I have been eyeing up this little project in Do Crafts magazine for a few months ( its issue number 70 if you’re interested) and this week I made one for myself.
I have a few pieces of grey felt from a visit to my local scrapstore in my fabric hoard, so I decided not to stick to the original design and twist it by going for a school satchel look.
The laptop cover in the magazine is machine-made but as I have a penchant for hand sewing mine is all hand stitched.
I wanted to give the dark grey a bit of a lift and I decided to go for my current favourite symbol, the stag silhouette.
I stitched the whole thing together using extra strong thread in bright yellow, using double running stitch ( it looks the same both sides like a machine sewn line of straight stitching), then I used the same thread in a bright red to weave in and out of the yellow for added texture.
The fabric used for the stag silhouette is a scrap of upholstery material, as the fabric frays a bit I used some iron on interfacing to stabilise it. I appliqued the stag onto the cover with blanket stitch and then wove some grey and white twisted wool through the stitches.
The attachment I used to keep the cover closed is usually applied in leather work, it is a called a screwback stud.
As the seasons turn, I have to admit that my favourite seasons are Autumn and Winter. The colours, the scents, the change in food and I am a big fan of keeping alive family traditions.
Lots of people run classes on machine sewing which is great but hand sewing is a fantastic skill to have.
One of the first jobs I did after becoming self-employed was taking up some curtains for a friend. He had just moved into a cottage with low ceilings and quite a lot had to come off as the hems would’ve been too heavy left uncut.
After I made this bag for myself I had the pieces of fabric left over from the centre of the handles, they weren’t very wide but I like to keep a lot of even fairly small scraps as they can come in handy.
I came up with a little pattern to make my own version and I wanted the edge of the opening to be bound. Even though I can sew pretty well, I really hate applying Bias binding so I decided to extend the edge of the lining and fold it down I did this first so the edges would be stitched underneath.
I have made just the one here but if you are going to make e.g a set of two or more then run your sewing like a factory line, cut all the pieces out, stitch all the bindings down, sew the back and front halves together, sew round each holder, turn each one through, then stitch up the gap on each one.
How The Light Gets In Festival in May, it was rain free! I went to Glastonbury last year for 5 days and got away with one heavy shower of rain! Pretty Lucky huh?
This is the look that we are going for, a denim cover with a blanket stitched edge and a layered applique front.
serging ahead 