Sewing projects

Here's a purse I made. It was my first attempt at a zipper and it didn't turn out too well, but I learned a lot about how to put in zippers from it. I am now taking a formal class and it's fun to learn the right way to do all the things I taught myself to do the wrong way. I lined it with a plain mauve fabric and used a thicker felt material as interfacing. I even added three little pockets inside to keep my cell phone and keys from getting lost at the bottom of the bag. All in all, it turned out well. I love the outer fabric. It's starting to rip along the base of the handles, which I'm not sure how to fix.

There's a great website to check out if you are into sewing or any kind of craft. It's www.craftster.org and it's a community of crafty folks who post pictures of the things they've made and often tell you exactly how they made it, step by step. They are so encouraging and creative and helpful and if you are a newbie to something, like I am to sewing, it is a fantastic site. I highly recommend it.


Here's a shirt I made pretty much on my own. I loosely copied the form of another shirt I have and I did a lot of measuring and remeasuring to make sure it fit me where it should. The sleeves took the longest because I had never done them before. I followed instructions from a website and it took me hours to get it done but the good thing is that I cut it out on muslin first so now I have a nice template that I can use over and over. This shirt is made from a very stretchy material, so it's very forgiving. If I use the sleeves again on a material that doesn't give so much, it will probably require readjusting. But I was excited to finish it and have the sleeves turn out nicely.

I'll add a picture of the handbag I made as soon as I can get it uploaded. It was one of the first things I made, so it's very simple with no pockets or zippers or anything. But it has held up very well and I think the fabric is cool.