Sometimes I get the itch to SEW. And SEW I did this week. I had initially intended on making PJ pants for the kids. Yeah… Haven’t done that yet. But I’ve made a bunch of other stuff. So far I’ve made 2 zipped pencil pouches, 1 zipped pouch, 1 bag, 1 weird basket thing, and 2 knot style bags.

When it comes to interface, I’m CLUELESS. I purchased some stiff iron-on interface, but it was too stiff (dark zip pencil case), I ordered some fusible fleece instead. Its not quite as stiff as I wanted, but soft and helps keep the shape more than nothing. I used it in the banana pencil bag above. That one is for my daughter- bananas are her recent jam. I’m going to make my son one, and both my kids’ teachers one for end of the year gifts. They are moderately easy to put together. AND I discovered my sewing machine can do a zig-zag over lock stitch that looks a bit like a serger finish. COOL.

I have some old recycled zippers that I pulled out of my grandma’s sewing supplies after she passed (like 15 years ago). The teeth are metal. I used one of the long ones for the pouch with some fusible fleece. Its a weird shape, the pouch, not the zipper. Working with the large tooth metal zipper is somewhat more difficult than a nylon ones I usually use. Much less flexible for one. Also: I’m a bit paranoid that the machine will hit the metal zipper at the wrong spot, snap the needle and it’ll fly into my eye. Unlikely. Irrational. Foolish. But yet, somehow in the back of my mind when sewing on a metal zipper.

The cat faced bag is Simplicity #2658 paper pattern I purchased 10 years ago. I didn’t add the bottom, I sewed the front/back and made a little box. I also frenched the seams of the body, for shape. Meh on that. I won’t to that again.

My weird basket was a fail.

I made the knot bags yesterday. They are both corduroy with a (thick-ish) polyester liner. These turned out really good. My stitching is REALLY even. Its almost as if with all this sewing practice I’m getting good. I’m thinking about making and posting some additional bags on my Etsy for sale.

I also took my kids biking on the C&O Canal Towpath on Wednesday afternoon. Its a smooth gravel path. VERY VERY FLAT. We were able to do almost 6.5 miles in just over an hour. The ride was SO easy, that my smart watch didn’t count ANY of the ride as exercise- even though I had a workout running (I wanted to capture our total miles). It did register exercise for loading and unloading the bikes off the carrier, go figure.

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Not a lot of knitting/crochet this week. I’ve been sewing while the kids are at school and doing some dumb chores that I don’t want to do. I will be back Sunday to give 2 weeks of YOP updates.