesh and zippers.


It has a slip pocket underneath a zippered pocket. That's a crazy amount of pockets.

Once I finished that behemoth project, other bag patterns looked more doable, and I found one that felt reasonable to make as gifts. The project below was a nice toiletry bag size with a single zipper and two handles on the sides. Plus, I was able to use old batting, fabric, and zippers, including parts robbed from old clothes, which always makes me happy.


This one that I made for myself consisted of an old skirt I used to love. The lining, zipper, and handles came from a light sweater jacket, because I enjoy creating impossible sewing challenges like attaching cotton and heavy knit fabric together. My sewing machine did not appreciate punching through that metal zipper.




This one is very floppy due to the heavy zipper and the bulky knit fabric. I love it.

I managed to make four of them as gifts along with the one for myself, which is excellent project persistence for me. I have trouble making the same thing twice under normal circumstances.

After Christmas, I took a break from sewing, but I may be able to talk myself into making a few more of these or tackling a similar project. I really enjoy making bags and containers, especially when I can cobble them together from hoarded materials.

I have one more hobby blog planned, but I won't pretend like it's going up next week. That one will (hopefully someday) cover graphic design.

I'll end with my hastily-blanket-covered-photography-background chair mere seconds after I put the bag away:

That cat is black, not some odd shade of brownish-green, but you get the idea.

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