Sewing that doesn't fit into one post or another: some WIPS

 I could just skip blogging June entirely. 

Work has been nuts. I am making myself sit at my computer to write this (all I do all day long is sit at a computer. Oy) 

I have been sewing. Mending.

This mini backpack has needed a handle forever. Wrapped a length of webbing around upholstery welting for a handle, opened up that back horizontal webbing and poked it in place, and stitched it back up. More sewing with plyers while watching Svengoolie.

Still needs a tidy up. Also one of the long straps is missing an end and about ten inches of strap. 

Yoinks.

I had to take the presser foot off to get it under the needle.

Finishing the Felix lobster dress I started last summer; because I CAN.

I changed the neck facing 

(made a coordinating print on Spoonflower and hated it after it was all sewn on)  

and auditioning sleeves.  And yes, I recut the skirt to stop it from poofing out so much.

I dunno. Going to safety pin it and try it on.

and a mask for seeing this

through July 3rd

https://www.seattlerep.org/plays/202122-season/bruce/

the last remnant from the Shark lap quilt
https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2017/05/shark-quilt.html

The Cuties don't fit because cake. 

I need to add some fabric in the side seams.

Mmmmmmm poppin'

 I may have to lose the sleeves to do this. I have more of these dresses, but some might be made of fabric I can't photograph and put on the blog, ya know.

There was cake. And work and family anxiety. And cake.

And I have about ten blogs about projects that aren't quite ready to go.

More will be said about some of these things, but I just can't sit here anymore and type right now.

Not so magic bag of tricks part one

(I just realized that I wrote this post over a year ago, January 10, 2021, and didn't post it because I wasn't done with the project.

I'm still not, but I am posting this because I hope to be one with this soon. Like later this week. Done or throwing it into the scrap pile done. Here is the journey's start)

Felix the Cat's magic bag of tricks was a lot like Mary Poppin's carpetbag: any number of useful plot devices could be pulled from it. One gruesome family joke was "I'll just reach into my magic bag of tricks and pull out a cure for cancer! Oops, it's a Thompson submachine gun!"

Well, my mother with cancer laughed.

So maybe I still want the bag.

But I don't want a Felix head on my bag. Felix doesn't have one on his, he just wears his head on his body.

And I can make my own pleather print on Contrado

So I waited for a sale. I bought this fabric in March 2020.

And I found a similar-ish pattern and hardware on Emmaline Bags

I had to scale the bag to the length of the frame. A longer frame would have been more appropriate to the original, but I could not conveniently source one.

Test fit the paper pattern and made a toile

And then cut my precious fabric

 

Sewed it

Tested glue to hold the seams flat

The tests both worked.

 

And this is where it goes awry

Clamping doesn't get the glue to spread evenly

So I wrap a brick for a weight

And the glue stops drying.

I was a studio art major in college, and we used to sing a little song about acrylic paint, ala Air Supply's "Love is Like Oxygen":

"Love is like Liquitex

Get too much and it won't dry 

Not enough and you want to cry."

I have too much.

This was June. 

It's September.

It's still not dry.

----

November.

By this point, I just move the box the project is in around. It's too tall to pile on top of

(photo of WIP stac)

I hand stitch down the seam allowances.

One does have to wipe down the needle and the thread with Goo Gone to get things to progress, but this project's progress has been so weird, nothing surprises me now. It's like sewing through rubber cement now. 

This should help figure out how to get the fabric into the frame

https://youtu.be/xEGKckk2WV0?t=1161

Well, in theory it would. If I used woven fabric...it would be very good.

(to be continued)