Pink Alpaca

Thursday, November 16, 2006

A liner!

I'm proud to say that I completed sewing my first zipper and my first liner onto a handknit. This week I made a makeup/notions bag. The zipper went well; my whipstitch on my liner is, um, not so good. I hadn't sewn in quite a while so my technique was rusty. By the time I got to the other side of the bag my stitches were more even.

The yarn is leftover mystery yarn, given to me by a friend. The liner came from the remnants bin at my local quilting shop. I think it's from the Girlfriends line.


My motivation to make this bag came from Martha Stewart's Holiday special issue, full of craft/gift-giving ideas. The instructions were clear, and included the zipper/liner how-to. Maybe to some the addition of those things is common-sense. But, due to my 8th grade home ec. teacher's 12-week illness, my knowledge of such things is limited to the teachings of our substitute - a middle-aged Jamacian biochemist. We never learned to sew, and we only made Rice Krispie treats. We also drove him crazy by dressing up our CPR practice torsos. But I digress.

Total time spent on this was about 4 hours - 2 for knitting with distractions, 1 for adding the zipper and 1 for adding the lining (everything was hand stitched - I don't own a machine). I'm really happy that I learned how to do this. I love special linings, and can't wait to pick out some vintage fabric patterns for more bags.

US size 7 circulars
Final dimensions: about 8" wide x 6" high