The first is a long over-due sewing project from when I was back in Wisconsin in May. Most of the hard work was done, admittedly, by my mother.
There is a story that goes with this project. I fell in love with a large wedge project bag made by a seller on Etsy who has a fan following on Ravelry. There were some bags she did with a Japanese MonokuroBoo print that I loved in particular, but she ran out of the fabric before I could place a custom order. I managed to find the fabric on Etsy, bought a fat quarter and a yard from another shop, and then emailed the bag seller asking if I provided my own fabric and paid the full custom price which usually includes materials, if she would make the bag for me. Sounds reasonable enough, one would think.
The answer I received back disappointed me. It was a no, citing the age old reason of, "if I do it for you, I have to do it for everyone." I'll openly admit, I hate that reason and reading it made me angry. Angry enough that I decided not to purchase any bags from her in the future and make my own to show off.
So, I looked up tutorials on wedge bags and came upon this one for a triangular prism bag, almost identical to the others (I had long suspected the Etsy shop in question used free tutorials and modified them to sell and searched thusly). Here is where my mother comes into the story. She took the tutorial and the finished bag measurements that I wanted and made the pattern pieces for me. She then sewed up a mock-up to make sure it would work out when it came time to use my own fabric. It was my idea to use interfacing on all the pieces to stiffen it up.
The results were well worth it.
I plan to make more of these, whenever I find the pattern pieces or make my own from the tutorial. Not bad for a project inspired by a negative emotion and childishness. This bag takes a mere fat quarter of both the outer and lining fabrics and is large enough to hold a medium size project. That is a skein of sport weight yarn, 250 yards, to give an idea of the room inside. You could easily fit a baby sweater in it, or a scarf.
The second is a quickie with no story. It's my first hand embroidery that I did on a plain t-shirt for The Girl's first birthday last month.
Pretty cute, eh? Admittedly, I think this would have turned out a bit better in a 100% cotton shirt, instead of one with 2% spandex for stretch. The smaller backstitch is fine, but the other stitches seem loose. Overall, I'm happy with it and think it turned out well.
