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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Walker Bag

Front of walker bag


     A few months ago my mom had to have total knee replacement.  She needed to get a new walker for rehab and thus needed a new walker bag.  She wanted something cheerful and not seasonal.  Her favorite color is yellow and she chose a butterfly for the design.  I decided to add her initial to the other front pocket.

Back pockets


     I measured her walker and we determined how big the bag should be overall.  She needed a pocket to take papers with her and another pocket to carry her phone.  I was hoping to be able to put a water bottle in the other front pocket but it turned out not quite big enough.

Measuring binding for the edge


     I wanted to keep this as simple as possible since I was busy with lots of other things.  The bag itself is just one piece of a heavier canvas fabric.  First I did the embroidery and then I bound the short ends with some binding I had in my stash.  I folded up the short ends to get the pocket sizes I wanted.

Binding folded to the right side of the bag


I then serged the edges.  I placed the binding on the wrong side of the bag and folded the ends to the right side.
Stitching down the binding with the 1/4" foot

     I sewed on the binding with a 1/4" seam allowance, pressed and turned to the right side.  When sewing on the binding I also sewed in place the straps that would hold the bag onto the walker.

Pressing the binding


     After pressing binding to the right side I stitched close to the fold to finish off the edges.

Stitching close to the fold


     Then I flipped the strap with the hook part of the hook and loop tape over and stitched it down again so it faced to the back.


Strap with loop part faces away from the bag




Strap with hook part faced the bag, here is it turned back for stitching


     I did the same for the loop part.  This made it easier to take on and off because the straps were facing away from the bag.

Stitched down strap


    Once I had my plan, the cutting and sewing were quite simple.  If I had had more time I would have make it in three pieces so that I could have made a gusseted pocket for her water bottle.  I think I would have also added a snap or hook and loop tape to keep the pocket where she kept her phone from opening up to prevent her losing it.  Also if she was using this for everyday, a key lanyard might be useful in the other pocket.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Eco-Friendly Sewing Camp 2015

Hard at work



     Last week was my last sewing camp for the summer.  It was Eco-Friendly Sewing.  The girls made gift bags for CDs and another for DVDs.  They then made a gift bag that turned into a purse.  The last two days were spent making a wallet that turned into a shopping bag.

Kara and her gift bags

Kelsey and her gift bags


     These gift bags were sewn with instructions from my friend Pattie Otto.  They learned how great Wonder Tape is to hold small pieces in place.  They also used a new stitch and foot to overcast the raw edge of the bottom seam.

Twice as Nice Gift Bags


     Next they made a Twice as Nice Gift Bag.  These instructions were from Embroidery Library.  We did not do any embroidery.  We also changed up the drawstring ties by making them longer and going all the way around.  We ran into some problems when putting in the ribbon ties and had to sew a second line for a casing.  Kara said she was happy to be a little behind Kelsey because then we figured out what was not quite right and she could benefit from us figuring it out.

Kara and her "Green" Bag

Kelsey and her "Green" Bag


  The next two days were spent making the "Green" Bag from the book W.O.W. Bags by Jeanne L. Perrine.  The girls sewed in a zipper, used some new materials and experienced sewing on bulky items.  They also used a hammer to set snaps from Snap Source in the tab of this bag.

Ready to shop


     Things went very well in spite of them not having quite all the right materials.  We just did some 'shopping' in my sewing room.  They finished up in time and went home with four great projects in just four days of sewing.

     Next up is getting ready for after school sewing.  So far Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are full.  Looking forward to sewing with them again.

Kelsey's items