March 28, 2013

I have been very busy yesterday and today quilting the purses. Yesterday I spent the afternoon cutting out the fabric for the pockets and the binding. I helped Sharon Phieffer, one of my friends here in the community, start the fabric strips for the purse she is starting. She was also working on the table runner pattern that I did for Fall, which she is making smaller to use as a place mat instead.  It was fun working with her together on our projects.

Today I continued sewing the pockets onto the purses. I completed all four purses and then began sewing the binding onto Rachel's purse because it uses only pink thread, where the others use the blue/purple thread. So I decided to work ahead to the finish on it. I gathered the top edges, which was extremely burdensome for the sewing machine due to the heavy thickness. I changed my needle to a 110/18, which is the hardiest of all machine needles. I lengthened my stitch length to 6, which is the max my machine will allow. Still the machine bogged-down with the effort. But I finally finished the binding, sewed the side seams, finished the bottom seam so the purse had a square bottom, and then was ready to weave the handle through the binding casing. The binding was too snug and nothing I did would work. I tried using the bodkin. I tried using a safety pin. I tried stitching a heavy cord to the end of the handle and then using my darning needle pulling the handle through. Nothing, nothing, nothing would work. The binding is just too tight. So.....I will remove all the stitching tomorrow (yes, tomorrow because my frustration level was too high to start then and dinner was pending) and cut a larger binding. Hopefully this will alleviate the struggle to weave the handle through the casing.

Here is what the pockets look like.

Pink on pink is a little difficult to see. The folded back edges represent each of one pocket. I will take another photo of a different purse with a darker background, which I hope will be easier to see.

This is a better view of the pockets. The stitching lines sewn vertically are the bottom of the purse. The horizontal line is the center, which divides the pockets to make four. The folded back edges are the openings of each pocket.

This photo shows the interior of the purse with two pocket openings.

This photo shows the purse with the sewn sides, the bottom edges/corners sewn, and the binding just teasing me without cooperating. So close to finishing, but not close enough.

I may remove the stitching tonight so I can begin again fresh tomorrow morning. The quilters all meet together on Friday, and I don't want to begin with a frustrated attitude. Steve says he would like to try to weave the handle through the casing before I remove all the stitching. I will let him try. Sigh! I hope this doesn't cause further friction or more re-doing on my part. Seems a shame to not let him try.  Who knows, he might succeed and save me all the hassle. <fingers crossed>

Moments later....
Hooray, hooray, hooray!!! He did it. He used some kind of cording. I stitched the cording to the end of the handle. We (yes I helped) used a pencil to keep the end opening open. He used a zip-tie alongside the cording and carefully pulled them both through the casing. It was VERY tight but both handles are now through the casing. I still need to stitch the ends together and then add the buttons and snap before the purse is finished. But that is another day.

See the cording is stitched to the handle. The ends are tapered.
A successful ending to a tight situation!!