Latest Sewing Projects

I got some new tubs to organise my felt off-cuts and project pieces recently, and while I was sorting them out, I put a few strips to one side to make a new camera bag. I've been using my current one for about 18 months, it was kind of a prototype to see how it would hold up to being used, and happily, it's still in one piece, but some of the felt pieces I used were too soft where the bags rubs against my hip. I used all nuno pieces for this one. This is the front:

If I feel like a change, I can flip the bag around:

While I had the sewing machine out, I thought I'd make a coin pouch with one of my bigger offcuts, I try to be more careful when cutting out these days, to keep pieces as big as possible intact:

Luckily, I never did get around to putting the sewing machine away, so when I finally finished blanket stitching the tops of some coin purse pockets that I cut out a few weeks ago, I could sew those up too. Here are some pink ones:

This is what they look like closed:

The next step is to round off the corners of the front flaps, then stitch all around with blanket stitch. I think choosing the right thread for the blanket stitch can take as long as the stitching sometimes! I had to make a make-shift table out of a cardboard box to put all the things waiting to be stitched, that stack of boxes on the right is about 9 of the thread drawers I have:

At the beginning of last year I made a nuno sample piece with some strips from a viscose scarf and a linen scarf. I thought it would make a nice pencil pouch. I made myself one a few years ago and use it almost every day. The idea is to use an extra long cord to wrap around to close it instead of a zip or other fastener. This is what it looks like closed:

This is the back when it's opened:

And, inside, I lined it with some nice fabric I got a few years ago:

And, while the machine is still out, I may as well ... root through all those offcuts I tidied away. This is a bookcover I've been working on, the front, inside front sleeve, and the back is finished. Here, I'm planning the layout for the inside back sleeve. I thought I'd make enough for a future one while I was at it, so made it extra long:

Felt Collage Bag

Over on The Felting a Fiber Studio we like to have Quarterly Challenges. In April, Ann issued her challenge for the 2nd Quarter, all about re-using or recycling offcuts or reshaping/re-imagining discarded pieces etc. It took me a while, but I finally got around to doing the challenge. One thing I like more than colourful felt, is lots of colourful felt! So, when I have a nice collection of offcuts, I like to put them together in a collage and make something out of it. I'd been wanting an 'alternative' bag to my little drawstring bag for a while now, and I've got a canvas satchel which I really like, but I wanted something a little bit smaller, so I thought I'd go with a smaller version of that. I worked out the dimensions for the length and width I'd need it, marked out where the front, back and flap would be, then pieced all my strips together:

The middle section with all the nuno pieces would be the back, I positioned them there because I know from experience that felt, especially Merino felt, can bobble/pill easily when it rubs a lot, like bags do around the hip area. When I trimmed the edges and folded it into shape, I realised the front flap was a bit too long to add satchel straps, so I went with a magnetic closure. This is what it looked like from the front when it was finished:

This is how it looks when it's open:

This is the back (with the front flap open):

For the side panels, I tried quite a few felt pieces, One which looked really good was a piece I'd made from woven pencil roving, but I knew it'd be too thick once the hook straps were added, so, and I don't know why this is still hard to do after all these years, but many will understand, I cut up a piece of nuno felt I made a while ago. I'm not sure I ever showed it because it's blue and I have a hard time taking photos of blue, but here's one end of it:

I cut strips for the sides, and thinner strips to make the straps to hold the bag hooks in place:

I got the findings from another bag I bought from a charity shop just for them. I recently bought 10 metres of rainbow webbing with a bag in mind and it went perfectly with this bag, I even got the findings attached the right way around the first time!:

For a guide to using fabrics in felting, check out my e-book, Beyond Nuno :) 

Book Cover and Purses

I thought I'd get my sewing machine out last week and make a few things with offcuts, samples and test pieces. The first thing I made was a large notebook/diary cover. The main part only took a couple of hours, but then all the little fiddly bits, straps, flaps, attaching them and sleeves etc all seemed to take about another 4 once it was all added up. I got through quite a few cd albums making it anyway! This is the front with the clip closed:

This is the front with the clip opened:

 This is the back:

And this is one of the inside sleeves:

I don't know if you remember this piece I made earlier this year, testing out a piece of viscose scarf:

I thought it would make a perfect coin purse. I measured it, cut out the parts and then chose some embroidery threads:

Another felt piece I cut up for a purse was a flowery sample I made years ago for Beyond Nuno:

Choosing More threads:

It all started getting a bit hectic once I got the buttons out too :)

I haven't finished the pale turquoisey viscose purse yet, I couldn't find the perfect button. I think I need to buy a few more :)

Felt Collage Book Cover

I thought I would make a new book cover from felt off-cuts that I've saved. I used a piece of interfacing cut a little bit bigger than I needed for the front and back, and started adding the pieces of felt using exaggerated stitching in contrasting colours. When it was finished, I cut it to size and made the strap and flap for closing the book and attached them with the sewing machine. Then I made the pieces for the inside sleeves, cut them to size and attached them using my sewing machine too. This is the inside front sleeve, I made it stiffer by sewing lines up and down the felt:

This is the inside back sleeve, I used strips of blue and green felt offcuts and overlapped them and added detail with the sewing machine:

After I'd attached the sleeves, I sewed blanket stitch around all the edges with sewing thread, to finish it off. This is the back of the book cover:

This is the front with the flap open:

This is the finished cover with the flap and delrin clip closed:

I'm pretty much done with flickr now, the latest changes have made it too difficult for me to use, apart from the dreadful claustrophobic 'design', the white on black messes with my eyes and causes a lot of vision problems. I'll still check there for comments etc, but all my new uploads will be on ipernity:
http://www.ipernity.com/home/zedster01  It's a nice site and easy to use.

Something Different

I'm still trying to finish projects and WIPs so I can tidy my summer sewing stuff away. I found an unfinished project from years ago when I was putting some felt offcuts away. Hopefully, this link will show some of the pieces I made, if not search my photostream for 'embellished'. It inspired me to finish it off and make some more. So I had a rummage through my offcuts and found lots of nice ones, so many that I started to think that maybe I wanted to do something a bit bigger, like a notebook cover (surprise, surprise!). I found some thin pieces of felt to use as a base and sewed them together. I really wanted to make something the complete opposite of the carefully measured and carefully and neatly sewn notebook covers I usually make. So after spreading all the felt offcuts out, I got some contrasting sewing thread and set to work attaching the pieces to my felt base. I didn't expect it to take as long as it did and I got through quite a few episodes of Foyle's War while I sewed :)

When I'd attached all the pieces, I attached a piece of thin blue cotton fabric to hide all the stitching and thread. Then I folded the flaps in, machine stitched them in place, then hand stitched the top and bottom edges. I think you'll agree, that it's nothing like what I usually make :)  This is the front:

And this is the back:

I tried hard to make sure nothing matched, and that it wasn't too neat or even, including the top and bottom edges, I just followed the edges of the base felt. This is the cover opened out:

I didn't attach felt pieces to the base where the flaps would be, I didn't want it to be too thick. The felt I used for the flaps was originally white merino and cotton which I experimented on with direct dyeing.

I also made a strap closure for it in much the same way as I made the book:

It just fits around the book and clips together with a Delrin clip.

I thought it'd stick out like  a sore thumb in my etsy shop, but surprisingly it doesn't. But maybe that's because it probably has a little offcut from almost every other piece in there with it!