Christine Sews

Installing a zipper in a lined bag  can make the bag more secure, and give a casual look.  Follow these steps, after cutting out the fabric.

1. Lay the lining fabric right side up.
2. Stack the zipper on top of the lining fabric, right side up.  Line up the edges.
3. Add the outer fabric to the stack wrong side up, lined up with the zipper.  Pin or use water soluble double sided tape to secure the layers.  (I like the tape.)



4. Stitch through all layers.  Instead of stitching as close as possible to the zipper, as with an on-seam zipper installation, leave a bit of room.
5. Turn right sides out and press.



6. Topstitch.  Important:  topstitching will prevent the zipper from getting stuck in the lining fabric.
7. Place the lining right sides together, and outer fabric right sides together.  Pull the zipper open halfway.  Angle the tines toward the lining.
8. Stitch around four sides, leaving a five inch gap in the lining.
9. Continue as you would for the Girls Bag assembly.

I mimicked the floral design of the lining to decorate this denim girls bag.  I just sketched it onto the bag with tailors chalk, then went over it with puffy paint.

I also measured my child from hip, over the opposite shoulder, and back to hip, to get a cross-body measurement, and added four inches.  Because four year old fashionistas make requests like, “Mom, this bag is cute, but I really need a zippered cross-body bag.  Please!”

I’m very pleased with myself for recycling the denim and zipper from an old pair of jeans.  I made two of them, one for my fashionista who got the prototype pictured here, and one for her friends birthday gift.  Working with denim was a new challenge for me.

Singer 5050 sewing machine, I done you wrong.  (A la Elvis movies… you were my man; I done you wrong.)

I have discovered that my Singer 5050 can sew denim, with a denim needle and a little know how.  I thought it couldn’t.  As it turns out, I needed to make a few adjustments.  (It was a duh moment for me.)

Here’s how I made it work.

• Cleaned and oiled the machine.
• Used a plastic presser foot for straight stitch areas.
• Set the stitch length to 3.5.  (Much longer than I typically need.)
• Inserted a new heavyweight, denim needle.  That worked well for inserting the zipper into the bag I’m working on (more on it later).
• Other areas also needed stitch witchery to keep from stretching into odd shapes.

Yay!  I am still looking forward to getting the Free Westinghouse looked at by an electrician, so I can use it for sewing heavy fabrics.  But in the meantime, the Singer is doing well.  Poor baby, I misjudged him.

I have an olfa 60mm rotary cutter.  I went to Hobby Lobby to get a replacement blade.  I had this idea that perhaps in the however many months it has been since I went there that it has improved.

Not so.  Hobby Lobby is still filled with stuff I don’t need.  The sewing selection is mediocre.  They had a lot of rotary cutting tools in the 45mm size and smaller, random brands without matching refill blades in stock, cheaply made.  It is one of the closest stores to my home with any sewing or craft supplies, so occasionally, I check it out, again, because I would love to shop nearby instead of driving twenty-five miles.

Anyway, the 60mm blade I have is still dull.  And since I made the baby clothes quilt and learned to use the rotary cutter; I really enjoy having the rotary cutter and don’t want to live without one.  Bah.  Now, to squeeze in a trip to Joanns tomorrow or wait…

Two pairs of pants that got shrunk into an unflattering shape, seemingly called me from the drawer to save them from obscurity.  Pants alterations were in order.

The pants on the left were a goofy purchase.   I liked the fabric.  They never fit particularly well, being gigantic in the thighs and just fitting in the waist - definitely shaped for someone else’s body.  The pants on the right arrived in the mail, the same size and brand as two other pair, yet mysteriously smaller, not unwearable, but smaller.  Then… they got in the laundry with the towels and got really small.

I sliced them both apart, added the brushed cord pieces as pockets and insets, and voila, wearable pants.

The owl puppet just flew in for a visit.  (This is how my life works.)   And for those of you very observant ones, the dot between the pockets is a mark I used to keep them level.  It washed right out.