Merchant and Mills Factotum bag: white leather

 I bought 2 skins of white lambskin from The Fabric Store so long ago it's embarrassing, with the plan for some kind of varsity jacket with leather sleeves.  It morphed through so many ideas because it is really beautiful stuff and I didn't want to mess it up.  But lately I'm just impatient with all these ideas and the years that have gone by and stash in general, and I'm really mowing through it.  The desire to buy new fabric is at a strange low.  Very weird. 

Anyway so I did see this bag in Miss Maude in person a year or so ago.  I wasn't sure I would think it was too small for my usual pursuits, but it is bigger than it looks - could hold a novel, water bottle, plus the usual junk.  And I thought if I pair such a beautiful leather with this bag, I need to use this amazing Tula Pink fabric as lining.  I had a piece of leather strap left from a different M & M pattern kit, and enough rivets too.  I bought a zipper to match since the length was important.  

 

The process was exceptionally painful.  Leather, it ends up, has grain.  It stretches.  A LOT, but in only certain directions.  And this smooth surfaced leather was hard to mark, for things like...pockets that have a pleat at the bottom.  Sewing the pockets onto the bag was truly torture, as they didn't line up, the leather stretched, things moved, etc.  The result is that the pockets are a bit lower than they should be, although I managed to get the pleated top over them.  I was really worried that I was going to run out of space between the pockets, but the overall look is symmetrical despite the drama.

Sewing the body had similar issues, with the leather stretching at some points and refusing to stretch at other points.  

 My final confusion was how the strap is meant to insert into the side bag.  This area ends up a bit open on my bag.  You can see in the photos that there is a gap behind the zip, and when the zip is closed there's a gap against the tab leading to the strap.  I would consider this area more durable if that were closed, but the instructions were confusing.  The side tabs are made of the leather, they are quite long, and they are not interfaced.  This is clearly the weakest part of the bag and will stretch too much to make me happy.  Speaking as a person who will forever carry around a bunch of books...I would make this out of a very tough webbing, preferably. 

I added an inside pocket because I like them.  That is just the usual seaming open with a zipper and adding a piece of fabric behind it.   

 Final result - this is a really cute bag that I will never use.  Thanks again to my friends who accept the things I make and even love them - it makes it possible for me to keep sewing whatever I want.  I would consider making this again by increasing the pattern pieces by, say 40% to make a larger bag, and then I would make it out of waxed cotton, which just seems so lovely for bags but not for jackets, and I would add hooks so it could have a short strap or a cross body strap.  

The other way I would consider using this is as a camera bag if the sides were made with thick padding!  I'm not saying I'll never come back to the pattern, but it does seem too niche for my liking. 

Waffle Dropje shearling vest

I know, all I do is complain about what's wrong with patterns and then I go and make four of them. (here, here and here.)
Wellll you'd think by now I would have perfected this one.

This concept came to me fully polished while I strolled through Upper Mustang in Nepal.  Yep, it was hot and I was sweaty and hiking up hills of dirt, and I was thinking about making a vest out of animal skins.  I never said I was logical.  I did however drive straight to The Fabric Store from the airport to pick out my skins, and the vest was put together the following day.  However they were one skin short so I had to hold my impatience together while waiting to put on the hood.

I had some trouble figuring out the size.  My last post was oddly vague and all my pieces appeared to be size 36.  I thought I had sized down.  I decided that on a shearling vest, oversized was totally ok.  I went with about 1 inch longer than the pattern piece length, but no waist binding.

For the stretchy side panels I used two layers of merino which I sewed together along the top and bottom to enclose them.  Then I just sewed them to the front and back as normal since those seams won't unravel. (Note: I topstitched them down *to the merino side* not to the shearling side, a fact I just recently thought may have caused later problems...)

I then relocated to Greymouth but luckily my new office manager had a sewing machine so there was no problem! I managed to just barely tease the hood pieces out of that finicky little Singer.

