Tutorial: Utensil pouch

I sew a lot, or at least I used to before work took all the time and energy that I had. Now that I am studying again, I have started sewing more as well, as I feel more inspired, and it is a good creative counterweight to my studies.

Anyway, today I finished a UFO (or unfinished object) that has been on my table for over a year. I went on a road trip in the summer of 2018 with my best friends, and at a store I picked up the cutest quilting cotton ever: kittens among sewing and knitting supplies. Even though I had placed a ban on myself from buying fabric, I simply could not resist this one. To top it off, I already knew what I would use it for: a pouch for eating utensils.

Is not that the cutest thing ever?

However I was for some reason unhappy with the pouch I made, ripped out some stitches and then never had the energy to finish it. So it ended up as a UFO in a forgotten corner of my sewing nook. As it resurfaced a while ago it has been nagging me, so earlier today I finished it. And oh the joy. Now I actually have somewhere to put my eating utensils when I go places.

This project was inspired by a video from Shelbizleee, however, I do not remember which one. Shelbizleee creates videos about sustainable living, and if you are interested, the link to her channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Shelbizleee/featured

All rolled up and pretty.

An other huge inspiration, which has seen me pick up and finishing old UFO:s is Bernadette Banner. Berandette makes excellent content regarding historic sewing, so go watch her videos. Here is the specific video of hers that inspired me to start finishing old projects:

The following is an attempt at writing a tutorial for sewing a pouch to carry your eating utensils with you. It could of course also function for pens. Post questions in the comments if anything is unclear.

Utensil pouch

To start off, you are going to need the following materials:

• 60 x 17 cm piece of your chosen fabric, plus the same of lining and interlining (I used a thin batting for interlining to give some stiffness to the pouch without making it too rigid, a sturdier fabric could also work)
• ~1 m edge tape or bias binding for binding the edges
• ~0,6 m ribbon 

On the right I have marked the fold lines, and the dotted line indicates where to fold the edge to. The dashed borderlines here are the edge tape.

1. Start by cutting your fabric, lining and interlining to the same size (60 x 17 cm). Make a sandwich of these with the interlining in the middle. Use pins of clips to hold them in place
2. Sew on bias binding or edge tape to cover the short ends.
3. At one end, fold the fabric over 7 cm from the edge, to create a 7 cm deep pocket there. Attach at the sides.
4. At the other end, fold the fabric over 10 cm from the edge, creating a slightly bigger pocket. Attach at the sides.
5. In the bigger pocket, mark vertical lines and sew these. I made 4 pockets, but you could opt for making 5 instead.
6. Now cover the raw, long edges with bias binding or edge tape. 
7. Put some utensils in the pockets and fold the pouch and roll it up, try to figure out where you want to place the ribbon on the outside. Once you find a point, attach it there and you are done. I decorated mine with a small bow from the same ribbon. 

Insert utensils and you are ready to go!
Here you can see the original binding I used when I started the project, but as I had non of it left, and did not want to buy new for this alone, I used a red satin ribbon to bind the remaining long edges. I used the same ribbon to tie the pouch.

I hope this was helpful. I have another idea for a different style of utensil pouch, and if I make that I will probably add more pockets to this one so that I can use it for pens instead.

Have fun sewing,

~Stella

DIY: Cute ragdoll-dress for summer

A few years back I used to work at a fabric store. As a result I still have boxes upon boxes filled with fabric. Last Autumn I went through my whole stash and reorganized everything into neat piles and put them in clear boxes so I could see everything. Since then my fabric stash has been a bit more manageable.

I have vowed to not by new fabric until my stash is greatly diminished, so in order to do that I try to sew every now and again. Since I am also slowly creating a new wardrobe this goes hand in hand with the sewing. Problem is I usually need a lot of time and very good inspiration in order to sew. Pattern creation and new garments take a lot of time.

So last Monday inspiration hit and I happened to have extra time on my hands. Thus I went through my stash in search of fabrics that might match. I wanted to make a lace dress, but I did not have enough lace to make both the top and bottom parts of a full circle skirt dress. So I chose a black chiffon with a floral pattern for the skirt part and a lace for the top and sleeves. For lining I found a viscose with a very nice feel to it and a good weight. So I started cutting out pattern pieces, playing tetris with the pattern to get all the pieces out of my half meter lace fabric.

