not quilts

I sewed a fair amount this week, but none of it was quilts.

Well.

I did sew some of the binding on the second quilt, but it's not done yet and I'm very good at finding other things to do than sew on binding.

I did sew quite a few cat hammocks.  And I dropped off a big stack of them.  I think I'm about halfway through the last delivery of fabrics, but they compress more at the bottom of the pile, so it's deceptive.  I'll just keep sewing!

What else did I sew?

I saw a story (short video) on Instagram where a guy got some fabric book sleeves.  (It's a book-centric account, so this makes sense.)  They were from someone who makes them to sell, but I thought 'I can do that' so I did.

After some time with Pinterest and YouTube, I cobbled together instructions from about three tutorial (therefore I will not be sharing a link) and gave it a shot.

The way you make this one (from the part of one tutorial), you sew it - pocket and all - and then turn it.  I had accidentally pressed the interfacing to the light blue - which I had originally intended to be the inside - but decided it would be the outside.  And then when I turned it, it was inside out.

What?

So I rolled with it.

And stuck a book inside.

And went to eat lunch.

Then realized that I could easily flip the pocket that holds the front flap the other way around.  But I'd already top-stitched it.  Hmm...

After lunch, I picked out all the top-stitching and turned it and re-top-stitched it.  And then took no photos.

I do like this blue and wanted to choose something that wouldn't show dirt (kinda like making masks, you know they're gonna get dirty after some use, so choose fabrics wisely), but having the interfacing on the inside fabric seemed silly and I really do like that light blue, too.

So it's flipped.

But.

The next book would barely fit.  I barely squeezed this one in (the tutorials had varying amounts added to the book height and varying seam allowances...I thought I'd done good math, but apparently the interfacing and top-stitching took a bit more than I expected), so what to do?

Make another one!

I went to bed the night after I finished the book in the photo above, with the new book squeezed into the cover to start tomorrow.

About midnight I woke up and was laying in bed trying to get back to sleep, so I was mentally going through my fabric stash.  (Not that I have so little or can remember it all, but still...what else are you going to do when you can't get to sleep?  Sorting fabric mentally is kinda like counting sheep!)  And then I remembered the fox fabric.

I almost flew out of bed right then.

Almost.

I probably would have if I hadn't had to work the next day.  So I stayed in bed, eventually falling back to sleep, and could not wait for my shift at work to end the following day so I could sew this new sleeve - a bit bigger.

I tried to cut carefully so I would minimize missing heads, but when they're offset like this, it's inevitable.  Also, as anyone who has ever tried to cut a panel or something fussy knows, there is no such thing as straight.  You line up one set of fox paws and three over you're at his knees.  You line up one set of fox ears and three over you've lost half his head.  So I did my best.

This one went together a little easier than the first one - probably because I knew better what I was doing and didn't have to revisit the tutorials a half dozen times.  (I also had a few notes from the first go-round.)

I'm not very good at fussy-cutting, so imagine my delight when it turned out with a perfect row of foxes on the inner flap!

The strap you see (pink on the first, turquoise on the second) allows you to fold the tapered end around the book cover and tuck it in, making the whole thing adjustable.  So as long as the height of the book fits, you can put in a thicker or thinner book without much trouble.

These two fit the larger size paperback books, but when I come to the hardcovers in my to-be-read stash, I'll have to make more.

Oh the horror.

(Next up, I'm thinking about making a pieced one.  And maybe work on some little embroideries to include in a fourth?)

Toby, meanwhile, was helping me sew.

Clearly all that supervising wore him right out.  Or maybe my mumbling to myself was driving him crazy.  He just buried his face in the comfiest thing around and soldiered on.  Poor kid.

Today is a mish-mash of chores and lunch with friends, so we'll see what I get done.  Hopefully later this week I'll get more sewing done, but today is sketchy.

Happy quilting,

Katie