Zipping things up

I could have sworn that I already posted about this last week, but I guess not! I have finished my first bag of the season! It was extra exciting because the middle where the zipper and front and back fabric collide was too thick for me to have the foot down, so I had to pivot a bit. I ended up hand stitching on top of the few stitches the machine was able to make with some nylon thread, so I feel pretty good that it will hold. Also, the interfacing is the perfect weight! Yay. Of course, I forgot to take a photo, but it was one of several similar bags for Team Cats, so I will have others to show you what it looks like. I actually finished that on Sunday (Dec 7). I was hoping to finish three bags that day, but just ran out of time. 

In the meantime, I have washed and dried the cross-stitch; here's an in progress shot with all the supplies for most of the pencil cases laid out together.

I sewed those together with the other fabric that will make that side of the pencil case (and sewed together some interior fabric that wasn't quite the right shape), cut the rest of the interfacing (in fact, I wasn't paying attention and cut too much; now I have to buy some more for the last larger bag), ironed it all on, and have been sewing up a storm. I had hoped to finish the three bags that I need to mail out soonest (to your house!) last Wednesday, but instead our power went out for 2.5 days and everything got messed up, so now I am just in full assembly line mode, trying to power through all 11 Christmas present bags. Here's the latest - you can see that there are: 1) three bags where the zipper assembly is done, top stitching is complete, and I just need to sew the outer seams together/close up the final opening (top left); 2) five bags that need to be ironed so I can do the top stitching (bottom left), and 3) three bags where I'm still inserting the zipper (right). 

After Christmas, I will need to come back to the other two Team Cats bags before I see my team members in early January, and I have three bags to make for myself that I'll get to at some point. Oof!

I realized that I forgot to show you the final bicycle man, so here he is:

And, we have left one piece of fabric down in the living room, as Nairo seems to think it's his new bed. See? He's so cute.

I've got three days to get these wrapped up. Fingers crossed!!

- Catherine