Tag: bag

Japanese Knot Bag – Sewing Mojo!

I really enjoy sewing, but it has gone by the wayside as I have pursued painting and drawing. Determined to get other areas of interest back into my life, I have taken a few days off from the above, decided to limit it to a max of 2 hours / day, and then decided I needed a simple project to get my interest in sewing back.

It worked!

I looked up bags to sew – free patterns, too – and found a lot of them. The Japanese Knot Bag caught my eye, and this video from http://www.hellosewing.com got my immediate attention. First, the instructions for the bag are written here, and then there is a free pdf for the pattern, and finally there is this video! What a treasure trove of information.

My two cents is watch the video, slow it down a bit, and read the web page. I enjoyed the project enough to research more about the knot bag. On YouTube a lone you will find a variety of tutorials and bag styles. The one I made is from the pdf at hellosewing.com; it is small and will make a good bag for small knitting projects, such as socks.

I was too lazy to dig through my stash of fabrics; instead, I went to the local JoAnn and found sale material and bought enough for 2 purses. I made one yesterday, and total time was about 2 hours, beginning to end. I watched the video, slowed down by 50% to catch a few things, such as seam sewing early on and then how to turn the bag right side out. (Hint – through the opening of the longer strap!)

This is the bag, completed. This is a batik fabric and it is lined with a navy bluish solid color. The handles of the bag are really 2 different lengths. See below!

To close the bag, you pull the longer strap through the opening of the shorter strap. This closes up the bag, cinching it a bit, and the long strap then acts as a handle.

Then my machine presser foot handle decided to die – but it is, I think, a simple fix, and we should be back in business. I have another one to make!

Christmas Sewing – A Bag for Marguerita

This year I made a lot of Christmas presents – hats, bags, and a robe.  Here is the bag I made for my sister-in-law, Marguerita, who kindly sent me some photos of her bag as I forgot to take some.

After the complexity of the other bags I made, as well as the hand sewing they required, this was a pleasure as it was super easy to make!  I was really burnt out by Christmas Eve, but also felt really good to have accomplished making so many presents for those I love!  This season I knitted 3 beanies and made 4 bags, and one robe.  You won’t get to see the beanies and all the bags (bean bags?), but you will get to see the robe soon enough.

The materials were, for the most part, 100% cotton. The green is duck, rather coarsely woven as is the nature of duck. It’s stiffness was both a blessing and a curse. I also ran out of thread and had to go out to buy more – the result was nothing matched what I had used originally, so I had to remake the straps. No biggy.

The bag lining was pure serendipity for the matching of the pink to the printed fabric. I felt really lucky to find it – so many shades of pink!

The Parisian scenes are some upholstery fabric, and it was the focal point of the bag. The pink and green matched perfectly!

I had enough material left over to make a sewing machine cover for the Baby Lock Presto II – it came with a lightweight vinyl cover, and I thought something more classy would be fun to design and sew.

I used my Janome 6500P to make M’s bag. I have not used this machine in a while, and since I plan to use it when I go to the class to finish up my quilt top, I thought it would be a good thing to dig it out, reread the manual, and relearn all its parts. As an aside, it is a more sophisticated machine than the Presto, but less portable simply because it is a lot heavier. The Tutto makes it easy to tote, so I am looking forward to testing it out in a classroom situation.

So ends 2018!  I plan to continue sewing and learning to be a better sewist in 2019 by exploring new and different ways to sew, or things, such as using knits.  Photography, painting, drawing, knitting, and designing are all in the plans.  It is so nice to have time to do things – to not feel a horrific pressure to get things done!  Savoring time to think, to design, to plan, to learn – those have been so absent for the last 5 years.  Those 10-12 hour work days suck!  And now I get to enjoy the leisurely activities of a housewife – some of which I like (cooking) and some I just tolerate (cleaning) . . .

Happy New Year to everyone!  May 2019 bring you joy, health, and happiness!

Another Bag – The Rockport Tote

Between Inktober 2018, watercolors, tasks and errands, I have been working on another bag.  This one is in need of massive trimming of threads – so is the Boxy Tote – before it is done.  Then, it will be shipped off to a friend of 45 years “just because”!  It’s not perfect, but then nothing I ever do is, so that’s life, eh?

This bag is done with one piece of material and quilted every half inch on the body.  It’s called the “Rockport Tote” from Aunties Two.  The pattern is clearly written, and even better, there are videos to accompany it.  If you are interested, follow the preceding links and you will find them.  This project took me awhile to do – it spanned about 3 weeks, and in between a lot of stuff, I was champing at the bit to finish it.  I’m going to start another one next week – bags are in the works for Christmas presents.

The bag comes in three sizes – small, medium, large.  The small is tiny, perfect for little gifts and using up scraps of fabric.  I made the medium size.  The large is a bit bigger, but this one is a nice size to carry around.  Also, I was really happy to find this ceramic Celtic knot work button in my button box – it seems perfect for the bag.

 

One thing I am enjoying with my time off is the actual ability to have time.  If I was still working, I would be rushing and feeling pressed to finish this bag, and I think the whole project would have become a point of aggravation.  Slowing down requires having time, and in the time I have, I am finding I am enjoying working on things that would otherwise become frustrations.  My sewing skill is far from good, and my own rather casual approach to things doesn’t help.  Still, I do have time to do handwork (hand sewing) and picking apart seams or other bits that might not please me.  I have time to think about what I want to do, and time to set aside a project with the time to return to it.  All of a sudden the rush-rush-rush of my former daily life is gone.

And thus, another project completed.  I start a 5-week introduction to quilting class at Quilty Pleasures and another 2-day class to make another Rockport Tote.  Yes, you read that last right – I figure I would make one Rockport, and then make another, learning from my own experience, as well as that from Betsy, who taught the Boxy Tote class I took last month.  And, though I profess to dislike quilting, my thought is that learning how to cut and sew precisely, as needed for a good quilt, won’t hurt me or my sewing skills.  I can only improve.  And I know I will have a lot of fun in the process (and probably some frustrations, too.)