Ochre – Hopefully Creative

EDC v2

A nice new pouch for all the stuff I lug around on the daily.

Every Day Carry – the amount of stuff you just bring with you daily ‘just in case’. Mine used to be in a pouch I made in 2018, but recently I wanted to downsize. I had managed to remove some items from the original pouch and it just looked sad and floppy. I went on the internet and looked around for nice pouch patterns that I could make and stumbled upon the ‘Pencil case with layer‘, which is also a YouTube video.

So I wandered back upstairs for the bin with pouch materials and came down with exactly the same fabrics as the originals were made of. I liked the idea of the pocket on the top even if I didn’t want the extra layer for pen(cil)s. I also wanted a carrier strap. I made an estimated guess of how big the thing needed to be and made myself a ‘pattern’ in Microsoft Word-shapes based on the original.

I skipped all the interfacing steps, since the original held up for 8 years (and still isn’t breaking), I figured it was fine as is. I grabbed a fun length of zipper and got to work. Since I had a tiny bit of the black shrooms leftover, I made two parts out of that. I also opted out of finishing everything super nicely, this stuff doesn’t fray. I ended up with a nice little pouch with a pocket in the top for pens and my spoon, and enough space in the main compartment for anything else. I love that it’s flatter and shorter and so far, it’s been doing well!

Ps. for those who looked back at the original post. I did not, in fact, make a cover for my scooter in a reasonable timeframe…

Another Oven Mitt

Making an oven mitt from the leftovers.

The other day, I was sorting through my box of shame. The plastic bin where unfinished projects go to die. I found half of an oven mitt that I had apparently started, one mouth piece and the quilted fabric that was supposed to be the other half. So I decided to put it together.

Blue oven mitt with a white bottom edge and a loop on the side

Similar to my other mitts, it’s a sock puppet style, rather than a claw. I’m using it blue side out, with the cacti as the lining. However, I decided to make a loop at the yellow side too, since I recently had to ‘inside out’ one of my other mitts because I burnt the cotton off it. That one now has an improvised loop to get it on my hook. Adding an extra loop during the sewing together doesn’t take much extra thought and might be useful in the future.

Side view of blue oven mitt with a white bottom edge, opened like a sock puppet.

I’m very happy with my new mitt. I keep misplacing the other two, so a third one should hopefully leave me even less likely to burn myself!

Ochre Ophelia Overalls

Giant pockets on a strappy ochre overall.

I saw the pattern ages ago somewhere on a blog probably and sort of secretly fell in love with it. The Ophelia Overalls from Decades of Style have been hanging out in my mind for a while now. There’s an ochre/white version on the pattern envelope and their sew-along version is ochre. When I found some ochre diagonal corduroy on the fabric market for a very reasonable price, I needed it. So I bought some amount of fabric and that then languished in the hoard for a lot longer still.

But I finally convinced myself to purchase the pattern and I got to work. I tried to follow the instructions but I did end up deviating here and there. For example, they want you to topstitch the big pockets on, but it’s just as easy to sew them on flat and fold them back up and then topstitch. My topstitching is also a different width than indicated, the straps are lined, there’s some extra d-rings on loops added to the side and the front pocket and I put snaps in the side seam and on the straps.

The are some interesting choices made in the instructions, such as indicating that certain parts don’t need to be serged, when they will be serged half-way through. Also, for my size, it’s absolutely not necessary to have both side seams open up. There’s plenty of space to wiggle myself in without even opening any of those snaps. They also wanted to me to just fold over the edges of the straps. Luckily, I’d read a review and followed their hints to line the straps and attachment point. It makes me feel a lot better.

Ochre overalls inside view with white overlocking.

Detail view of ochre overalls with ochre/white gingham lining.

The length of these is also weird. I’m not sure if my fabric just shrunk, but it’s single fold hemmed at 1.5 cm and it fits. I’ve never been able to use a full length pants pattern without shortening it. Now, the straps are a bit too long, so maybe my waist is in the wrong place or something? Nobody knows. However, since I’ve finished it, I’ve worn it plenty, even if it’s probably a little hot for summer. It’s extremely comfortable and I really like the colour and the feel of it. So I’m strongly considering making this in pants without bib and no (or maybe one) side opening too!

Desert Play Mat

My best attempt at a desert mat for play time.

Little humans slowly grow up, and one I know had a birthday in January. As usual, I wanted to make a thing. I’d decided on a play mat of some sort, preferably with a road grid on it, so that cars could race along. After weeks of scouring the fabric shops online for a fabric that had good, wide roads on it, I decided that it was impossible. So I went back to one of the fabric shops I’ve frequented the last few months that sells coupons (shorter lengths of pre-cut fabrics that are generally leftovers) because I’d been in love with a cactus printed linen for the longest time. There were some other fabrics that really tickled my fancy. A geometric pattern on some ochre cotton, smaller cacti on ochre, dinosaurs with umbrellas etc. (I may have developed an ochre obsession at one point).

The playmat was going to have both of the cactus prints, one for the ‘front’ and one for the ‘back’. There was also some dark blue cotton that I bought for the drawstring casing. You see, I found this Toy Bag & Play Mat tutorial by Fabric Mill, which I decided to almost entirely disregard, but I liked the standing edge on the drawstring casing a lot. I did want a contrasting one so that it was clear where the edge was.

