Last post of the year, now that I can update with a few recent makes. It’s been a funny Q4. For some reason, I really thought I was going to get a ton of sewing done, but it hasn’t worked out that way really, and I don’t even know why. In any case, I did manage to make a few things for other people. I had planned quite a few more, but of course you never have as much time as you think. I just re-read this paragraph and this is possibly the dullest intro to a blog post I’ve ever written, so I think I’ll just get on with the makes, shall I? Haha.

First up, I made quite a number of Petal Pouches by Noodlehead (Anna Graham) as gifts. I mentioned it in a previous post, but didn’t want to completely give the game away for #stitchingsanta, so here’s a little more. I had planned to make six sets initially ( six large and six small) but finished up with four sets. Two were made from this fun pink Japanese linen, which features celery (I think) and a green linen lining. The other two sets were made from a Japanese striped canvas and have a fun clashing blue checked lining. I cut out out two sets of yellow bird canvas, but still need to finish them up.

Anyway, these are typically well-designed pouches and are satisfyingly weighty when finished. Not heavy, but weighty enough to know they are made carefully. It’s a fairly straightforward construction, but the little darts add a bit of personality to the pouches (and a little more work, of course). I forgot to take pics of the pink set (which ended up being my favourite), but here’s one of the finished stripy set.

I got these going factory-style and, as always with bags, the biggest part of the work is cutting and interfacing all those pieces. My only comment to the instructions would be the part about making the tab that goes on the end of the zip. Just look out for the exact shape you need. I thought I had it right, but I was wrong, as it turned out to be too short when I did the final sewing of all the pieces. It was fixable, but just something to look out for; tab dimensions would be helpful. Last thing to mention is that I bought some zips in bulk from Etsy store zipit. I think it was a resource mentioned in the pattern and I can thoroughly recommend using them. Not only does it work out so much cheaper than buying zips from a store (even with vouchers there is no comparison), but the zips are all YKK, the colour ranges are fabulous, and they arrived in a lovely little package with free button and zip pull samples. Very nice indeed!

Next, I made my yoga-attending mother a bag for carrying her yoga mat. This was a Creativebug class I spotted and it took me just a couple of hours to whip up. I haven’t made too many things from Creativebug yet (I have a subscription) but I’ve watched quite a few videos and think they’re very good. Great quality, interesting makes and info, and not much “fluff”, which I appreciate.

The bag is made from an Ikea home décor fabric I picked up an age ago for something nominal ($1.99/yd maybe?) in a sale and I think it’s the perfect modernist zen pattern for such an item. I lined the bag with some duck canvas which gives a nice bit of stability for the yoga mat due to its slight roughness. There is just one template from which you cut the outer and lining fabric pieces, and then a rectangle for a pocket. For the handles I used some poly webbing and these get sandwiched between the layers when sewing the main pieces together.

Finally, you add some more webbing with d-rings in the centre of the bag to actually hold the yoga mat in place, which is a great idea.

Oh, actually I did change one part. I didn’t really like the way the video finished off the tab for looping through the d-rings, which was to sort of fold them over and sew them down. Since it was a present, I wanted the finish to be a little neater, so I made a little case instead – just eyeballed it and turned it out before topstitching it down. Seems to work fine!

And my final make today is a Moneta dress I made for my sister. Yes, she’s the lovely lady in the main picture if you came to the blog that way. I shall post more pics of her below. I didn’t take many construction pics this time since it’s an exact replica of my first Moneta dress. However, there is a sizeable height difference between my sister and myself, plus I am long-waisted, whereas she is short-waisted. I toyed with making adjustments, but I made this dress out of a ponte from Girl Charlee, which is much more stable with less stretch than the rayon knit I used for my own dress. In addition, the bodice on my dress was a little on the short side. Therefore I decided not to adjust the bodice piece (Colette designs are known for being on the short-waisted side it seems) and, thankfully, it worked out!

My only adjustment was to shorten the hem by a couple of inches. One change I was going to try was to use elastic thread rather than clear elastic for the waistband. I did try, but could I get that thread to gather? Could I buggery. I looked it up on the internet and tried all sorts of tension changes and method tips, but I just couldn’t get it going. So I went back to the clear elastic, which was even easier this time. It sounds hard, but it’s really not too bad. Oh, I did also ignore some weird suggestion not to sew the pockets all the way along in the instructions, which was rather irritating last time and didn’t seem to serve any purpose (at least that I could find).

My sister says she likes the end result and I think it really suits her, so I hope she does really! 🙂 So that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to this month. I really need to finish off my coat and then crack through a few remaining A/W makes. I totally missed my one-year blogoversary, so I’ll probably do some sort of New Year summation as well. Goodbye for now and have a good partaaayyyy! 🙂