I have been super busy lately, packing up my home for an interstate move. I do not enjoy moving, but I'm looking forward to the next adventure. Not having much time for stitching has been particularly difficult and packing up all of my sewing stuff has not been very much fun, either. Knowing that I won't have an address for a little while and that I will be living with precious few stitching resources made me wonder what I would do. I decided to get one of Krista's work bags, but she was out of stock for a little while. I've got one on the way now, but I had to scratch that itch. I'm not exactly patient.
So here's what I made:
And here's her backside:
She fits quite a few hand sewing tools, threads, etc. I had already stowed all of my fabric in storage, so I got a fabric pack from Brooklyn Haberdashery and made the Modern Japanese Rice Pouch. She's handy and compact and will be a good little travel companion. I had packed my sewing machines, so I made her entirely by hand. Every seam, every patch, every everything. And no thimble! ouch
As I was packing up the house, I noticed that the cushions that have been on my bed for more years than I care to admit had sprouted holes in the corners. I remember buying the fabrics for them when I was just out of law school and very broke. I no kidding skipped lunch for weeks to buy these fabrics, which are like old friends. I took the cushions apart, washed the fabric scraps and decided to make another project bag. It's still in progress, but I'm glad that I was able to rescue the fabric and re-use it. This will be the exterior of the workbag, made just like the one above, just a little bigger.
I'll post a photo when it's complete, but I'm just thrilled to have saved my fabrics - all from Japan, and some of them are handmade. A couple of the pieces came from BH as well. They're the newer, darker indigo fabrics and I think they blended well with my old friends.
Never worry, though, I have an Avlea workbag on the way, but I will need several little bags of goodies to work through while I'm without my work space, machines, fabric stash, etc. I just needed some on-the-go storage for my projects in the meantime. Once I get the workbags complete and the packing is all done, I can get back to stitching my "regular" stuff again. I saved several Avlea kits to work on while the house sells and we look for our next home.