Trying New Things

     I've mentioned many times that I learned to sew a really long time ago. Which does not mean I am an expert or good at all the things, it just means I have a lot of practice with some things. It is still incredibly new to me to use my cutting mat and a rotary cutter to cut fabric. This acrylic ruler was one of the best purchases of recent times. Definitely the best way I have found to make a deck pouch is making long rectangles and then stitching and flipping things as needed. I may rethink my design all together, but for now I am learning to use the rotary cutter. And it's going pretty well. 

     I did a couple of different lined bags, one of them even has small pockets on the inside, but I decided to see if I could save time with a redesign that just had more fabric folded over on the top to make the cord casing. Not sure if any of that made sense to anyone but it did to me. I also realized that the fabric was going to fray like crazy. So I pulled out my pinking shears, which I have hardly ever used. I may now use them more often, we'll see. But I know, because I learned from my Mom, that if you cut the edge of the fabric with the pinking shears it keeps it from fraying. I don't know why, I am sure something to do with surface area, angles, and other scientific-mathy things, but mostly I just know that it works and that is all that matters. It also happens to look sort of fancy, which is a bonus. 

    In the end my experiments and efforts yielded 6 small round pouches, one larger round pouch with 4 inner small pockets (you can see the pockets on the black one which is not strung yet), a lined deck pouch with 4 small interior pockets, a lined deck pouch with no pockets, and an unlined deck pouch. They were something different, I am enjoying the quality (you know that feeling when you do a really good job making something? Yeah, that feeling), and I had a good time. Now I want to think of other things to make. Currently, I don't have any ideas. 

     Yesterday was a pretty good day at work. I was only there for half a day, which is probably part of it. I got home early enough to see Ethan for a bit before he left for work, which was nice. Travis came home early after his visit to Sun Shine Village. He said he had lunch and the people were nice and happy. It's a start. Hopefully the rest of his visits go well. He needs something to do after he ages out of school. And a place where everyone is nice and happy sounds good to me.