Pattern: Project or Ditty Bag

This past weekend, I needed something small to make, and one cannot have enough ditty bags for knitting projects and whatnought. So, I made up two knitting project (or ditty) bags using some fabric that I had been given by a friend:

1. medieval cats
2. cats & sushi (from my pattern holder)

Luckily, ditty bags are easy to make as it's a bunch of rectangles sewn together to form a bag. It takes less than an hour to make a ditty bag if you use a sewing machine, but it's just as easy to handsew a bag like this. If you've sewn something as simple as a pillowcase, you can sew a ditty bag.

These particular ditty bags have a flat bottom, so will stand (more or less) when you put them down onto a table.

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Instructions on How to Make Your Own Ditty Bag

Materials You Need:

• Fashion Fabric
• Lining fabric (preferably cotton)
• Cording (for the closure) 
• Sewing machine or needle/thread

FIRST: Cut out your rectangles as shown in the illustration

• Cut 2 fashion fabric
• Cut 1 of the lining fabric

You can make them to any size. (In the schematic, I make a suggested size that should be big enough for a socks project.) However, the diagrams should work for any size -- just cut to your desired lengths.

SECOND: Sew the seams as shown in the diagram with 1/2" seam allowance.

• Fashion fabric: Sew both side edges and the bottom edge
• Lining Fabric: Fold your fabric over and only sew one edge and the bottom.

Make sure to press your seams open, as that will help in the next step.

THIRD: Sew "triangles" along the bottom of the bag, which makes a flat-bottomed bag. (In the diagram, the dotted lines are the actual sewn seams.) The triangle is 2" from the tip. You can cut these triangles off later when you are happy with how it looks.

When you turn the bags right-side out, the flat bottom should look like this:

FOURTH: Insert the lining into your bag WRONG SIDES together (DO NOT SEW...yet). Pin the lining to the fashion fabric together so it does not move. (I find that it is easy to line up the outside side seams and start pinning from there.)

FIFTH: Finish the top edges of your bag in whatever manner you choose. You can use bias tape (or french bind) the top OR fold in the edges and topstitch, serge the edges, or any motley of finishing techniques. (Note: You can also choose to do this as the last step.)

SIXTH: Sew the casing  about 2" from the top of the bag (or to your liking). You need to sew two lines that are about .75" - 1" apart, depending on the size of your cording.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you REINFORCE the area where the outside seams are located by backstitching.

SEVENTH: Carefully seam rip the outside seams between the casing lines of the FASHION FABRIC ONLY. Do not seam rip the lining. You can do this on one or both sides, depending on how you want your bag to close. (Personally, I prefer two sided).

This gives you the casing for the drawstring closure.

EIGHT: Thread your cord through the channel casing left-to-right. Repeat going right to left. (See the illustration).  Attach a safety pin to one end and pull through the channel. (you can also choose to do this only on one side (but it doesn't close as well).

Here are pictures of two bags with one sided or two-sided closures.(You can see that the one sided draw string doesn't close 100%).

There are other variations you can choose to do with this type of bag, from fabric choices to making a reinforced bottom (like my cats&sushi bag -- I used black denim as a reinforced bottom).

But, I hope you like the pattern. Please let me know what you make from these instructions!

Flipping Mittens

I almost finished knitting the pair of Dire Wolf Mittens as a birthday gift. I actually DID finish the 2nd mitten, then discovered that I made a beautiful mistake in it. You'll see how I made the mistake when I detail my modifications.

I wanted to make these Dire Wolf Mittens as "flip top" mittens (where someone can stick out their fingers w/o needing to take them off), because the recipient uses his hands quite a bit and needs the dexterity of the fingers.

1. Around line 40, I placed the 30 palm stitches onto waste yarn
2. Knit the last 30 stitches
3. Cast on another 30 stitches using a provisional cast on with a crochet hook
4. Completed the mittens per pattern.



5. Put the bottom stitches on the smaller needles (US3/ 3.25mm) and knit ribbing upwards (and sewed the edges to the mitten
6. Put the top stitches on the bigger needles (US 6 / 4.0) and knit the pattern DOWNWARD (lines 39, 38, 37, 36, 35), then.
7. Swapped to 3.0mm beacuse I wanted something a LITTLE tighter so the gap wouldn't gape....and knit 1x1 ribbing for a few rows and attached them to the edges of the mittens.

