Messenger Bag

After having so much fun sewing the project bag on Monday, I spent Tuesday sewing a simple messenger bag, following tutorials I found on the internet. This one uses fabric I got at G Street Fabric for this purpose a while ago -- home dec fabric for the outside and some red batik quilting cotton for the lining. It's about 10" wide by 13" high by 3" deep -- gussetted with a 3" gusset. The strap is just a smidge narrower than the gusset -- about 2.5". This one has no pockets, etc. It closes with velcro. Now that I know how to do it, I am already planning another one -- wider than it is tall, maybe 2" deep so that it will have a narrower strap, and with pockets. This one will be fine for travel, when I want to carry my camera, folding umbrella, knitting project, hat, etc. I found a tutorial for a zippered messenger bag that I think would be a good base for the second bag.

Quilted Project Bag

Mom sent me a link to a video on Crafty Gemini showing how to make a quilted wristlet bag. I had a "20% off entire purchase" coupon from Joann's, so I went over there & bought the materials to make the bag. I was in the mood for bright color, so I used an orange border print for the outside and coordinating bright pink for the lining. I learned a lot from making it. I'm happy with the result, even though I can point out every little imperfection in it. It's useful, too -- I've got my current knitting project in it. It was a productive afternoon.

Summer of Socks #2

I've finished & blocked my second pair of SOS socks. Now off to knit some more . . . but what?

Summer of Socks #1

I've interrupted my UFO knitting to participate in Summer of Socks on Ravelry -- three pairs of socks in three months. The first pair is a cotton spiral pattern that I knitted from some Knit Picks Comfy sock cotton yarn in the Hollyberry colorway. My fist pair of cotton socks! I liked the pattern and the yarn (once I got used to it). And I wore the socks to church on Sunday; they were comfortable and I think they will wear well.

Tomorrow, the second sock starts. I already have some red Knit Picks yarn wound in a ball -- again from stash (although I have been on a yarn shopping spree lately, but that is another story).

Bag #1

I forgot until I did my shopping spree post yesterday that I never posted the bag that I made while I was at Mom's -- the bag that led to the shopping spree in the first place. So here it is, warts and all. Actually, I am pretty happy with it. I can't remember the last time I did actual sewing, as opposed to mending.

Shopping Spree at G Street Fabrics

After sewing a bag with Mom when I was home last week, I have gotten the sewing bug. And as G Street Fabrics was having a sale and I had their coupons burning a hole in my pocket, I went on a spree.

The two lavender/purple-with-green prints are quilting cotton that I plan to use for a bag like the one I made at Mom's. They are Hoffman batiks. The large print I had planned to use for a messenger bag, but it is a little lightweight, and I could not find a lining fabric that I really liked for it, so I am reconsidering that. It is a one-yarn remnant I got on the drapery fabric table. The blue print is a 1 1/2 yard remnant I got from the same table, but it is a heavier weight. The red piece next to it is quilting cotton (also Hoffman batik) that I plan to use for the lining. This'll be a messenger bag.

Finished Object #1

I finished the Mitered Cross pillow last night.

I'd purchased the pattern from Kay Gardiner (Mason-Dixon Knitting) on Ravelry. She'd created it as a benefit for the Japan earthquake and knit a blanket out of Noro yarn that was beautiful. The cream Noro that she'd used for the background was a discontinued colorway, and I wanted to start knitting right away, so I decided to use some recycled sari yarn that I had recycled from a sweater I'd gotten at a church rummage sale and yarn recycled from my first knitting project several years ago -- a wrap made of lots of different cream yarns. I liked the yarns, but the wrap was much too long and I never used it much because of that.

I did the first block quickly because I wanted to see how the pattern and combination of yarns worked out. I liked the look be decided the fabric was too heavy and not drape-y enough to be a good blanket. So I got the idea to make a pillow, which is what I did.

I finished the second block, which had been languishing, on Friday before my trip to Ocean City. I tried to sew it up but quickly realized it really needed a good blocking. So I washed and blocked it Friday night, and left it to dry while I left for Ocean City on Saturday. Yesterday, it was completely dry and I sewed it into a 16 inch pillow form last night.

I would not do this same yarn combo again. The sari yarn ran terribly when I washed the pillow pieces for blocked (the cream background is now stained a little in places) and the various cream yarns knit up at all sorts of gauges even tho' I used the same size 10 1/2 (8.5 mm) needles throughout. Thus, blocking was an absolute necessity to get square 16 inch blocks to sew together. The sari yarn also stiffened a bit in blocking -- not bad, but definitely not blanket material.

Still, I think it is a moderately successful pillow.