Week 3 - Exterior Quilted Pockets

Honestly I need to get sponsorship from SewLine. I LOVE their products so much.  Below you can see the lines marked on the utility fabric for the exterior quilted pocket.  The SewLine pen gives such a delightful thin and precise line, and is clear on the fabric.  Further, it doesn't just rub off like the silver quilter's pencil does, making it hardier when one is handling the fabric a lot.

After marking the location of the batting, place it centred over the marks.  You might want to fix it in place with a few pins near the outside of the piece.  From here you get to have fun for a bit! Collect together all your scraps you would like to use for the pockets.  Are you going to feature something fussy-cut? Are you going to use lots of colours randomly selected? Or use things from within a range?

Whatever you do, enjoy it and its potential randomness!  However you decide to go, start with a piece somewhere roughly in the middle of the batting and quilt it down.  I had great fun experimenting with different quilting styles with each piece of new fabric I added. Some I did 1/4" apart, some 1/2", and some were even 1/8". I did a square spiral, and graduated lines.  Some going vertically, and then some going horizontally, and crazier still, I even tried diagonal lines.  Mix it up.

After you add your first piece of fabric, Elizabeth advises to add pieces "Log Cabin" Style. There is a tutorial with excellent pictures here on this style if you have never done it before.  Essentially, keep adding pieces of fabric around a central starting point, spiralling out and increasing each time.  By the time you get a few pieces in, your "scraps" may no longer be big enough, so sew a couple together, and then add it to the batting.  After each addition, quilt the latest piece down and then progress to the next one.  Keep adding until you have covered all of the batting.  Overlap to the utility fabric is also an option to ensure that it is fully covered.

In the picture above, you can see my experimentations with the quilting which kept me challenged the whole time!  After finishing all my quilting over the batting, I redrew the marks of the edge of the batting area, and then sewed on the fabric surrounds.  The window effect is quite effective.

At left, you can see two of the finished pockets.  The "top" of the pocket has not been trimmed back, so that it can be folded over to provide a neat finish.  At right, you can see the top stitching around the central quilting. I again chose 1/8" for my top stitching.

Lay your pocket right side down and place your lining fabric, right side up over the batting.  To keep this secure, you might either want to spray baste it in place, or use some pins.  Fold the flap over, and iron, to make a clear mark (this can be seen at right).  Unfold, and then fold the top edge of the outer fabric in to meet at the fold line you just ironed in.






Pin this fold down (or use clips if you find it too chunky) and then top stitch it in place.  I topstitched 1/2" down from the top of the pocket, which should "just" catch the fabric at the back.  But any width of topstitch is suitable.

Finally, I did some slip stitching around the sides and bottom of the pockets to keep all the layers together neatly.  I used the longest stitch length on my machine, and stitched about 1/8" from the end of the fabric.








Ooh and ahh at the loveliness of your pockets.  There is a LOT of stitching in this week, depending upon how heavily you quilt your pockets.  After this week, you might want to change your needle again before getting started on the next week of the tote.

Don't forget to post photos on your progress at the Flickr page! See you next week!

Week 2 - Straps and Bag Base

And now we get into the real part of the bag - and some actual sewing.

Essentially making the straps is just like making super wide binding.  Join the strips together using a 45 degree seam, and then trim off the excess down to a nice 1/4". In contrast to normal quilting and piecing, the seams here are to be sewn OPEN.  This is for no reason other than to reduce bulk in the straps.  You don't want a big lumpy bit along your gorgeous coordinated strap now do you?

A bagged out strap is the most tedious thing in the world to sew, and thankfully Elizabeth has avoided it here.  I can't thank her enough for that.  Our straps are left with raw edges and sewn into the seams of the bag.  

Now, for these straps, you will have to use interfacing.  There are many of you who many not have used interfacing much prior to this bag.  And interfacing is an art unto itself.  I highly recommend you read some resources like Nicole's Tutorial and Beginner's Guide to Interfacing.

The most imporant thing with interfacing, other than finding the right product, is its application.  Iron in interfacing can be all parts wonderful and frustrating.  People often have their preferred technique, eg using a Rajah cloth, or some other cloth over the top of the interfacing.  The first thing to remember is to put the shiny side of the interfacing onto the WRONG side of your fabric.  I will say that again and let you double check - Interfacing has the shiny side applied to the WRONG side of your fabric.

Ironing directly on the interfacing is fraught with difficulty; it moves around, the steam of your iron might make it shrink, and so on.  Using a cloth over the top helps both of these problems. If the piece of interfacing is cut right, ie not bigger than your fabric, I like to apply mine a little bit backwards.  I put the shiny side of my interfacing lying UP on the ironing board, and then lay the wrong side of my fabric carefully over the top.  Then I simply iron my fabric like normal.  Find your best method and apply it carefully and smoothly!

Once you have applied your interfacing, fold your strap in half lengthways, and iron, and this will give you a centre fold line mark. Unfold, and then fold in each side of the strap to meet at the centre fold line.  This is shown above.  Insert the webbing/strapping down one side of the centre line, and then fold both sides in over the strapping and top stitch as shown below.