I didn't have leather needles, and my usual sharp needles were not very good - I did most of this using the needles that come with sewing machines that are always in the little hidden storage area.  It was heavier duty and generally didn't skip stitches.  The borrowed Singer was not as good as my Pfaff, and I was really nervous about putting on the pockets.  They aren't perfect, but they are definitely fine and are so so cozy!  I just used a piece of paper to measure about how I wanted them, and then traced two.

This project stalled after that because I was moving and didn't manage to keep all my little bits in one place, but also because I noticed something right away - little rips occurring forwards and back of the merino stretch panels.  I could see that is a spot which has increased wear from pulling it on and off, and the leather can't give the same way the merino can.  I had no idea what to do to fix this.  I thought anything I put on it to bind it will be hard to get on and might make things worse.  I don't have access to an industrial sewing machine that might be able to manage lots of layers.  I asked a lot of friends, and my mother, and didn't get any useful ideas.

Luckily despite my impasse, I planned the rest of the steps for this vest!  I bought the bone buttons in Kathmandu specifically for this project, and then got thick waxed leather thread to apply them.

I planned to use strips of the original shearling for the button holders, and I saved the edges of the skins where there was no furry back.  I strengthened them by stitching down the middle of each piece. All the bits were together, waiting for success.  I even realised I could use grommets in the front for the buttons to strengthen them.

Friends told me that if I used grommets around the armhole it would redistribute stress.  I was finally reunited with this project, all those bits, and my grommet kit, however when I was making shoes recently the grommets were a huge catastrophe and all came out bent, so I worried I wasn't on the road to grommety success.

Fast forward to Isolation 2020!  Haha in between binging on whatever project enters my head in a wheeling free for all of sewing, I decided it was my duty to do my old, scary UFOs.  (Also two bras sitting on my desk collecting dust ughhhhh).  I got out the grommet kit and -ahem- read the instructions.  And realised I was using the wrong bits to put grommets in.

I tried to sort through these pictures but I couldn't choose which strange expressions were less strange than the rest so I kept them all.  Go figure I decided I needed an exotic photo shoot right when gale force winds started blowing!

So that's it, in one morning I: installed grommets all over the place.
Put in the buttons.
Sewed down my button holders, just as I had imagined MANY TIMES in the past two years, thank god I'd already marked placement and everything!
I glued the little rips with shoe glue
And for extra support I did a few sets of stitching down the seamlines of each of those suspicious seams.  I'm hoping between the grommets, the glue, and the stitching I will have redistributed stress enough that it won't rip any more, but I'm also more prepared to glue the entire armholes, or even add little strips of leather for support if I have to.
And then I was so excited I went and took those pictures.

This project really stretched my sense of what I could do.  I started out with inspiration and my inspiration was totally, perfectly fulfilled.  Did I mention that I even reshaped the front of the hood to cup my head without a hood drawstring?  So many perfect plans went into this, but it actually took me all of those two years to get the skills, equipment (shoe glue, miracle worker!!) and sheer determination to deal with the unexpected issues that cropped up.  Sometimes things do need to sit in time out for awhile.

Stretch suede Colette Mabel Miniskirt & the #sewfrosting challenge

This was a project that I thought up last year while I was binge-making these miniskirts.  I had one  stretch suede skin, in this dark wine red, and I tried really hard to get all the skirt pieces to fit onto it.  I cut each piece flat, I jigsawed like mad, but I couldn't magic my pieces to fit onto one skin.  I was stumped, because the colour and texture of the skin meant nothing quite matched.

The idea languished, until I discovered a blue stretch suede skin at The Fabric Store.  I had to brainstorm how they would match up, and came up with the idea of triangles.  I finally got working on it in October but immediately lost hope yet again when I saw that my triangles were too wide - one of them fit on each skin, but I needed two per skin.

It took the #sewfrosting challenge for me to realise something sort of obvious: if you can cut a piece in half once, you can cut it in half again.  I cut each triangle of the back skirt in half, making two triangles of each colour, and remembering to add my seam allowances.  I sewed these together right away so I wouldn't mix up which piece was supposed to line up where.  And I top stitched everything in its own colour.

