Mark Wants a Big Pillow

Mark wants a big pillow out of these fabrics, one of which is a vintage kilim rug, and the other (the striped fabric) matches an ottoman he recently upholstered.

The pillow insert is 27" square and my seam allowances will be 1/2".  That means I need two 28" squares, one from each fabric.

The kilim rug wants to stretch and open up, so it's best to put some kind of over-locking or zig-zag stitch on the edges.  This will help keep the piece square and even.

 
Once cut, lay right sides together matching the edges.  I have a 24" zipper to use.  On one edge which will become the bottom center the zipper and mark where it will go.

Also mark the seam allowances, then sew between the seam allowances and the mark for the zipper.

Open the zipper and position it in the opening.  With right sides together pin one side of the zipper to one side of the pillow.

Using a zipper foot, attach the zipper to the pillow.

Once one side is attached close the zipper and pin the other side of the zipper to the other side of the pillow, right sides together.

Then attach the zipper using the zipper foot.

And...you should end up with something like this

Now, join the remaining three sides.  Be sure to open up the zipper before you finish or you won't be able to turn the pillow.  Turn the pillow to the right side insert the pillow.

Here's the pillow with the ottoman

Looks pretty good, eh.  Now that that's done I'll go back to to working on my messenger style bag.

Let's Make a Man Bag - Part 4

The man bag had to wait for work, bowling, meditation course, and a trip to Vermont.  But, I got back to work.  To finish the lining, lay both pieces right sides together, and stitch along the left and right sides and the bottom.

Now, open the bottom, align the corners of the notched out areas and sew closed, like this:

Do that on both sides and you'll end up with basically an open-top bag

I put it all together, outside and lining, and started topstitching.  I tried, fussed, and tried again.  However, I now realize that I have neither the skills nor the proper tools for working in leather.  I'll admit it, the leather has beaten me - and broken four needles in the process.  Just look at this bad stitching and holes:

So, I've decided that I'll remove and reuse the lining and the strap, but I'm changing out the body to use these two fabrics

In the meantime, though, Mark wants a big pillow to go with this ottoman he upholstered:

Using these

Also, I just got a new, heavy duty sewing machine and this will be the first project with it.

So, a break with the bag, I'll post about the pillow, then back to the bag.

Let's Make A Man Bag - Part 3

Time to start working on the body of the bag.  First, is to make the strap and attach it to the sides.  If you don't do this first, it's very hard to attach the strap later (I speak from experience).  Here are the pieces

Four pieces of nylon webbing cut to 4" each (cut from the 80" length), the shoulder strap thing, the strap adjuster, two rings, the remaining nylon webbing, and the two side pieces.

Thread one of the 4" pieces of nylon webbing through on of the rings and sew the ends together

Tip:  I hate it when the strap on a bag does this:

So I like to secure the webbing under the ring, using a zipper foot.

Repeat with the other ring so that there are two.

Take one end of the long piece of webbing and wrap it around the middle, fold the end under, and sew as close to the adjuster as possible (maybe sew twice, this piece can get a lot of stress).

To thread the strap, watch this

Now take the free end of the strap, thread it through the remaining ring, fold under the end, and sew (maybe twice, so it's very secure).

And, finally, end up with this (you'll notice I forgot the shoulder thing; that's OK I can live without it)

To attach the strap to the sides, use one of the remaining two 4" pieces of webbing and place on one of the side pieces.  Put one end of the shoulder strap under this piece, pin, and sew.

Repeat on the other side to get this

 Piecing together the front, back, and flap parts.  First the front:

Sew together on the long edge to get this

The back pieces

Attach the two smaller pieces

Now attach to the larger piece, like so

Same process for the flap, this

This

And this

Front, Back, and Flap, pieced together

Putting it all together, next.

Let's Make a Man Bag - Part 2

Here's the next posting of making a messenger-style bag from some leather samples I've had. Previously, I cut the pieces. Next step - and it's not the glamourous part - is working on the lining. Specifically, I want to get my lining pieces ready to go, which means installing zippered pockets on both the front and back pieces.

First, here's a shot of the sewing machine I'm using. Not overly fancy, but it gets the job done (not commercial-grade either, which would be really nice to have).







When I cut the dress shirt for the lining, I wanted to use the shirt pocket as part of the lining. This meant cutting one half of the lining in two pieces, like this







then joining them and notching the bottom. Dimensions are 16" across, 11 1/2" long total, with 2" x 2" squares taken out of the bottom of each side. Basically, the lining will be a simply constructed tote bag





You'll need two of these pieces to make the lining.

I want zippered pockets on both sides, so here are the pieces need






Two pocket pieces: one is 10" x 7" and one is 10" x 8" to make approximately a 9" x 6" pocket. One piece called a stay: 16" x 4". One zipper: this is a purse-type zipper 12" long (I would have preferred one 9" long, but didn't have one). The lining body piece.

Determine where the zipper will go and draw a slash line on the lining body piece. Repeat this line on the stay, then draw two lines 1/8" above and below the slash line.






Put the stay on the lining body piece, right sides together (draw your marks on the wrong side of the stay). Sew along the outer lines and make a stitched box around the slash line. Cut along the slash line (through both pieces), but at the ends of the box stop about 1/2" from the end and then cut diagonally from the slash line to the corners of the stitched box. It will look something like this:




Pull the stay through the opening to the wrong side of the lining, flatten and press. The result is a structured opening like this:





Position the zipper behind the opening and then topstitch the zipper and lining together. Be sure to use your zipper foot:





Now to make the pocket. Turn your lining piece over (the wrong side up) and position the shorter pocket piece along the bottom edge of the zipper tape, like so






This is where it gets confusing (at least to me). You want to sew the pocket piece to the zipper take and the stay, but not to the lining body. So, turn the lining body under so that it won't get attached, like this:





Once sewn, then it looks like this




Position the longer pocket piece with the top edge of the zipper tape, like this




And again, only attach the pocket piece to the zipper tape and the stay, not to the lining body. Once done, sew the sides and bottom of the pocket together (but don't sew onto the lining itself), like this





Flip the entire thing over and, voila, there's a zippered pocket






Clean up any loose threads and maybe add some extra hand stitches on the ends of the zippers (this will get a lot of use, so make sure the zipper is secure).

Repeat the entire process for the other side, then we're ready for the next stage. I'm not joining my two lining pieces right now, that will happen later, when I'm closer to attaching the lining with the outside of the bag.

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