Pencil Case for the Boys

My sewing repertoire has been expanding now that the boys are getting older. Oliver is now 12, in grade 7 and has moved up to the middle school.  And wearing a school uniform. I love uniforms. Sure makes it easy at 6:30 in the morning!

He needed a pencil case, but not a kid one. And he wanted camo! Hard to find. So, I went to one of my favourite bag designers, Erin of dog under my desk, and decided I’d base it on the The Essential Wristlet. (I’d made one last year, unblogged, sorry, will do one day cause it’s so nice!)

The dimensions for this case are shorter, deeper, and longer than the original wristlet. Long enough for pencils. The only difference is that I used the zipper technique from another of Erin’s patterns, the Gadget Guard, as you can see in the pic below. (I’ve also made a gadget guard, last year, and also unblogged…I’m so far behind!)

 

I really like the way this zipper technique keeps the pouch wide open.

And a couple more shots…

 

There were a couple little things I did differently from the pattern. One was to sew the lining to the outer shell at the bottom corners, this is a great way to keep the lining from moving around. You do this on the inside between the layers before closing the lining up at the bottom. I wish I’d taken a photo of it. Next time. Second, the last thing I did, was to topstitch all around the top of the pouch to keep the lining flat and away from the zipper.

That inner lining is bright red ripstop PUL, so it should even keep any messes from leaking out. And I added the clasp on the end (left pic), they’re so handy! All in all, a great little pencil case, and Oliver a very happy camper.

On to the next!

 

A Little Makeup Bag

My mum asked me to make her a little makeup bag, just big enough to hold a few essentials for her trip to Europe. My parents are gone for a month, and staying with friends in Germany and the UK. How I WISH I was there!!

I decided to use a piece of sample fabric that I got from Darrell Thomas, an Oscar de la Renta home dec fabric in a linen/cotton/silk blend. The zipper is set in a slightly curved top, and it’s lined with a rich red poly satin.

As I didn’t have any hefty interfacing, I interlined it with a fine white diaper fleece. It feels nice, but it sure was bulky at the zipper ends when I sewed it all together.

It turned out all right, but I think I’ll buy Florence’s slouchy bag pattern, it looks neater at the sides! I’m definitely making another, I love the idea of using these home dec fabric samples for small things like this!

Bucket Bag for Me!

So I was feeling the need for a quick sewing fix, as we were out of town last weekend (a 3-day holiday weekend here in Ontario, Family Day!), visiting with family far away, so no sewing. It was actually great, as I needed some time outside in the snow with my boys!

Anyway, this bucket bag is made following the Craftsy course, Bag-Making Basics: Drawstring Bag & Bucket Bag. It’s FREE! This little bag is neat. It stays open, and that’s exactly what I wanted for my knitting.

I bought this fabric from a new shop here in Ottawa, called Fabrications*. They’ve got some lovely organic cottons, it feels so soft and is fabulous to sew with. I bought 1/2 meter of 3 pieces, and had plenty for 3 different little sewing projects (with leftover). These will make a nice break from the long projects.

Now I just need to find some real fusible fleece, which the pattern calls for. I could only find fusible batting, and it’s not quite right for this, too thick. But, it turned out well enough, and I love the fabric colours.

Oh, here’s a few pics from last weekend. Can’t resist!

The deer were on the front lawn after dinner! My BIL had some alfalfa left out for them.

It’s their very own skating pond!

 

Keeping warm at the side.

Climbing up the hill for another run down to the lake. It’s quite steep!

Oliver! Great weekend!

* For anyone in the Ottawa area, I just found out about this place from Tasia’s post a little while back. This is one of the new shops that now stocks her Sewaholic patterns. Great news for around here, as I don’t know of any other shops that carry such a variety of (non-quilting) indie patterns . They also carry patterns by Colette, Amy Butler, Megan Nielsen, Oliver + S, and some others I’ve never seen before or read about.