Replacing My Travel Tote

I am getting closer to being able to recreate my 30+ year-old travel tote. Two key parts came together last week:

  1. I found this website that has tote bags that match the size. Until now, the tote bags I could find were too small. I ordered the largest canvas tote bag, which is actually a few inches bigger than my travel tote. I intend to take it apart and use the pieces as a pattern.

  2. I finally located a similar fabric. Fabric Wholesale Direct carries Ottertex® Waterproof 70D PVC Backed Nylon Taffeta, so I ordered some. The fabric arrived yesterday. It has the same look and feel as the fabric in my bag. (I even got the same color!) This photo shows the selvedge edges, so you can see there is a lightweight nylon taffeta with a coating on it.

I will have to make a couple of prototypes to ensure I have the size and construction order correct. This will be a longer-term project but a good one to work on this summer.

I decided to nix the Burnside Bibs as a class at the store. As cute as the pattern is, it is rather involved. Even if we left some of the details off the muslins, like the patch pockets, it would still be a complicated make. I’ve got the pattern prepped, so I will go ahead and make a pair just for the experience. I multiply the amount of time a project takes me by three to get an estimate of class time, and this would be a minimum of a two-day class.

I think the McCall’s 8636 pants will be a good addition, however. Those are cut out and ready to assemble.

I decided to take one of my large clear totes and put all of the fabric and patterns into it that I want to sew with next. I am hoping this will help to keep me on track. I want to sew everything and I need to keep the queue under control or I won’t get anything done.

Sew Expo registration went live on Tuesday. Yesterday, the education coordinator e-mailed us registration numbers for each of our classes. My class on using the cording foot on the serger only has three spots left. (The class max is 24, which is the number of machines available.) My thread class is over half full, and my interfacing class is almost half full. I am delighted with those numbers. The knitting class has only a couple of students registered, but that doesn’t surprise me. The knitting classes don’t do very well. I am so glad that I’ve been able to pivot over to teaching sewing classes there. And I think that the coordinators are doing a better job with the class schedule this year than in recent years. My sense is that they scheduled fewer classes this year rather than have too many classes with too few students.

I’ve made my Airbnb reservations in Puyallup for those days. I will visit DD#1 before Sew Expo and spend a few days with DD#2 after I am done teaching.

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We had a brilliantly sunny day here yesterday, but when the husband came home, he reported that the valley was absolutely socked in by fog. It was so bad that planes couldn’t land at the airport. Such is the result of high pressure ridges in January and February—the valleys get trapped under heavy inversions.

I am going to run payroll through QuickBooks for the first time today. Wish me luck that it goes smoothly.