Sew Storm

As the title implies, I've been sewing up a storm lately. Last week I finished my first project in sewing class; a retro apron. I forgot to take pictures, but it turned out relatively cute for my first "real" attempt at sewing something from scratch. During the course of this project I learned how to read a pattern, how to sew darts and make pleats, how to use bias tape, and the definition of a cowl. There are things I would have done differently obviously, but it was a good place to start, and now I know how to modify the pattern for future uses. As a reward to myself for a project well done, I went a little nuts at Joann's buying new fabric, ribbon and thread until my heart was content.

My ever increasing fabric mountain

Once the apron was complete, I moved on to fixing a shirt of mine that had a few holes along the seams. Again, it was a learning experience for me since the shirt is made of a really stretchy knit material, and I had to learn all about stretch stitches. I can't say working with knits is on my list of "favorite" things to do, so thank goodness I don't plan on making my own tops. All I care about is being able to fix my beloved purchased clothes when they fall apart.
Then this last weekend, I'll ask you to recall my flooded basement and the pictures where the basement curtains got soaked up to about 12 inches from the bottom while floating in water. Obviously that required them all to be machine washed. All 10 panels that are 9' by 6' each. The washing went fine and dandy two at a time, until I realized about midway through that all the velcro I had ironed onto the curtains in specific locations to hold them together in a "wall-like" fashion was falling apart. Another quick trip to Joann's taught me that basically those ironed on velcro patches were useless, and I'd have to start all over by sewing on new "ironless" velcro patches. 8 pieces per curtain times 10. Awesome! (Please note my element of extreme sarcasm) To be quite honest, the sewing was not that bad. I enjoy using my machine now. It's the ironing that killed me!!! Imagine ironing 54, 000 square inches of fabric. It is NOT fun. So not fun in fact, that I got blisters on my hand after the first 6 panels, and had to give up until another day when my hand recovered. Blech. The other problem I now have, is that washing the curtains shrunk them a good 8 inches. Before they were floor length. Now, not so much. Hopefully nothing a little lengthing of the curtain rod can't handle though.

Curtain velcro closure close-upCurtain wall

Thankfully, I was able to make something fun in class this week to rediscover my sewing mojo after that curtain mess. I got the idea from one of my bento blogs, and after I purchased a cute pattern I found on etsy, I embarked on making myself some snack sacks. The idea of the "snack sack" is to make and use a resuable ziploc bag that helps diminish your carbon footprint (think of all those plastic bags in the landfill!). The fabric snack sacks are coated on the inside with a mostly foodsafe nylon, and the whole thing can be throw in the washer to be cleaned. Obviously you're not going to pack your yogurt or jello in these, but for things like grapes, cookies, crackers and pretzels, they're a great use of resources, and a great use for leftover fabric scraps! I started with this cute orange square pattern.

Orange snack sackVelcro top closurePartially opened snack sack

You probably can't see, but the inside nylon fabric is even small squares that coordinates nicely with the outside orange squares. I can't wait to make more of these bags in bulk, and in different sizes! They're such a fun little project, and given the remnant rack for fabric sales, the 40% off coupons for rip-stop nylon, and the $1 bin for 3 yards of velcro at Joann's, these little babies are SUPER cheap too. Now accepting requests!