Messenger Bag Experiment

This little bag is for a six year old boy who is about to embark on a long cross-country trip.  He and his family are friends of ours here and are about to move very far away.  As their going-away present I made him a personalized 'treasure bag'.  Every kid going on a trip needs a special bag all their own for their books, paper, crayons, snuggles, toys, snacks, and other assorted treasures picked up along the way.

I thought about the bag for days and sketched out ideas on scrap paper.  I bought felt for the embellishment on the front, piping for the outer edges, and a sturdy webbing for the strap (I had the denim already).  I was really happy with how it was turning out - everything just like I had planned.  Until I measured wrong and made a wrong cut.  I hate that when that happens!  I was able to salvage the good parts of the bag that I had already completed (the embellished flap and the piping around the edges of the bag and the flap) I just had to piece together two pieces of fabric that I had really wanted to be one smooth piece.  I'm sure its one of those things that no one else will notice, I was just really frustrated because I had planned it properly and the mistake was a silly one.  Oh well, live and learn I guess.  The six year old won't care one bit - I'm sure he'll love his little satchel and jam it full of all kinds of goodies on his trip. 

Beginner Dress

June has been a whirlwind month of sewing so its time to catch up and post what I've been working on.

The last post was about drafting my sloper, so I'll start with what I made from that sloper.

I'm calling it my 'beginner dress'.

I drafted the pattern myself from scratch.  I was sort-of following instructions in a book, though it had what I would consider 'general' directions rather than 'step-by-step' so there was plenty of experimentation along the way.

I have worn it to a wedding, and then again to church a few weeks later.  Happy to report no wardrobe malfunctions.  :)

Overall I think I did a so-so job.  But I'm okay with that for a beginner dress - you have to start somewhere, right?  Most of my mistakes were not in the pattern drafting portion, ironically, but in the actual garment construction process.  I kept changing my mind on what I wanted for a lining and that greatly affects the order in which things should be sewn.  I found myself carefully thinking about what the next step would be, only to go to the dress and discover that I should have done that two steps before.  So there was some ripping of seams and lots of hand sewing things together so as to hide raw edges without having to take the whole darn thing apart and start over.

I used a blue paisley-ish cotton that I found on sale.  Nothing fancy because I wasn't going to use expensive fabric on my first attempt.  It did cause a little trouble though, because once I finished the dress I decided it was far too plain/boring/matronly for the wedding I was planning to wear it to.  So I added the white collared shirt from my closet underneath and then added the white ribbon trim to the skirt.  I don't hate it but I don't love it either.

I will say it is very comfortable.  It is comfortable because it fits.  Which is really the whole point of this learning process so I am very satisfied with that part of it.  I learned a lot, didn't give up (though I was tempted a few times when the lining was driving me crazy and the wedding was a few days away), and ended up with a garment made from scratch that fits well.  Now I can take the knowledge gained and apply it to different styles/fabrics/etc to try and work out some of the things I don't like about this one (like the extremely wonky drape of the skirt).

Thats the first project to post this week.  Coming up soon will be this year's modest swimdresses and a quickie little bag, plus some cool stuff the girls have been up to.