I hate shopping. I especially hate shopping for clothes. All clothes, any clothes, I hate it. I hate trying them on, I hate what the stores sell in my size and price range. But since I’m not a fan of running around naked either, I usually force myself to do the deed a couple of times a year. And you can tell by my clothes that I don’t enjoy the process.
This summer I’ve switched it all up and started sewing again after a 15 year hiatus. Now there’s a process I enjoy. Turning fabric into something useful and wearable.
But the start of my renewed interest in sewing had a rocky start. Initially I wanted capris and shorts. Two summer wardrobe staples. I made the trip to Fabricland and came home with a gorgeous linen rayon blend in navy & black along with a pattern for some pretty basic pants. Waistband, front fly, slash pockets – perfect for semi-casual type pants.
Aaaand the pattern was garbage. I made all of my fitting adjustments (thank you Curvy Sewing Collective – a fabulous sewing resource) and then cut my fabric for a pair of capris. While I was making my adjustments, I thought it a bit odd that as the sizes increased, they added length to the bottom of the front pants piece but on the back piece added it at the top. But what do I know about drafting a pants pattern right?
Turns out I was completely right and the pattern left me with two front legs and two back legs that seemed as if they were from two completely different patterns. Yay for expensive commercial patterns! Truthfully it also left me with a strong sense of deja vu, I am convinced this same pattern was my last incomplete project – 15 years ago. Which is when I put my machines away and got rid of my fabric stash. I wonder how many aspiring sewists gave up sewing on that particular pattern?
But it turns out the internet has made some big changes in the sewing world over the past 15 years. Sewing tips are at our fingertips, no more waiting for Nancy Zieman on PBS every Sunday when there’s YouTube channels and Blogs devoted to sewing. Even better are some of the patterns available on these sites. So I’m hooked on sewing again and loving the results that are coming out of my sewing machine. Expect to see more sewing related posts.
Finally! The tutorial and pattern for this bag I’ve promised. It was surprisingly time-consuming to redraw the pattern and make it nice and clean so it would make sense to everyone else. So, click here >>> >here< <<< for the pattern. I don’t care if you make and sell a million dollars worth of these bags – just don’t post my pattern on your own site.
Materials for Asymmetric Bag:
1 meter fusible interfacing.
1/2 meter each of exterior fabric and lining fabric.
1/4 – 1/2 meter of accent fabric (optional – you could make exterior in a single color)
2 – 7″ zippers
your choice of bag hardware for strap and closure. There are so many possibilities and choices, it’s entirely up to you what you use.
Assembly of your asymmetric bag:
Attaching accent fabric to bottom of bag:
Once you’ve cut out all of your pieces, trim the fusible interfacing 1/4″ on all sides to reduce bulk in your seams.
You will need to decide which side of the bag your exterior pocket will be on. Since it’s at an angle, it’s more comfortable to use if you follow my handy little Sharpie notes on the photos. Fuse your interfacing to all exterior pieces and half of each pocket lining.
Once you have fused all of your interfacing, assemble the exterior. The photo above shows you how the pieces go together. Sew with a 1/2″ seam.
Another little Sharpie note for pocket placement.
Inserting the zipper and outside pocket:
Find the vertical center of your pocket lining and your bag exterior.
Draw a line one inch from top edge on wrong side of pocket lining.
Draw another line 3/8″ from first line.
Mark each end 3 1/8 from center. You should finish with a long skinny rectangle 3/8″ x 6 1/4″ long. Mark your cut lines as shown. Pin to bag, right sides together, centers matched.
Sew all the way around with your stitch length set to 2.5 on the sides, but change to 1 from 1/2″ before corners until around the other side.
Cut down the center to 1/2″ from each side. Angle towards each corner as close as possible to stitching without cutting through. Flip the lining through to the other side and press.
See how pretty that turned out?
Center and pin your zipper underneath as shown and top-stitch through all layers. Sew each side first in the same direction then go back and sew across each end so your zipper doesn’t twist.
Pin the other half of the lining to your bag – wrong sides together and sew all the way around with a 1/2″ seam.
One pocket finished! Only one more zipper to go, but first lets put the rest of the outside of this bag together.
Finishing the outside of the bag:
You will need to sew each side and the bottom, but leave the notched out part unsewn.
