In which I sew

Spring is definitely here, and summer is on its way. Cue thunderstorms, cicadas, and sitting on the balcony of a weekend with a cup of tea (obviously not at the same time as the thunderstorm!)

A week or two ago in a burst of spring-related energy I actually pulled out the sewing machine and sewed a couple of simple bags. Now it's important to understand that I generally do not enjoy sewing. I love the concept of it, of turning gorgeous fabric into something both practical and beautiful. But the process...it's just not for me. I hate being jabbed by pins, I hate bending over cutting out the pattern or hand sewing a hem. It's painful (ask my fingers and back). There's also the fear of screwing up the measurements as you cut, or having to rip out a wrongly executed seam. So on the whole I need to be highly motivated to actually sew something. But a couple of small bags are easy enough to execute in an afternoon.

Hubster requested a dice bag (he has taken up Dungeons and Dragons) so that was first on the agenda. He turned up his nose at all my fat quarters and settled on a sturdy upholstery fabric intended to be a floor cushion some day. This turned out to to be something of a mistake as the bag has a drawstring top which doesn't really close properly due to the thickness of the gathered fabric. But hubster was happy enough to wind the drawstring around it lower down to compensate. I used a very handy drawstring bag tutorial from The Purl Bee which also showed me how to make a gusset in the bottom of the bag, which I was very chuffed about.



Bag number two was a peg bag. This has been my peg bag for years now.



Clearly it was time for a new one. So back into the stash for some more upholstery fabric and I whipped up a gussetted peg bag with a handy long handle for hanging it off the clothes rack.



All in all I was pretty satisfied with my sewing foray, although I do wish I'd used another fabric for that peg bag. Lesson learned! Next up is a lined knitting project bag using this tutorial (sans padding) from the Happy Things blog.