Knitting Needles Bag for Double Pointed Needles

 

The sewing bug, long dormant, first showed signs of reviving at Joann's (of course). The very talented R and I were busy feeling up every piece of fabric in the store and I decided to try my hand at dress-making again. My first attempt (several years ago, back in Brooklyn) had gone quite well and so I managed to forget the subsequent attempt (an awful skirt made from this retardedly stretchy fabric) and decided to go for it. While at Joann's, I also picked up a remnant for $1 and decided to make a case for carrying knitting needles around. I remembered seeing a pattern for one in my stitch n bitch book and it didn't seem very hard. This morning I checked out that pattern and realized that it called for three pieces of "funky" fabric, preferably upholstery, each 3/4 of a yard in length. So I chucked the book and decided to wing it. That might have been mistake #1. I didn't have any plans to actually make anything tonight until I saw an extremely wonderful bag R made for tortoise. It is beyond excellent. I will try to get a picture to post. Anyway, after seeing the bag my sewing bug was wholly revived, leading to tonight's adventure. It is 1am and my house is brightly lit with pieces of thread and fabric everywhere. I'm just going to make a laundry list of subsequent mistakes to get it over with:

mistake #2: should have kept my sewing machine covered, it was filthy. much time spent industriously scrubbing with combo of paper towel, windex and swiffer dust wipes. next project will definitely be some kind of cover for sewing machine.

mistake #3: having not touched my sewing machine in two years (last thing I made were pillow cases for my sofa pillows), I probably should have practiced on something. in any case, i had to fish out the manual just to figure out how to thread the machine. this mistake led to some of the more interesting and wobbly stitching that appears on the case. I like to think it gives it a rustic air.

mistake #4: not having any thread in bulk besides white and blue, I decided to just go with the white because what the heck, the polka dots were white. sadly, white shows up extremely well against the green fabric, and all the irregularities of my sewing are immediately apparent.

mistake #5: since my sewing supplies were completely disorganized, I could not find some key items, including a measuring stick (otherwise known as a ruler) or chalk. my fabric wasn't cut perfectly straight but I couldn't really fix it precisely (more eyeballing) and this led to some trouble with hemming. I also had to rip out some of the stitches as they were embarrassingly crooked. subsequently, I used an envelope containing italian parsley seeds to make some light pencil marks around the places that needed it. GHETTO.

Despite this series of disasters, I think my case came out rather cute. I've already developed a sentimental attachment to it, just because I made it and they do hold my needles perfectly. I need to attach some kind of strap to it so that I can roll it up and keep it tied shut. Overall, this was a huge amount of fun and I can't wait to make something else!