This past weekend, for the first time in a long time, I finally had the whole weekend to myself - no volunteering, no parties, no plans. Blessed freedom! And what better way to spend my time than by sewing birthday presents for my Mom, who gave me my sewing machine in the first place, and my aunt, who made me the world's most beautiful quilt? Plus, with two whole days to devote to this project, I wanted to move on to something a bit more complicated than napkins. I wanted to try the Artsy Clutch from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing.
First stop on Friday night was The City Quilter in New York for a little fabric inspiration. After much searching and indecision, I decided on this for the outer fabric (these two swatches represent the entire width of the fabric, from dark blue to light green), because it reminds me of my family's home in coastal Maine:
And this matching fabric for the lining:
Both are from the 'Glacier Lights' collection by McKenna Ryan for Hoffman Fabrics.
The first stage of the project - sewing the outer fabric squares together and sewing the inner fabric and lining together - were pretty easy, with all my straight-line practice. I've had trouble all along with the fabric layers shifting when I'm sewing, so that they end up misaligned; this time around, I tried lessening the pressure on the presser foot with the dial, and I think it may have helped a bit. I probably just need to buy a walking foot, though. (My aunt thinks so too.)
When it came time to sewing the lining into the bag, I had butterflies in my stomach! Sometimes I have a hard time translating a two-dimensional picture into the three-dimensional world, so I wasn't sure I'd assembled everything right until I turned the bag right-side-out. But it worked! Even the elastic was in the right place - I managed not to sew it inside the bag.
However, that same elastic did give me considerable problems in the next step, topstitching around the top edge. I used an elastic with a thick cord in the middle, and I think that combined with all the layers of fabric and flannel lining - double layers, because I was sewing along the hem - it was too much for my poor sewing machine. Ka-chunk! The needle hit that cord and stuck there, making a big tangle. Oh, to have come so far and then mess up at the end! I cut the tangled threads off and tried again, walking the needle over the cord by hand with the wheel. It made it past the cord that time, but messily. Oh well.
Here's the finished product:
Not bad, but as you can see, the seams were very bulky. Of course, at this point I remembered the advice of my other sewing guru, Diana Rupp, in Sew Everything Workshop: Always clip your corners, trim your seams, and press them open. (See also this tutorial.)
Armed with that advice, I set out to make my second Artsy Clutch, and I think it turned out much better:
Muuuuuch less bulky around the seams, so it lays nice and flat. Also, the corners turn out better when they're clipped first. My one major mistake was that, in using a much thinner elastic, I worried that it would be hard to secure, because the stitches would go over instead of through it, so I backstitched over it. Of course as soon as I folded it I realized how foolish that was: Now the messy backstitching is right on the front, the most visible place. Also, this elastic is too thin; it looks flimsy. I've bought a medium-sized one since then, to use next time.
(I also managed to pin the elastic in such a way that the pin was trapped between the layers. I realized just in time before I sewed it shut, and had to work the pin out by pushing at it through the fabric until I could reach it through the opening in the seam. Close one!)
And I remembered this time to create a button shank so the button won't pop off.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of my weekend of sewing... The No-Cash Wallet!
New Techniques:
Inserting a lining
Attaching a button
Notes to Self:
Always clip corners and trim and press seams.
Backstitch where it won't be super obvious.
Don't forget to create a button shank.
Challenges Ahead:
Need to work on pressing my seams correctly - might help to press them before I trim them? Otherwise I burn my fingers trying to press tiny seams.
Try pressing seams in opposite directions, instead of pressing them open. I.e., when the lining is placed inside the bag, the seam on the outer fabric would fold to the right and the seam on the inner fabric would fold to the left, so they "nest." There's a photo of what I mean here (scroll down).
Try sewing with a walking foot to prevent layers from shifting.