Sick day project

I've not been feeling great the last couple nights and so hadn't even looked at the baby quilt. Decided to stay home today and rest, and what's more relaxing than a day at the sewing machine. Turns out the next step in the quilt requires the batting (and my machine didn't come with a walking foot), so I moved on to my tote bag project.

I'd already cut all the pieces, but still ended up spending the better part of 5 hours sewing this project. It's not quite done but is getting close. Things moved along nicely until I didn't understand how to finish the top of the bag. So I first just folded it over and sewed. Realizing that was wrong, I used my seem ripper and then re-read the instructions and tried to follow them. It called for me to press a 1/2 inch seem and then press that in half and sew. I think I did it right the second time, but then when called up to do it a third time for the lining, I reverted.

The project went along well until I got to the handles. First, I didn't understand that the instructions wanted me to sew two pieces together because I didn't cut enough pieces. Then, after I'd already sewed them sort of halfway, I realized I had cut lining for them unnecessarily. Which turned out great, except that the handles didn't really come out uniform. This can be partly attributed to me not understanding the directions and partly to me being frustrated at this point and not taking all the care to sew everything straight.

The handles were my first experience with turning something so narrow inside out. I ended up doing ok without any gadgets to help me along. I'm pleased with how the handles turned out because the black side of the handles will really help to break up that white background of the main fabric.

I started to attach the handles, which seems to be far trickier than the instructions in my little book would have you think. I'm experiencing some sort of trouble with the combination of wanting a shorter stitch length and having to go through three layers of fabric. I tried different tensions (on the advice of my mom who says that my previous similar issue was tension related) but to no avail. I had to quit or risk stressing myself into another sick day. See the "mock up" of my finished bag below.

Baby Quilt Part 2

We made a lot of progress tonight on the quilt and if I buy batting, I could probably finish it tomorrow. You can't really tell from the photo but there are definitely some abnormalities about it including some square being a little...puckered? The ones that didn't sew perfectly square don't really lay flat. I got a little frustrated, but honestly I'm sure it'll look fine when it's done. Made with love, right? That's the point of this little project. Unfortunately, baby Brooklyn has a lot of really crafty family members so she's probably going to have some nicer stuff than this, but at least it's soft and photographs pretty well.

Finished cutting the pattern pieces for my tote bag, so I hope to start that Wednesday. I'm less thrilled with my fabric choices now that I see the way it's come together. I'm drawn to fabrics on light backgrounds, but find that they don't seem to do well for bags. I steered clear of this for the other bag I bought fabric for (which, by the way, my sewing tutorial says not to buy for more than one project at a time, and this is probably why - learning curve). Still, it'll probably be nice. And if not, I'll send it to my niece. She likes anything new and has a real thing for handbags.

Tote bag from Sew It Workshop

I also started this project on Sunday. I picked out a lovely toile fabric because I couldn't find any canvas in all of Joann fabric. This is a heavy 100% cotton fabric, so I think it'll work out just fine. The cutting was fairly simply and I thought it would be good practice at measuring and cutting. I'm no good at it, so still hoping it becomes easier with time and practice. Also makes me want to stick to square shaped projects for now. I'm clearly not ready for curves.

Hope to start sewing it this weekend once the baby quilt is done.

Brooklyn's Baby Quilt

Started Brooklyn's baby quilt on Saturday after a lengthy first trip to the fabric store. I had to get all my "beginner" sewing supplies and choose some fabrics for a couple other beginner projects. I thought the quilt would be a good first project because #1 all the lines are straight and #2 it's hard to screw up; quilts don't have to look perfect to keep you warm. My baby cousin Brooklyn is a few weeks old so she's the perfect target for my first project as a hobby sewist.

When I bought the quilt kit, I thought the pieces would all be cut. Not so. So I went back to Joann's on Sunday morning to acquire a rotary tool and cutting mat (so far the cost of this quilt is somewhere around $350 if you include the cost of the sewing machine). The rotary tool did make it easier, but I'm still having trouble cutting straight lines. I have always had this trouble, and I'm not sure if it is a skill that will develop with time or if I'm SOL like I am with most physical skills like bowling and walking while chewing gum.

I started out really good, pinning and sewing, but eventually gave up on pinning the small pieces (3x3 squares). It was at this point that my husband came along and started sewing together the larger blocks (4 of the 3x3 squares and then one of those with a 5.5 x 5.5 square) while I mostly pressed seems and cut fabric for my next project. We got about 1/3 of all the sewing done when the machine started to rebel against me.

If anyone reads this and knows what I'm doing wrong, please let me. Sometimes the machine seems to pull the thread from the top into the bobbin. The result of this seems to be a tangled mess of thread, plus the fabric gets pulled down in the machine toward the bobbin. I think this is symptomatic of sewing with the foot up, but the foot is not up. It doesn't happen every time, but it happens enough to make me wonder what I'm doing to it. My husband got pretty frustrated about the whole thing and gave up. So we still have another afternoon or so worth of sewing to finish it up. I also have to buy some batting, which will inevitably raise the cost of this quilt to an even $500. Just kidding, but barely.