Coming Along

I've been working away slowly on my crochet top. I had to redo the upper back because it was too narrow. I felt like Penelope as I undid it and started again. I'm working on the bottom edge, will neaten the neck edge, and then decide whether to make the cap sleeves a bit longer. I was worried that I'd run out of thread, but it looks as though I'll have enough for longer sleeves. It'll mean doing another Penelope and unravelling the ones I've already made.

A Few More

I made a few more market bags over the weekend. The lining fabric is much narrower than the animal print one, I have to cut very carefully to get the lining for two bags out of a metre.

Little Brown Mouse

I made Little Brown Mouse for a neighbour's newborn granddaughter. This is the second mouse I've made. A lot of counting is required. I write myself markers in pencil on the pattern, so I could just rub them out and start over. 

Simpler Still

When I went to the fabric shop recently, I saw this wonderful fabric with African animals printed on it - kudu, zebra and springbok:

 Since I'm currently in bag-sewing mode, I went back this week to buy some to make bags for gifts. It'll work well for bags because it's cotton drill. I also bought an array of bright cottons for linings, so that I can make the bags different to each other:

I used the same pattern as for the bag in the previous post, minus the pockets. I thought a simpler market bag would fit well with the current trend for reusable shopping bags. And be quicker to make! I did put a plastic pocket on the inside, but no zips. Here's the first one:

And inside:

Bagged

I think I have the hang of carrying a bag with a lot of pockets, so I decided to make another one, using fabric left over from recent projects. I like the contrast between the plain exterior and the bright lining:

I was a bit short of lining fabric, so I made one of the pockets in clear plastic:

That should make it easier to find things, so I might use that idea again.

Tatting Order

It seems a while since I tatted, so I was happy to make three of Grace Tan's Jane's Bookmark Crosses for an order. The pattern is here and there's another link on the right hand side of this page.

The Answer

After more head scratching and a couple more trials, I came up with a way to  construct my glasses case. Felt works much better than stiffener to reinforce it. The answer was to cut the felt 1 cm smaller than the finished fabric size all round, to create a sort of gusset. This made it much easier to manipulate the pieces. I also ditched the boning at the top that Corlie had suggested. It didn't really work to keep the case closed and made it very difficult to get a neat finish. Instead, I sewed on a button and worked a loop:

I made the lining shorter than the fabric, so that the fabric would fold down:

Don't tell anyone, but after all that, I realised that I had put the embroidery upside down!  There's no way I'm going to redo it, so it has to remain as an homage to imperfection.