Sewing Detour

Well here we are not 2 months into the new year and I have already detoured from my one pattern a month plan! It is for a good cause I argue. I am helping to restart a crafting group at my church. The ladies have decided they want to sew for charity and asked if I knew of any organizations that wanted/needed sewn items.

Luckily, I have already sewn bags for this organization, Sewpowerful through my local American Sewing Guild chapter. The organization has a free bag pattern for sewers to use. It provides bags for girls in Zambia filled with hygiene supplies so they can remain in school all month, even during their period. Each purse helps the average girl reclaim 6 weeks of school per year.

I had to dig out my travel sewing machine to test run. I have not used this machine since pre covid times (when I used to go to sewing retreats). Before I presented the entire idea to the group I needed a sample.

I used the remains of the quilted material I had from the quilted hoodie experiment of last year. This meant I did not have to cut out interfacing, the quilted material was stable enough without interfacing to complete the bag.

The pattern is quite an easy sew. Once I get back into the production of the bag I find I can finish one in about a hour, not including cutting the pieces. The only “problem” for me is my hatred of turning tubes. I have tried every trick in the sewing book to make turning tubes easier but I have failed at every one. I did try to make the strap with this project but threw it away literally about 1/2 way through the turn. I used webbing I already had in my stash to make my strap. It makes me much happier as a sewer and as a person to use the strap webbing. I also think it might just be sturdier than a fabric strap.

I have enough scraps I think to make another in the same material. This would be nice because I had no idea what else I was saving these fabric scraps for - throwing away perfectly usable fabric seems like such a waste to me. I have also already gathered some other fabric scraps for cutting so I can get a production line going at the meeting. Hopefully which girl receives this bag loves the fabric I selected.