Spontaneous Sewing Makes

Post Christmas, I did a couple of spontaneous sewing makes. I honestly thought I wouldn't want to touch a machine in ages since I had actually had a hugely productive sewing December (two Christmas Shirts (Dad & Luke), Mum's Shirt, shorts and dresses for babies and toddlers (all found here), as well as all the tedama that I churned out). But for some reason, it was totally fine for me to do these littlish things. 

Steve's gi bag for Jiujitsu was wearing thin and he needed a new one. I used the draw string from the old one and sewed up a similar design replacement in this fabulous black, gold and orange koi fabric that I'd picked up in Japan. Steve's choice! 

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It was a very straight forward sew - I added a lanyard clip for keys and sewed on a slip pocket on the inside for his phone (actually after the fact, but it was easy enough to add). it looks great, is sturdy (French seams for beauty and strength) and Steve has been using it every week.

No points for guessing the next make is for Rachel, since it's using the cow print fabric leftover from her onesie. Rachel got a new set of pens for Christmas but didn't have a pencil case big enough to put them in. We did a brain storm on design (flat or boxy, two pockets or one) and what fabric combo she wanted. We went through the box of zips - many of which I've unpicked from bags that are otherwise falling apart. 

She might have wanted to make it herself, but I was a little bit in the zone so I just sewed it all up for her. The inside is lined with a hand me down scrap from the stash (again, probably from Aunty Sue.) It's a white with small rainbow hearts, but it's quite see through, so I can't see us using it for much  other than linings.

The cool insect fabric is some that I got on sale at Spotlight a year ago. I have vauge plans for a dress (I keep going back and forth between being ok with making something for Rachel and wanting it for myself :P) but with two metres of it there was enough to sacrifice a strip for the contrast. Rachel requested the zip pulls be cow fabric and I added the lanyard clip just in case. 

Pretty straight forward, standard pencil case, making everyone happy. I also sewed up two of the standard kind of "green bag" that we use for groceries in Australia. 

Mum had given me some fabric for Christmas that I didn't think was destined for a garment of any kind. As I looked at it though, I knew it could still be useful. Our current collection of green bags are good, but I had found that when I wanted to take a cake somewhere, they were all about 2cm too short across to fit the container comfortably. New bags were in order. 

The hardest thing about these was figuring out the maths to make sure I cut them in the most effective use of the fabric. As it was, I ended up using every little piece of the 1.5m that Mum had gifted me. Zero Waste Achievement Unlocked! 

The bags are standard boxy numbers. I reinforced the base with some hard-core interfacing I had left from making obi a couple of years ago. Sides are sewn with French seams for strength. They even have little tabs on the side for looping over the bag rack at the shops. 

 I'm pleased to report that they work very well for their intended purpose.