Zipper – 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…

Letter Dress

Reading zippers and secure pockets.

For the last big work event of the year, I made a dress with a statement zipper. I found some teal-ish? slightly stretchy fabric on the market last year, and thought it would work well. I chose a pattern for a mandarin collar dress with bishop sleeves from Etsy. I’m currently thinking that it was possibly an AI pattern and not necessarily tested by real people. The image didn’t match the line drawing, very weird fonts, no particular instructions, stuff like that.

I cut out the pattern and put it all together. It was supposed to have buttons down the front, but that didn’t really work as it would become too tight, so I took the leap and made it a zip front dress. I’ve had this letter zipper in the hoard for several years, and have wanted to use it for a work thing forever. I originally put on the bishop sleeves and it didn’t look great. Way too big in this particular fabric. So I cut off the bottom and hemmed them a lot shorter. I also had to take in the center front from about bust up and I shortened the whole dress.

Detail of zipper with alphabet teeth and collar in a teal dress

The last change I made was to do a completely different style of pocket: Loom & Stars, an Ingenious Pocket. I followed the same principle but made my pocket closer to the front and with a more rounded shape at the top. I really like this pocket. It feels very secure and like you know where your stuff is going to be on you. I also added a little loop in the top of the right pocket to hang my keys.

This dress was very nice to wear, so I’m very happy with the results. It will also be a great dress to throw on when I’m still in bed but the doorbell goes, zip front is quick!

Penguin Bag

Tiny penguin companion for storage.

As mentioned in the Whale Bag post, I also purchased the Penguin – Pinguïn pattern from Waffle Patterns. Since it’s of course imperative to make that penguin bag as soon as possible, I set out to gather my materials. I wanted the bag to look like a real-life penguin, so I bought a white felt-backed curtain fabric for the belly. For the body, I used the same kind of fabric as for the whale, just in black. While the penguin closest in markings might be an Adélie penguin, I didn’t have appropriate orange fabric for the feet, so I chose the whale grey curtain again.

Bag in the shape of a penguin, side front view

Bag in the shape of a penguin, front view

I looked over the instructions and the pattern pieces and decided that I did want to make one major change to the pattern. To increase the size of the inner pocket, I wanted to use all available space to store stuff in. So I measured the body pieces and made an estimation of how big I thought the inside could be. To make the biggest possible pocket, I added circular end sections so that the inside pocket would be shaped like a cylinder. The other addition is to add a zipper to the bottom seam, so I could stuff it after finishing all the sewing.

Bag in the shape of a penguin, back pocket view

Bag in the shape of a penguin, pocket zipper view

As usual, the instructions for a Waffle Patterns pattern are very thorough and clearly laid out. In the end, I did almost all the steps but in a very different order. I added some extra d-rings, one to the belly pocket as an embellishment, similar to the snap in one of the original examples. All the way at the end, I undid a little bit of the tail seam to add the other extra d-ring as an attachment point. I had just recalled this pin and this pin and thought I could combine the animal fanny pack and thigh bag thing together.

Bag in the shape of a penguin, back view

Bag in the shape of a penguin, flipper detail

It all came down to the straps to get those ideas working. So I set out to build the those straps. I wanted two separate ones with side release buckles for easy on-off. A long one that could transform from waist to cross body/over the shoulder strap and a shorter one for thigh or hand strap. I didn’t have enough of the webbing to make the shorter one, so I used the same strap that I used to attach the d-rings for that one.

Bag in the shape of a penguin, handbag option

The long straps comes in two parts, a short part that just has the swivel clip and one side of the side release buckle. The long section has a swivel clip, a slide buckle and the other side release buckle. The length is such that when it’s fully doubled, it fits my waist, but it’s also extendable enough that it fits as cross body. The thigh strap measured to be somewhat too long for my leg, so I could also wear it with wide pants and stuff. I added a snap to the end so that the excess length could be doubled up and snapped away when it was used as a hand strap. I think this will work really well. I can use any of the three top d-rings for whatever configuration of strap I want.

Bag in the shape of a penguin, waist and leg wearing option — Camouflage thigh strap

Bag in the shape of a penguin, waist wearing option — Camouflage thigh strap

I really like this penguin too. I’ve found that I’ve taken the whale bag out a few times the last couple of weeks. It’s really fun and super nice to pet. I hope that will be the same for the penguin. I cut him in such a way that the nap would run down his body, and forward on his beak, so he would be super pettable too.

