It Contains Multitudes

Honestly, I've never had such a big bag in my life. I walked to work today, and I didn't have to carry my boots in a separate bag - they fit inside the Orange Enormity.

Which got an interesting reaction at work, I have to say. Several people loved the bag, but hated the color. Others loved the color but thought it was a diaper bag (with studs? now that would be a cool mom).

Whatever. I love it. I said in my review on PR that this is the first major project that I have no lingering regrets about - no "I should have done this" or "damn, why didn't I think of doing that?" None of that. I like the pockets, I like the size, I like being able to find my keys and know that my camera and phone aren't getting beaten up in the bottom of the bag.

I like going shopping at lunchtime and being able to stow my purchase in my handbag. All of them.

What strikes me about this project is that earlier this year, when I completed my leather jacket, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to do a major leather project again anytime soon. But ever since the weather started turning cool, I've been wearing my jacket nonstop and realizing just how much I like it and how I'm probably going to want to make another one in the not-too-distant future. Maybe a brown one.

Funky colors are all well and good for accessories, but leather jackets are eternal and I don't want to make something I'll get tired of.

So this was my project to get me back in the mood, and it was a good one because I learned a few tricks this time that I hadn't before, including just how much heat leather will take if you have a decent weight press cloth between it and the iron. I also used large quantities of steam-a-seam rather than gluing seams flat - since I could use heat, it seemed silly to waste time waiting for glue to dry.

Also - and this probably won't do me any good if I make another jacket - I figured out the perfect backing for the leather in this bag. Coutil may be meant for corsets, but you can't tell me that. Slather on a decent coating of leather glue and it's fabulous backing for a lighter weight skin - it keeps all the flexibility of the leather while adding stability and strength. None of the rubble I carry around with me is going to mark this from the inside; for the outside, I can't make any guarantees but I'm going to do my best to keep this looking shiny new for a while.

Today was a very gray November day and carrying this around cheered me up no end.

Damn, this is a big bag

I have nothing else to add, except that my sewing machine isn't very fond of me right now. The feeling is mutual.

Too many interruptions

Between work, baseball and watching entirely too much election politics, not a lot has gotten done lately. Friday I mostly avoided the Phillies World Series victory parade by watching it out my office window, though I did go downstairs briefly and caught these wingnuts up on top the roof of the train station. Needless to say, the cops weren't happy, especially when they started tearing the downspouts and gutters off by swinging on them.

And the destruction in Center City yesterday was pretty extensive. On the news, they were saying it wasn't "too bad," but I guess that's in comparison to the Sixers' win about 15 or 20 years ago, where they burned cars and had to lock down the shopping district against looters. On Wednesday night they still threw newspaper boxes through store windows and turned over cars, so I'm sure for those whose property was involved, it was bad enough.

Off my cranky old lady soapbox now and back to the project at hand. There has been much gluing going on, since I can do that while wandering back and forth to the television. The coutil is a perfect backing for the leather, which would stretch out in no time without some reinforcement. It leaves the leather completely flexible, but there's no way the bag will get out of shape now.

The first strap is sewn, interfaced, glued, sewn to its ring and about to be embellished with a silver stud at either end - downright tame as embellishments go, but I'm still leery of doing that for fear it will look awful in the end. Except how can it - it's one dinky silver stud. It'll look like it's holding the strap on the ring.

Fear of embellishment; who knew it was an actual disorder? At some point I'm going to have to get past it.

This weekend I'm going to finish the straps, do a little more gluing, and get the bag put together. With luck (and enough uninterrupted playtime) I'll be able to get the straps attached to the bag, and maybe even sew the bag and lining together.

Then of course there's the issue of embellishing the bag itself, but I have more smaller sized studs: round, triangular and star shaped. I'm thinking just along the top opening of the bag, but of course I'm not sure. Once I have the body of the bag together, I'll lay out several options and take pictures. I'm definitely soliciting opinions on this one.

And so it begins

A while back, I mentioned that I wanted to make the new (now not so new) Hotpatterns YSL Homage Tote in screaming orange leather. The idea never left, nor has my motivation; it's just been side tracked.

