Crafts

Warning: NOT an outfit post. Which is maybe silly, as I am definitely getting behind on those things. But right now I want to show some crafty things I did recently. Both were projects for my husband, which he needed before he left. Obviously, these were begun and completed the night before he left.    : P

First: A company patch sewn onto his "Bail-out Bag". (This is a bag carried in the cockpit, full of extra ammunition and supplies. Pretty obvious what function it serves, I think.) I took all of this post's pictures with my mac's Photo Booth, which does not show things as you'd see them, but a mirror image of that. I don't know why. Obviously, you don't usually know this, but this looks like the words are backwards. They're not.

I didn't have black thread (???) but I did have gray, so you can definitely see the stitches almost all the way around. Also, I should have taken a picture of how destroyed the needle became, pushing through all that thick fabric. Whew!

Oh, the magic of Photo Booth Effects! The right image is what the patch actually looks like. KILLER SPADES!!!

Second: Laptop bag creation. Well, not bag, exactly. Mostly my honey wanted a sleeve, and was lusting after this one on Etsy. I agree that it's a great-looking, probably-sturdy sleeve. But holy freaking freak! Expensive for my taste. I wanted to copy it, with the pocket and snaps and cushion on the edge and all, but I didn't have much time, and the hubs didn't want the closure. So mine really is just a sleeve with a flap.

I bought some inexpensive wool suiting and thick-ish fleece to line it. I basically folded the seam allowances of the wool over the edge of the fleece pieces,

sewing it with a straight single stitch, then with an overlock stitch at the edge. At the corners, I snipped excess and just kind of ran over it a bit. The nice thing about these thick materials and the texture of my wool was that the stitching didn't really have to be pretty, you really couldn't tell anyway.

So then I just folded up one end to make a pocket big enough for the computer, and the rest is the flap! I sewed right on the right side with a triple-stitch. If I were smarter and more creative, I would think of a way to show no or fewer seams, but my husband doesn't care, and it was getting late as I cooked this up.

See that bag? That's where the computer goes.   : P

That's what it looks like with the little Macbook Air inside. I tried to make the pocket wide enough, especially at the top with the wider end of the computer, to allow it to fit.

Okay. (See my marks where I had measured on the fleece? Pretend you don't.)

If I had this to do again, I would maybe put in an insert to widen the sides, or just leave a little MORE room for the thing. Currently, it's pleasantly snug, but I would've liked to have left more room between the edge stitches and the edge. Look:

See how I can just barely pinch the edges? I don't think there is danger of the stitches coming loose or anything, but it would be better if there were more room.

Okay, silly picture time!

The good news: he really liked it.    : P