First Makes of 2023!

Well, it is the first week of January and I should be working on class stuff but .... I have spent the last two days going to Cyclebar and finishing up some crafty items.  First, the "Sewing Room" wall hanging is 100% done and is now hanging on the stairway leading up to my sewing studio on the third floor of our house:

After going to a spin class this morning, I decided to try and "fix" the bag project that I started on New Year's Eve.  You see, every New Year's Eve for the past 3 years, Sulky and Sallie Tomato have teamed up to do a Sew Along.  I discovered in years 1 and 2 that it was so hard to keep up AND sew a straight line.  I would end up getting frustrated and not completing a bag that I would use.  So this year, I watched the entire thing and then started the bag on New Year's Day.  I had purchased the kit for the Sew Along and it included this amazing faux leather material that is something like $28 a yard on their web site.  I tried so hard to not mess it up.  But, of course, I did!

This was the pattern of the "bag" -- a sort of portfolio that you can use for your printed calendar and small tech items:

Cool pattern I think and, like I mentioned, the kit was pretty awesome.  Here was my end result:

I did a perfect job on the zipper pocket which used a new technique that I hadn't tried before.  The section on the right is a little crooked with the card pockets but I think it is decent.  Since this is a leather-ish material, it won't fray so the seams are not finished.

Here is a close up of the inside pocket section where I added some embroidery!

But I didn't notice until I finished that the leather strap (which holds it closed) was pretty crooked.

Yep.  Not great.  I also didn't think I had a Teflon foot for my machine (spoiler: I actually did and found it once I was finished).  Without a Teflon foot, this material kept getting slowed down by the machine when it was under a regular foot -- I think this made the whole thing look a little "rough around the edges."

So what is a person to do?  I thought about it for a day or so and then went into my stash to use some other materials to fix the whole thing.  And I am definitely happier:

I carefully ironed with a pressing cloth to try and make it look less "puckery."

I then added a much wider strap that you will also see on the front when it is closed.

                                        

I also took out the piece of elastic that the pattern called for in order to hold the calendar in place and created a wider tab, along with sewing in another piece of foam to make the planner feel sturdier in the folder.

Tada!  I think it looks much better!

I also made a few bookmarks as well because I was feeling like I needed to put off creating syllabi for a little longer today!