Two triangles of the back skirt sewn together

Entire skirt!

This project was really hard only because of my terrible sewing machine.  It was frustrating to accept skipped stitches as the status quo and to let go of the idea of perfect topstitching, but I just don't have the equipment to do better (and honestly it's not like this miniskirt is going to be worn out too fast...) I had to switch to a new extra sharp needle after every 15 inches of sewing or it would skip too much.

I also forgot a lesson that I had learnt early during my miniskirt marathon, which is that the entire waistband has to be overlocked.  I stitched it on the machine and then understitched the waistband lining and then had to undo all that.  At least it meant I got to overlock at the end and enjoy one machine that worked well!

Once I got started actually sewing this was a relatively fast project, though I took a lot of breaks due to sewing machine frustration.  

I added the pocket by eyeing where I wanted it and marking the spot with chalk.  I also measured the size of my pocket by what I'd need to fit a wallet and phone.  (truth!) Luckily I had enough fabric for that - I chose to do the blue waistband so I could do a red pocket.

in my imagination this was going to come down to a perfect point.  Hm, pretty close though!

My miniskirt is great!  It is so stretchy!  Interestingly, I get horizontal lines above the hips which remind me of trying to fit the very classic and well loved Vogue 1247 skirt (here's mine) - just like I had to shorten the Persephone pants across the pelvis, maybe I have to shorten everything on "high waisted patterns" (ie ending at the belly button) between the waist and hips.  I've never measured my rise - I think I've just gravitated towards pants that fit without making any adjustments because of being a lower rise - except for the Persephone pants which have been worth the effort. 

Ida clutch binge

Around the time I discovered Kylie and the Machine and her lovely cheeky labels, I found her free Ida pattern and printed it out.  I needed something to push me to actually start making bags instead of clothes...and the Ogden-Ida swap was just the thing, so I signed up!

While I was in Seattle I picked up a pigskin at MacPherson's, the local leather dealer (sorry vegans!)  I wanted something lightweight and easy to work with and this colour just sang to me so I went with it.  It was about 30 dollars for the skin.

From it I got 3 Ida clutches, one oversized Ida yarn-bag, and one undersized Ida wallet-purse.
I have some scraps left over but I have no more desire to sew pigskin for awhile.
However I think I have mastered this pattern!!

The clutches went to: my Ida Ogden exchange partner, my sewing friend Tessa, and my friend Tina who was leaving on a trip to Switzerland. 

Learning curve pearls:
snaps are fine, but magnetic snaps are better.  A normal snap pulls at the fabric itself when you try to open it.  The magnetic snaps are easy to apply and don't pull as hard.  I had 2 magnetic snaps from Seattle and bought normal snaps locally to compare.

All the zips were from my stash, and the normal sized clutch zips were all Riri from Switzerland so they are really nice.  Pretty amazing that I had that many zips in the right size!  The big one for me was a plastic one, and the small one for me I actually bought in order to choose nice coordinating colours.

The scales-lining is Liberty tana lawn.  I forget the name.

This was really fun and such a great way to get comfortable making bags.  To make the yarn bag I basically did an FBA.  I cut the pattern in half both horizontally and vertically and increased each one and then smoothed out the curve of the top.    I added a little strap made of a single strip of pigskin.  I should have taken that more seriously and either quilted it or doubled it because it feels frail compared to the rest of the bag - but I've been using this for my knitting and adoring it so much that when pink hazel sold out of bags in 3 minutes at her last upload, I didn't cry.  Luckily knitting is not heavy so I think the strap will be fine.

When I made my little wallet purse I shrunk it with a similar technique to the knitting bag.  I decreased the height and I shrunk it across, but a few inches away from midline, and then redrew the curve back up to the same centre point.  And this time I braided a strap for it.
I also added a totally ridiculous piece of coral elastic to double around it.  It's totally for fashion but I like the additional tactile element.  

My wallet purse.  It fits a wallet, phone and keys