Everything In Its Place Bag

Showing posts with label Everything In Its Place Bag. Show all posts

sew organised

27 January 2021

I'm going to show you around a little bit, sharing how I (try to) keep my sewing supplies and projects organised and how, as someone that has a lot of projects on the go, I like to keep things accessible and easy! The theme of this post 'sew organised' is the Aurifil Artisan challenge for this month and I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a peek at my honest craft space. Hopefully some of these ideas or tips might be helpful to you, or you simply enjoy seeing what works for me.

I do not have a minimalist space, as much as I love that look I have yet to achieve it. I sew at a desk in our dining room and sewing time happens any time I can take it. It's nice to have things on hand, every now and again I have a good tidy up but I'd rather be making stuff when I have the opportunity. So usually the threads I have been using stay out until I'm moved to put them back away. The baskets on my desk store the things I use most often; pouches filled with clips, basting safety pins, scissors I can grab etc. I always have bits an bobs I'm working on, you can see my notebook above which is filled with ideas for designs and some cut up pieces of aida that I sent out and recently used to teach cross stitch to a children's group on Zoom.

My fabric is nicely organised, I have an Ikea PS cabinet, half of which is pictured below and three baskets filled with fabric. I don't organise by colour but rather by theme or designer. This helps me because I usually know the look or vibe I want to go for. I've tried rainbow stacks but I find it limiting, somehow I can't create interesting palettes when it's already organised by colour! So I have stacks of low volume, some by designers like original Cotton + Steel/Ruby Star, Anna Maria Horner and Tula Pink, prints for fussy cutting, linens and solids.

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Everything In Its Place Bag ✂

03 March 2017

This is one of my very favourite things I have ever made. It was a not a quick make but it was definitely worth the time and thought put into it because it is so functional and since I sew everyday and am travelling a fair bit, it will get used a lot. If you are short on time, jump to the end to watch a little video tour of my bag.

I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago but am finally getting round to blogging about it, and in a way that's better since I've actually been using it - just yesterday I finished off a little extra addition, which is one of my favourite bits because I use a lot of thread!

So on to the bag...

I made the Everything In Its Place Bag (also called A Place for Everything if you buy the pattern from By Annie).

The pattern is part of a class called Sew Sturdy Travel Organisers by Annie Unrein on Craftsy. I bought the class specifically for this pattern but it also includes a Hanging Cosmetics Bag, which would be useful too - I might get round to doing that at some point!

Before I actually started I did have a good look at all the lovely versions on instagram, Lisa inspired me - she's made a few of them, and this blog post by Bloomin' Workshop was really helpful. I paid attention and made nearly all of the changes.

The Everything In Its Place Bag is a great bag for keeping all your sewing supplies (or whatever!), for travelling with and to take to classes. Mine is currently filled with English Paper Piecing supplies, along with my general sewing kit.

The bag is made up of two removable 'pages', which each have one side of vinyl pockets. The pattern includes a few different options/sizes of pockets but this combination worked best for me. It's worth looking at what you would want to put in the pockets before you make them to determine the best configuration! I used holographic glitter vinyl for the pockets, which is beautifully shimmery and cute. I also chose to bind the top of the vinyl pockets (a la Bloomin' Workshop) and leave the top of the zip as is because I like all the pink.

When you construct the pages, part of the stitching from the pockets can be seen on the reverse side. I didn't like seeing the lines of thread so (where I didn't add a mesh pocket on the back) I decided to appliqué some selvedges to cover them. I also added a little hand stitching because in for a penny...

I like having these messages in the bag, they make me smile!

My most used sewing make has been the Portfolio Sewing Case by Kerry Green, you can get the free tutorial here and see my version here. It was her design that inspired me to add this very useful spool holder. It means I have easy access to my most used threads and also keeps them secure when I'm sewing on the train or out and about.

This removable thread holder was made by creating a base with two 2 x 11.5" pieces of fabric, one 2 x 11.5" foam interfacing (Pellon SF101 / soft and stable). Fuse the interfacing to the back of one of the fabric pieces, place the other piece on top (right sides of the fabric together), sew using 1/4" around all the edges leaving a gap in one of the longer sides for turning. Turn though, press and either hand stitch the opening closed or top stitch on machine.

Then stitch one (or two if you prefer) length of loop tape (approx 11") to the back of the base. You are stitching through all the layers but those stitches will mostly be covered on the right side by the spools.

For the straps holding the spools I used the same measurements and instructions as Kerry's tutorial for holding two spools and made a 1 x 4.5" strip for the single spool. I stitched across the longer one in the centre to attach it to the base, and the shorter one at one end, making sure to stitch over it a few times to secure. The spacing between the ends of the strips was 3.25" - so mark 3.25" between the stitch line to secure the strap and where the press stud will be. That was what worked for my spools of Aurifil. This might need to be adjusted for different spools.

Use tiny sew in press studs to finish - it's important to make sure they are small enough to pass through your spools!

Another modification was the handles, I took note of Bloomin' Workshop's suggestion and after seeing raquelsews version, I decided to use 1" leather strips and brass rivets. I got both from Artisan Leather. I haven't used either before so it was pretty nerve wracking!! It's not perfect, not sure I was that forceful with the rivets, but I'm still happy with it.

I am thoroughly enjoying using this bag - I can take the inner page (which has the essentials and block I'm currently working on) out of the bag and fit it in my (still rather large) handbag if I don't want to carry the whole thing. Everything is in one place. When I'm at home it sits on the side table by the sofa.

I added my initials and some stars (just because) to the bottom of the bag - to learn how, click here.

The tassel I made is the icing on the cake for me. I actually bought one to attach to the bag a while ago (before I even made it!!), then my youngest girl got hold of it and broke it into pieces. I made a new tassel, re sewed all the shells and beads together, made new pom poms and threw in a scissor charm and a sewing machine charm. It is even more me than the original one!

This bag makes me happy. It is me on a good day. It is my inner child. It is sparkly, pink, geeky, cute and original. It isn't perfect and yes I could have just bought a bag, and a much cheaper bag, but I very much doubt I would love it this much.