Top pieces cut.

Once I had everything cut I started with the lining of the skirt. I serged the hem and added a 25cm wide lace to it, ruffling it slightly. I then hemmed the edge of the chiffon but ran into some trouble with my serger. Frustrated and a bit tired already, I decided to cover the hem of the chiffon up with a red velvet ribbon. Some years ago I bought 15 meters of this ribbon and I thought I could finally put at least some of it to good use.

Once the skirt part was done I got started with the top. With both the lace and the lining I started by joining the shoulder seams together. I then attached the unlined sleeves and sandwiched them between the lining and the lace. I had to undo the seams and put them back together again because I was tired and wasn't paying attention to which way I was fastening them, but a frustrating 45 minutes later I was back on track.

Once the sleeves were attached I started thinking about how to hem them. I looked through my lace ribbon stash and found some stretchy, not so wide lace and decided to hem the sleeves with that to give them a neater look. I finished the head opening of the dress in the same fashion.

Hemming the sleeves.

The last thing that remained was to attach the top to the skirt layers. I serged them together and put in a line of strengthening straight stitches. I then zig-zagged an elastic band to this waistline to make the skirt fit nicely and not just hang like a sack from my shoulders. And here is the finished dress:

In all these are the materials I used:

1,2 m chiffon
1,5 m viscose (lining)
0,5 m lace fabric
6 m of 25 cm wide lace (lining hem)
5 m red velvet ribbon
1,7 m stretch lace (sleeves, head opening)
1 m of 0,7 mm wide elastic
black and red sewing thread.

Time: I think it took me about 8 hours from start to finish, including pattern drafting, meal breaks, chatting with friends and going for a walk in between. Had I worked non-stop I could probably have halved the time.

The dress fits nicely and the viscose works really well as a lining fro this dress. In all it feels light to wear, it is super cute and the uneven hem hives it a slightly rag-doll feel. Hmm. I wonder what I should make next.

~Stella

Flea-market haul

I like crafting and DIY a lot. And the local flea-markets and secondhand stores are a treasure trove for finding inspiration for new projects. I do not go as often as I would like, mostly to protect my wallet from bleeding too much.

Now there is one place in particular here that has very nice prices and also stocks a separate handicrafts department. I went there yesterday because I got a tipoff that there was an old guitar there for sale. I found the guitar, an old Landola (which is a local Finnish brand). It lacked strings and the screws were very worn, but that is easy to fix. The most worrisome part is that the neck is slightly loose from the body, probably because of someone putting metal strings on it instead of nylon. I bought it anyway (and managed to negotiate the price). I intend to restore it as I know a carpenter who will be able to help. Then hopefully I will have a very good quality second guitar that I can bring with me on trips or for work.

As I happened to be in this particular flea-market, I decided to go to the craft department, and lo and behold did I find nice things there. At the end of my visit I came away with a large cookie-pillow for making bobbin lace. I have been thinking of buying one but around here they are very expensive. So finding one for a miniscule prize was a real stoke of luck. I will change out the fabric on it and redo some of the padding, as it is a little too soft for my liking. Then I'll just have to find bobbins somewhere, as I won't get far with the two pairs I have.

I also found a very nice 20 cm wide, cream colored bobbin lace. It was in two pieces but together they measure about 3 meters. I paid 5 euros for it, and I'm fairly certain that had I found it at a normal store the price would have been 20-30 euros per meter. I felt amazingly lucky. Now the lace seems old and has some discoloring, so I am debating with myself whether I might be able to gently wash and dye it. Anyhow, it will certainly feature in some future project.

I found a small handbook on traditional wood carving. This will be a gift for the aforementioned carpenter. Lastly, but maybe what I prized most, was a leaflet with diagrams and models for embroidering monograms. It featured many different styles, and gives ideas for arranging letters, and embellishment around monograms. I have been looking for something similar for a while. And it will be a joy to dig into this one.

That is all for this time. Have a nice day!

~Stella