Half A Year of Stashbusting!

Pat yourself on the back, stashbusters! June is almost over and we've been (hopefully) working hard on using up the pieces of fabric we've hoarded curated for who knows how long. I hope it's been a good experience for you so far, and that you were able to rediscover treasures in your stash! I know I've been pushed to tackle pieces that I wouldn't otherwise have remembered or attempted (especially when it comes to things for the Historical Sew Fortnightly -- hello Great Gatsby and pirate coat!). Although I've only made up eight of the pieces I originally pledged to bust, I've also tackled a lot of un-pledged stash. It's been nice, actually, being forced to shop the stash to make the things I want. I've had to buy new fabric and notions to complete some of the projects, but mostly I've been pretty good about working with what I have.

In case you've forgotten, June's theme was containment, and I'll be honest -- I was supposed to have posted two projects that fit that theme, but I only had my gold placemat clutch. It was just difficult to think of projects that would actually come in handy, and not just be sewing-something-for-the-sake-of-sewing-something. Besides, I was caught up in endless research and hand-sewing for my pirate coat. After I finished it, though, I was ready for an entirely unrelated and less mentally taxing project -- enter PoldaPop's zippered wallet pattern!

Lisa contacted me to offer a free download of her PDF pattern, which comes with a very thorough instructions file with photos of the steps. This turned out to be very helpful, since apparently I can figure out the huge lined justaucorps cuffs, but rectangular wallet pieces were too much for me -- I'm a clothes sewer, not a wallet sewer! I sewed the pockets in wrong at first, at which point I realized that I should probably stop barging ahead of myself and actually look at the directions. Once I took the time to read through them, construction was straightforward, although near the end my machine rebelled at the task of sewing through something like twelve layers of fabric...I ended up using the hand-wheel for almost all of the final binding. Thankfully, the perimeter of the wallet is not a long one.

The completed wallet measures 9" x 5" and accommodates a smallish paperback book. 

It's the same book that I stuffed into my gold placemat clutch!

I went pastels/birds/florals for my inside fabrics. Somehow, I managed to cut it so that there are three bird butts front and center. 

A closer look at my clip-on wristlet loop thing. I did change the placement of this from the original pattern. 

My thoughts on the pattern:

• It's a great way to use up scraps! I used some fat quarters of quilting cotton for the pockets, originally purchased just because I liked the print, and before I realized that I had no use for them. Well, now they're nicely displayed! I also used leftovers from my gauchos, my one and only strapless dress, my deerstalker lining, and pencil skirt. I have dreams of making a supergeek wallet one day with pockets made of Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Star Wars, and Clone Wars fabric, and have a Lego Avengers minifig as a zipper pull...
• The final wallet is actually pretty large for a wallet; I'd say it's more of a clutch size. I could easily fit my phone and keys inside and still zip it up. This is pretty perfect for going out without a whole huge purse.
• It's easy to think oh, a zippered wallet, it's just rectangles...I could probably figure out the pattern myself. True, but take it from a diehard I-can-make-that-pattern-myself-er: it's worth it to have someone else figure out the dimensions and order of operations for you!
• I really like how the finished wallet looks "real," thanks to the binding and clip-on wristlet. Depending on your fabric choice, you could really make this wallet take on different looks!
• It was a satisfying, quick project -- I finished this in an evening, and the most difficult part was probably figuring out which fabrics would look good together.

Things I wasn't the hugest fan of:

• I would've liked markings on the pattern pieces to help line them up, as well as seam allowance markings but that's my personal preference. 
• At times, the instructions used different names for the pattern pieces than the ones that were actually marked on the pattern (e.g. "coin pouch" = "change pocket"), but this was pretty minor and easy to figure out if you're not brain-dead from figuring out pirate coat side pleats. 
• The materials list calls for a 7" zipper for the coin pouch, but it really needed to be a 5-6" one. I know that not all stores carry such short zippers, but it would have been nice to know the actual length in case one had access to a garment district ;)

Lisa also kindly offered a free pattern download to one of my readers, so we wrap up my month of random giveaways with one more chance to win something. Just leave a comment saying you'd like to enter (and maybe tell me what theme of fabrics you'd use for the inside pockets!), and I'll close it next Thursday, July 4, at 11:59 pm PST.

And hey, speaking of random giveaways here on the blog, congratulations to the winners: runlexlou (and her cute tidbit about buttonhole twist in the Tailor of Gloucester!) gets the Fashion A-Z dictionary,  and Alice of Heteronormativelovefest gets the interfacing swatch set. Winners, please shoot me an email at cationdesignsblog [at] gmail.com with your address so that I can get your packages to you before I get too swamped with moving! Everyone else, thanks for all your suggestions for revolutionary sewing tools! It looks like I'm going to need to give thread snips, a clear quilting ruler, and the Chakoner chalk marker a try. And of course, the learner in me loved reading all your favorite sewing terms. It's good to know I wasn't the only one confused about fichu/tissue and tarlatan/tartan!

This is an actual triangular lace fichu. 

Last of all the miscellaneous topics in this blog post: it's link party time! I feel bad requiring entries to be container-related, when I could barely think of things that fit that category myself, so this time we're going to leave it open to any kind of stashbusting that hasn't previously been featured in earlier link parties.

And if you're wondering what's up for the rest of the year, stay tuned...Emily will be posting on Monday about the rest of the themes for 2013! Keep up the good work, stashbusters!