Whale Bag

Having a whale of a time making a plush bag.

When I got a notification that one of my favourite pattern companies (Waffle Patterns) had just released two new bag patterns, I couldn’t resist. Off to the sale section of the website I went and before I knew it, I’d hit ‘add to cart’ on novelty bag patterns shaped like a Whale – Walvis and a Penguin – Pinguïn. While no longer on sale, I do think these are particularly adorable.

I’d been looking to make a whale bag for a while, ever since coming across the whale shark bags on Pinterest. I spent a decently long time clicking around the internet at that point to find something I liked, but decided I could probably draft it myself if I really wanted to. But then the pattern was released and that plan was out the window and a new one was quickly formed.

The pattern has 10 pattern pieces, of which three are shapes for stabilizer. There are two rectangles for the different pockets and the main body is really only 5 (doubled) pieces. This meant that I could cut it out from the leftovers of the fabric I used for the curtain cape. Since it’s a curtain fabric, it has some stability of itself and it’s very pettable which I figured would be great for a bag.

Finger inside the front pocket of the whale bag

Since some whales have baleens, I thought it would be really cool to give him some baleens with the fabric I also used for the reversible dragon egg. This meant that I cut two layers for the body base section. Bottom layer was the curtain for stability and then the soft, fuzzy, white fabric for the overlay. That was sewn down along a few ‘stripes’ and cut to size. This front section also doubles as a pocket and I used the egg fabric for the lining and the pocket piece.

The back end of the whale bag hanging over a dressform

Front end of the whale bag hanging over a dressform

The pattern is great! The markings line up and the instructions are detailed and easy to follow. I made my own life a little harder by doing that overlay for the body base, which meant a lot of layers in one go. I also think it would’ve been better if I had found 12mm tape for the d-loops that hold the strap. It was a bit fiddly now with the wider tape.

Inside the whale bag — Inside the pocket

Close up of the zipper that closes the inner pocket. — Inside the pocket

I only changed a few things from the pattern; the side pocket is on the wrong side (my bad), the mouth doesn’t have visible topstitching but it is tacked down nearly invisibly, I added some fun extra d-rings on the side as in one of the examples and I put a zipper in the bottom of the large pocket. Since I am unsure if I’ve put enough stuffing in, I wanted to still have it be accessible. This afterthought zipper actually works great, so I can stuff mr. Whale more or less depending on what turns out to be my preference.

If I make one again, I would make a few small tweaks. I’d make the big pocket bigger, put the side pocket on the left side of the whale and put the zipper in the big pocket bottom a lot sooner. I’d also change the shape of the tail, it’s a little pointy now and I think it would look better if it was more filled in. All in all, I do love this little project. It’s absolutely bonkers but I’m sure I’ll find some place to bring my whale!

Red Coat

At some point in the past, I bought between 4 and 5 meters of some thick red fabric. Vaguely wool-esque, but probably mostly poly-something. I’d planned to make a coat out of it, and some time in November, I finally started on the project.

I found the pattern in Knipmode 9-2019, pattern 15 – Robe Manteau. It was never going to be that simple though. Changes and alterations would be needed. First, it was going to be shorter than the original pattern, mainly because I’m short. Next, the neckline was going to be altered dramatically, because I’m always cold and therefore having such an open neck was not an option. I settled on this type of neckline, and used the scale model to figure out how to make my own collar. Cue pieces of paper stuck to other pieces and pins everywhere! I also wanted a hood and stole the pattern from Simplicity Naaimode 14 model 51 (also known as Simplicity 2056) but reduced in height.

It took me forever to decide on all of this, and then I started with an old tablecloth to see if the pattern even fit me. It did, mostly. The only change to the original was in the back center seam, where I took out a lot at the top and added some in around the waist; and reduced the length of course. Then I started cutting out the outside and the waterproof and stitched them together around the outsides on almost all pieces. The only ones where I varied that were the center fronts, where I didn’t want to have 5 million layers, so I settled on using the waterproof as lining, and the pocket flaps.

The pockets are lined with the super soft white plaid fabric used for poppys. That was the start of the project. Then loads of pushing really heavy fabric through my sewing machine to sew the outside together. Once the outside was complete (apart from the hem), I needed to puzzle the lining together. The lining was an off-cut of fabric with white flowers, teal and red. There were practically no left-overs once I finished cutting out the lining.

