07 January 2013

a bag for unfinished novels

The following is a blog post I made at the close of last summer, featuring my sewing process in the making of one of the few projects I completed in 2012. I never posted it. Now, however, feeling happy that my hands yielded at least one nice thing last year, I have decided to post it now, outdated though it is.

Ever since the new schoolyear began, I have accomplished nothing. I have been stuck in the middle of five unfinished novels, two half-written letters, a shoddy english assignment and an unintelligible set of math problems. Oh, and I still don't have a driver's license. 

Not only have I sorely neglected the things I should be doing, but I've neglected the things that are important to me, like the sewing projects I've wanted to work on all year [I barely managed a skirt and a pair of unfinished harem pants over the summer, with nothing to show before].

However, last Saturday--after a stressful week of lack of sleep and neglected schoolwork--I awoke with only one thing on my mind: my sewing machine. It was a stress-free concept, and I left my pile of textbooks where they were and devoted the whole of that day [and a little of the next] exclusively to French press coffee, yellow pears, banana cake, Freelance Whales, Björk, and my talented Elna 5200.


After digging through my scraps of fabric, I decided to make a bag. Thick, purple drape material for the outside, rose-patterned cotton for the lining. I cut it out to suit a pattern I designed myself [first used to make a bag for Lizzie some time ago].




After cutting out the pieces, I started on the straps and a little pocket on the lining --wrestling a little with the direction of the roses.



Next, I sewed together the body and the lining [same shape; the latter slightly smaller than the former]; pinning in the finished straps.




Upon seaming those together with the exception of one side, I turned the bag inside out [or, I suppose in this case you could say, "inside in"].




After sewing the small hole closed and ironing the rim flat, I was finished.




The result: a bag to fit all my unfinished novels! Rather nice, yes?

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