Friday Finish - Happy Belated...

After seeing a couple of swanky yoga totes (one for a friend, one for my dad), my mom was getting a little green with yoga tote envy! I couldn't let that go on... it's just not very namaste. So I promised her one for her birthday... in December!

Remember those teeny, tiny HSTs from a post a while back? Well, here they are... no longer in the QPPP!

 Of course, I had to sneak some Kona in there... that Azure adds a little more pop as the lining.

The strap is a little narrower that called for in the pattern, but I like to bulk up the straps on totes/bags/purses, so they don't get all shlumpy with use. I opted to fold the strap fabric around a piece of cotton webbing and stitch the living daylights out of it to hold it all together.

For the body of the bag, I kept the quilting simple by following the wavy segments in the print. This was one of the first times I've quilted just the top and the batting (no backing). I'm usually worried that it's somehow going to gum things up... no issues at all!

The Deets

Title: Yoga Trio (from the February 2015 issue of Love Patchwork & Quilting)

Size: 32 by 7½ inches

Fabrics Used: London Fog by Camelot Design Studio (main fabric & cord channel), Scatter Squares Mini Mikes by Michael Miller (strap) & assorted coordinating scraps for HST strip   
Konas Used: Azure (lining)
Quilting: Organic wavy lines using Gutterman (Colour 20)   
Favourite Part(s): making a useful and beautiful present for my mom, printing a pattern from a digital download on my iPad (first time for that!)


Either it's three months late or 9 months early... either way, Mom is pretty happy with her swanky new tote! It's predecessor was all but tossed in a corner as she loaded this one with her mat and towel. It's a larger than usual tote, so there was plenty of room for extras in there.

I'm linking up today with Finish Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts (so glad the Media free March has ended!) as well as TGIFF, hosted this week by the lovely Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts

J

Finish Up Monday! - Manly Yoga Tote

What you say? A Finish on a Monday? What I can I say... things are a little cattywampus around here these days. I'll take a finish any 'ole day I can get one! It also gives me a chance to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! Today is also my Dad's birthday. To say it's been a long time since I made him anything would be an understatement. I won't get into all the gory details, but we haven't always had the easiest of relationships. 

So when he asked a couple days ago if I was still sewing much (apparently he doesn't subscribe to the blog ☺) and wondered if I might make him a yoga bag, I felt like an opportunity fell into my lap. I went searching for just the right yoga bag tutorial... not too plain, not too fancy, not the same as the one I made for Ms. M.  I decided to use Amy Butler's free pattern as a jumping off point (mainly for the sizes of pattern pieces) and modify as I went.

Sewing things over the holiday week-end (i.e. when the LQS is closed!) can be a little challenging. To the stash, my friends! I found some denim left from Ade & I's Sewing Circle Totes. Though I had originally thought to do the pocket and strap in an orange print (my Dad's not afraid of colour!), there wasn't anything just right in the stash. But this Robert Kaufman remnant fit the bill nicely! Where the denim is so heavy, I opted out of lining the tote.

Sometimes I buy notions without a clear idea of exactly what they will become. This 2 inch webbing (looks like seatbelt material) came in handy for making a nice, wide, durable strap. I can't stand when straps curl up and look shlumpy. Yup, shlumpy's a word.

I tucked it into an 8 inch wide strip that I had pressed into quarters. Worked like a charm!

Then my least favourite part, sewing that pesky bottom into the bag. I reached for my Wonderclips....

This is the sort of thing that happens when you leave Wonderclips out in the open. Did I mention that Himself is life-long fidgeter? True story. Anyway....

The Wonderclips are so much easier to deal with than pins in this situation. Thanks to Dominique from The Running Thimble for pointing this out to me on the last yoga bag I made!

I didn't think ahead of time and made the bottom the same fabric as the tote body. The pocket fabric might have been a better fit here, but it's not as sturdy.

More digging in the bin of random notions...
yielded these treasures, elastic cording and a pinch closure. The Amy Butler pattern didn't have a closure system, but felt like it needed a drawstring at the least.
And done! The height is just right for the mat and the pockets are super deep. I don't see keys or a phone getting out of those pockets!

