While on the subject of Tote bags .......

A few weeks ago I made my first foray into the world of making a lined Tote bag. I had some good quality medium weight cotton and some heavyweight poly/cotton material, both in shades of blue so I dived in.

I wanted something a little more complicated to make than the Morsbag, so I turned to my copy of Merchant and Mills: Sewing Book (which I highly recommend) for inspiration/a pattern. I went for their Tote Bag, which is a little more complex to make than your average "YouTube Tote Bag", having a 2" gusset, is fully lined and has a pocket. I stuck pretty rigidly to the pattern for the bag and lining, but omitted the inside pocket and made my own cloth straps from the outer fabric rather than add leather straps.

The bag took a couple of hours to make. I am very pleased with the results, so much so that I made a second on a few days ago, this one has webbing strap handles. This is a great large shopper and I am sure I will be making more in the future.

Merchant and Mills Tote bag pattern adaption No.2

2" gusset

Handle fixing

Internal pocket

Bag and removable firm base

Comments

My primary machine: Toyota's Super Jeans 34 after 10 months use.

This is my Super Jeans 34. The big daddy of Toyota's Super Jeans machines with 34 stitch options. It's black, well actually it's more like a dark brown to my eyes. Like almost every domestic sewing machines today, it has a plastic exterior with a rigid metal frame inside. This makes for a lightweight machine, but one which can still punch its way through multiple layers of denim fabric with ease. So what drew me to this machine and what is it like to use? Well, first let me say that my partner has been using a Toyota Quiltmaster 226 for close to 5 years and swears by it as a real, un-fussy workhorse. She is a quilter and has made a multitude of quilts on her machine since we bought it, and it has been totally reliable. I have a Toyota 3304 over locker that I use for garment construction too. It took me a weekend to get to grips with a machine that uses 4 threads instead of two, but since then I loved using the 3304, it's a great over locker, quiet, easy to use, ...

Singer 99: Edge stitching attachment.

Looking like a weird set of ladders the Singer edge stitch attachment is one of the most versatile attachments I have, so I thought that I would share some of the ways it can be used. First, it is a very effective and almost faultless way to stitch at the edge of material. Remove the normal presser foot and attach the edge stitcher and you are good to go. I like to turn under 1/8-1/4" of fabric first, and either press or finger press a sharp edge in place. The video below details the full edge stitching process using the attachment. Singer edge stitching foot More edge stitcher techniques: Singer 99: Adding lace, ribbon etc to a garment edge with the edge stitching attachment

Reasons to learn to sew on a vintage sewing machine.

First, an admission. I originally drafted this post back in late 2017, but did not post it. So I have edited and added to it and so, five years late almost, here it is. I learned to sew on my Toyota SJ34, a modern, lightweight, 34 stitch, straightforward, easy to use, mechanical sewing machine with a wealth of features for beginner to intermediate users. I did what most people do today, learned on a modern machine costing close on £200 complete with the extension table. This is what I sew on most of the time, now in 2022. This is my 1940 Singer 201K, complete with bed extension, that I purchased earlier in 2017 as a hand-cranked machine, with two full sets of "Black tin" attachments and a third-party zig-zagger. I have modified the machine a little, as follows: added a YDK 0.45amp motor, added a Chinese industrial 30 LED flexible neck lamp, clamped a bobbin on to the spool pin using a "wonder clip" to enable the bobbin to act as a thread g...

Sewing on and Serging forward

Search This Blog