Try This Tuesday

…or, as it will henceforth be known, T3.
Ok Friends, today I’m going to try a little something. I’m kinda nervous. I would like to start up a recurring event that will be called “Try This Tuesday” (because I like alliteration). It could also be called “Trust Me Tuesday”. I have often found in my travels and the like, that when I suggest projects, recipes etc… to my friends, they will laugh and say, ‘Oh, hahaha, that’s wonderful… but I don’t think that mine would turn out like that.” The problem (I’ve found) is that many people like to stick to what they know, and sometimes my ideas are slightly out there. Anyway… today I want to talk to you about sewing. I’m going to take you through a super easy, super cute project just to kinda ease our way in (this will not be the last time you see my sewing machine). One of the things that I love about this project is that not only is it functional, but I made more than one mistake while doing it. Now, I can hear you saying, “what? You made mistakes? How do we know it’s safe to follow your instructions? Why are you showing us this terrible atrocity?” The reason, my friends, is that I want to show you that sewing isn’t always about getting it perfect (I’m pretty sure my sister just disowned me for saying that :/). It’s not scary. Don’t be afraid that you’re going to mess it up. Trust me :D By now I’m sure you’re just totally on the edge of your seats wanting to know what I’ll be trying to convince you to do today. So here it is…(Oh! And I apologize in advance for the horrendous picture quality. The lighting in my casa is not what you would call stellar for the picture taking.)

From T3

You can see that I obviously use mine to hold my makeup brushes. This would also be super cute to hold pens and pencils, paint brushes, markers, crayons, get creative! And it’s really insanely easy.
To start, you’ll need a piece of fabric. It should be barely longer than you want the end product to be, and tall enough that you have room for whatever you’re putting in it as well as some extra to function as a flap over the top, savvy?
The first thing you’ll do is pin and iron down the edges where your hem will be.

From T3

Now, with your sewing machine, sew along the top and the bottom (for this project, I used a wavy stitch because it matches my makeup bag). Go ahead and trim off any excess fabric (you’ll notice I almost always have a ton of extra fabric along my hems… It makes me feel better. I don’t know why.
Ok, here you get to see my first mistake! When you sew your bottom hem, the sides get sewn down as well. At the time, I totally thought that this was going to lead to major problems, so I cut the fabric to free the side…

From T3

Turns out that wasn’t really necessary, but all’s well that ends well I suppose. Anyway… From here, fold up the bottom hem so that it forms a pocket (make this as deep as you need it to be depending on what you’re going to be using this for). Contrary to normal sewing behavior, you’re going to fold this so that the raw edges are inside. As in, you will sew it exactly how it’s going to stay. Savvy? (At this point, I will need to show you a photo that may or may not have been taken when I was at this step, so ignore the superfluous seams at the bottom. I will explain those momentarily.

From T3

Go ahead and pin, iron, and sew the sides so that you end up with a nice pocket. Turn it inside-out so that you can trim up the excess fabric, then flip it right-side out again. You’re almost done! Now, take one (or two) of whatever you’re going to be putting in here, and determine how big the little pockets need to be. Take a pencil and draw out where you want your pockets to end up.

From spare time

Now just sew along those lines

From spare time

At this point, I realized another mistake that I had made… I made it way too long. So I simply cut it off where I wanted it to end and sewed another side hem (recognize the picture?)

From spare time

All you have to do now is attach the ribbon. I suggest filling the pockets, rolling it all up, and wrapping a piece of ribbon around it to determine how much you’ll need. I wanted my ribbon to go around twice, so I measured for that.
Unroll your pocket, and take everything out.
The last step is to sew the ribbon on to one of the sides so that it stays put.
You’re done!
See, wasn’t that fun?! And soo not difficult?

***If there is something that you have been dying to try, but are a little nervous about, let me know, and I'd be glad to try it for you first :)