When it was unwrapped, Dad pronounced it just right. He'll be heading off to yoga class tomorrow with it over his shoulder! Only now Mom's a little less enamoured of her less than fancy yoga tote - made sometime at least 10 years ago. A sewist's work is never done! ☺

So, what I am I thankful for today? Honestly, with very little thought, the list grows long... quickly. I am of course thankful for Himself and our much wished for Double Trouble (set to arrive very soon). But I'm also thankful that I was able to enjoy a wonderful meal and quality time with my Mom and Dad today. There was a time in the not so distant past that I never thought that would be possible. So very, very thankful. Here's hoping that you too had some thankful moments today. We don't have to save it for once a year!

J

P.S. Shamelessly linking up with Anything Goes Monday @ Stitch by Stitch. I mean, it's not every Monday I have something to blog about! 

Tutorial Tuesday - Yo' Gotta Have a Tote!

Disclosure: This week's tutorial is not my own. I'm adding my two cents (and some quilting) to a pattern found at Sew4home.

Mom's been asking me for a while if I could whip a tote to hold Ms. M's mat when she heads off to salute the sun. I've been putting it off - for no good reason, I might add. If she'd asked for a quilt, I'd probably have it done already! Today, I decided to get this item off my to do list (and in time for Christmas gifting!) Ms. M likes pink and aubergine (that's purple to the rest of us). This seemed like a good pick, especially given that it was just hanging out in the stash with no planned purpose and was a smoking deal on a Marden's trip a while back. Tula Pink's Eye Drops - check out that selvage!

Anyway, I have made a couple yoga totes in the past and used a pattern, but I haven't the foggiest clue where that pattern is now! So off to the internet I went. Sew4home had a really nice one that I'd pinned a while ago. It features a drawstring top closure and a pocket with a flap. The pattern called for decor weight fabric. It's not something I generally have in the stash and my LQS doesn't open until noon on Sundays, so it had to be quilting cotton. I decided to fuse some Kona Green Tea to the back of the pocket to give it a little more oomph. Nothing worse than a saggy pocket!

In order to beef up the body of the tote, I decided to quilt it. Would it have been easier to wait until the LQS opened and by what the pattern called for? Yes. But where's the challenge it that? Here's the pocket pieces all velcro'd up and ready to be attached once I quilt the body of the bag. That's Kona Capri that will be my bag lining/quilt back.

Since the pattern didn't call for it to be quilted (or even lined), I had to be a little creative. When layering the pieces for the body of the bag, I was sure to cut the batting three inches shorter to leave space for the drawstring casing at the top.

Then out came the Frixion pen again! It didn't feel the need to quilt the living daylights out of this one. I figure a yoga bag probably won't be washed too often. I just needed to keep the layers together!

 You can see the random lines that I quilted much better on the back.

And time to attach the pockets. On the first yoga bag I ever made, I attached the pocket upside down. By the time I realized, it was well beyond the easy fix stage. Years later, it's still on there - upside down.

My machine didn't dig on stitching through four layers of fabric, a layer of fusible web, AND the quilted bag. Guess I should have switched to the top stitch needle before breaking my quilting needle! Oh well... just means there's a fresh one in there! The drawstring closure isn't perfect by any means. Sometimes I think I should plan these things out a little better! ☺ In the end, I just folded the raw edges of the top and backing together and top stitched them. Then I added a line of stitching an inch or so down to make a casing.

 Next, the strap. The pattern called for a 1 inch finished strap. A little wimpy for my tastes. I opted to beef it up to 2 inches finished and added two layers of batting as well. It turned out nice and sturdy and should hold up well.

 Attaching that thick strap was another challenge - more broken needles. Oh well!

Just one step left - the bottom of the bag! The pattern called for a 7 inch circle. Sadly, I have no protractors at home, so a plate had to pinch hit. It took a little doing to find something in the kitchen that fit the bill.

 I layered and quilted it just like the bag. These pins were deadly... like a sewing hedgehog!

I threaded some elastic cording through the top casing and.... voilà! C'est fini!

 The blue looks even better on the finished product than I thought it would.

The whole process reminded me a lot of making a quilted water bottle holder for my Mom this summer. I will say that this was easier given the larger scale! All in all, any troubles I had with this project were entirely due to me adapting it to be quilted. The tutorial offered at Sew4Home  was clear and concise. Even with having to think things through during the process, it was only a couple hours work.

Can't wait to find out if Ms M likes it!
Happy Tuesday, all!
J