FO Friday: Envelope Clutch

Slowly but surely, my sewing skills are improving. I finished this bag earlier today, and am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I used Noodle Head's Envelope Clutch pattern, which you can see and buy over here (yes, that's the same place where I got the pattern for my Runaround Bags).

I'm really glad that I decided to make the Runaround Bags first, as that pattern is way less fiddly than this one and is therefore a lot easier to execute. While I wouldn't say the Envelope Clutch pattern is especially difficult, it's definitely not what I would consider to be a beginner project. On a scale of one to ten, I'd give it about a five if you complete it without any extras, and a six or seven if you add the piping and wrist/shoulder straps. As I do not have a piping foot for my sewing machine, I chose to leave that part out. I did include a wrist strap, which you can see in the picture below:

Overall, I'd say that my skills are progressing nicely, though some of them still need work. I've become pretty comfortable with basic stitches and techniques as well as ironing correctly, though my detail work still needs some practice. I'm specifically thinking of zippers as I write that; despite having a zipper foot and watching a million YouTube videos on how to correctly install them, I'm still having some difficulties with getting them to look nice. You can see how uneven the stitching is in this picture. 

A word to the wise on the fabric allotment: If you want to make the smaller size, a quarter yard is enough for both the exterior, wrist strap, interior, and interior pocket/credit card slots. Personally, though, I'd recommend going with fat quarters, especially for the interior, as they'll give you a little more leeway (this bag was made from them, actually). If you decide to make the larger size, however, a quarter yard will give you enough to make the exterior, a small wrist strap, and the interior. You won't have enough fabric to make a full shoulder strap or the interior pocket/card slot if you only get a quarter of a yard. In light of that, I'd recommend purchasing a half yard of both fabrics if you're planning on making the larger size. 

That said, I'm a pretty big fan of the pattern. It comes with clear, detailed step-by-step instructions and has plenty of pictures and diagrams, all of which I find useful as a relatively inexperienced sewer. I plan to make a few more of these in the future-- I got a ton of fabric for dresses recently, and imagine that I'll have enough leftovers  from that to make a few small clutches to match. 

FO Friday: Two Bags! Edition

I may have finally hit the wall on the Runaround Bag front, which is probably a good thing as I am sick to death of bias tape. I'm pretty much convinced that it's Satan's toilet paper.

I finished the bag on the right last week. Like the first Runaround I made, both the exterior and interior fabrics are duck cloth. Unlike the first Runaround I made, I didn't bother interfacing the exterior. As it turns out, it wasn't necessary; the duck cloth is sturdy enough on its own. 

The bag on the left was finished on Wednesday. I used cotton fabric from Waechter's (my favorite fabric store around here) for it. Since I tend to be pretty hard on my bags and use them to carry things like books and my eee pad, I decided to interface both the exterior and the lining. It took forever and was kind of a pain in the ass, but I'm really glad I did it. I think it'll hold up a lot better this way.

I also finally figured out how to sew in a zipper! I've been avoiding it for an embarrassing length of time, but decided to suck it up and bite the bullet when I was putting this bag together. Also featured: a pocket for my cell phone and pens, because I hate how those things always seem to fall to the very bottom, underneath two heavy books, a knitting project, my wallet, and my eee pad. 

Next on the agenda: a few envelope clutches by the same person who designed the Runaround Bag. I've already read through the instructions, and while they're way more involved than those for these bags, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to achieve some nice results. 

FO Friday: A bag for me!

My runaround bag is finished! Yay! I'm really happy with it, especially since I had to learn a few new techniques to make it. I'd never used interfacing before (in retrospect, it probably wasn't necessary since the fabric I chose was more heavy-duty than the quilter's cotton used in the original), and I'm not super great at gathering stitches. I also used bias tape for the first time, and while I should probably rip it out and re-do it, I'm pretty pleased with the first attempt. Yay me, and yay new bag!

It matches my favorite red shirt for the summer perfectly.

I'm probably going to make a few more, but they will be sans pleat-- I don't like how narrow it makes the top of the bag. It makes fishing stuff out of the bottom more difficult.

WiP Wednesday: Sewing a Bag at Night Edition

Since the weather has gotten warmer, my knitting motivation has fallen off a cliff (happens every year, but even more so this year because it never got cold enough for me to wear my handknits much), so I've decided to use the time I was devoting to knitting for sewing a few things for summer. 

I'm working on a runaround bag. Two, actually, but I haven't started the second one yet. So far, I have accomplished cutting out the exterior fabric and the interfacing. Next up: cutting the lining and pocket fabrics, finishing cutting the interfacing, fusing the interfacing, and putting the whole shebang together. 

First on the agenda: bags. I love lightweight canvas bags (think bungalow 360); they're cute, colorful, and are usually big enough to hold the necessities: a book, my cell phone, my wallet, a knitting project, and my giant freaking water bottle (optional: small makeup bag, tablet, extra pair of undies, hair straightener). The downside to these bags is twofold: 1) they don't hold up super well and 2) I therefore have a hard time spending $20-30 on them. In the interest of having bags on the cheap, I decided to find a suitable pattern and make my own. The runaround bag fits the bill nicely. 

I went to the fabric store a few days ago to buy some fabric for the bags. The red and the black multi are together, and the cream and the stripes are also together. I'm not sure what I'm going to use the apple fabric for; I couldn't find a coordinating fabric that matched it so I'll probably hang onto it for a while. Since duck cloth was on sale, I only spent about $15 on the fabric, total. With the cost of interfacing, zippers, bias tape and notions factored in, each one will probably come to be about $12 in materials. Way better than $30, I think, and if the pattern executes well, I can re-use it for birthday or xmas presents this year.