Speaking of almost successful....

So I'm going on a trip soon, and I want to stash my dirty clothes in style. I decided I needed something more sophisticated to replace all my unsightly plastic bags. I liked the look of unbleached muslin and braided ties for my laundry sacks. But once they were done, they looked so...plain. So, using the smallest zig-zag setting on my machine (I have a 3/4 sized machine- 6 fixed stitch settings) I tried to "embroider".


Not so bad from a distance...but the up close shots show what happens when you try to do this with a machine like mine. I guess that I could probably pull this off a little better if my machine let me set stitch length and width. Or if I had a computerized embroidery machine ;)

So close....

Another almost successful project- I designed this for my dpns, which fit perfectly, but when I tried to put my regular needles in, it wouldn't close :(



I guess I should have measured ALL of my needles first before I started this. Maybe I'll just have to make a matching case for the longer needles.

My second sewing project?

A bit more ambitious...but it was pretty successful, all things considered.

This quilt was made using a modified version of Amy Butler's Brick Path pattern. The pattern calls for sewing all the layers inside out and then inverting, but went a more traditional way- I made my quilt sandwich all right sides out with extra backing fabric, and used that to finish the edges instead of quilt binding.

My first sewing project

Well maybe not so much a project- maybe a refashion... or is it called upcycling?

before:

after:

I used two fat quarters for this- one for the border and one for the main design. Once I assembled the fabric panels, I undid part of the side seams in the bag and top-stitched the panels on, leaving the ends hanging off. Then I pulled the ends into the bag through the open seams, and sewed it all back up.