 

When I was finished, I had 3 sets of needles lying on my desk. I immediately cast on for the 2nd pair of mittens. I grabbed the US 3s to start the ribbing. When I was finished with the ribbing, I grabbed the other set of needles and started knitting the main body

Guess which ones I grabbed? Ayup...the other set of US 3s.... I noticed that I was a tad bit tighter in my knitting, but I attributed that to the tension of the yarn and made a conscious effort to be loose...never considering my needles.

Oy. When everything was done and I finished weaving in all the ends, the actual stitches/inch gauge wasn't that far off...but the row count was...by almost 0.5 inches. Such a wonderfully beautiful mistake. *sigh*

I looked at the needles lying on my desk, and saw that the US 6s were on very short cables, which wasn't the ones I was using when I was knitting the body. I feel wonderfully "pretty".

A friend suggested that I knit another 2 mittens to match both sizes. I'm not sure I'm up for that, but I do have to knit a CORRECT mate to the first mitten that I knit. Luckily, the recipient's bday isn't for another month so I have time.

Oy...

Undivided Attention

Listening to podcasts while trying to knit fair isle can be hazardous. I can either pay attention to the podcast (and mess up my fair isle) or pay attention to my fair isle and miss what's being said.

Listening to music is a much better choice in the matter.

But, at least one of the mittens is done.

DIY Magnetic Bookmarks for Charts

The chart holder that I had purchased came with some magnets that would

1. hold the chart 
2. mark where I am in the chart.

But, they were plain old, boring magnets. I had a magnetic bookmark that someone had given me (sans the board) that were glued onto some pretty ribbon, and thought it'd be pretty easy to replicate. I looked around online and found some --- a set of 3 for $12.00. Umm. No thank you. I love DIY, and this is really the simplest form of DIY.

I headed down to Joann's Fabrics and picked up the following:

• 30" strip of magnetic tape with an adhesive backing ($0.79)
• a spool of 5/8" ribbon ($3.50)

I picked up something bright that would heavily contrast with the Cats & Sushi fabric, plus it had to be about the width of the magnet strip. I settled on ladybugs.

I took the ribbon and cut out two lengths:

• 20" long (to fit across an 8.5" letter-sized paper)
• 13" long (to fit across half a chart)

Why this long? So that the bookmark wraps around the chart holder, so you want it to be a bit long.
(NOTE: These magnetic bookmarks are made to fit my chart holder. Your sizing might vary.)

Assembling the whole thing is pretty easy.

1. Cut out 2 magnets  (one magnet on each side of the board) in the following lengths: 
• 5" for a half-chart marker
• 8.5"  for a full chart marker
2. Placed the magnets on the ribbon, leaving a 2" space in between the magnets so it could fold around the board. 
3. Glue down the edges with a bit of superglue and wipe away the excess. (You only need to glue down only about 1/2" of fabric. Don't glue down too much....cut off the excess ribbon as needed, otherwise your magnets won't stick to the metal).

 

Viola! Magnetic bookmarks:

Overall, it took about 15 minutes to assemble the magnets. It took longer to pick out the ribbon!

DIY Pattern Holder

The one thing I've discovered that while doing fair isle is that I actually need paper charts in order to see where I am in the pattern. My iPad isn't necessarily the best thing for me to read charts, because they haven't made the PDF readers able to handle charts very well. So, paper it is.

When I was down at my LYS, I checked out their chart holders, but they were BORING black holders. They were decent and a fair enough price (under $11 for the most basic holder), but they were BORING. I didn't want black. Then I discovered they had these:

It was $4.95 and very simple. It's a board with magnets. So..hmm..I thought I could just make one for myself. I mean, yes, it'd be cheaper in time just to spend the $11.00 for the basic one or $15.00 for the folding one, but then I'd have to settle for boring, and who wants to just settle?

I took some fabric that I had lying about that I thought to use as a trial run for it (cost $0.00). A friend of mine had given me a whole bunch of cat print fabrics, and I had plenty of this lying around. Besides, what's not to like about cats eating sushi?

I measured out the magnetic board. The board was about 10" wide, so I cut a 11" x 15" rectangular piece and played around with it. Unfortunately, after serging and french seaming this piece, I discovered that I had made the rectangular piece a bit too narrow (or used too big of a seam allowance with french seams and the ilk), so I recut another piece of fabric out to 12" x 15", which gave me plenty of extra seam allowance.

I took the top half of the holder (sans board) and used a very stiff iron-on interfacing so that I could stand it up when folded. I also used a piece of quilted fabric to pad the top half of the chart holder.

 

(Cost: Negligible. These were scrap fabrics from other projects that just happened to be the right size. You can get very stiff iron-on interfacing for $3-$4 / yard. As this is only about 6" x 10", this piece is less than $1.00)

I made a pocket that fit the board very snuggly, then it was a matter of making the rest of it, including an extra pocket for a pencil. The whole process is reminiscent of making those text book covers out of a paper bag, like when I was in high school / college.

