In my vague attempt to keep up with this whole blogging thing, and because I'm currently bored at work, here's a blog post.
My Star Wars maythe4thsquiltswap package went off to it's new home on Saturday, although thanks to traffic and the bank holiday, it's not going to get there until tomorrow. I'm pleased with it, and when my partner has received it, I'll post it up here.
In the mean time, this is my first attempt at the Zip Up Tray Pouch by Aneela Hoey. It's a great, clever pattern, and I think it would be perfect for tabletop gaming, as well as the obvious craft uses.
It would be even better if I could read instructions properly.
After the mad dash to the post office on Saturday, me and the bff went to Buddies. They're an American diner restaurant who have been in town for as long as I can remember, and are well known for a lot of food at a pretty good price, as well as all the inflatables hanging from the ceiling. Also cheese. The tradition is that you have pouring cheese with your fries. I prefer the cheese and bacon, but either way, I'm developing a lactose intolerance, and that much meat and cheese in one sitting only leads to me feeling like death. So I spent most of saturday evening either reading or sleeping (and then woke up grumpy because I hadn't achieved anything... welcome to how my brain works)
So I thought I'd cut some fabric for a zip up tray (after deciding not to make one for the Star Wars swap).
I bought the grey moose fabric (which also has bears and wolves on it) from Threads and Patches in Fenny Stratford an AGE ago, on whim when I popped in with a friend. I bought a half metre cut and promptly shoved it into the stash and forgot about it. I have no idea who it's by, but it's decent quilting cotton.
The pink was part of a bundle I bought from The Fabric Fox last year, which didn't quite work for the swap it was bought for (I made a flamingo, so needed lots of pink). It's Sevenberry, I think, but it's at home. It's cute, and fitted the moose theme.
I'd even bought the right stabilizer from Amazon, although since then I've found somewhere that does it by the metre, rather than the 'craft packs' that are only good for one pouch.
I should know by now not to cut stuff at night. But I'm an idiot, and managed to miss off the 1/2 in from the 14 1/2 inches for the main fabric pieces. I thought when I was sewing the sections that it looked wrong, and I had to trim one of the long stabilizer pieces really seriously, but it didn't occur to me until I was trying to wrangle it into a 3D shape that I'd fucked up.
Basically, because I'd lost 1/2 an inch, I had to shave off part of one of the triangle pieces of stabilizer that make up the end pieces. Which was annoying and slightly fiddly as the fusing was REALLY secure. There was also an excess of fabric after that, which had to be trimmed AFTER I'd sewn all the ends down. You can see in the photo below how one side has slightly less depth than the other.
I also hate hand stitching. By the point I was hand stitching on Bank Holiday Monday, I had pretty much given up on it. It took me 2 episodes of Lucifer to do the two ends, and I was hungry and grumpy by the end.
All told, it's a good pouch. It's cute, I like it, I will no doubt find a use for it. I'm definitely going to make more. If it were actually flat on the bottom, it would definitely be a win for tabletop gaming as a dice rolling space.
But this one is an epic bodge job. The main problem, as you can hopefully see below, is the gaping at the ends, that kind of mean stuff will fall out, but I think with a couple of poppers/snaps, this will be rectified. It also doesn't sit flat, obviously, but that's not the end of the world.
And I have now highlighted my printout of the pattern so I don't bodge it (this way at least) again!
My Star Wars maythe4thsquiltswap package went off to it's new home on Saturday, although thanks to traffic and the bank holiday, it's not going to get there until tomorrow. I'm pleased with it, and when my partner has received it, I'll post it up here.
In the mean time, this is my first attempt at the Zip Up Tray Pouch by Aneela Hoey. It's a great, clever pattern, and I think it would be perfect for tabletop gaming, as well as the obvious craft uses.
It would be even better if I could read instructions properly.
After the mad dash to the post office on Saturday, me and the bff went to Buddies. They're an American diner restaurant who have been in town for as long as I can remember, and are well known for a lot of food at a pretty good price, as well as all the inflatables hanging from the ceiling. Also cheese. The tradition is that you have pouring cheese with your fries. I prefer the cheese and bacon, but either way, I'm developing a lactose intolerance, and that much meat and cheese in one sitting only leads to me feeling like death. So I spent most of saturday evening either reading or sleeping (and then woke up grumpy because I hadn't achieved anything... welcome to how my brain works)
So I thought I'd cut some fabric for a zip up tray (after deciding not to make one for the Star Wars swap).
I bought the grey moose fabric (which also has bears and wolves on it) from Threads and Patches in Fenny Stratford an AGE ago, on whim when I popped in with a friend. I bought a half metre cut and promptly shoved it into the stash and forgot about it. I have no idea who it's by, but it's decent quilting cotton.
The pink was part of a bundle I bought from The Fabric Fox last year, which didn't quite work for the swap it was bought for (I made a flamingo, so needed lots of pink). It's Sevenberry, I think, but it's at home. It's cute, and fitted the moose theme.
I'd even bought the right stabilizer from Amazon, although since then I've found somewhere that does it by the metre, rather than the 'craft packs' that are only good for one pouch.
I should know by now not to cut stuff at night. But I'm an idiot, and managed to miss off the 1/2 in from the 14 1/2 inches for the main fabric pieces. I thought when I was sewing the sections that it looked wrong, and I had to trim one of the long stabilizer pieces really seriously, but it didn't occur to me until I was trying to wrangle it into a 3D shape that I'd fucked up.
Basically, because I'd lost 1/2 an inch, I had to shave off part of one of the triangle pieces of stabilizer that make up the end pieces. Which was annoying and slightly fiddly as the fusing was REALLY secure. There was also an excess of fabric after that, which had to be trimmed AFTER I'd sewn all the ends down. You can see in the photo below how one side has slightly less depth than the other.
I also hate hand stitching. By the point I was hand stitching on Bank Holiday Monday, I had pretty much given up on it. It took me 2 episodes of Lucifer to do the two ends, and I was hungry and grumpy by the end.
All told, it's a good pouch. It's cute, I like it, I will no doubt find a use for it. I'm definitely going to make more. If it were actually flat on the bottom, it would definitely be a win for tabletop gaming as a dice rolling space.
But this one is an epic bodge job. The main problem, as you can hopefully see below, is the gaping at the ends, that kind of mean stuff will fall out, but I think with a couple of poppers/snaps, this will be rectified. It also doesn't sit flat, obviously, but that's not the end of the world.
And I have now highlighted my printout of the pattern so I don't bodge it (this way at least) again!
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