Press seams open. A rolled up towel can help with that chore, just use it like a mini ironing board shoved inside the bag.
Refold the bag and sew across your corner.
Congratulations! You’ve finished the outside of your bag.
Putting the lining and inside pocket together:
For the lining, attach the pocket to one side with the bottom at least 3/4 of an inch above corner notches of bottom. Assemble both halves of the lining, exactly the same as the outside of the bag except you need to leave an opening along one side for turning.
Do stitch the top and bottom of that side though.
Finishing off:
Pin lining and exterior – right sides together and sew 1/2″ seam. Trim away 1/4″ from exterior seam allowance to reduce bulk, then turn right side out, press, and topstitch.
That’s my sweet boy Louie photo-bombing in the corner.
All that’s left now is the strap!
I could not find a good match in webbing for this fabric, so I made a strap using the fabric. There is an extremely good tutorial for making bag straps >here<.
The only thing I did differently was seamed the ends for a neater finish.
Attach your strap just below the accent fabric on each side.
And that’s it! What do you think of this fabric? It is the weirdest thing – I hate the colors of it at night, but love them during the day.
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I am so happy with this cross-body bag I made! If you’ve got a keen eye, you’ll see I’ve once again used the MCM atomic prints created by Joe of Ambient Wares – you can download it for free >here< and see the adorable MCM plant stands they made with it! They even have hairpin legs!
Printing on Fabric with a laser printer!
I printed their designs on fabric using a black & white laser printer.
So what you do is tear off a piece of freezer paper and with your iron set to highest setting (which unless you have a commercial/professional iron is nothing) and the steam off, press the shiny side of your freezer paper to your fabric.
Once it’s attached, trim your fabric/paper sandwich to either letter (8.5″ x 11″) or legal sized (8.5″ x 14″). I used legal for the bag. Go over all the edges again with your iron making sure it’s firmly attached together all the way around. Be especially certain at the edge that will feed into the printer.
Use a sticky lint roller to make sure there are no loose threads or lint on the side you are printing. Set your printer to print best quality and using your bypass tray, print your design on the fabric. The freezer paper backing should just peel away.
I did some test pieces and washed them to test if the design would be colorfast. I discovered as long as you go over the design with a hot iron first to set it, on my fabric the design stayed through washing.
Making the cross body bag.
This is just an overview, I want to tweak the pattern and test it a bit more before I do a full tutorial, but I purchased 1/2 meter each of my 3 different fabric choices.
I had already drafted my pattern the night before, so I pinned everything out and cut my pieces.
With no clear right or wrong side, I kept questioning if I had it right. I expected the pieces to look more like the pieces of a puzzle when they were side by side.
I interfaced the exterior fabrics and pocket linings with fusible interfacing. There was a time I would have had black interfacing for my dark fabric, this time I had only white and it worked out fine.
I attached my accent piece to the top of each plain piece to make the front and back of the bag.
Then I marked out the zipper placement on the pocket lining.
Here is the lining turned to the inside of the bag.
How it looks on the outside. More lighting would have been nice!
Zipper placement!
Pin the bag at the corners and seams, right sides together. Don’t sew the notch between the pins.
Press everything open.
Shift the fabric around, seams together and sew across the notch to shape the bottom of the bag.
Here I’m inserting the zipper and interior pocket.
You sew it into a pocket after inserting the zipper. Once I had the zipper in, I sewed the lining together in the same way as the exterior, but with an opening left in the side for turning.
The strap is adjustable so you can use it as a regular purse but I prefer the convenience of a cross-body bag. I love this sparkly webbing.
Here you can see how the exterior pocket is under the flap. I love how nicely the lines & dots atomic pattern and the lining fabric play together.
The buckle is rather cool, even if the quality was somewhat disappointing.
I’m so happy with the way this cross-body bag came together! I can’t wait to share the pattern and a full tutorial with you!
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Leather Moroccan Poufs are all over the home decorating sites but they come with a hefty price tag, they’re listed at $395 US on one site, more than my cheap little heart can handle.
So I made my own from old jeans. It’s neither an easy project nor a quick one. Insets, where you fit the triangles together, are a bear and there are 32 of them in this pouf. But if you don’t mind a sewing challenge and are looking for pouf, this is how I made mine.
For this project, you’ll need the following:
Old jeans (I used 4 pairs) or fabric in enough yardage.