Do this for the four lengths of strapping, so that you will have two beautiful long straps, and two delightful short straps. For my straps, I chose to do a generous 1/8" top stitch on either side. Mostly because, that is what I like, and because my foot (as shown above), actually has it marked.

Gaze and caress your beautiful straps. Now, onto the base.

The base might prove to be the undoing for some people, but don't despair. It is much easier than it first appears.  The hardest part of this process is juggling many layers of fabric and the very stiff interfacing.  

Pictured below is my interlining fabric, with the lines marked, and the layers of interfacing on top.  I have then sewn these down, as recommended by Elizabeth.  At this point, you will be able to determine how well your machine handles this many layers of material.  If you didn't have a denim needle in before you definitely NEED IT NOW!  I didn't use a walking foot for my machine, but you might find that helpful for helping the fabric through.  Experiment on a bit of cut off scraps and you  might be surprised. I experimented and was pleasantly surprised that my machine handled the thickness no problem.  This is also the time to establish what needle is best for your machine and fabric combination.  For me, DENIM was the only needle that handled it all well. I used a 10-12 size Denim Needle, but the size is also up to you.

 If your machine really doesn't handle three layers well, plus the interlining and fabric, quilt the base with one layer of interfacing, and then fuse them together carefully to provide the support that the base will need. If you are contemplating adding purse feet, this also might be the option to try. Quilt, then insert the feet as recommended, and then put over the final interfacing layers to cover the internal feet hardware neatly.

With all those layers of stuff floating around, I found it helpful to spray baste the fabric on, since pinning through everything is going to be impossible.  The next step is to mark out your desired quilting pattern.  Mark your pattern out, and then quilt away!  My machine has a very narrow throat, so I had to carefully decide which way I was sewing to avoid having bulk of the base under the machine.  As it is quite stiff, it is not easy to manoeuvre.  Keep a calm head and be prepared to swap direction constantly!

When it is all done, admire your wonderful work.  If you used a crayon based pencil like I have, shown above (you can see a pale green line where the stitching is), you will need to erase it. Take a rest and get ready for next week.  The above steps took me around 5 hours of calm sewing to complete!  Good Luck.

Week 1 Sew-Along - Let the fun begin!

Well here we are, finally about to officially begin the first Sew-Along.  I am incredibly excited about this whole project and look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.  There is a Flickr group started for you to up load your projects or progress shots. 

So, week 1 is all about Cutting out the fabric.  And good God there is a lot to cut out.  To help with the process, there is the Elizabeth Hartmann approved cutting checklist and labels.  If you don't have it, please just leave a comment with your email address and I shall forward you one immediately.  I have found it INVALUABLE.  There are a lot of pieces, of very similar sizes, and you will easily get confused.  The only fabric not included on the checklist for cutting out, is the batting for the exterior pockets, and the "scraps" or pieces used to quilt up the pockets.  The scraps might be quite literally from your scrap collection and are totally unique to you.

So above you see just some of the pieces cut out for my bag, and the wonderful cutting checklist provided by Kate. Oh. So. Many. Pieces.  I advise you to take your time, lest you get confused. Start at the beginning and work your way through slowly.  Oh, and perhaps drink a restorative ale or two whilst doing it.  I took about 5 hours to cut all my pieces out.  And happily, only made one cutting mistake (I think this counts as some sort of record for me, both in time and errors).  If you are using primarily plain colours, you will have no issue at all; if you have a directional print, you may have issues if you are concerned about the way prints end up.  My exterior and lining both are directional prints, and did not really consider them.  So my prints will either be the right way up, or sideways.  Sideways I can live with, upside down, not so much! If you can't live with sideways, you may need to consider purchasing more fabric.

Good luck and see you with pieces at the ready for Week 2 when we begin sewing.

Getting Ready!

I am getting excited as the start date for the sewalong approaches.  I trust that everyone is getting prepared and has all their fabric choices and notions awaiting.  Recently, my darling sewing buddy, Kate, has prepared a cutting checklist for us to use.  If you have looked over your pattern recently, you will note the sheer volume of stuff to be cut. To make things easier, we discussed a checklist, as well as cut out labels for pinning pieces together.  We emailed Elizabeth, to tell her of our plans, and she responded with much excitement for our collective project.  (I may have swooned getting an email from her!)

So, if you would like a copy of the FANTASTIC cutting checklist and labels to use, please comment with your details, or email me, and I will send you a copy straightaway.  I won't be putting the list up for general download, so the only way to get it is from me directly.

Fabric-y Goodness

I am sure with the Sew-Along looming ahead of us, people have started purchasing their fabric.  There are of course those wondrous souls who will delve into their stash.  If you keep a stash with lengths of fabric at around 1.5m each, I envy you!  At right you can see my selection for the sew-along tote.  I have selected from the Mama Said Sew Range by Moda.  I have decided on cream zips for my pockets, and have also got some very sturdy canvas to use as interlining.

People have already been asking about a few technical related issues.  No worries people - I am your guinea pig to lead the way.  I have been experimenting with a couple of things which will help everyone's sewing journey to be that much easier (thing Pellon, and you may not have to cringe quite as much).

What fabric selections have you made? Have you gone with a range, scraps or a delightful collage of fabrics?