October 2017 – Nancy Bronstein

Handmade Handbag Obsession

Red bag that my daughter Morgan snagged and the green bag I kept.

I recently went through a bag making obsession that lasted about 18 months. I read bagmaking posts on Facebook groups, took related Craftsy classes and joined the Bag of the Month Club and made bags along with the group and a local friend. That obsession has passed but I thought I would post some of my bags while I still have some of the photos.

Currently I am finishing up the BurdaStyle Certified Sewing Teacher Course . So far the assignments have not been so "photographically" interesting, but I have some ideas for the next assignment that hopefully will be worth posting.

My current favorite. The passage is a quote from Psalms. "Clean hands and a pure heart." The mother in me resonates with that simple philosophy.

Taupe Vegan Leather Bag I made for my daughter Shayna

taupe vegan leather bag — Another taupe bag that I made for my daughter Morgan

canvas messenger bag — Front of Messenger Bag

messenger bag — Messenger bag I made for my son, Jake

Vogue 9212 Jacket Pattern Review Pt. 2

This is the finished jacket. As I cut out the individual pieces, I machine embroidered the designs. Kind of says gypsy carnival barker to me, but I like it. My husband said I should make one for him and we can recreate Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I think not.

The tricky parts were:

-the 90 ° turn at the collar

-I did a floating hem and it was time consuming and took some finagling with the back because of the way that part falls

-the front hem also was a bit of a struggle to get it to hang right and not stick out at right angles from my hips-not an attractive look. I would suggest, if at all possible, to have someone pin the hem while you are wearing it.

Vogue 9212 Jacket Pattern Review

I recently made this pattern. I cut out my size and I ironed on thin interfacing to the back of the pattern as I don’t really like working with the usual tissue paper.

I buy the interfacing by the bolt when I have a 50% coupon from Joanns. I like taking the time to do this for a few reasons:
1) no pattern pieces skittering across the room with the slightest breeze
2) the interfacing sort of grips the fabric you are cutting a bit and less pins are needed
3) without a doubt increases the lifespan of the pattern without having to trace everything including markings
4) I like to mark the seam allowance and pin the pattern together to check on fit before I cut anything if it is a casual garment and I’m not willing to put in the time to do a muslin first.

After pining the pattern together at the seam allowance I realized that I needed to take 1/2″ off of the shoulder seams and add 1″ at the waist area to make it longer since I have a long torso. I usually have to add at least 1″ in the sleeve area but with this pattern I didn’t need to make any adjustments there. I added 1″ to the hem of the lining since I had read on Pattern Review that there were issues in that area.

Part 2 to come soon and it will complete this review with a picture of the finished jacket.