The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Sewing is way more high contact than knitting is! You forget that when you haven’t done it in a while. And, granted I did go to the gym  yesterday morning and ran a couple miles while watching college football pregame, I’m SORE this morning.

In my SHOULDERS. And arms. Because I haven’t sewn for a long time.

It’s not just sitting at the sewing machine and going at it. You are rolling around on the floor, cutting a ton of fabric, measuring your fabric out, getting up and down off the floor.

… ok yeah it’s pathetic that I’m sore from sewing.

But got so much done! I made my wall organizer! Kinda.

It’s a little crooked. The pockets are a little crooked. The top was a little crooked and, thus, it hangs a little crooked. I have never made a sewing project without a pattern that you pin to the fabric and then cut out before. This pattern was like, cut two 21″ x 31″ rectangles. In hindsight, maybe I should have marked out the measurements instead of being too stubborn that thinking I could just wing it. Eh.

I scrambled around my apartment to find things to put in the pockets for the picture, but I’m excited to actually put things in there that will come in handy. And it makes my work table look more like a work table. I love it, despite it’s crookedness.

I made a couple artistic changes to the original design – I made the rod casing the same color as the pockets instead of the same color as the background. I sewed around the entire wall hanging after turning it out to give it a more finished look. I finished it by seaming the rod casing and sewing it over the top of the purple pieces after I had turned it out so I wouldn’t have to hand sew.

Overall, the pattern was over written, and not even for clarity’s sake. I skipped an entire page of instructions that could have simple been described in one step.

But! I’ve got a wall organizer now!

Tara, who made my amazing sign, asked me to pay her in linings for all the cabled change purses she is making for holiday presents, so I knocked those out yesterday, too. Seven! It was a lot of cutting.

I had a couple toilet lid covers to put elastic into. Rachael took my class and I said I would elastic her, and I finished my brother Adam’s house warming/Christmas present.

Though, naturally, Michigan was getting the crap beat out of them while I was working on this, which took the joy out of it for me. I see it’s cute, I see it turned out well, but it makes me want to punch someone. I don’t think Adam reads the blog so I’m not worried about him seeing it.

Velma loves my toilet lid cover so much! She is always sitting on it when I’m getting ready to leave in the morning. I couldn’t even slip these on my toilet lid without her jumping up and making herself comfortable.

Rachael’s lid looks great! And Velma obviously loves it.

Off to class this morning, then I’ve got to FINISH THOSE STUPID SLEEVES! And make that message board thing. And maybe my Halloween costume.

AND I’ve got a HUGE announcement coming tomorrow! Chicago knitters will be pleased as punch. I’m not going to say anything else because I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag. I’m bad enough with secrets as it is. Check back tomorrow!