Well hello, Shelby the kitty!
(WIP = Work in Progress)
Many projects in process, as usual, but I also have an actual finish! And another almost-finish!
ALL THE COLORS!
So I wrote about the Summit Pack last Wednesday–making progress, generally good instructions, blah blah blah, everything’s fine, nothing to see here.
Then I hit the proverbial rocks.
I got to work on putting the front of the bag together and YIKES.
You know how it is when you’re sewing two pieces of fabric together and their curves go the opposite way? Like when you’re sewing a collar to a stand or putting a princess-seamed bodice together? And the fabric is protesting and fighting you, so you use lots of pins, but the layers of fabric actually push them out, that’s how hard they’re fighting not to make that curve. But you cram them together and sew the damn seam, and then you have to unpick and resew the three or four places where the fabric on the bottom folded up and got caught in the seam because it is NOT REPEAT NOT going to take that curve.
That’s what the front of this is, only you do that over and over with lining and exterior pieces, all with sharp angles that other pieces have to be coaxed-slash-forced to conform to. Oh, and there are zippers, too.
Plenty of unpicking happened here, and easing, and unpicking, etc., etc. There are definitely some wobbly bits and some slight gathering where my easing skills failed me, but that’s okay with me. I can honestly say I did the best I could and more re-doing would not help. And I don’t have any helpful advice, either; it’s just a difficult bag to make. Absolutely doable if you have some bag-making experience and take every step slowly and carefully, but the kind of project that would probably make perfectionists twitch.
On the other hand, though, look how pretty!
Handy Oyster card slot for riding the Tube! And passport fits in the back of the purple unit!
iPad fits in padded gadget pocket perfectly for reading on the plane!
Whatever, it’s a little bit wonky, but I love it. I just put on my to-do list to make some quickie zipper pulls for this, because we are going for maximum fabulousness here.
Also!
I had another squirrel moment this week, because I am basically a big kid (you’re completely shocked to hear this, I’m sure).
I have been invited to the Seattle area to spend the weekend with my BFF, Heidi. Which means, of course, that I need to make something new to wear. And, because of that big kid thing, it must involve the new Hello Kitty cotton knit I just got from here.
This is just the nicest fabric–soft and substantial, with great color.
I only bought a yard–I love it, but I’m still cheap–so I’m using the Kitty fabric for the front and back of view A (top picture). For the rest, I dug through my knits and found the rest of the mystery knit I used for my black skirt. I don’t know the fiber content on it, but it has similar weight and stretch to the Kitty fabric.
The instructions were a little bit of a mind bender–you sew the sleeves to the side front and side back, then attach the whole thing to the front and back–but quick and easy. I strongly recommend cutting or marking the notches on everything to help keep you oriented, though. Don’t be like this dork here; I ignored most of the notches because I didn’t have the mental energy to deal with them at the same time I was cutting out pieces that are a large at the bust and XXL at the waist and hip. This made the non-standard construction more complicated than it needed to be.
The top is almost finished–just hem and sleeve hems to do. Here’s a quick and dirty selfie in my sewing room:
No, that’s not some sort of apocalypse happening behind me, just a big window and a sunny day.
Quite a different effect than the striped one on the pattern envelope, huh? Less sporty, more dressy, even though it’s covered in cartoon cat heads. Some nice shaping on this; it isn’t the usual tee shape. We’ll see what happens when I shorten the sleeves to their proper 3/4 length. Right now I feel like it needs something, but I don’t know what. Hmmm . . . .
Anyway, have a great Thursday and I’ll yak at you again soon.
STH
ETA: I have linked this post up to Needle and Thread Thursday over at My Quilt Infatuation.
I’ve also linked to Midweek Makers #73 at Quilt Fabrication.