Saturday, May 08, 2010

Sewing Saturday

I had another encounter with my nemesis the scissors this week.

I decided it was time to make a new & better fitting camera strap.

I used to be a quilter. I had a rotary cutter, a large cutting mat, several large quilting rulers, all things to make the cutting of fabric as easy as possible.

It’s been 5 years since I last made a blanket and 7 months since I cleaned the junk room.  I can find the mat & I can find spare parts to the cutter. But I cannot find the rotary cutter itself or any of the rulers.

I have to use scissors to cut anything & that is always a recipe for disaster.

But surely even I can manage two 12 inch cuts and 2 3 inch cuts right? Especially if I use a regular ruler to draw the line and then pin the fabric together.

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Then I sewed the two strips together and ironed on some fuseable fleece for padding

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Can I just say that the lighting in my craft room sucks? There is the bright light over the craft table that makes you cast shadows on what you are trying to see and then the bulb in the sewing machine died & I can’t find a replacement (it’s a freaking Singer! there should be replacement bulbs everywhere!) so I have to use the only desk lamp I have, which is actually intended to help you cross stitch and is technically and ‘overhead’ type and gives this light because there is no way to angle it.

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But I persevered!

I hemmed the edges of the strap & then sewed the sides closed. I even added a pocket

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The pocket is about an eight of an inch too small. (note to self 3.5”x3'”, not 3x3 next time) but you can get the cap in with a bit of work

the finished product

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I like it better that my previous one which was pretty much a tight fitting badly hemmed tube.

I was going for a less girly strap. Plaid is manly right?

Apparently not plaid with pink stripes.

So I will be making a second one, if I can find a fabric in my stash DH approves of.

Possibly leopard print.

But first I am buying a new rotary cutter & quilting ruler.

4 comments:

humel said...

Hey, it looks fab to me! Sounds like a great idea, I could do with one for my camera. And tell your DH that even plaid with pink stripes can look manly if the person carrying it is manly enough to start with... ;-)

helena said...

what Mel said re plaid with pink in it. Although leopard skin print sounds wild and adventurous. Just know that feeling when I can't find the right tools and the light isn't right.

Carole said...

Wow! I can't sew at all other than a bit of cross stitch so the concept of making something like that WITH A POCKET is quite impressive to me :)

Creative Junkie said...

I think it looks great!