You are going to laugh at me when I say this, but I thought this project was a failure when I first finished it.
I sat down to it for a quick de-stresser project – a little selfish sewing to wind down after a very very long day. The “Pin Cushion Caddy” is a project found in Anna Maria Horner’s “Seams to Me”.
At least picking out the fabric was fun!
I should have known something was up when I looked around the internet at other caddies. There were a lot of “This was tricky,” “I’m not really happy with how this turned out,” and “There is a lot of hand sewing” comments. But in true Sew Fearless fashion, I dove right in.
Now, I consider myself a fairly competent seamstress. I’ve got five-ish years of hard-core sewing under my belt, I am careful, and I follow directions well. When the time came to match up the outer “ball” with the inner tube, I was off by more than an inch. I went back and sewed in the seams to 1/2″ instead of 3/8″. It was still a little big, so I had a little meltdown.
Once tears were dried, I decided I was going to make the freakin’ ball fit the freakin’tube and that this freakin’ project wouldn’t freakin’ do me in, I sewed a gathering stitch to the top of the ball and “gathered” it down to the right size. You can see the little puckers around the top.
So there you have it. If you want one bad enough, go ahead and give it a try, but understand this is a tough one and will take some fiddling to get it together. Looking over this help sheet Anna put out will help a lot too. I wish I had seen it first.
Now, I am glad I didn’t give up.
Have you had a hard project you are glad you stuck with?
I’m in the middle of a hard project. My problem is that I didn’t choose the right fabric. I chose a fabric that doesn’t have enough drape. It’s too crisp and I don’t know enough about fabric- or didn’t before this- to anticipate this problem. I also tried my first lapped zipper and it didn’t come out very nice so I’m ripping it out.
You can do it, leila! Is it another one of your lovely costumes?
and I hate zippers. They never look when I sew them on clothing.
Yea… I made one of those right when the book first came out. Had the same issues you’ve mentioned and I sortta made it work, too. Thing is, its a really handy pincushion thing so I decided this past holiday to make one for a friend. All the nightmares came back in a hurry but I got it done. I didn’t even know there was a help sheet.
Well done for sticking with it – it does look lovely!
You freakin’ rock for sticking with such a freakin’ hard project and that gives me some freakin’ serious inspiration!
You are freakin’ welcome. 😉
….. It nearly went out of the window… It’s on the floor in a heap, I don’t expect to buy a book where the patterns don’t fit!
I admire your resolve, I might retrieve the pieces and give it another go!
this might help 🙂
http://pennyshands.blogspot.com/2010/08/hexie-caddy-tutorial.html