That's over now. When I finished most of my evil to-do list from several posts ago, I decided I needed to reward myself with a project that was more challenging than shirts - still somewhat challenging, but I've made 6 of that pattern now - and my favorite TNT pants. It was either the winter coat or the bag, and the wool was only just back from the dry cleaners and the pattern wasn't traced yet, so the bag won out.

First, I modified the size somewhat. I was hugely impressed with Ann's review of this bag, but since I would have a competition between cats to see who could ride around in it, I decided to make it slightly less than pet carrier size. I left the width the same but folded about 3" out of the depth and that seemed to be the right size for me.

Here's where we are so far. The entire bag has been cut out: exterior, facings, lining, straps, pockets. Speaking of linings, my original inspiration was to line this bag with zebra print. I thank those who dissuaded me without actually questioning my taste. The light orange dragon brocade pictured was actually from stash. (And I couldn't find any zebra print cotton anyway, so this is way better for several reasons.)

I changed the interior of the bag to suit my own purposes - on one side is a patch pocket, divided into two, sized specifically to fit my digital camera and my cell phone, both of which always end up in the bottom of my purse. The other side has a zip pocket (different size than original HP draft because I changed the depth of the bag), a leather loop and a doohickey to hold my keys.

Hot Patterns instructions for this bag seemed pretty straightforward, but since I was using leather, I knew I'd have to vary the construction so after giving the instructions an initial once-over, I put them back in the envelope and went my own way. I made the interior pockets first and attached them to the lining. Then I ironed woven fusible interfacing to the backs of the lining pieces. After that, I attached the linings to the top facings, trimmed the seam allowance and pressed it flat with steam-a-seam. I then cut facing pieces out of coutil, marked the magnet placement on the coutil, and glued it to the facings, using books to weight it overnight.

The coutil was purchased at Greenberg & Hammer during Patternreview's NYC shopping day. I had no idea what it was, or what it was for, I just knew it was the weight I was looking for. According to what I've found out since then, coutil is used in corset-making, which is logical because the stuff is extremely strong yet very flexible. It adds great strength to the leather without taking away any of the suppleness of the skins.

Because this is a leather project, it can't movea long at the speed I would like it to. As of now, the linings are complete - magnets attached, darts sewn and lining pieces sewn together, waiting for a bag to line. The bag pieces themselves have been lightly spread with glue and are under stacks of books with their coutil underlining drying. One strap is partially completed.

I'm still thinking on any embellishments that may or may not occur. Embellishment is not my strong suit - much as I love some of my ideas at first, I back off before I carry them through. I bought a whole variety of shiny silver studs and things when I was at Pacific gathering supplies for this, and I've laid them out in any number of constellations. All look good-ish; none will probably end up on the final bag. Maybe I need to go out snoop shopping and see how the pros do this - since Carolyn hasn't provided a primer for bag embellishment yet.

But tomorrow is another day, and it looks to be another cold, gray and rainy one. (Anybody not surprised to see it rain in Philly for the World Series?) I think I'll have plenty of time tomorrow night to do some more work on this. Heading into gray and chilly November, I'm going to want something loud and cheerful to see first thing in the morning.

The Lounge Lizard Shirt

At least that's what Mario's calling it. This was adapted from a shirt he fell in love with while we were in Paris in May, but he couldn't bring himself to pay 60 euros to bring home. Why spend that kind of money when you have a girlfriend who sews, right?

There's no picture of him wearing the shirt because he's not getting it until Christmas. He saw it briefly in the fitting stage, but he can't have it for another 2 months. Hee hee!

This is my standard Kwik Sew men's shirt pattern, improved with Pam Erny's cuff placket method and her collar and collar band instructions. All of which made the shirt come together much more smoothly than usual - though there were some tense moments simply because I couldn't see what I was doing.

The collar band, inside yoke and under-cuffs were done in a small leopard print cotton; the body of the shirt is a black cotton shirting with a touch of lycra, so I could make the shirt a bit more fitted without it pulling.

As per the inspiration shirt, the buttons were black and square, and the buttonholes and button were sewn with a thread that coordinated with the leopard print. The contrast of those orangey-tan buttonholes on the black shirting make me happy for some reason.

This shirt came together pretty quickly. I started it one evening last week, just planning to do the first steps - front bands, pocket, maybe the yoke - but it went together so well that I got about 2/3 of the shirt done that first evening. Including the collar. Which happened after 10:00 p.m. and didn't give me a problem.

