Back to work

I didn’t mean to take such a long break from blogging – it just happened. Yesterday I went back to work after four weeks of holidays, and just before that, I was so busy getting my work finished up so that I could leave on holiday…. It’s always something, isn’t it?

I barely spent any time at all on my computer this past month, but I did manage to get a fair amount of sewing in as I divided my time between the garden and my sewing machine. It’s raining today (and yesterday, on my first day back to work – how appropriate!), but it was smoking hot here just up until last week, and I spent every minute that I could outside. Yes, those are some of my tomatoes up above.

I’ve been working on a few things, but I’m still making more of these cute little Cake Clutches from Make it Handmade. I made one for a co-worker as a Christmas present, and she loves it. She wanted a black and white one for her mother, so I put one together with some pretty fabrics I bought while vacationing. I visit Piece by Peace Quilts every summer when we visit family and friends in Fort St. John and I always leave with a pile of beautiful fabrics and the occasional book.

The free Cake Clutch pattern doesn’t call for an inside pocket, but I almost always add one (I think I’ve made over a dozen of these handy little critters so far). And a tab with a clasp to hold a key ring or something else small that you want quick access to. Inside welt pockets are pretty easy to add. When I first started making them, I googled welt pocket tutorials until I found instructions that I could follow.

But after I finished her mother’s, my co-worker asked me to make her another one. Just a little bigger than the last one I made for her, in black, and with an inside pocket with a zipper. I haven’t done many inside zippers, and the last one I did looked horrible. So I was as careful with this one as I could be, using Seam-A-Seam 2 double-sided fusible tape. I’ve used the tape before when making zippers, and it’s useful for holding them in place while you sew. But last time I tried it on an inside zip pocket, a lot of the tape was exposed because there was more of the zipper showing. This time I fused the tape to the back of the pocket where it wouldn’t be seen, and then ironed it onto the zipper. I think it turned out pretty well – neat and even. Hope she likes it!

Until next time,