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Blogging about crafting, volunteering and trying to fit in the family bit too
All emails about the blog or my shop can be sent to sales(at)craftyguider(dot)com
Hello
I see from your blog that you had problems doing the Pocket Sewing Kit from Cath Kidson’s book called ‘Sewing Book’. I cannot figure out how to make the kit and I am experienced at sewing. As you said in your blog, the pre-cut fabric has been cut incorrectly.
My problem is that item 1 on Page 75 says attach the inside flap to the outside panel but then on Page 76, the same inside flap has to be attached to the zip. Aagghh…
I have tried ignoring the instructions and diagrams but cannot match the photograph with the fabric provided. F0r for some reason, there is a hole in the middle of the kit (page 75 where the scissors are sticking out).
Any help from you would be gratefully received.
Since writing to you, I have finally worked the Pocket Sewing Kit out and four hours later, have finished it. A very frutstrating four hours. It is NOT for beginners. If this was the first sewing project that I did, I would not do any more sewing ever again.
The finished product looks like a ‘dogs dinner’ and I pride myself with my work usually. But not this kit…
Just in case anyone has bought the same book and wants to make the kit, the things to know are:
# Do not attempt to make this kit until you are more adept at machine sewing (attaching the narrow bias binding around several corners, for instance, is very fiddly and requires very good control – and a good machine).
# The pre-cut fabric is cut incorrectly. Where there is a curve, there is a straight line and vice versa. So at one point, you have to match up a curve with a straight line, which is not good news for the look of the finished product (as well as very confusing when making it).
# Consider not using the directional fabric with the kit. It makes the kit twice as hard to do, working out which way everything should go (I had to unpick parts of the kit on two occasions even though I am good at sewing). One of the graphic diagrams in the book is incorrect, which didn’t help.
# Item 1 on pages 74 and 76 is misleading. The first reference to the inside flap is for the use of a template only to cut the corners and although it says to pin it onto the outside panel, which makes you think that you have to sew it, in fact you then unpin it before attaching it to the zip of the inside panel (which is the real purpose of the inside flap).
# Use a thick needle (90 or better still 100) in your sewing machine because at times, you are sewing through several layers of bias binding (my 80 needle broke in the middle of the project).
# If you do use the fabric, you need to have two colours of thread – white thread for some of the stitching (where you have to sew the bottoms of the pockets, for example) and deep pink for the bias binding. I used deep pink throughout and as a result, several lines of stitching show on the outside.
# Ignore the photograph on page 75, which makes it look as if there is a hole in the middle of the kit. There isn’t. It is an optical illusion – it is yellow thread the same colour as the photograph background.
I expected better of the Cath Kidson brand. The book requires greater care when including pre-cut fabric and far better explanations and diagrams, especially when promoting it as an “easy” project.
So sorry I didn’t get back to you. I didn’t check my notifications for a few days.
I got rid of my finished kit in the end. Like you, I pride myself on producing a decent finished product and this was definitely not a decent finished product! I also struggled with another kit in another of the books – the bag. The pictures look lovely but the instructions haven’t been thought through.