Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Sewing for Others

It all started off with an simple request from my husband Paul, to sew him a comfier (is that a real word?) guitar strap.  Well that was simple enough...or so I thought. It did take me two goes to get it right.

Following that, I thought I'd be a kind and thoughtful wife and also sew him a messenger bag for his guitar music, using the leftover fabric from the strap and some blue cord. I like bags. I also like bags to have a specific purpose. Up until now, Paul has not had a bag specifically for his music. I think he may have been slumming it and using supermarket bags. Not good enough! I thought a new bag would be handy for going to and from band practice, which is utterly ridiculous as 95% of the time, band practice is at our house. But hey, now he gets to look cool for the other 5% of the time.

Then using the leftover fabric from the bag, plus some additional scraps, I sewed each of my kids a mouse softie. Things got a little out of hand didn't they? I mean, it did all just start with a request for a guitar strap. 

Front of bag: Cargo pocket, piped flap 

Secret love message sewn inside one of the pocket flaps.

Pocket on other side.

The strap that started it all!

Three not-so-blind mice.

 You never know where this sewing shenanigans  is going to take you!

14 comments:

  1. That looks like hours and hours of work. The embroidery alone aould have taken me hours. Happy household tonight!

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  2. Fun stuff! Love the secret message inside the flap!

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  3. Wonderful guitar strap, bag with secret love messeage, :), and mice. Thanks for sharing!!
    Anne xx

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  4. Aw, that is all just so lovely! Especially that little message inside the pocket flap.
    Can you share how you did the guitar strap? Is it a cover for an existing strap? I ask because our eldest son plays guitar and when he wanted a strap, I tried looking for tutorials or even pictures of handmade straps and found nothing really, so he just has a totally boring plain green one I bought. I'm itching to make it better!

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  5. Hi Jane, I sewed three layers of wadding-stuff together. I think it's wadding, but not sure as I'm not a quilter. It's wasn't your standard rolled up fluffy cloud stuff, but creamy-coloured compressed soft stuff bought off the roll at Spotlight. Hmmm, am I being helpful? I can email a photo of it if you need. Anyway, I cut to size, a long strip of the fabric covering. Folded it lengthways. Sewed it right sides together and turned it right-side out. I then sewed a long ribbon to the wadding, tied a pen to the ribbon and dropped it through the covering. I then pulled the wadding through and cut off the ribbon. (I'm not sure if this complies with traditional techniques as I was making it up as I went along).

    Anyhoo, I then cut the wadding so it was 1.5 cm shorter then the covering at both ends. I folded to the inside a 1.5cm hem of the covering at either ends. I then cut both ends off the ready-made strap, leaving approx 5-8cm of webbing attached to the leather bit. I trimmed the sides of the webbing a little and then slid the webbing into my fabric cover so it was sandwiched between the wadding and the cover. I then zigzagged across the strap quite a few times to make sure it was anchored in place.

    The only problem with this design is that it is not adjustable. I got Paul to commit to one length before I made it. To make it adjustable, I could have reused the plastic slidey bits(?) off the original strap but Paul wanted something quite padded (he's a bit sensitive, you know). All that padding wouldn't fit through the plastic bits.

    I hope this all makes sense. I can send you a more detailed photo of the end if you need it. Happy sewing!

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    Replies
    1. Ah, thanks for the details Bernice! Yeah the strap I bought for Charlie doesn't look very comfortable I have to say. Not to mention plain-bordering-on-ugly. I think I would have to maintain adjustability though since he is still growing.
      The wadding stuff sounds like some bamboo or cotton wadding I have also bought at Spotty. I particularly like the pen-on-ribbon technique you describe, ingenious :D

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  6. You deserve a good serenade for that!

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  7. I agree! You deserve to be serenaded! Love the embroidery-- and the mice, too :)

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  8. You have just got about 3 million brownie points! I love the mice!

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  9. I adore all of these,and perfectly understand how a guitar strap turned into an amazing bag and 3 mice, it is a slippery slope.

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  10. These are awesome gifts! I love the corduroy for the messenger bag.

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  11. My daughter would love that guitar strap. A very nice bag, very non gender specific meaning I would love that bag myself! Great use of the leftovers

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  12. Oh my goodness, that is so sweet. I love the secret message. Did he?

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