And here's the resulting chart holder with pockets, and with it folded and standing

There are things I need to do to make it better, like making the pocket a wee bit bigger, and adding a closure, but it's done, and very serviceable. If I find a different fabric that I like better, I can make another.

I looked on Etsy to see how much these pattern holders cost. From my perusal, it's about $40 USD to purchase. This took me an hour to create (including the first miscut fabric).

So, overall, this cost about $6.00 and about an hour's worth of time.

Next, I'll post about how to make the magnetic bookmarks that hold the charts in place.

Making of a Carpet Bag: Part III - Final

(Here are the previous posts for the carpet bag....) After I attached all of the leather hardware into the bag, then I could actually line the bag with what I had created.

Why did I do it in this order? So that the lining would hide all of the grommets used to attach the leather straps (not to mention the stiffeners I used for the bags).

Bag lining the carpet bag requires that the lining be precisely measured, which is something I didn't wholly do (the lining ended up being a "teensy" too big), but I made do, by tacking down lining where it needed to be.

Here's the inside of the bag. That's my wallet purse and my iPad. There's still plenty of room below the ipad....and there's side pockets to the left, right, top & bottom of the photo.

And here's the 90% finished bag. I still need to add more belt holes and a few other minor things, but it's usable!

Fair Isle Mittens

As a "quick" little knitted project, I'm working a set of Dire Wolf mittens for someone's birthday.  Normally, I wouldn't knit mittens, because, well.....I'm in CALIFORNIA....where mittens aren't as useful as fingerless gloves (unless I'm going up to snow country).

But this pair is for someone who frequently finds himself out in the cold and needs a bit of warmth, esp. at night when sleeping outside.

I'm really enjoying the fair isle work. It's a small quick project that involves a bit of concentration, but not so much as to not be enjoyable. I can see why there are a lot of knitting patterns for fair isle mittens.

Making of a Carpet Bag: Part II

On Saturday, I stopped by Tandy Leather to pick up the buckles that I needed for the carpet bag.

Of course, I didn't get out of there with "just" the buckles. I also picked up a tiny bit of leather (to make straps), as well as a few odds & ends. (It's rare I can just run into a good crafting store and get out with just one item.)

Later that day, I started with the strap making for the bag. This took a long while to complete because I sat putzing wondering how I wanted to accomplish certain things. Plus, I had to do all of the grommetting before I could add the lining (which would hide all of the grommets.)

According to my diagram, I needed to make a minimum of 4 leather straps (two leather straps to go around the body, one strap for the bag handle, and one strap as the long purse handle).

First, the body straps needed to be cut, and the buckles added. I have a strap cutter, so it makes creating different width straps easy. Punching and grommeting leather-on-leather is pretty easy as well.

But the straps needed to be added to the body of the carpet bag, which is a little bit trickier to accomplish. First, I punched holes in the leather, then used the awl to pierce holes in the bag, and then it was a matter of grommeting the strap onto the bag.

Here's one strap added to the bottom of the bag.

I also added a few touches here and there for usability. This D-ring is to hold the strap in place on the front of the bag.

And I also added a leather version on the backside side for when the bag is belted shut and the strap wraps around the body. I took some softer oil-tanned leather and stitched it shut. (The stitching is easy, but it does take some time to accomplish. A curved needle & waxed thread are my friends.)

Before I grommeted all of the strap down, I had to make the bag handle for the top of the bag. This part took the longest as I knew I wanted a "fabric" handle. And it needed to be under the bag straps for added stability. I made a mockup of the fabric handle to ensure that I had the correct size and width.

Then I cut out a length of leather, sewed fabric around it (stuffed with poly fill), then grommeted the whole thing down.

 

At this point, the most work-intensive parts were completed. Cutting out the leather straps was easy. Grommeting the straps to the bag was a bit harder as the shell of the bag had already been sewn together, so it was a bit awkward in places to hammer the grommets in place.

After the "hard" part had been completed, it was a matter of doing some of the smaller or easier things.

I also made some smaller straps that were added to the inside of the bag.

Why?

So I could clip my keys to the inside of the bag. And allow me to put the straps somewhere if the bag wasn't buckled shut.

I also wanted an adjustable shoulder strap. This took a little bit of thought. I didn't want the unfinished side of the leather strap showing once it was adjusted. I could have used a belt buckle to adjust the straps or two D-rings. (I didn't have an adjustable buckle to use that worked well). Eventually, I opted for the D-rings.

