Work in Progress

I've been diligently working on 2 plarn projects of late.  The one I started a few months ago is still going strong.  It is a lot bigger than I had initially envisioned it, but that's ok, I'm sure my friend will enjoy a larger than planned plarn bag.  Now that I'm a few inches up the side of the bag, it is starting to take some serious shape.

As I bag started to get bigger, I was surprised at the softness of the bag feel.  As a result, I'm doing some experimenting with different bag material and plarn thicknesses.  Hence why I have two bags currently in the works.  The larger bag uses mostly my grocery store bags with an occasional other bag mixed in here and there.  For some reason my grocery store bags seem very soft when it comes to the type of plastic.  Yes, I said soft when referring to a plastic bag. 

I'm curious if by using different bags that are not as soft if the bag will be stiffer.  You can see from the larger, more complete bag that the overall look of the bag is more like canvas than a basket.  That's fine, I'm just trying to get a better feel of different textures with this medium.  There is a lot more experimenting here than say sewing a boppy cover. There I pretty much know what kind of fabric I want and why and then how to construct it.

The second bag I'm working on it going to be made only from Target bags.  It's already starting out much stiffer than the other bag.  I have a feeling it is the bag material, but I did also just switch the way I'm cutting my plarn in order to make it more uniform.  I'm curious if that will make any difference.  I suppose I will find out when I get to those strips on the larger bag.  Until then you will just have to enjoy my current stages.    

Pattern Pallooza - Beginners

This blog post has morphed slightly from it's original plan.  My original plan was to share some patterns with you, but I received the most wonderful email yesterday.  A friend just bought her very first sewing machine!  Wahoo for her a whole knew world now awaits her.  Now of course she has the all important task of deciding the the first project will be.  So instead of just haphazardly selecting some interesting patterns, but now I have a purpose to share with her and the rest of you some interesting first projects with your sewing machine.

This week I am focusing on patterns and projects that are perfect for the beginner sewer.  That means, the concept is relatively simple and there is lots of room for error if you do need to rip it out or don't sew in a straight line. 


 
Up first are these great bean bags I found from MADE.  They are adorable if you ask me and much more fun than a store bought bean bag.  This is a great first project to sink your teeth into.  I want to make some of these for the adults too, not just the kids!

42 pages internet pattern scare you?  No worries! How about some floor pillows instead?  You still get new comfy seating for the kids but it might be a little less intimidating to start.  Fido may think these are for her, but they help make a great reading nook for some much needed quiet time in the kids room.  This pattern and tutorial comes to us from oven lovin'. 







Finally, but potentially more importantly, you can find some beginner sewing tips over at Couturier Mommy.  No need for me to reinvent the wheel here when there are already so many how-to websites.  Hopefully I can at least help you centralize them. 

Please feel free to share your references for a beginner here and don't forget to stop back for more advanced patterns and resources. 

Comments

I must be making the rounds on the Russian internet recently, my only comments seem to be coming in the form of spam that appears to be from Russia or at least one of the Eastern European countries and they are not real comments.  At least not in my definition of posting to old posts and not relevant to the post.

As a result, I'm playing around with my commenting settings in hopes it will curb fake/spam comments and encourage my readers to actually comment.  Of course, I'm assuming that I do have real readers out there and my visit count isn't just from web crawlers running all over the internet. 

If you feel your comment may be been deleted in error, please let me know.  I do monitor the comments and if something seems out of place, I do tend to delete them and you may have gotten caught up in a delete frenzy.

If I am just talking to myself, I'm OK with that, but if not, feel free to say, "Hi" occasionally.  I don't bite, honestly! 

In the mean time, stop back later this week, I have a new feature I'm starting that I'm sure you'll love.  At least I've enjoyed the research for it!