I've seen quite a few crafty peeps confessing their *UFO sins in the past few days, and considering there was another day of hibernation from the heat on the cards yesterday, I thought I should join in.
But, I didn't want to just join in and show you what was unfinished, I wanted to take the opportunity to finish them!
I'm hereby introducing you to specimen one - a dodgy bag for my mum.
I think I started making this bag in about 2006. It was while I was still working full time, and trying to work out how things were constructed. I wasn't using any reference materials or patterns at all.
I made the outer shell from a skirt that I'd picked up at the oppy, and the lining is some fabric from the Spotty remnant bin.
At this point, I had zero clue about straight grain/bias grain, or fabrics that had some stretch, or how to join a bag outer shell and an inner lining together. So when I found it still lying in the UFO pile, it was a bag outer which was sort of cut on the bias, and an inner lining using a cotton fabric with a slight stretch, and I'd already attached a magnetic snap to the lining, after sewing a piece of vinyl to the back to add some strength. Can you tell that I was just making it up as I went along?
Notice that I didn't even bother changing the thread colour either!
When I found it yesterday, I could have just chosen to throw it in the bin, but I think it's a perfect lesson to illustrate that anyone can learn to sew, and with lots of practice and perserverance, you can only get better and better!
So after sewing together my mismatched outer shell and lining, and making a new adjustable strap with some lovely antique brass hardware, I can now pass along the dodgy *OFMM bag when I go to Colac tomorrow.
The best thing is that my mum won't take any notice of the dodgy bits, she'll love it anyway!
*Un-Finished Object.... thankfully not Unidentified Flying Object
*OFMM - Only for my mum