Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Finished: It's a chalk bag!

I have a finished item to show! I made this chalk bag (for rock climbing) for my sister-in-law's birthday. I was scrambling to finish it at the last minute and forgot to take a photo - this blog thing is still new to me. Luckily, the happy recipient took a quick instagram photo with the "wrapping paper" bow still on, though, so that will have to do! The color is much more of a spring green in real life.
I used the free "Better than Basic Chalk Bag" pattern that Meg highlighted a few weeks ago when she made her cute chalk bags. The pattern turned out well and looks surprisingly professional, but I did puzzle over a few of the instructions, especially at the chalk cover part. I also put the grommet (my first one!) on the wrong side somehow? I checked and double-checked, gah. I grew up with rock-climber parents and chalk bags have just always been around, so it was really fun to see how these things are actually constructed. 

I do have some notes for future versions, which there may be. The instructions say to use a heavy jersey for the chalk cover, but I would say medium weight is better. The drawstring needs to close up tightly so no chalk comes out and you have to really pull with my heavy fabric. It also made the top edge so thick that I couldn't stitch the nylon webbing down with my machine, which slowed my pace down to a crawl. Hopefully my handstitching holds up!

2 comments:

  1. so cute, and great to see someone else making one! we puzzled over the chalk cover, too, but i love how the design turned out!

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    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you posted the pattern! It was really the perfect gift. I have enough cotton duck to make another, and with Mother's Day coming up a second version may be in order.

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