I don’t know if anyone else is experiencing this, but even though I’ve been seeing lots of fabric stores doing record sales, I’ve pivoted in the other direction and have found myself wanting to make do with what I have and focus on sewing up my stash. In keeping with this mentality, I wanted to make something out of the fabric I printed last week before it entered my piles of fabric to languish for weeks or months.
For this fabric, I toyed with a few different pattern options. All of them were by Anna Graham at Noodlehead, because I love her clean and functional designs and how easy to follow her patterns are. The ones I was considering were all ones I already owned, in the spirit of using things I already have. I initially thought of going with the Crescent Tote, because I’ve already made it multiple times and really like the shape and size of it. In the end, I decided against it BECAUSE I’d already made it and have one of my own. I have a subscription to Making zine, and Anna has contributed a number of patterns to it over the last few years. I looked at the Making backpack, the Wool + Wax tote, and the Explorer tote (which I’ve made multiple times but only blogged about once). In the end, I ruled out all of them because I wanted something simple and easy that would feature the print really well and didn’t have too many small pieces that would cut it up. So I went with the Pepin tote, the latest Noodlehead contribution to Making, appropriately in their last issue called Simple. (I can’t link it here because it hasn’t been released independently from the magazine, but eventually it should be available on Anna’s online store).
I had listened to the Love to Sew podcast episode about pattern matching while I was printing the fabric, and while I am a notoriously reckless pattern un-matcher, I thought this might be a good time to try. Buuutttt I hadn’t considered the nature of block printing and the fact that it isn’t done by a machine (and by a human who isn’t an expert at it). When I was looking at matching the pocket, I realized that if I tried to make it perfectly match, it was going to make it MORE obvious that the pattern wasn’t laser-perfect and would look slightly off. So instead I shifted the pocket by one column width from “matching” so that the columns would continue, but they wouldn’t be the same colour and then it wouldn’t seem like a failed attempt at an invisible pocket.
I actually did maintain the column alignment in terms of the inside top lining pieces matching up with the exterior pieces, which I felt was a good try at matching without getting really nitpicky. This was hard to photograph, so you’ll just have to take my word for it! Another thing I did to adjust for the unidirectional pattern I printed was to cut two separate pieces for the main body of the tote instead of the one piece folded in half as directed by the pattern, because that would’ve made the pattern run upside down on one side of the bag. This wouldn’t have been that obvious if I’d printed everything in a single colour, but for my peace of mind with the multicoloured pattern, I wanted to take that little bit of extra time to maintain the pattern direction on both sides.
I think it’s the whole staying-at-home thing, because being trapped with my bins of fabric has motivated me to organize them, and then to sew with them. I have accumulated a problematic amount of fabric over the years since I started sewing in earnest in 2015, and using my stash has actually been really nice. It’s like having a fabric store right in your own house, where everything is stuff you really love, and all of it is free! If I wasn’t in this make-do mindset, I might have gone out to get a different lining fabric and a different colour of webbing for the straps. Instead I used leftover chambray fabric from the dress I made my mum two years ago to wear to my uncle’s wedding as the lining. I thought the floral print went pretty well with the print I made, and for the straps the only thing I had enough of was this beige webbing that doesn’t match the canvas PERFECTLY but it’s something that only I would ever notice and I barely do now that it’s finished.
Has anyone found that quarantine/lockdown has changed their crafting habits? I’ve found myself sewing more of what I have, diving more into big involved time-consuming projects, and also being more willing to spend more time away from the sewing machine this time so I can take advantage of the weather to be outside with friends in case we have to go back to a more restricted state again and I’ll end up locked back in with my sewing machine anyway. Let me know what you’ve been thinking about your own crafting in the comments!
