Sewing Monday

When my girls were little and I was not working outside the home, I did a lot of sewing for them.  Everything from t-shirts to jeans and fancy, smocked Easter dresses. I remember one Easter eve staying up until the wee small hours finishing up 3 dresses.  There was even a time when I sewed and crocheted various stuffed animals and sold them at craft shows with a friend.

I am no novice, but it has been quite a number of years since I have really done any sewing other than mending.  I got the itch to pick it up again and decided to start with something simple.  I always have a need for more project bags and there is plenty of  coordinating fabric in my stash.  This weekend I decided to get some sewing done.

I know what I like in project bags.  The small bags from knowknits.com are my absolute favorites for my sock knitting.  The reasons are clear, no zippers or velcro to trap my yarn.  I want larger bags to hold sweater projects and tried to find a pattern I liked.  None of the commercial patterns had everything I wanted, so I am trying to engineer the type of bag I like.  I am modifying a Simplicity pattern and adding features that I think I will like using.

My sewing skills are more than a little rusty, I will admit.  I am using two very plain fabrics to make the prototype.  I also cut the basic pattern out of a medium weight interfacing so I can reuse the pattern, if I get it to turn out the way I have it in my mind.

One thing I noticed about the pattern instructions, is how very brief they are.  A novice sewer, I think, would have a hard time knowing just what to do.  I am not sure if this is true of every pattern that's out there, but it sure is true about this one.

Stay tuned to see how this turns out!

It is in the high 60's today,finally, so I went out to do some gardening this morning.  I cut down the clematis vines on the side of the garage and cleaned up the debris that gets blown in that corner and did some weeding.  Wow, am I sore!  Winter was too long and I haven't been keeping in shape.  A little at a time is how my garden is going to get ready for the summer!