A Sewing Weekend

Its been lovely having a long weekend off. We decided to spend Friday and Saturday working which meant Simon was working on bleaching/painting the outside walls of the house and I did a little bit of computer work and lots of sewing. The sewing was mainly work related but before I started on the work sewing I made a second bag out of my metre of Laura Ashley yellow spot oilcloth which I bought for £9 a metre (reduced from £20 a metre). Here's the first bag I made.

I love the first bag but its a bit small so I decided I needed a deeper bag. I used the same template as last time but made it quite a bit deeper and a little bit wider, but forgot to actually measure my pieces. I didn't have enough for handles so used a set of purchased handles.

I put a zipped pocket on the outside. The zips I had were a bit short. Wish I'd bought some longer ones.

For the lining I used a 1/2 metre of cotton I bought from Social Fabric last autumn. The inside has a row of slip pockets for my phone, my business cards, knitters tool tin and 2 pens plus a zipped pocket.

I tend to carry my Nexus 7 tablet around with me and for a while I've wanted to make a slip pocket between the lining and outer fabric for my tablet. It was a bit fiddly and I struggled to work out how to attach the inner and outer bag but worked it out eventually.

I love this bag. Its big enough for my day to day stuff plus a knitting project and its light.

After I finished the bag on Friday I started on the work sewing: making two aprons with pockets for Simon and I to wear at shows this year. With the first show, WonderWool,  next weekend this task was urgent. I used this Purl Bee pattern as my template.

The aprons themselves are easy to make but I wanted zipped and slip pockets for money, pens, phone, notebook and stuff. I managed to make a zipped pocket covered by a slip pocket on the green apron but it was fiddly.

I'm not 100% happy with it but I thought zipped pockets would be useful for keeping money secure.

Zipped pocket covered by slip pockets. There are two of each pockets. Not 100% happy with the neatness of my sewing!

When I started the purple apron I decided that I couldn't go through the hazzle of making the zipped pockets again so I went for a much simpler double layer of slip pockets. 

I sewed three lines down across the pockets to divide each pocket into three. This pocket looks much neater. I'm thinking about taking off the pockets on the green apron and doing the same as I did for the purple apron. I don't have ties yet so till the ties are sewn on and we can try them on I'm not making a final decision.

I love the two colours together. I had planned to put green pockets on the purple apron and vice verse but decided it might just highlight our tummies, neither of us are skinny!

Last night I decided to start quilting Vanessa's quilt, which is a double bed size and I want to machine quilt it. I'm doing straight(ish) lines about 1/2 inch inside the squares. My lines aren't completely straight.

After a couple of You Tube videos I managed to fit my walking foot. I had to refit it twice and I broke three needles before I got into the swing of it. Managed to quilt six lines last night. I want to finish this quilt before Vanessa goes back to uni next weekend.

Don't forget the 25% off pattern offer (use code: easter for 25% off my patterns) finishes at midnight tonight and the $10 off the Pro Finishing Online class finishes tomorrow. If you prefer an 'in-person' class I'm teaching it in Cornwall in May.