Sewing Again!

Our basement has been under renovation for....ever.  Not really, I know.

In June 2010, less than a year after moving in, we had a small river of water seep from the foundation during a bad rainstorm, and then we realized why there was water damage around the bottom of the bar.

 For over a year, the bar remained like this while we worked on other urgent things.  Then in October 2011 Rob and I went on a cruise, and unbeknownst to me, he told his dad to demo the entire bar.  I came home and was surprised!

The remodel has been going slowly.  But I have a usable space now at least.

My daughter recently got a "real" desk for her room, so our old table (a 4 seater round table that my grandfather had made and was in their house till my Grandmother's passing in 95 or 96) needed to be moved, and where could it go (since we have a 6 seater table now)?  Down to the basement it went!

We are planning a kitchenette and the table is for it.  Happens to be next to what is supposed to become my knitting room.  It's going to take awhile before the kitchenette is a reality, but I couldn't leave the table neglected, could I?  It's not huge, but it's become my cutting and pressing station, and I cleaned off my sewing desk and I've gotten back to sewing.  I don't have any pictures of the set up on my computer, but if you go to my Facebook page, there is an album "My Studio" or something with up to date shots.  Or maybe they're in the "Timeline" album.  Must clean that up. 

I was doing something down there--trying to press a hem for a top I made last summer that I was never happy with, I think.  Megan comes down and says she wants to learn to sew.  We've been threw this before.  I remember a bag pattern from ikatbag that she said her 10 year old made as a gift.  We picked out fabric, I printed and pieced the pieces together and we went on a fabric hunt in the basement.  She picked out totally different fabric than I would have, but that's okay! 

 

I noticed at some point during the cutting that there was a crease mark on the fabric.  I wet it down and smoothed it with my finger and it seemed to disappear....but it did show again.  

 The pocket on this side is the cut out from the scooped part of the bag top.  It's not very big, but I'm sure some sea glass or rocks will fit nicely.

 I cut out another pocket for the gusset I think, but she changed her mind or something wasn't right with our communication, so I sewed it to the other side.

 One gusset pocket was her plan.

It wasn't easy for Megan to cut out the fabric.  My rotary cutter AND my scissors have "dead spots".  It took a fair bit of effort to cut through the black twill, two layers.  And the curves?  LOL.  I didn't baste the gusset because in the actual instructions, she says she doesn't do that.  However, in the part about her daughter making it, she does mention basting.  She doesn't say if she basted it or if her daughter did.

In the end, it was definitely a joint project.  Enough so, that Megan isn't discouraged to make anything else, but a good compromise ending in a usable, good looking bag she can say she "made herself mostly" and keep her interest up in making something else. 

I wasn't sure about these spots.  I had pressed the seams but then when it was time to put it all together, the seams seemed to be pressed the wrong way.  In the end though, despite being uneven after sewing the gusset strip on, they did turn out to look good.  I was really surprised.  However, in the next bag I made, I had a LOT of trouble!

It was fun to create this together, and I did know going into it that I was probably going to be doing much of it!  There are plans for more!