Vaskova's Birthday Bag

Project: make a bag for a friend's birthday
Goal: make it something I'd be proud to give as a gift

So a couple of weeks ago I saw this friend/colleague of mine walking through Central School with one of those plastic bags people in Russia love to use to carry things in. I don't particularly like these, so I offered to make said friend a bag. She seemed excited so I asked some questions, like, what colours and style. She offered up grey, and when pressed to give information about a preference for a colour for lining/accenting, she decided on dark blue. Then she said she'd like something like this, a bag we got in many colours from CUP when we were choosing new course books last year:

I searched the internet for some bag patterns and really thought I'd be able to use this one, but it wasn't big enough. I loved the idea of a "choose your own" adventure bag (quotes are the authors). So I decided that since this friend of mine (we'll call her K, even though the title of this post has her name in it so I don't know why I'm being coy with the information) had explicitly stated she liked the idea of the Cambridge tote I'd make something very similar for her.

Another thing I kept in mind while planning was that K is obsessed with the Union Jack. My first plan was to make an accurate outline of the Union Jack on the front of the bag but I'm not really that into it myself, so I instead came up with a more off-centre interpretation (represented above with the help of Microsoft Paint).

These are the fabrics I chose: a grey linen for the main body of the bag and the straps, and a pretty dark blue for the lining/stripes of the Union Jack.

The pictures don't really do the blue justice. Anyway, I cut one long panel from the grey for the bag, and from the blue from the lining, and then I cut two strips for the handles from the grey and eight strips from the blue for the Union-Jackesque stripes. I also wanted to add a bow because I really really like bows.

First I made the handles; I reinforced them with some of that fusible interfacing business. It was at this stage that I became superpleased with my choice of the grey fabric. I actually fell in love with it.

Then I added the first two stripes in the front of what would be the bag; in my early stages of planning this is where I thought I'd stop with the stripes but I'm glad I didn't because it is very Finnish-flag.

Next I added the diagonal stripes, which I did a very bad job of lining up but to be honest it was not one of my main priorities so I'm telling myself that if I had thought harder about it they would've turned out more aligned.

Since I had finished adding the stripes I then took my first ever stab at lining something. I am so happy with how it turned out, too. I think I'm going to line everything from now on. Amazing.

I stitched over the tops of the sides to cover the raw edges...

...and then stitched from the inside straight down the sides to create, in essence, a sack.

Using the Cambridge bag as a guide I pinched the two bottom corners into triangles and stitched horizontally across the base of the triangles, creating a quick and easy base for the bag (which you can see here from the inside).

And this is how it looked on the outside after I added the handles. Adding the handles took me about an hour and a half because Ethel kept tangling the bobbin thread; after much angry searching on the internet (and changing the needle) I discovered it was actually my fault, as well as the top thread's fault, but mainly mine because I had threaded the top thread wrong.

Pretty, right? I was tempted to leave it like this but I had become obsessed with the idea of a bow. So I used this YouTube tutorial and made this one (not the prettiest, I know, but I'm such a lazy cutter; one of my goals for my trip to America this summer is to get a decent cutting board and rotary cutter):

Then I stitched the bow to the bag at the point where the stripes all meet on what I decided would be the front and voila! the bag is finished!

I LOVE it. I really hope K loves it too. The stripes are fraying a lot but I don't really mind; we'll see if she does. Here are some more pictures of it:

front

back

I think it turned out really well. It's kind of like something a trendy, subtle Dallas Cowboys fan would carry. Are there any trendy, subtle Dallas Cowboy fans? Bitchy.

The Refashioned Cardi

Project:Refashioned Cardi

Goals: practice some stitching, put in some buttons

So as mentioned last time I'm still a little nervous about the dress refashioning, so I decided to deal with a sweater I have which I never ever wear. It's a bit weird on me, which you can see from the before and after pictures at the end of the post.

It's nice enough, but I'd like to make it better. I googled "turning sweaters into cardigans" and found this amazingness onThreadbanger, and followed two of their links (one which I adore the asymmetry of and one with a tutorial) so I decided to give it a try. I still haven't been to any craft shoppies so I'm going solely on what I've got in stock. Ethel's got a buttonholing feature, so one of the goals of this was to practice with that.

So I still had quite a bit of this sweater around after the tiger lily incident, and I decided to use it to add contrast to the stripey number which would serve as my base.

The stripey number is a v-neck, which would prove to make the refashioning a bit difficult (and would lead to one of the biggest issues I have with the final product) but I cut out a section slightly to the left side to create the asymmetrical opening.

Then I cut the bottom hem off of the pink sweater to make recollaring the stripey number easier. The collar is my favourite part of the finished product.

Then I used the sleeves from the pink sweater to make the new panels for the buttonholes and buttons. My big mistake here was I decided not to measure them, so they came out uneven. Oops!

I sewed on my uneven panels (which I guess I could argue add even more asymmetry to the final product but I think that's pushing it) and then used the collar from the pink sweater to try to match the collar work I did earlier (not pictured because at this time I misplaced my camera).

Then the Great Buttonhole Disaster happened. I was making some buttonholes and things were going quite smoothly, until I got to the last buttonhole I wanted to make. Ethel decided at this moment to eat a good chunk of my new cardigan.

It took me ages to work out how to get the bit out of her depths, and by that time I had cut a chunk out of the cardigan. I then tried again, and the same thing happened. I was getting really angry at this point, so I took a long break. Then I decided "whatever" and left the gaping hole alone. I think the problem had something to do with the thickness of what I was working with and the bottom thread, but I'm not sure.

After the incident I attached the buttons and am relatively pleased with how it looks. From this picture you can see one of my concerns with this "piece": the huge disparity in the collar. That said, I much prefer it to the weird v-neck thing it had going on earlier, so I don't mind too much.

Now it's time for before and afters! There are three afters, because there are three ways to wear the cardigan: all buttoned up, only the top button buttoned, and unbuttoned. I think I prefer unbuttoned; I like the uneveness of it. It's the closest to grunge I'll probably (read: hopefully) ever get. Although looking at it again I also like just the top button buttoned... it distracts from the fact that the panels are so uneven. Also, I can't believe how much older I look in the "after" shots... Yipes. It could be the lighting (in fact, I hope it is). Anyway, I'm overall pleased with this.