A Fun Weekend of Sewing

Inspired by my first Cross Stitch Clutch, I made a second one on the weekend. This time I put the zipper going the right way.

I made so many mistakes that I had to pick out and redo. But it all came together in the end.

Instead of bias tape, I made the binding from the width of fabric. The WOF has a bit of stretch - good for going around corners. I even had to re-cut and re-sew the binding because of a big mistake but it turned out well.

A while back I bought a pack of snaps in about 20 different colours. Now I can easily find a coordinating colour for projects like this. I even had the perfect colour of felt for the little needle holder.

Although the pattern is made with two pockets by inserting a divider, the divider could be omitted and only the one, vinyl pocket could suffice.

I also made 2 thread catcher 'tacos' with the fabric I made with selvages last week.

I used the lid of a yogurt container as the template and bound the circles with double fold bias tape. They're two different sizes because I trimmed the raw edges of one of them after sewing one side of the bias tape on. 

This was single fold that I folded double, leaving quite skinny tape. I had to sew carefully to enclose the raw edges and catch both sides of the tape.

They're quick and easy to make.

I'll make more selvage fabric and make some more.

While on my Zoom chat with my Monday morning stitching group, I stitched this week's blackwork stitchalong.

Bluebells - the centre diamond:

It was supposed to go where the Irish bells are on the centre left but I swapped spots.

I have no idea what I'll do with this piece when I'm finished. I'll either frame it or make it into a pillow. Regardless, it has been a lot of fun to stitch.

Yesterday, Skip and I had friends over for a good visit and dinner. It was too hot outside to eat on the deck so we visited inside in air-conditioned comfort. It was the first time having people in since January of last year. We've all been double-vaccinated for at least a month and felt pretty comfortable without our masks. It felt normal!

Ontarians have done a great job getting vaccinated in such a short time! There are too many vaccine-hesitant/anti-vaxxer/whack-a-doodles out there for my liking but hopefully we'll get over 80% of us done before the vaccination rate drops off. We almost have that many with their first dose so I'm hoping they'll all get their second dose soon and we can kick COVID's butt to the curb.