I've recently switched from using a spiral bound visual diary to one from
Moleskine. While I like the paper in the Moleskine diary better, I miss being able to put my pen in the spiral binding of my old visual diary. And I am pretty much over searching for my pen. So, I decided to make a pocket for my Moleskine visual diary that had room for a pen as well.
This is a textile collage that my friend
Lisa Walton of
Dyed and Gone to Heaven gave me a while back. I used it in a faux felt demo I did at the SCQuilters Retreat in Perth. Actually, just half of it.
Looks like it will be big enough ... Houston, we have lift off!
I trimmed up the textile collage and folded it in half. One more check on the size ...
... perfect. Now which thread to use? This is why you need a nice stash of threads ... dark orange rayon ... bright orange rayon ... a very rich orange cotton ... decisions, decisions, decisions ...
I think the dark orange rayon will do the trick.
First step was to stitch across the top of the pocket. I used a wide zig zag and caught two strands of pearle cotton under the stitch. I think that it makes for a nicer edge and maybe makes the edge a bit less likely to stretch over time. Then I did 4-6 more zig zags across the edge, a bit narrower this time, to fill it in and be sure that the edge was well covered.
Here's a close up of one of the corners. You can see the pearle cotton caught under the stitching.
And here's the back. Yes, I used a bright pink cotton in the bobbin. Trying to decide if the pocket needs to be lined. Nope. Looks OK as is to me.
To finish making the pocket, I switched from the open toed embroidery foot to a walking foot, reduced the pressure on the presser foot from 3 to 2 (we're sewing through quite a few layers here). I stitched down the side 1/4" from the edge back and forth a couple of times, going slow enough to hit the same line of stitching each pass. I did the same thing across the bottom.
Then I zig zagged the raw edges ... remember, no lining ... to keep things inside nice and tidy. I didn't zig zag around the corner but stopped before I got there.
Here's a close-up of the top of the pocket ... notice that I stopped the zig zag before I got to the stitching at the top edge.
I cut the notch off the corner to reduce the bulk when the pocket is turned right-side out. Here's a close-up of the corner.
And, just for completeness, a close-up of the corner on the folded side.
This took some determination. Two layers of felt in the middle makes it sturdy but a bit resistant to being turned right-side out.
I used a chopstick to get the corner with the notch cut into it to look like a sort of square corner.
Another size check ... I can't help myself ... it's an Engineer Thing.
And here's the finished visual diary pocket.
Very good job, if I do say so myself. Now, what to do with the other half of the textile collage?
Recently, I took an Aurora workshop with Lisa Walton of Dyed and Gone To Heaven and this is the result. So simple, even for those of us who are pathologically unable to follow the directions. Add to that good food, good venue and good classmates and I'm even happier with the results.
