Preamble
Back when I taught college, I would design an easy 1st assignment to build confidence, and then a much more realistic one, where students tended to experience a lot of frustration because of (a) an exalted idea of their capabilities, which leads to either perfectionism, too much ambition, or over-constraining themselves e.g. by procrastinating until they have too little time to do a decent job, and (b) a tendency to assume the world is full of nails because they’d used a hammer before with some success.
Incidentally, a bunch of them withdrew from my classes after the second assignment. Don’t do that, kids. Go talk to your professor. There’s probably a method to her madness.
In my case, that second assignment was supposed to give them a taste of the field we were about to explore, and pique their interest in additional theories and tools. It usually worked, too – for those who stuck with me.
On a somewhat related note, my second sewing project was a mess.
I decided to continue sewing items nobody much would see, and filling the gaps in my home.
We have a hamper upstairs, and a little laundry room under the stairs, with no chute and no room for one. Bringing the dirty clothes down is a bit of a challenge, so I decided to make a liner for the hamper, and add handles to be able to carry it.
Process
(1) Measure the hamper and the fabric. Find out that the hamper is not a perfect rectangular prism but smaller on the bottom, and that you have too little of the most suitable (and weirdly shaped) fabric in your stash.
Sketch out how you can make it work, and even have a couple of strips left over for the handles, if you cut out one piece that will be 3 sides, and another piece that will be the bottom and the fourth side. Decide to add a bit to the measurements here and there so it will drape nicely inside the hamper, and sort of box the bottom side so it will be a bit more stable.
Notice that the edges that are supposed to be sewn together do not match in angle/length, chew your pencil for a while, shrug and decide you can make it work somehow. Cut the fabric.
Zigzag around all the edges to prevent fraying, and feel super proud of yourself.
(2) Put the two pieces together over a week or so, while
- fighting a virus and dealing with a family medical emergency
- learning that the feet of this sewing machine come (fall) off without the legs you were taught they were attached to, and can be reinserted IF YOU HAVE A SUPER HANDY AND HELPFUL FATHER LIVING WITH YOU. (No idea how I will ever cope by myself. Call in a technician? Replace the foot including the leg? Replace the machine?)
- finding out that “making it work” was a horrible idea which, at your skill level, involves basting and sewing everything that sticks out until you get a roughly bag-like object.
(3) Study the strips you have left for handles. Realize that the fabric is too flimsy and will likely tear where the handles attach to the bag. Find another sturdy bit of fabric to use for interfacing. Make the handles shorter to have some of the bag fabric to sew to the interfacing and have little panels that will go on either side of the bag (in and out) where the handles attach to it.
(4 – Optional) Also sew some of the interfacing inside the strap, then fold it over while inside out, and sew it up, leaving a bit of an opening to turn it right-side-out, like you learned when you were making hair ribbons.
Find out that said procedure is impossible when you have what has become a fat cord made of really thick fabric layers. Think of taking it apart to start over. Remember you don’t have a seam ripper and decide it’s too hard. Choose to believe in brute force and… persist. Use the back of a knitting needle. Rip the entire thing to pieces. Realize you don’t have any more fabric to start over. Stomp your feet.
Abandon the project for a week. Consider using the liner without handles.
Feel like a failure.
Cuss.
(5) Decide to make handles from a different bit of scrap. Go to your stash, and find JUST enough of a perfectly coordinating fabric! (Gotta be all the good karma from helping students with their projects in the library at midnight?)
Learn how to make straps properly, from a tutorial like this. (Did I mention I don’t have an iron at the moment? Oh, well.)
Decide to attach the panels you made earlier to the ends of the straps and use them outside, and make new, larger panels from the interface fabric for the inside of the bag.
(6) Put it all together.
Place the lining in the hamper and admire its fit and drape, and the adorable way the handles peek out on either side.
Hang the bag up to take a picture. See how the sides that are away from the handles flop down, because why wouldn’t they, you idiot?
Feel like a failure some more.
Carry down your first load of laundry and decide you have a perfectly serviceable bag and you don’t care about its many imperfections.
(7 – Optional) Weeks later, come across the torn up remains of the first attempt at straps, and turn them into a wacky hairband to wear while washing your face.
Postscript
It’s done. It works. Good enough.
Lessons learned:
- The zigzag stitch.
- Turning corners with the foot up but the needle inserted.
- How to make straps.
- That I continue to suck at thinking in 3D and should spend more time in the planning stage. (A friend asked me why I don’t use patterns and focus on learning how to sew instead of trying to come up with my own designs. Because I don’t have patterns, or large enough bits of fabric for most projects, and I don’t intend to buy any yet. I shall, however, break down and buy a seam ripper one of these days.)
- That my sewing machine is a little bit scary.
- That frustrating assignments rock. 🙂 I’ll find something that will be a quick win, and then think of another ambitious project.
Bigger Years 