Matching thread and the usual sewing supplies including a seam ripper.
A nylon zipper, 22″ or longer. I used a duvet zipper and just cut the extra off.
Stuffing of some sort, you can use old clothes, pillows, or you can buy the bean bag pellets.
Patience.
You can use this pattern – Moroccan Pouf Pattern – or draft your own on freezer paper.
Cut out your pieces
Take each pant leg and smooth it out, with a rotary cutter you can cut the front and back of the leg at the same time. I found I could easily fit one side piece and one or two of the top pieces on each leg. Times two, because front and back. So four pants, eight legs, 16 tops and 16 sides. Done.
The bottom is a bit trickier, by this time I was out of usable denim so I dipped into my stash. I thought I would be clever and piece the pockets together for the center of the top – you’ll see what happened there later.
Assembling the top:
Denim has some quirks, worn denim even more. When sewing your pieces together, sew all of your seams in the same direction so it doesn’t twist. Since the trickiest part will be assembling all of those points and valleys of your outer edge the valleys and points of the sides, stitch from outer edge toward the center.
When it came time for me to attach my top to my sides, I wound up opening part of the seam, so if you prefer you can start your stitching 1/2″ from what will be the outer edge of your top.
The fastest way to do this is to make eight pairs, sew them, press them open and then make four pairs and so on until it’s done.
See how I sewed the pockets together and matched up the embroidery? Fancy right?
It would have been great if it was big enough to use. With 16 seams, even the tiniest inaccuracy in your sewing adds up. I had to cut a larger circle for my center.
So for your center, using a long stitch baste around the outside edge. Pull up your bobbin thread to gather it a bit so it will be easier to turn under. If you trim the seam allowance off of your pattern piece, you can use it as a pressing template.
Pin it in place (mark your quarters and make sure it all lines up).
Sew around once 1/4″ or so from the edge, and then again very close to the edge.
That’s the top assembled. Real Moroccan Poufs usually have embroidery on the top so you could embroider or stencil yours if you want to. I really think a stenciled pattern would look nice. Plus if you invest that much more time in it, you’ll be less likely to toss it in the trash once you start attaching the top to the sides.
Assemble the sides:
Next, you’ll assemble the sides of your Moroccan pouf in the same way as the top. Again sew together from the pointy end down and all of your seams in the same direction. For the last two seams, I only sewed the top couple of inches to give myself more room to maneuver, but I don’t think it was necessary. Again, I later opened up the seam, so you can start stitching from 1/2″ down if you wish.
Assembling your Moroccan Pouf:
Now replace your bobbin with contrasting thread and baste 5/8″ from the outer edge of your top and the upper edge of your side, lifting your presser foot with the needle down at each turn. Leave your matching thread in the top and sew wrong side down – I know it’s obvious, but so is right sides together and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten that wrong.
This gives you a seam line for matching the points of the outies to the valley of the innies. I found it also stabilizes your edges and if you’re opening your seams up like I did, helps keep everything together. You will also see where you need to turn your points to have the proper seam allowance on the other side. Mark this point on your throat plate, it will help you later.
This is where I opened my seams to the basted line. If you left the 1/2″ unsewn, you can skip the quality time with your seam ripper. Either way, you will need the open seam to have enough ease to match the points to the valleys.
You have to match the points of your top to the valleys of your sides, and the points of your sides to the valleys of your top. Innies to outies, outies to innies.
Use your handy stitch line to match points to valleys. Below, you can see what it looks like with every single point pinned to every single valley. Which I actually found harder to work with when I was sewing, so I would just pin every other point.
Replace your bobbin with matching thread and make sure it’s full. This is NOT the seam you want to run out of bobbin thread on. Take a deep breath and find your zen, because this is where you need to be very patient. It’s going to look absolutely insane under your presser foot!
I started on a straight edge and sewed towards my corner. As soon as I hit the point, I stopped with the needle down. Then I lifted the presser foot and turned the fabric. Thirty-two times I was convinced it wouldn’t work, and thirty-two times, I was able to smooth it all out, line it up, and sew to the next point. So I’m very confident you can do it too.
Once you’ve made it all the way around, check for any kinks or puckers. If you have one you don’t have to rip out the entire seam. Just remove the stitching far enough to each side that you can smooth it out and then sew it again. The zipper is going to seem easy now isn’t it?
