Sew (UN)-Organized... Part II

Part II? Where's the other part? Maybe some of you remember reading part I over at According to Matt about 9 months ago: Sew Organized.

Well, I've been "trying" to sew again. Matt mentioned a couple of weeks before Christmas, that he really wanted to have a nice organizer for his crochet hooks. I couldn't agree more since his hooks are all over the place. He's got some in a jam jar, some in an old ugly hook case, and some just lying around. I decided to surprise him with a nice little "hook-organizer". I couldn't find anything in the stores which was good, since I really wanted to give sewing a go again.

I shopped for some pretty fabrics, binding, zippers, and some thread. I wasn't really sure how the fabrics would work together, but as long as it was bright and colorful, Matt would be happy. I found a tutorial somewhere online, which also involved a clear zippered pocket and I wanted to take the challenge. I've never really worked with zippers, so it was quite a scary task! Everything went quite OK. The plastic I used for the pocket didn't really turn out to be suited for the job. It was too hard and not really bendy. I was determined to have my plastic pocket, so I just went on. It was a big flop. The pictures I took of it make it look quite OK, but in real life it's very wonky, the binding doesn't cover a bit of the case, the magnetic closure is a bit loose and I can go on... Judge for yourself.

As you might be able to see in the lower left picture, I really had to fold the plastic to make it bend with the case. I wish I had just cut the plastic shorter, and attached it a little bit to the left of the fold.

Let's just say it was a learning project. At least I knew how to sort of sew in a zipper, sort of sew a binding and sort of get the basics of sewing.

But this was definitely not the final product I wanted to give to Matt. It had to be nicer and actually a little bit simpler. I was lucky that I bought plenty fabric and even had another zipper lying around. So, next try. This time without a pattern, completely improvised!

I wanted to have it look more like a needle roll instead of a "Beauty Bag". Instead of making it a roll, I made it more like a thin book which you close by tying the ribbons hanging from the side of it. It has room for a lot of crochet hooks, and also a big pocket which can hold anything crochet related. Here's what came out of it:

As you can see above, by the time these pictures were taken, it was used quite a lot already! It's been folded and stuffed, and the fabric got a bit wrinkly! But I guess that's a good sign, at least it's being used and loved!

And here you see all three of them including the one I made for myself last year! I still love it and use it quite a lot! However, I switched to Addi Click's now, which come with their own 'proper' case. But this one is still perfect for all my DPN's and knitting accessories. 

For now I'm done with the sewing again. I did enjoy it, but find it very fidgety and time consuming. What doesn't help, is that we don't really have a lot of equipment here at home. I don't even have a cutting board or a big ruler. Everything was cut by hand, and often I just sort of guessed how big I had to cut it. And you wouldn't believe the mess I create when I sew. The apartment was covered in bits an pieces of fabric, thread, and whatnot. All for such a tiny little project!

I would have loved to share my finished "Leftie" shawl today, but I didn't manage to take any pictures yet! I finished it last night, and couldn't be happier with it! It's already blocked, and I even wore it out today. I will blog about it as soon as I got some decent photographs!

And now off to bed! I start work again tomorrow after my 6 week break! Back to singing and dancing rehearsals, until I go on board again end of this month!

x Dennis