Once the fabrics arrived in my house and were laundered, I set out to make a play mat/bag. I cut out the largest circle possible from both of the fabrics. Then layered them with some quilt batting and sewed lines every 10 cm in a grid pattern to keep the fabrics together. This was quite the ordeal but I did manage to make the entire thing in a day, so I guess it wasn’t too awful. After that, it was trimmed to size, the edge sewn and zigzagged down. Then the casing was added, this was the most annoying part of the entire project. I cut it 7.5 cm wide as per the instructions, which was not wide enough for my version because my seam allowance was larger. So I ended up cutting more strips and attaching them, having to unpick at least 8 sections because I sewed over folds in the first strip. Very frustrating. Once it was finally all attached correctly, it was sewed down and then the edge was closed. I didn’t have a cord, but the last bit of the project: ‘adding a cord and sewing a closure’ was only a few minute job so I’m counting it as a one day project.

Turtle Duck

This time the duck has a shell and four feet. He has become the elusive Turtle Duck!

As alluded to in the previous post, the (Turtle) Duck pattern by CholyKnight also has a Turtle Duck. In contrast to regular ducks, turtle ducks do not actually exist in nature. They are creatures that were created for the Avatar the Last Airbender universe. It’s effectively a duck with a turtle shell on its back and four feet instead of two. It also required different pieces for the head that allowed a stripe to be formed.

I basically attempted to follow the colour palette as it was on the pattern. A beige for the body, green for the shell, orange for the feet, sand for the beak and a light brown for the head-stripe. Of course my stash composition limited the selection somewhat, so the body is off-white, the shell is more turquoise than true green and the beak is the same colour as the stripe, ochre.

I had to put the shell on a few times before it would line up satisfactorily. This was because both the body and the shell didn’t turn out symmetrical when I sewed them – user error. So when I put the shell on, it looked all crooked. Some forceful maneuvering of the filling in the body and another attempt at shelling and it was as good as it was going to get. This one also has a pellet pouch in the back, but it isn’t as good as keeping the turtle duck from falling face first. I guess I put the head a little too far forward. If I put him on a slight incline, he’s perfectly fine though.

While I didn’t plan on being repetitive, it’s happening and the next plush is a turtle. This one will not be based on the same pattern though, so I guess that’s something?

Ochre Obsession

So, I went on holiday and tried on a sweater. It was ochre, from Primark and I loved the colour. The fit however, terrible. The sleeve height was so high, that it felt really constricting. The colour was good, I liked the neckline (even if my friend hated it, he said there was too much fabric) and it had pockets, always a win.

This was the start of my ochre obsession. I really, really, really wanted an ochre sweater now. Since my local fabric shops do not have something like this fabric, I started scouring the internet. I found some fabric that looked nice and even bought some more fabrics because the hoard is never full enough.

I’d already found the pattern I wanted to use, a shortened version of Lekala #4742 – Tunic with Hood. Once my fabric arrived, I was slightly disappointed. It wasn’t stretchy as I’d assumed it would be and one of the cut ends frayed a little. However, I really liked the colour, so I got to work quickly. Shortened the bottom by 12 cm, and followed the instructions apart from using grommets instead of sewing buttonholes. After it was all sewn together, it felt a little tight in the armpit, so I decided to add a little diamond piece of fabric to increase the range of motion.

The hood is ENORMOUS, I think it will fit two heads – I’m guessing something may have gone wrong with Lekala’s sizing there. However, I still like it quite a bit. Because of the size and the position, I’m not sure the hood is super functional as a hood, but I still like the look of it on the front. The fabric is super warm, so I might need to wait for a little to be able to wear it comfortably.

I may want to make something like this again, but some things would need to change. I would want to use a more stretchy fabric such that I could take the side seams in a little and reduce the swayback action going on. The size of the hood would need to be reduced by at least 5cm in height, if not more. I may want to add bands to the sleeves and bottom although I quite like this sleek look too. Now to wait for winter to wear my ochre dream.

Shrooms on the EDC

Some people have a pocket knife that they drag around everywhere, some people have a pen and a notebook, I have a whole pouch of stuff I transfer from bag to bag to make sure I have everything I might possibly need on a day to day basis. We call this the Every-Day-Carry. Mine’s been living in a pouch made from a weird kind of rain-coat-ish fabric that was never pretty but fairly functional. However, that pouch was completely flat with a zipper at the top, as such, fitting stuff in was a little hard at times. It needed a revamp.

Enter the tablecloth-type fabric sale which had some fantastic white on black mushrooms for sale. I got myself .5 meters and set to work creating a block zip pouch. I chose to do one 10 x 10 x 28 cm, since my original pouch was 28 cm. After finishing it, it turned out it was too big. So I made another one that was 8 x 8 x 28 cm. Perfect size! Left is the large one, middle the medium one and right the original one.

Next, I set out to create a little pouch for my dice. This was based on the Pyramid Pouch, mainly because I thought those looked cool and could hold some dice. The dice pouch now lives inside the larger box pouch that comes with me. I chose to do a red zipper because I had one on hand and I thought it looked cool.

After the success with the black pouches, I went back to the shop and got half a meter of the same fabric, but now in an ochre yellow. I was going to go on holiday for a few days and I wanted to have a nicer looking toiletries bag. So that is why the ochre came to be. It’s a little shorter than my original, since the longest thing in the toiletries bag would be my toothbrush. And saving space is always good.

Lastly, I made a tiny coin pouch based on some half-moon type thing (here) and attached a longish loop to it so that it could be fished out of my bag easily. My wallet does not have space for coins since it is cards only, but I wanted to have a place to put coins if I happened to pay in cash.

All in all, I had a good few hours of pouch making and am now set to create a cover for my new miniature scooter thing. It’s foldable to allow carrying, which is useful. However, if the wheels are dirty, my pants become dirty also and I want to prevent that from happening. Hopefully I’ll manage in a short enough time for it to be of use.

Tag: Ochre