Saturday, May 29, 2010

Summer Projects

Even though it's been raining nonstop for the last 3 days, June is a mere 3 days away, meaning that summer will soon peek it's sleepy head through the clouds and make everything beautiful and set everything right. I have been keeping myself busy work lately, just to stay sane and keep my mind off the things in my life that frustrate me. Like how all our stuff in the garage is getting buried by everyone else's stuff, or that we still haven't heard back from Chase Bank or that our car desperately needs a tune up.

Speaking of work, while I was at Compass the other day, I realized that I don't have enough pockets. I have a box cutter, tape, mini scissors, mini stapler... all things that I have to run back and forth to use while filling orders, organizing bottles, shipping product etc... so I decide to buy a tool belt of sorts. Like a cute one. From Etsy. But it turns out... no one makes a tool belt. They make fanny packs, a hip "purses" and vendor aprons but nothing like what I am looking for. Well... there is this one girl that made these "Joey Bags" that are similar to what I need but the fabric she uses is, well, not cute enough for me. So... I guess I have to make one myself.

First things first: Learn to Sew. I don't have time for this. I need a belt now.
Next: buy fabric. easy enough.



Now I need a workspace:


... eh... it's not perfect but it's functional. I don't have a whole lot of space to work with so I am actually surprised I got a low bookshelf, storage ottoman and a lamp to resemble a desk.

Now to make a pattern. Mind you, the only experience I have with sewing is on a tiny Hello Kitty machine and I hemmed pieces of fabric until they resembled napkins. So I busted out a colored pencil and some news paper and started drawing, pinning and cutting. Low and behold, my first finished product came out looking like this:





Not bad. Actually, it ended up looking very similar to the Joey Bag on Etsy. I used a piece of scrap fabric to practice so the finished product should look a lot more stylish. I think I am going to shorten the length and make it a little wider... so it will be more oblong. and I am going to use 2 contrasting fabrics for the lining and shell. I also need to use some interfacing fabric to give it some structure. But I honestly have really high and unrealistic expectations for this belt. I mean, look at those pockets... they're terrible. And those stitches?? The tension is off and I can't sew a straight line to save my life. So my finished product might end up looking like it was made by a three year old. I know you can't see all the flaws up close but... it's far from wearable. Does anyone know how to make box pockets? How the heck do you sew all the seams onto the front of something? I mean... I made the pocket, then sewed one side to the face of my belt... and then what? Do I have to hand sew it? I ended up folding the unfinished edge under and sewing on top of the pocket, defeating the whole "box" thing I was going for. Now that I think about it... if I sewed all the edge pieces on first... then sewed the face of the pocket on to them it might work... maybe. I will have to try again tomorrow!

No comments: