The Second Mitten! the turquoise bag and my Singer

The Second Mitten is now finished (see previous post regarding Boy Knitting). Knitted, that is, but not assembled. This is what the mitten looks like, so now you can see how a double layered striped mitten was knitted in one big piece. I would never think to knit a mitten like this, it seems like a lot of trouble, but they turned out great, and Bradley is really happy with them.

Myself, I finally lined the turquoise bag, and I'm really happy with it. It turned out that the courdoroy lining was thick enough to keep the top part from being too floppy without any use of interfacing, and the colour worked well. I also found a bit of nice stripey fabric to line the pocket. The tricky part with lining a buttonhole style bag was the buttonholes themselves. I did it by cutting the lining in two horizontally, and sewing together the top and bottom of each side while leaving a gap where the buttonholes were. Then pressing it flat and sewing the lining in as usual. The top part needed to be overstitched by hand because it was a stretch courdoroy and the sewing machine was stretching it too much. I could have adjusted the tension, but with my old sewing machine it's not that easy. This is a picture of my beautiful sewing machine! I love it, but it has some limitations. For those who are interested in sewing machines, it's a Singer Lock stitch model 128-13, with the Egyptian scrollwork on the faceplate. I have attachments for zigzag stitching and buttonholes (which I rarely use) and it came in excellent condition with lots of extra feet and the manual at a flea market for $100. I love it. I also have a white Featherweight, but that's a story for another posting.