Sew Satisfying!

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I am Verity otherwise known as the time bomb due to the imminent and overdue birth of my first baby. As well as learning how to cook gorgeous dishes from around the world, re-learning French, and being a mum, I am hoping to do my fair share of sport and socializing this year. Happily I see many opportunities to do it all!

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As many of us swap our jobs with a year of being housewives, it simply isn’t enough to be mediocre and we seem to have transferred our ambition and drive to being the best, most accomplished housewives we can be. How to keep hands from getting dry from detergents and teacups stain free without a dishwasher have become scarily common topics of conversation. So it was not surprising that Nora had 6 eager partners for her first sewing class this week, albeit a mix of active participants and interested spectators. The goal of the evening: to create a lined zip-up bag.

First we began by cutting out our pattern. The first challenge was remembering how to use a set square to ensure we cut our cloth into four equal-size rectangles, two in each material, that were the same length as the zip plus 1cm for seams. Nora explained to us how to set-up and use the machine and wisely got us to practice on some scrap materials. For those of us who are less detailed and conscientious, we were firmly advised by Nora to take our time and get it right first time. This was very good advice… Amidst bobbins, pins, and pieces of material, we cautiously sewed the zip onto the top of each of the four pieces of material. The trick here was apply logic to ensure that your outside material was in fact on the outside (and with the pattern on the outside) and similarly your lining was actually your lining… Sounds simple but actually quite a brain-strain. The seam un-doer became the favorite tool at this point, at least for me, though I still managed to unpick the wrong seam. As our patient teacher explained, learning from mistakes means you never make the same ones again.

By this point, most of us, including the spectators (who also doubled up as children entertainers and sous-chefs), needed a break. In Magali’s wonderfully vibrant house, she served us a fantastic French dish of potatoes, onions, bacon and cheese that can only be described as creamy, French heaven, followed by Tahira’s amazing chocolate brownies. The plan was to rotate eating with using the sewing machines, but the alluring smells from the kitchen were soon too powerful to resist and we all crowded into the kitchen and tucked in.

As we finally returned to the job in hand, our numbers dwindled to four as three went on to a second dinner(!). With substance in our bellies, the die-hard sewers, Magali, Alison and I, stepped it up a notch. Next was the sewing of the edges of the bag and the rather clever creation of flat feet so the bag would stand up. One hour and a third helping of French heaven later (purely for endurance purposes of course), we were ready to turn our bags the right way round and admire the almost finished product. With a final flurry of activity with the end in sight, we hand-sewed the final seam to complete our bags.

The end result: three original, individual and, even though I do say it myself, beautifully crafted bags! What a feeling of satisfaction! Thank you to Nora for her great guidance and patience, to Magali for her hospitality and excellent food, and to Tahira who knows that the secret to happy, patient participants is always chocolate brownies.

If you are interested in making a make-up bag of your own, please visit the following link: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/09/sewing-101-zippered-case.html#more-62394