Day: January 19, 2021

iPhone Cases & Small Zippered Bags

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I’m preparing for an upcoming class on using zipper tape for bag-making.

I had on hand a couple of fabric sample sets with cuts of each fabric in the colourway. The samples were 13″ wide so I cut 5 1/2″ strips, then 1 3/4″ strips from the leftover bits, sewed them to the wider pieces to create a “header”, then made them up into small zippered bags. They’re in my gift stash. I left three bags unassembled so I can use them to demonstrate for the class.

Before that, I’d made 10 more iPhone bags, having given away the first batch. Also useful to have on hand as a gift. I also left two of these bags unassembled as examples for the class.

Small Zippered Bags / iPhone Cases

Just keeping busy while I’m trying to wrap my head around the “diamonds” quilt I want to do. I’m closer than I was. I’ve paired up the jellyroll strips again, this time matching up strips closer in shade – I think that will work better. The pairs of strips are currently laying on one of my sewing tables – maybe later this afternoon, or tomorrow morning, I will sew them up and cut out diamonds….

Two More Pair Of Pull-On Pants

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I may not have been posting much but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been creating. After the original “muslin” – the beige corduroy pants (which I continued modifying – more on that later), I adjusted the pattern by adding 1 1/4″ to the top of both front and back pieces.

I cut out and sewed a pair of burgundy corduroy pants which worked without any further adjusting! Wonderful.

Navy Pants Finished

I then did the third pair in navy.  I can also wear these without further adjusting. 

For now, I actually have a pattern I can cut out and assemble and wear without any fuss – so I can do a pair of pants in under 5 hours – cut them out, sew them together, and they’re wearable.

Navy Pants

Navy Pants

I may actually have a go at redrafting this pattern to incorporate a fly-front and a waistband after all. I’m finding pulling on these pants more difficult than getting on my jeans with the front opening! Now that I have a working crotch depth, it shouldn’t be too hard to shape the top a bit and incorporate the front fly opening.

As for the beige pants: I added a waistband which I wasn’t happy with – the crotch depth was a bit too long. I cut that waistband off (losing 1/4″ from the length of the body) and added a narrower waistband – this time using leftover navy corduroy since I no longer had any of the original beige left.

4th Iteration of the Beige Pull-on Pants

They’re wearable although I found yesterday that I was hiking them up more than I had to with the burgundy pants which pretty much stay at my waist in the back when I sit down. These do slip down some – may have to do with the stiffness of the fabric – the burgundy is a much softer corduroy, although the navy seem to stay up reasonable well (I’ve got them on now). I discovered, and recorded, that my inseam on these pants is 26 1/2″, the side seam ends up at 37″. That information now takes any guesswork out of making up this pattern.

BTW – for the record, I’m a pressed crease person. I’ve been getting flack from a friend for pressing front and back creases in my pants. The crease makes them hang better, and I’m after a slightly more formal look – these may be pull on pants but I’ve made them into a cross between jeans (with jeans front pockets and pockets on the back) and a dress pants. A good pair of worsted flannel pants would have front and back creases! They’d look slept-in, if they weren’t pressed. I don’t want sweatpants! My mother would have called me a “schloomp” were I to wear unpressed pants to go out.

Close – But Not A Match

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I sold the first pair of “blue dots” socks before Christmas. I had another ball of that yarn so I made up the second pair of socks. The colour shift in the first pair worked out pretty much on its own – I don’t recall having to unwind a lot of yarn to match the second sock.

Given where the first sock of this second pair ended I knew I had to unwind a substantial amount of yarn to set up a match – but the colour shadings in this yarn were so gradual I didn’t quite make it. That doesn’t happen to me very often (but then again, most pattern repeats are generally easier to discern).

I actually needed to unwind at least 12 rows of the pale blue on the second sock (the sock underneath) in order to have come close to a match but it wasn’t until I was closer to 25 rows into the sock that I could see the mismatch and decided just to keep knitting anyway.

Blue Ombre With Dots

These socks are destined for a friend who I’m sure will laugh each time she wears them, wiggle her toes, and carry on. Slightly mismatched socks won’t bother her.

And now onto a brighter pair where the repeat is more obvious – I’ll be able to match the second sock to the first with relative ease.