More Totes!

About three weeks ago, inspired by the success of my own tote pair (and family and friends' subsequent enthusiasm), I started working on seven new extra-large totes. I realized that it’ll be easier for me to work on several simultaneously rather than tackle them one by one. Not because it takes less time, but because it eliminates the need to constantly think of what to do next, and also because this way I can do all my cutting and ironing at the same time, thus avoiding setting everything up over and over again (well, I guess in that regard making a few at a time DOES save some time…).

I finished about half of them this morning:

These totes were my main project for the last three weeks, although I did work on a few other things in bits and pieces in-between. It took three weeks because my sewing time is rather limited.

A tote starts with me choosing fabric for the outer layer, both for the “walls” and bottom of the tote, and for the outside pockets. I also choose straps in a matching color.

Once the fabrics are matched, I cut them all to size and sew them together. This is a picture of about half of my new totes after I finished sewing the outside pieces together and attached the handles.

Once that is done, I choose fabric for the lining.

Then I cut the lining to size. For these totes it took a couple of hours to cut all the lining pieces and make them the exact right size, since not all the totes were the same size, and so I had to measure each one and make sure I cut the lining accurately.

After that comes the ironing stage. In this case it was a LOT of ironing. In fact, two or three entire work-days of it! It’s funny, because normally I hate ironing, and postpone it as much as possible. I’m ashamed to say that our Thanksgiving tablecloth is still waiting to be ironed (and it’s March already!!). But somehow when it comes to sewing projects I don’t mind it as much…

For these totes, because they are so big and since I want them to carry heavy weights and last a long time, I first had to iron heavy interfacing onto the backside of each outside layer. I tried two different brands, but found that heavy fusible interfacing just doesn’t stick that well, regardless of the manufacturer. It takes twice as long as what the label recommends, but even then the interfacing often peels off after a while, requiring yet more ironing… So I stood there for hours. Once that was done I had to iron all the lining pieces again. That went much faster!

This is how the two layers looked once all the ironing was done:

After the lining is nicely pressed, I choose a matching-colored zipper and sew it on. Here is an example:

I then sew the inner pocket, sew the lining and sew the outer layer. I turn the outer layer right-side out and place it inside the lining:

Then I stitch the opening, turn the tote in and top-stitch the opening shut. And that is it! It takes a long time, but it feels really good once everything is finished, and even better after people start using it and enjoying it!

Almost There...

We really need rain here in drought-stricken California, and it was great to get a few days of good precipitation last week. The plants in my garden are happier than I’ve seen them in years! Still, it was nice to have a break over the weekend. My cabinets were already put together, so I was able to take advantage of the dry weekend to take them outside and paint them with three layers of a transparent coating.

I was worried to leave them out overnight, but in the morning there were only a couple of Kamikaze-bugs glued to the veneer. I managed to scrape them off without causing too much damage :-)

Hey, me, too!

I sewed for family, friends and strangers, and then realized that I needed a few new bags, too! I was tired of the reusable shopping bags I had, which hardly ever lasted more than a few months. I therefore decided to make myself nice, large and sturdy shopping totes. I made a matching pair, with south-western patterns on the outside, lined with cotton with tiny flowers. I put a zipper pocket inside each of them, for my keys and phone when I went to the farmers’ market. Am pretty happy with how they turned out:

It’s amazing how much food this pair can fit!

Cabinet Building!

After some internet research (more like MANY hours of internet research, actually), I found OK-looking (and affordable) cabinets at IKEA that were exactly the size I was looking for--wide and deep enough to hold all my different-sized fabrics, yet still small enough to fit in my sewing-room's alcove. I raided the store over the weekend, and returned home with my loot: three large IVAR cabinets!

My kids and I spent the weekend getting them ready. All those lego sets I bought over the years proved to be a great investment--the children were well prepared for the real-life challenge of putting IKEA cabinets together! I’m quite sure that that carpentry camp a couple of summers ago didn’t hurt, either :-)

It was heart-warming to see them working together and cooperating instead of squabbling, for a change. A shame we don’t need to build furniture every week...

Rethinking Space

As I mentioned before, our spare room, which is also where I sew, is lovely because it has many windows. Sadly, this become a liability when I needed to add storage space. Two of the walls are entirely taken by windows. The third wall is blocked by the bed. This really left only one option for my grand reorganizing plans: The fourth wall.

 

This last wall has an alcove near the entrance, which for a long time housed my daughters’ piano. It was an ideal place for the piano, for not only was it the exact right size, but it also offered privacy during lessons. When my daughters wanted to practice, they simply closed the door, thus not to disturbing anyone else.

 

 

Unfortunately, this alcove was the only possible location for my much-needed fabric storage cabinet. With a heavy heart I realized that the piano had to move.

This didn’t go so well with my family. So we spent the last few weeks negotiating. Eventually we found a new (albeit a lot more public) location for the piano, and with the help of our neighbor moved it to another room. All of a sudden that alcove looks so big!

 

 

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Taking a Break to Sew for My Family

After I finally made my son’s cross-body bag, I realized my kids needed totes as well as cross-body bags.

 

The kids all started new after-school classes in January, and suddenly had lots of new gear: two pairs of dance shows for each of my daughters, and a bulky martial-arts uniform with special shoes for my son. The flimsy plastic bags they intended to use didn’t look sturdy enough, so I let them each chose fabrics in their favorite colors and patterns. Another week of sewing went by, and this is what they got:

 

 

 

Boys Need Bags, too!

“It’s not fair!” is a common complaint in our household, but in this case the boy was right: each of his sisters had a mommy-made bag, but he had nothing.

So, while I was frantically preparing for the booth, he headed straight towards my finished bag pile, ready to claim one for himself. The fact that they were all WOMEN's handbags (and way too big for him) didn’t seem to matter. Fairness is fairness, after all.

I promised to make one especially for him--a little BOY’s bag. But I told him he will have to wait until after the booth was over.

In the end it took a little longer than expected, partially because Decembers are always busy, partially because we went away for winter break, and partially because it just took a while to find the right fabrics. But eventually I gathered all the right materials:

A thick olive-colored cotton for the outside

 

A bright-orange velvety fabric for the underside of the flap

 

and, at JoAnn’s, I found the perfect, cutest monster cotton fabric for the lining:

 

 

I set to work as soon as school started again. I made his bag i-pad sized, for the occasions on which my boy wanted to carry his device. I decorated it with olive-colored webbing and brown wooden buttons, and put Velcro for the closure, to make it easy for little fingers to handle. The result: a little boy’s i-pad bag!

 

I even added an inner pocket for all his small treasures:

 

He was really happy to get his own bag :-)