Insert the zipper and attach the bottom:
With right sides together, sew 2″ together at each side. Baste the rest of the seam and press open. Lay your zipper on the seam, sew each side.
Run your seam ripper through the basting and open your zipper.
With the zipper open, zig-zag over each end of the zipper and cut off the excess. Make sure your zipper is open before you sew over the ends, or it won’t work as a zipper anymore.
Leaving the zipper open just enough to get your hand through, pin and sew the bottom to the sides. Sewing this seam will be ridiculously easy after attaching the top! Open your zipper, turn it all right side out and stuff it. I used leftover styrofoam beans and an old pillow.
Congrats! You’ve now got a Moroccan pouf for next to nothing!
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Make outside chair cushions on the cheap with economy pillows and a fabric shower curtain!
Spring is for planting and gardening, but summer is for kicking back and appreciating the beauty I’ve created around me. Which is why I’ve spent the past couple of weeks on deck projects. I spend a lot of time sitting out there, so I wanted to spruce things up a bit. I really wanted to add some outdoor chair cushions this year.
Outdoor chair cushions have always been a bit of a dilemma for me. My deck is not covered, so anything out there gets exposed to the weather. Along with weather comes bird and spider poop. Plus if I even remembered to bring them indoors, I’ve really got no place to put them.
Practicality aside, I still wanted them and a couple of weeks ago I even had two outdoor chair cushions in my cart, but decided that 2 for $30 wasn’t enough of a bargain for me. My choices were limited because everything was already picked over. I needed two that matched and would look good with my chairs which limited my choices even more.
Why finally splurge only to ‘settle’ when I knew I could make my own?
What I used instead:
In the bedding department I found these pillows for $3.47. They might be way too soft for sleeping, but they’re perfect for my patio chairs and I could choose my fabric for the cover. If they’re still usable when summer is over, I can swap out the cover and use them on my couch so storing them isn’t a problem. If they end up being garbage at the end of the summer, even my cheap little heart won’t cry over the seven bucks they cost.
I had these fabrics at home that would have worked, but the only one I had enough of to really use was the bright green. Bright green and aqua wasn’t the look I wanted to go for. The other two fabrics were really too expensive to use on outdoor projects.
Wal-mart only carries pre-cut quilting fabric and anything that I liked, wasn’t enough fabric for two pillows. So I used plan B and headed for the bedding department again to look at sheets and curtains, anything that would yield a big enough piece of fabric. I found this fabric shower curtain on the clearance rack for $15 and the colors were a perfect match for my chairs.
Making the Covers
Making a pillow cover is one of those simple easy jobs I kind of enjoy. It’s just measure, cut, and sew. There aren’t any any intricate cuts or high precision sewing to worry about. The only part of making these I didn’t enjoy, was the piles of mending my boys tried to foist on me when they saw the sewing machine come out.
I went for a straight-forward envelope back with a 2″ overlap and no buttons or fastenings. I also left off any cording. It gives cushions and upholstery a more defined look, but it is an extra step plus the messing around to get nice corners. I also used the existing hems at the top and bottom of the shower curtain to simplify these covers even more.
My pillows measured 20 x 26″, so for each pillow I cut a 21 x 27″ front (1/2″ seam allowances times 2), and for each back I used two pieces, one 16.5 x 27″ and one 12.5 x 27″, adding in 2″ of overlap and 1/2″ seam allowances. Remember my pieces were already hemmed, if I were to hem them, the length for each with a 1″ hem plus a 1/2″ turn under, would have been 18 and 14 instead.
Then I just stacked my pieces right sides together and sewed around the four sides using 1/2″ seam allowances.
I clipped the seam allowance close to my stitching at the corners and then turned them right-side out. The fabric is synthetic and I didn’t iron it, mainly because I am positive it would melt before it held a crease.
My finished outdoor chair cushions
So there you have it, two outdoor chair cushions for around $11 each. That $15 shower curtain could have easily covered a third pillow, and with some finesse maybe even a fourth.
The fabric goes so nicely with the chairs. By happy accident, the design placement on the fabric is nearly identical on each cushion.
Cushions just seem to make the space friendlier don’t they?
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This summer I’ve switched it all up and started sewing again after a 15 year hiatus. Now there’s a process I enjoy. Turning fabric into something useful and wearable.
