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.

Knitting vs Sewing

Before I started knitting, I thought that sewing must be ten times easier. Surely it mast be faster to cut a pattern and sew a few seams than to create whole fabric from scratch right?

And maybe it is when you're equipped with a sewing room with your machine already out and a big table for cutting. But trust me, when sewing involves clearing the floor to cut because your tiny round table won't fit the material and plus you have to drag the machine out of the bottom of the closet, it starts to look much more arduous. And I HATE pinning pieces together. I hate it a lot.

So knitting starts to look much more attractive. You can pick it up and put it down, it fits into a carry bag, it doesn't involve spreading things all over the house (although my husband would beg to differ). You can knit for 5 minutes or half an hour rather than having to set aside a whole day for a project.

So ultimately it's no surprise that I tend to get my knitting projects done much quicker than my sewing projects. And to think I dreamed of taking up quilting....