It’s been a while since I’ve done a process post, so here goes.
First of all, a look at my current (extremely cluttered) workspace.
(I intentionally did not tidy up before taking these photos because I’m not an influencer trying to sell you a perfect lie. I’m human.)
My thread all lives on the thread racks on the wall, out of direct sunlight. The main surface of the table is covered in a 36”x24” self-healing cutting mat, and my main shop sewing machine, a brother nouvelle 1500s lives here 90% of the time.
To the right of the photo is a 4×2 ikea kallax unit, which holds bins of fabric, and my Eversewn Sparrow usually lives on top of it, close at hand for when I need a zig-zag stitch or a buttonhole.
To the left of the main sewing area is a small table topped with layers of cotton and heat-proof batting sewn in a cotton casing to make a small ironing board, and under that table are clear plastic bins of more fabric. Are we starting to see a theme, here?
I sit in the middle on an early 20th-century round (hardwood) piano stool, which allows me to spin in place and raise or lower the seat depending on what I’m doing.
Today, let’s talk about sewing a drawstring project bag, something I do a lot of!
Once I have the fabric cut to my specifications, I start the sewing process. This goes a lot faster these days than it did when I was first starting, but that’s largely because I’ve figured out how to assembly line cut and piece: sewing a single bag from start to finish takes nearly as long as it ever has.
Here are some process photos:
One part I particularly enjoy is top stitching the drawstring channel. It allows me to coordinate thread colors to bag top colors (in this case: black) but also rewards precision and accuracy, which I find soothing.
In the end, after adding drawstrings, I end up with a bag for the Halloween collaboration kit with the Periwinkle Sheep!
As a reminder, these bags are available for a limited time only and come with a matching skein of custom yarn that looks like this:
You can get the kit on The Periwinkle Sheep’s website until August 20th. Kits will ship on or before October 10.
And remember: we will be donating 10% of kit sales to World Central Kitchen for their efforts to combat starvation and famine in Gaza.
Knit-Spin-Quilt 