Rainbow Comfort Packs

Saturday, Feb 14, Valentine's Day - there was love in the air ..... a love of getting together and sewing for a great cause.

Apart from advertising my open studio sewing day on my blog, I emailed those on my Handmade Sewing Studio email list, and I emailed our local ABC radio. The event got a mention on Breaky radio. That set Pauline from Port Stephens into motion - she lives too far away to come to my studio - so she made a heap of bags and filled them with goodies - great work Pauline! They will be sent to Victoria via a truck going from her local pre school.Then Sandra

sent my email onto one of her other textiles email lists - which prompted this response from Claire in Sydney:

"Thanks for posting this Sandra. I've asked my students (adults) to contribute if they can and one of them has already asked her employer to do the same. So as a result, Brandcorp, who recently took over Semco, will be making up around 20 packs to donate to the kids. Good to report something positive during this shocking tragedy. We will add our own and Brandcorp will send them off together in the next 10 days.
For those interested, the Brandcorp Factory Outlet Store details are
delow:
The Craft Shop
Unit 4, 7 Parraweena Road
Caringbah NSW 2229
Telephone 8543 4300
They stock all the Anchor threads, many beads and other interesting embroidery related items.
Claire."

Then I got a call from Lynne (Batik Oetero) and she gave me a big bag of toys and some fabric, and along with Beth's fabric and pellon donation - we were set!

Miss Cherin (my tap teacher) brought along .......... what else? But a huge bag of sparkly sequins like we'd never seen before - so she was in charge of embellishing ....

So, we had Kim, Dorothy, Miss Cherin and myself. Hubby was in charge of sustenance, and he did a lovely plate of sangas (which were demolished before I could take a photo) and some very nice .......

So, among the laughter and chit chat we made 13 totally cute bags ...

We used a very simple drawstring back pack pattern that we used to teach our Year 8 kids to make ..... some for the boys ....

And some for the girls ......

They will be taken to a drop off point, on 2nd March, where John Farragher Removals have kindly donated their services to truck a heap of goodies to Victoria ...

We had such a worthwhile day we're doing it all again NEXT Saturday - sew .... come on down!

Pencil Case / Sewing Cases

It all started with this ...

I found the instructions on the Sew Inspirational Website which has lots of free patterns, tips and info - you will have to register and sign in to get to the Children's Pencil Case. It was quick and easy, and I love the way the batting gave the case body and structure, I also love the chunky zip - I didn't add the pom pom braid ....
Besides being a great little project for my students, I needed to make some sewing cases to keep each student's sewing bits and pieces together (which are colour coded) ...... I had some black "clothing" vinyl so I thought if I added the colour to match the coding, it may just work ...

I tried the red one first ... I thought the vinyl wouldn't need the batting, but wrong! The vinyl was really really soft - it has a knitted backing .. the result was sad and droopy ...

So anyway, I made all of the other ones following the same procedure for the fabric pencil case I made... much better body and shape.

I didn't really have the right length and colour chunky zip for each one - but it all worked out.

I used the walking foot throughout (LOVE IS A WALKING FOOT!!!!) due to the vinyl, but it made the zipper insertion a bit tricky, just had to show alot of zipper tape to get the big fat foot along the zip .... but it was fine ....

Here are a few step by step pics, we pick up from where the vinyl, batting and lining have been sandwiched together (quilted) and the shorter ends where the zipper will go have been turned under ... I have also sewn on two strips of ribbon along the edges where the zipper goes... The beauty of the open end zip is that it can be separated to enable you to sew tubes easily with a zip in the middle .. here is one half of the zip attached ...

I needed to pin the zip allowing the greatest amount of zipper tape showing to allow the walking foot to fit past - only because of the vinyl - otherwise I would just use the zipper foot and get up close ..
Rejoin the zipper halves together to line up the other side of the zip, pin, and then detach the zipper so that you only have one half to sew on ..

Join the zipper back together again, and you have a tube .. now, depending on the length of your zip ... this red one is too short, so I had to trim the ends off - with the right length zip - or even a heaps longer one, you won't have to do this ..

Now, sew together the ends - just move over the zipper teeth - bunny hop!

Make the little carry strap, by folding the strip in half and then half again, and sew together.

Sew a piece of ribbon along the strap. Now, trim the corners on an angle at the end seam ..
This next part is tricky to explain, you need to make a triangle from each of the corners that you just snipped. Now, you need to push the little carry strap up into this triangle so that it gets sewn in as you make the boxed corner - only do this at one end. So, in the photo below, I'm holding the corner up and the end of the strap is snug up inside the triangle.

Stitch across this corner - 2.5cm from the point - make this a firm strong seam.
Repeat on the other side, and then stitch the other end together - remember to open the zipper to halfway so that you can turn it right side out!
Done! Attach a zipper pull or ribbon to the zip puller.

Now, the theory is that all of the Blue coloured pieces of sewing equipment will stay in the blue case .... you'd better check back with me in 6 months and I'll let you know how it went ...