Unexpected

An unplanned, unexpected, emergency business trip interrupted my sewing last week. But I was able to spend most of this weekend in my studio working on the UFO list.

I finished this little knitted purse. I knit the pieces 2 years ago. It just laid in a heap on a shelf in my sewing studio ever since. I thought it would be a snap to sew together. Wrong! Unexpectedly it took me about 4 hours to finish this. Admittedly, part of that time (about an hour) was spent adding a lining, but still it took another 3 hours to do all the finishing. I'm not entirely happy with it. It is soft and floppy. I wish I had added something on the bottom to at least make the bottom more sturdy, but I don't know the first thing about making purses and consequently, have none of those materials. I thought about just using cardboard, but decided not to. It could bend and get a crease; if the purse got wet on the bottom it would get mushy; the sharp edges might cut the yarn. I decided cardboard would not be a good choice. So now that the purse is finished I'm not sure what to do with it except MARK 1 MORE ITEM OFF THE UFO LIST! YEAH!

I give up on the machine hemstitching. I just don't get the how the wing needle works. I spent several more hours today trying all the different decorative stitches on my Bernina and trying several techniques from the book, Fine Machine Sewing. I wasn't able to come up with anything that I thought looked even remotely acceptable. Again, an unexpected turn of events. I decided to just turn a wide hem and topstitch. I think the table cover will be fine. I am disappointed that I am unable to bring my idea to fruition, but I believe reality is taking over this project.