Bread bag, Mitchells (progress report), pattern drafting

 I DID finally get to the cutting phase of the Mitchells. But not until late Saturday. I traced out a second of each leg piece and the pocket facing, so that I could lay them out at the same time. I have done my best to match up horizontal lines, but I don't yet know how it actually matches up!

I called it a night after cutting out those pieces, though. I have a bit of a stumbling block. How much should I try to match the back pocket welts? and the ties? Truth be told, I am not quite sure HOW to match up the welts! So something to wait on. 

Ottawa daughter sent me a link to a simple summer top a couple of weeks ago, asking if I would be able to make her something like that. It is fairly straightforward, so I said I would give it a go. I worked on a quick pattern and made a really basic muslin this weekend.

She also asked me if I would make her a cotton bread bag, like the two that we have here at home. They were purchased in Germany many years ago, and have been great. She has started making break, occasionally.

I got to that today. I looked around at fabric choices, and settled on a pretty pillow case from the linen closet. This was inherited from my Mother-in-law when she downsized. I had already used one to make an alternative size pillow case, and we never did use this one for pillows. It is very nicely made. As I was unstitching the large hem I noticed that it had French seams,. There is this lovely embroidery on it, and some other feature which name I cannot remember (some kind of embroidery with little cutouts.) 

French seams

I thought this would be a nice way to keep this prettiness in a practical rotation! Then I realized... those holes aren't great, for freshness. So I lined that part of the bag. I did not want a random line of stitching through the bag, so I added a decorative stitch. I also made French seams, in keeping with the origin item! I found a bit of elastic 'rope' and a toggle in my recuperated items stash, and there you go. I am quite pleased with this!

Inspiration piece

Decorative stitching