When the sewing gods are smiling on you, you must appease them by sewing until you can't see straight. Which is what I did. I even got the sleeves on that night, though I saved the side seams for later. Flat-felling when tired is just an invitation to disaster.

A few days ago I did those side seams, and constructed and attached the cuffs. Yesterday, I did all the buttonholes, sewed on the buttons and hemmed it. Even the collar band buttonhole didn't fight me. Which is a first.

All in all, I don't think I did a bad job of reproducing the shirt he was lusting after. I forgot, however, just how much I hate sewing black fabric with black thread under the inadequate light of any of my machines. Even with my reading glasses, I was blind as a bat.

So the shirt's done, and I'm almost finished a pair of TNT pants in a gray wool gab, and I'm bored. The shirt turned out well, the pants are coming along fine - but I need a challenge project, and I need one soon. Sewing as relaxation is fine, but part of what I love about it is the mental challenge, the puzzle-solving. Right now I'm torn between the coat I've been planning (chocolate brown wool from Gorgeous Fabrics with a gold peacock-feather brocade lining) or the Hotpatterns Humongous Tote in screaming orange lambskin with a lighter orange brocade lining.

BTW, can anybody tell me what the %*#&%* is up with Blogger and their photo uploading? There no "known issues" about it, but the discussion groups are full of grousing and every time I try to upload a photo, size it to "small" and click "done," I get this ginormous thing that overflows the margins of my page. If any of my photos in this post are wonky, it's because I went in manually and re-sized them and I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. Rant over - but if anyone has any suggestions how to get around this, or how to get Blogger to listen, I'd appreciate it.

Half off day at the thrift store!

Let's just say this isn't going to be a miniskirt for long.

Now that I've gotten a lot of the backed up sewing done - shirt constructed, pants hemmed, etc., it's time for a little head-cleaning project.

Stay tuned.

An Excess of Projects

Ever get so many projects going in your head at one time that you can't actually sew? That's what's happening right now. Some are big, some are small, some are just stupid mending that I could do while I'm on the couch, but right now they're just swirling around in a stew, taunting me to get started. Which does nothing except make me retreat to the nearest BWOF, which does nothing except add more projects to the list.

Here's what I have to do:

1. Finish Mario's black shirt. It needs a fitting, the side seams, cuffs, buttonholes and buttons sewn on. Done.

2. Finish a pair of BWOF 6/07 black pants. They were started in the spring, and then put aside when the weather got warm. The weather is no longer warm and I only have one pair of black pants. These just need facings and hems. Except it's been so long I've lost the facings. Found the facings; Done.

3. Another pair of those TNT pants in gray, to go with the wardrobe I've been working on. It's a fast pattern. It needs no tweaking. No reason to put these off. Cut out, mostly finished.

4. Make myself a gray sweater, using that Fabric.com sweater knit, and the Ottobre hoodie pattern as a base, just cut it on the fold, leave off the hood and add a collar band. It may only be a one season sweater, depending on how the knit washes, but it would fill a gap in the wardrobe. Fabric unsuitable; try again later.

5. Make a KS raglan sleeve top out of the leftover sweatshirt fabric. All my sweatshirts are so disreputable they can only be used for painting and serious cleaning. I need a warm comfy for the cold house. Another quickie pattern. Done.

6. Mario's jacket, the Burdastyle Stinchcomb. I have houndstooth check for a muslin. Just cut it out, don't even start sewing. Just scissors to fabric.

7. My Galaxy dress needs its capelet, and I've chosen 9/07 #118. Trace, cut, sew. Traced.

8. Mending. Hem one pair of pants for me, three pair for Mario. And there's a pink silk skirt I picked up at the thrift store that needs to be cut down to my size. And random buttons that need to be sewn back on. Done.

Okay, written out it looks even more alarming than it does in my head. But so much of it is fast sewing, it really shouldn't be that bad.

Tonight, I'm going to fit the shirt on him and pin the sleeves and side seams. If I get nothing else done, that's a start. Then I'll cut out the KS raglan sleeve sweat shirt, and when I'm finished that, I'll look for the facings for the black pants, or dig through the scrap bin and find a fabric that will work, and get those attached. (Hey, at least I haven't lost the pattern piece, just the fabric pieces).