Here is a picture of the bags that caused my faithful Bernina 1008 to hick-up. They did get completed and sent off to new homes, but it gave me a lesson in humility, when I tried to abuse my poor machine in order to complete them. Never again will I try this sort of thing on a poor unsuspecting domestic household machine. The 2 smaller ones are more personally sized at the direction of my wife. She then promptly confiscated them and took them off to her office and I haven't seen them since, except to take them out on loan to make this picture. What is a guy to do? John
If you need a good strong 'home commercial' straight stutcher, consider getting something like a Juki TL98q! They are GREAT machines that pack more punch than the typical domestic model. I LOVE mine.
I have had a Janome 1600 for a number of years, and I know what you mean about that type of machine. But what I was doing was beyond that even. I discussed the needs with a number of industrial machine vendors and each one of them stated the need for a compound walking foot for that type of usage. Sadly I can't see my way clear to getting one for just hobby uses. And so It goes. John
John, Lovely work as always. Have you tried looking on Craigslist for a true (older)commercial machine? Granted, sometimes they can be pricey but locally I've seen them for as low as $100 in working order (or at least claiming to be). Even if it's a bit more than that it's probably cheaper than the domestic machine repair(s). Might be worth a look.
A friend of my wife's just got a really good deal on a medium to heavyweight industrial upholstery sewing machine that had been used very little. She started redoing some of her furniture, and this thing is just the ticket. I wish I had found it first. We offered to "store" it for her in our upstairs room when they go to Arizona for the winter. She just laughed. I think she paid about $100 or so, for it. Why am I never around when those things happen? John
as far as sewing machines...craigslist is a wonderful tool. also....look for any business' that do industrial sewing--MANY of them have downsized dramatically and will have machines sitting around doing nothing....you might be able to get one at a very good price.
No pattern, other than my own evolved design. I saw a similar bag in a catalog, some time ago. I said, I can do that, and after a few hours of effort, I did the first one. Since then I have refined the style. I have eliminated the outside pockets, and increased the inside pockets. The outside pockets are nice looking, but because sometimes the user causes the bag to rotate to a negative horizontal position, it makes for the potential for dumping that cell phone out on the ground. Not a good design idea. Of course you could put a flap on the outside pockets, but that just adds another level of detail, to an already full palate of features. Of course, if that is what you want then there is no reason you couldn't do it. You would have to figure out how to sew the outside pocket in place without compromising the inside pockets. Just another wrinkle to work out really. But I tell you, every element you add, adds another level of thickness to the whole pkg. If you go with light weight fabric, the whole bag is kind of sloppy feeling. If you use nice thick cotton and fold over and encase the seams and use thick batting, and interfacing on the strap, each element adds a new bit of thickness, when you go to closing those seams up. Therein lies my problem, vis-a-vis my domestic sewing machine. Finding the right balance between nice feeling cotton fabric and thin flimsy fabric, is the whole game. Therein lies perfection, and it is an elusive quest. But at least you get a lot of bags until you find the correct mix. Hope this helps. John
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