Sun, 29 Apr 2018 12:55:40 GMT

Ugh. It's such a lot of hassle moving broadband provider. Cancelling our Virgin account took half an hour and two separate phonecalls in order to do it without listening to a bunch of marketing bullshit first and I'm sure they only make it that annoying to try to prevent people from doing in the first place.

Yesterday was rather more positive. I finally went to IKEA and bought a Norden dropleaf table with drawers to use for sewing and then came back and put it together. There's something just very satisfying about flat pack furniture. As I'd hoped, the table is a perfect size for my sewing machine and all the paraphanalia fits nicely into the drawers at the side. I've ordered a skirt pattern to celebrate :)

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I made a thing!

Sat, 03 Dec 2016 13:44:56 GMT

So, after the referendum, I needed something which was about people being nice to each other to watch, and after a lucky encounter when I left the TV on after Today at Wimbledon that thing turned out to be The Great British Sewing Bee. I finished the latest season and then went back and binge watched the other ones and, perhaps inevitably, bought myself a sewing machine :)

So far, I haven't done loads on it - unsurprisingly, once term kicked back in, I haven't had tonnes of time or energy to do so - but I have made myself a couple of bags. One very simple tote bag just to try the machine out which I use for all my bits of material and stuff and yesterday I finally finished the laptop bag I'd been working on!

The main body of the bag is actually made from a denim skirt that I got from a charity shop and the lining is part of a duvet cover (it turns out that's a great way to get cheap fabric!) so it wasn't too pricey to make but I think economy is not really going to be an overall benefit of making stuff. I enjoyed it as a creative thing to do and I really like the ability to make stuff to my own specifications so those are the main attractions really.

Immediately I finished it, I came up with several things that I want to do differently next time so I thought I'd note them down here in case I ever do get around to repeating this pattern.

Pockets! Firstly, put the outside pockets on earlier in the process so I can machine stitch them, don't forget about them until the end because they're not in the pattern I was following.
Secondly, inside pockets of some kind would be good. Maybe with fastenings?
Put in a side/bottom panel so that it's got more of a base to it
Different main fastening - I'm not that in love with the velcro
Maybe catch the corners of the lining to the bottom of the bag?
Wider strap. I love how the finish of the strap turned out but I think a wider one would make for easier carrying

( moar pics (same as on twitter if you saw them there) )

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All these things that I have done

I made a thing!