Trying Tutorials

There are so many great sewing tutorials on line. I have decided that I'm going to give one a try once a week. I figure I'll end up with some neat stuff for myself and for gifts, or for some of the craft shows I plan on doing this fall. In the past week I've tried two, so here they are.




This first one is a small padded clutch; the directions are here: http://fromanigloo.blogspot.com/2010/03/scrappy-clutch.html
I have to say that while I like the style of this clutch there are a couple of things I will do different the next time I make it. The first and major one is, I won't use fusible fleece. It's too thick, and once it's fused the bulk can't be trimmed out of the seam allowances. It's also a pain in the butt to gather the bottom pieces with the fleece fused in. I would rather use a thin polyester batting and baste it in place. I also used a piece of interfacing in the strap to make it a bit more sturdy. All in all it's a nice clutch.





This second project was infinitely cooler and more satisfying. It is a reusable baggie that uses mylar food bags for the inner liner. I have seen a lot of these made with ripstop nylon or vinyl, but this is much cooler because it recycles those bags that would be headed for the landfill. There is a down loadable pdf file here:http://frenchsleepdeprivationstudy.blogspot.com/2009/06/snack-bag-tutorial.html
I had the iron too hot and melted a bit of the mylar and then I had it too cool and didn't get all the wrinkles out of it, but other than that it turned out pretty well. Next time I make this I will use sew on velcro to keep the flap closed instead of the bottom elastic/button set up. I see myself making a ton of these and giving up baggies almost entirely. The only problem is I have to wait til we have another empty bag to make another one