Adventures in Stitching

Recently I have become enamoured with the idea of doing some hand sewn projects.  Things small enough in both project time and size, that getting the machine out to do it is a waste of both time and energy.

You may recall that last Christmas I made 3 framed purses and a specs case for various family members.  All were very well received, but in all honesty, they were a pain in the butt to make on my sewing machine.  There was just not enough clearance to turn things the way they were needed.  So much so that for the last 2 items, I hand stitched the entire top section, which worked a dream.  I still have my purse and specs case to make yet, and I will be hand stitching the entire thing, as I’m sure that there will be far less cursing.

Back to the point, though.  I realised that my ‘Sewing Basket’, was rather large, and not really conducive to being left in the lounge room, or taking out and about with me.  So I went on the hunt for a suitable smaller bag, pouch or basket.  Nothing really availed itself commercially (local Spotlight is still waiting on stock), and looking at current patterns from “The Big 4” was just completely uninspiring.  So I thought I’d scrounge around in my old pattern stock to see what I had.  Two very similar pouch patterns came out of the search, but still not completely ideal.

So my Mother in Law had a look through her patterns, and came up with exactly what I was looking for!  The pattern in the bottom left hand corner is a pouch that has a soft basket base (propped by fusible fleece), pockets and a drawstring.  Small enough to fit into a Tote bag, or on the side table in the lounge room, but big enough to fit essentials plus a small project on the go.  Best of all, it doesn’t take a lot of fabric (1m total if you use 1 or 2 colours).   So I dived into the fabric stash to see what I had that would 1. look good and 2. look good (hahaha).

I found 2 fabrics that worked well, were a little vintage/1930’s looking and pre-washed to boot!  I decided to leave off the petals and keep it simple.  I’m adding a Fast 2 Fuse base so it’s kind of stable.  The whole thing should whip up in about an hour, now that it’s all cut and marked and ready to go.

Once that’s done, I’ll have a little hand work basket/pouch that I can start using for those times where I want to do some needlework, but not knitting.  Especially now that I have my hands on a book which is full of too cute small gift ideas that just happen to be…. hand stitched!

Omiyage is not the first book written by Kumiko Sudo, and my Mother in Law happened to have another, Kokoro no Te.  Both are filled with gorgeous small project and gift ideas.  I am really looking forward to sitting down with some gorgeous fabric and hand piecing some of these treasures.

But first, the sewing pouch!