More 'sea-ing' than 'sew-ing'

 

At Cabbage Key

Hans and I have cast off our dock lines and are cruising again.

We left St. Petersburg in January and are currently moored in Key West where we hope to leave in a day or two for the Dry Tortuga's. I don't know why but I'm a bit nervous about this next jaunt.

I did get a bit of sewing done before we left, especially when Hans stated just days before departure that maybe we should re-cover our cockpit cushions. Personally, I would rather sail with crappy cushions that I don't have to worry about getting dirty. But, these cushions were starting to 'shed' sand-like crap all over the place. I ended up making very simple envelope style covers for the easiest cushions but that's as far as I got. The remaining two will need to be 'fitted' and that probably won't happen for a very long time. I don't sew at anchor and when we are lucky enough to be at a dock with shore power, we have to do laundry, vaccum, take advantage of endless water to scrub the boat, provision, blahblahblah, which leaves no time for fun.

I also have a sailing blog for anyone who's interested in that lifestyle. Needless to say a lot more gets written there than here.

I may not be sewing much but I still very much enjoy reading everyone else's blogs about their projects.

 

Our chilly little pit during a cold spell. I made his coat out of left over fleece.

A bag I made from recycled sail cloth.

Another one

And yet one more.

Boring cushions but they do serve a purpose.

 

At a marina in Marathon. I enjoyed this for a few seconds before I had to get a butt load of chores done.

We hope to cruise until at least June. We have to be back for my son's wedding in July and we will have a lot of figuring out about what we're doing after that.

 

But for now, we're sailing Mon!

 

Posted with Blogsy

A very fashionable diaper bag is finished.

At least I hope it's fashionable but since it's been 20 plus years since I've carried one of these buggers I could be way off base.

Anyway, I posted a few days ago that Hans' cousin is expecting her first baby and I wanted to make a diaper bag for her. After spending too many hours scouring the internet in an effort to find the ultimate diaper bag to mimic, I finally settled on my own idea. I started with Nicolle Mallalieu's Beach Bag Pattern and just went from there.



This is the front of the bag in its fully expanded mode.

The flowered overlay is a roomy outside pocket.

In its expanded mode this bag is very roomy and can hold a lot of baby stuff.















This is the front of the bag with the sides cinched in. It's still pretty roomy but perhaps a bit more stylish.

The back of the cinched in bag with a secure zippered pocket.

And now the back in its fully expanded mode.



















So how does one cinch in the sides of this bag?

Sorry, but this is one very crappy picture.

In short, it consists of two 3 inch tabs stitched to the inside of the side seams of the bag. Velcro is then attached to the top of one tab and the bottom of the other.

They connect midstream and pull the sides of the bag inward!






The inside of the bag.

At the top is the facing with a magnetic snap in the middle of it.

The flowered fabric is the lining.

The striped fabric is a patch pocket with a Velcro closure.

This is mirrored on the other side of the interior.










And now the outside zippered pocket. I've installed tons of these over the years but for some reason this one gave me fits.

It was the batting I used for structure on the main bag that caused an issue. It was just a bit too thick and made for sloppy corners.

If I were to do this again, I'd trim the batting away from the zipper area long before hitting it with my hissing steam iron.





The bottom is a chocolate vinyl and is what had me concerned the most, and I was prepared to forgo this step if I didn't feel it was going to work. I ended up being very happy with the results and as far as I'm concerned this bag is finished!

I sincerely hope that Susie likes it!







And on a sad note, Nicolle has made the decision to end her online store by the end of 2011. This just makes me sick as she is the absolute guru of purse patterns and if it weren't for her I would have quit making purses a long time ago. I can see that I'm going to have to treat myself to a few last minute Christmas gifts and pick up a few things that I may never be able to find again!