The lining was hand sewn in because it was just easier than trying to wrangle 26 kilos of fabric under my machine (perhaps that was a slight exaggeration, but you get the drift). The zipper is two way, the hood can be detached with another zipper and it’s got elastic pulls. I’m quite fond of it, even though it started pilling about 10 seconds after I first put it on. We’ll see how damaged it gets over the course of this winter. The fun thing about a new coat is that I have an excuse to make new hats and scarves, so expect some black knitting in my future.

Wheels for Days

Roller derby is played on all kinds of floors. We skate on a wooden floor that has qualities that shift with the weather. What this means is that we tend to skate on different wheels in the different seasons. Harder wheels (ranges 90+) allow for more speed and slide and less grip, softer wheels have more grip but may feel slower at times (78-88). I’m currently skating on 92 (summer, so the floor has grip of its own), but in winter I skate on a mix of 84 and 88. If we play on a soft sport court floor elsewhere, we go up in wheel hardness, last weekend, I skated on 98. What this means is that I have accumulated an almost uncomfortably large amount of wheels.

I used to store all my wheels in ziplock bags and tried to stack those, but they always rolled everywhere. So a little while ago, I went on the hunt for patterns for wheel bags. In the end I resorted to an adapted version of a zippered box pouch. There wasn’t a ‘right size’ pattern online that I could quickly find, so I resorted to making a scale version from paper to determine how it worked exactly.

After the scaled version was completed, I drew it out in the right measurements, added seam allowance and got on with it. The considerations where the the bottom should be flat for the bag to stand on, there should be enough zipper to allow the two stacks of wheels to enter and exit the bag, it should not be so large that the wheels slide around and it needed a carry strap. I cut out the first iteration and sewed it together. My wheels are also different sizes, I have one set of 38 x 59 mm (S), one set of 38 x 65 mm (L) and 3.5 sets of 38 x 62 mm (M).

The first bag (black mushrooms) was too large for the medium wheels, it needed about a cm in width reduction, but the large wheels fit in fine. For the second iteration (yellow mushrooms) I removed a cm along the width sides but I made a mistake in making the bottom smaller, so that one has an additional pleat. It again didn’t fit the M wheels, but the S wheels fit in fine. Next attempt, I reduced the width by .5 cm and made the correct adjustment on the bottom. This version fit the M wheels, so I cut out another and found that I didn’t have the right length zipper anymore. So I shortened the height by 8 cm on my paper pattern (which was a little too much in hindsight) for the half set and cut it out. I did have a zipper long enough for that one, so it was sewn together quickly. At night, I went to the sewing supplied shop and got more zippers – luckily it was the one night a week where the sewing shop was open until 21:00.

All of these bags are made from waterproof tablecloth fabric. The first and second fabric have also been used for the EDC, the pineapple fabric was already in the hoard for pouches, but I never got around to it. All pouches have a carry strap from a bit of fabric left over from some part of pouch making. I specifically gave the pineapple pouches different coloured zippers and carry straps to be able to differentiate the wheels inside with a single look. I will also add labels to the outside. For some non-deliberate reason, all my harder wheels (88+) are black. All the softer wheels (84-) are green. Happy coincidence? Anyway, my wheel pouches are now nicely stacked two high in the closet with less chance of them falling over and rolling everywhere. So far, this project feels successful.

Sweater with Leather

So I discovered that I apparently never posted by sweater with leather that I had mentioned during some MMM post this year. It’s a sweater with an asymmetric zipper that is based on sweaters like in these pins (one and two). I’d wanted something like it for a while, but I think I was scared to cut into it. I believe I based it on the garden party dress top, but it was February when I finished it, so I cannot remember much.

I do know that I got the zipper from my stash where it had been for years. I think I improvised the hood from looking at other pins, but I’m not sure again. I did add some leather bits to give it some more almost nautical look? There’s a bit on the hem, there are triangles at the zipper openings, there’s a bit on the zipper pull and I wrapped some around the hood-cord-ends. I’ve worn it a lot, it’s very comfortable and since its grey, it’ll go with anything. Here’s some action shots from where I wore it at a roller derby game.

That’s all there is too say about it really, since I don’t remember much. However, this way I can link to it if I need to, or when I want to rediscover the pins etc. So I guess you guys are the victims of my memory yet again.

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: Zipper