The Board Marker Ball

Project: The Board Marker Ball

Goals: to try to make a zipper-based case for my board markers

Nikki has an amazing pencil case from an Australian stationary shop which is mainly a zipper with its edges sewn together to form the shape of it. I was inspired, so I decided to try to make one too. Unfortunately, I didn't find a zipper long enough for this project. That might be because I've only been to one sewing material shop and it's TINY. Anyway, I went yesterday morning and got a tape measure, some new thread (purple, for my dress refashion), and two zippers: one for this project, and one for putting in my giant TopShop bag (which I plan to start on tonight).

Here's the zipper I purchased for this project. Because it wasn't long enough to make up the whole pencil case, I needed some fabric to sew in to increase its dimensions.

I decided to go with the skirt I took the tiger lily petals from. I still had quite a bit left and it looked good with the zipper, color-wise.

I thought a good size for the base would be the same size as my Body Shop body butter, so I used it as a template to cut out the base and the top of the case, both of them two-ply to give them more strength.

Then I stitched the circles together.

After pinning the circles to the zipper,

I realized I'd need a patch to connect the base with the part of the zipper that raises up to start circling around, so I cut that out, "measured" it, and attached it to the base. Because I'm winging this project, I have no pattern to go on; I think I should make a pattern for this if I'm going to try it again.

Then I cut a strip of the skirt (two-ply again) to act as the lengthener for the body of the case. I sewed it closed as well.

It took several attempts at pinning it all together to get the shape I wanted (which was not this one).

This is what the strip looked like pinned to the zipper. I was very pleased with this.

Then I realized sewing in a circle is HARD WORK. This is what the base turned out like. Not pretty.

I then stitched the strip onto the zipper. Again, as with the tiger lily and the cardigan, my lack of planning came back to bite me in the ass. I kept making decisions while I was at the sewing machine, which does not go well with sewing a finished product. Here you can see where I went a little snip-happy.

Eventually the case started to take shape.

I liked how it looked from the inside.

The real challenge then came with putting the top on. I almost completely broke Ethel when I hit the plastic bit of the zipper with the needle; the bottom thread was refusing to load. I was heartbroken. But then I thought "What if I change the needle; maybe I broke it." I couldn't see any signs of trauma but thought it was worth a try. Then Ethel was working again! Hurray! I'm going to try with the old needle again next time I sew in case it was just knocked wonky when I hit the zip.

This is how the final product looks in one of the classrooms at Central School. It turned into a sort of ball, which is odd. It looks very much like an eight-year-old made it. Oh well. It does the job. My plan now is to plan and measure and cut and pin* all of the bits I'll need for my zipper-in-the-bag project (which I'll then sew in the morning because it's getting late here and Ethel can be a bit noisy), which I'm hoping will go smoother because it doesn't involve sewing in a circle. Fingers crossed.

* I lost my pin cushion. How, I don't know. Hopefully I'll find it.

Early days

After months of deliberation (and saving money) I finally purchased my sewing machine, a Brother XL-2610, which is admittedly a very basic machine. Seeing as how I'd never so much as touched a bobbin before last night, though, that is exactly what I need: simplicity. And now I have threaded a bobbin (thanks in large part to the instructional DVD that came with the machine).

I could, in theory, go into a detailed review of this guy (or you could just go here and see what other people have to say; my personal favourite is the poster who wrote about her "sowing" machine) but let's be honest: I bought this machine because it's got pink bits. The end.

I did some practice stiches, as the DVD suggested:

And then I mended a skirt of mine. Now, the thing about this skirt is, it's really supercute but also has a tendency to be a bit short. So, whenever I stand up, I tug on the back of it to pull it down, for modesty's sake. Since I clearly don't know my own superhuman strength, sometimes I rip the stitching on the gathers. So my first real project was to regather the two gathers I've split in the past (once at Heathrow Airport, which was okay though because I happened to have a safety pin on me and I could close the immodest gap which showed my underpants and once yesterday, after getitng off at Belorusskaya metro station and tugging and then hearing that horrifying "rrrrrrrrrrrip" which caused me to stand on the platform and twist the skirt around my waist to see if I was now a shabbily dressed slut; I wasn't). So I quickly made the gathers again on my machine (mine is on the left, the original is on the right), and all is well again!

My first big project is to take an old skirt I have which I never wear because it's a bit on the long side and use the fabric to make the petals of a tiger lily flower.

After that, I will attach it to a new purple tank top I bought yesterday during Shopping Spree 2010. The plan right now is to attach it by using black thread and sewing in little circles to create the spots of the flower, so the petals aren't completely attached to the top. That will probably change but we'll see.

So, to sum up, this will be a blog I use to mark my progress in sewing. I have four big projects on the horizon (not including the flower one outlined above):
1. making an amazing zipper-pencil-case like Nikki's, which I can't find a picture of on the interweb;

2. sewing a zip in my new giant TopShop bag so I can use it as a fancy-tartan-bag-style carry-on/overnight bag;

3. combining an M&S dress I bought years ago

with a skirt I bought in January so I can actually wear it without feeling like a prostitute;

4. and an apron from the rest of the bits from the skirt.

All I've got are the internet, my machine, and this book which I adore

Time to start on the flower.

PS I don't know how to format this thing so it's a bit weird, I apologize.