I also sewed a shoulder strap "pad" that would do double duty:

1. allow me to "hide" the adjustable strap so it wouldn't flop around
2. act as a shoulder pad

That pretty much completes the "leather" portion of the bag.  This portion took about 4 hours to complete, because it involved small "fiddly" work that just took extra time. Plus, I had to make test a few ideas out before committing to them.

Up next? Sewing in the lining.

Creative Juices

I saw this image on Facebook the other day, and BOY! does it resemble me and my creative juices.

I'm always concerned when friends want to stop over, because my house is nowhere near the neatness of Martha Stewart, and I'm always amazed at seeing other people's craft rooms that look spic-and-span (although that's probably because they just cleaned up for the photoshoot.

Case in point: Take this particular craft room. Nice isn't it? Everything organized and put away.

Source: cdn.indulgy.com via Jade on Pinterest

I envy people who only take up a single room in their house AND who manage to keep it neat & tidy. I wish that were one of my super powers.

My entire house is basically my craft room. The fabric lives in storage bins in the garage. My leather & Yarn Stash (TM) live in one room. My spinning wheels reside in a 3rd room. My costumes are kept in a dedicated closet. The only room not currently used for any crafting purposes is our bedroom.

The dining room is my general DIY table for everything from sewing to leatherwork to resin to beading...and everything in between. If I need extra table space, we'll bring out the 6 foot folding tables.  (I can count on two hands how many times I've seen my lovely, lovely wooden dining table sans its protective vinyl & plastic cutting top.)

Plus, I have plans to completely revamp the living room (which we really don't use as a living room) into more crafty purposes!

Oh, don't get me wrong -- things are organized (as well as possible).  I have my materials organized neatly into plastic bins & containers. There are baskets of Works-in-Progress. All the little pieces are organized in various tackle/fishing boxes or organizational containers. But, I seem to have more materials than room at times, and (consequently) are in several different rooms and the garage.

My dear friend, D, once called my house an "atelier's workshop", where at any given time, I can begin making whatever I want. This is mostly true. If I want to start a new project, then chances are high that I have the materials and I can start making it is what I want.

Unfortunately, this usually means that my home is in various states of "creativity" at any given time. And, if both my Viking and I are working on projects at the same time? Well, the house gets extremely "creative".

Anytime I start to put stuff away to clean, then one of two things usually is about to happen:

1. we have guests coming over and we need the dining room table for things it was meant to do...i.e. eating.
2. I'm about to start a new project and I need to clean up so I can make another mess.

My "work table" while working on the Carpet Bag (containing the sewing machine, fabric, and leathermaking gear...)

So, I'm not really making a "mess", per se. It's just the effluvium of my creative juices.

Changing Gears

Sometimes, I find that fiber arts has lessons that we can apply to life in general. Case-in-point, my recent spinning attempt taught me a lesson.

At Stitches 2013, I picked up four ounces of this beautiful cashmere, merino, and silk that I wanted to spin for a cowl. Its in the colorway, Malificient.

I thought I wanted to spin it woolen, but after making a small attempt on my traddy, I had PROBLEMS and the resulting singles were spun too tight, had too many thick & thin spots. And I was just generall not happy. And this is not cheap fiber and I only had 4 ounces! I lost less than 1/2 ounce before deciding to try something completely different.

And, it turned out that I could spin it worsted just fine. So, I switched gears (and wheels) and began to spin it worsted on my Sidekick. The yarn and I are MUCH happier at this point.

The moral of this story? Sometimes, it's much better to completely switch gears and do something different than what you intended. There's no sense in pushing a boulder up hill when rolling it around the hill works just as well.

Practice Makes Perfect

Since the holidays, I've been a little neglectful of my spinning, which is sad, because I love spinning. It's very relaxing, and I use it to meditate a bit each day.

So, to get back into the swing of things, I've been practicing woolen spinning on my Ashford Traddy. It's an unknown purple fiber that I picked up at my LYS yarn swap. I'm pretty sure it's Frabjous Fibers AND I'm pretty sure it has merino or polwarth.

I'm trying to get ready to woolen spin some cashmere, merino, and silk fiber that I have for a very special project, and I haven't had much of a chance to spin on my Traddy for its intended purpose -- woolen.

Here's the finished product. It's 118 yards of sport weight yarn.

There's some thick and thin spots, due to the darker spots clumping just a little bit, but overall, it's not a bad attempt, but I need a tiny bit more practice in spinning woolen on my traddy before I make the leap to the cashmere. After all, practice makes perfect.