Have passport, will travel

I have my passport back! I can travel again!

I'm not sure I mentioned before, but I've been without my passport for a few weeks. I feel sort of lost without my passport. It needed to be renewed before the summer and I figured that I may as well do it now whilst I don't have to go anywhere. Cue form filling and new photographs, simple so far.

A little while after I posted everything off, I got a letter from the passport office saying they had tried to phone me and hadn't got a reply. This is hardly suprising given the hours I work, so I called them back. I thought they were going to query the photograph, as I bore more than a passing resemblance to Wednesday Addams ten years ago and they don't allow dark and brooding semi-profile shots with long hair draped over your face anymore. It was actually wierder than that - they wanted a copy of my degree certificate as they wanted to put it on the observations page. I was a bit surprised at this and slightly concerned it would be the fastest way to ensure I got cavity searched everytime I travel. I declined politely and managed to convince them it wasn't necessary as I wouldn't be much help if someone collapsed on the plane anyway as the extent of my medical training is a first aid at work certificate. Anyway, I have it back now - thankfully without any indication of what I do plastered all over the back page. It never even crossed my mind they'd collect that sort of data and makes me wonder what else they have on me. I hate being quizzed at airports - "Oh, I work with viruses now, but before then I worked in a lab designing drugs" is probably not an advisable way to present yourself. It's not as exciting as it sounds. I work with a virus that gives cows the squirts and before then I was making sugars that would get stuck to that bug you find in cat poo.

Still, as it's new and shiny I figured it would be nice to make a cover for it to stop it getting covered in backpack sticky, fluff, sand and diet coke like my last one.

Since the sewing machine and I are getting on alright at the moment, fabric is the way forward. I have this fabric. I've had it ages. It came out the remnant bin in a charity store in Oxford city centre originally. I thought it was one length, but when I got it home I realised that it was actually several small bits stapled together and because of that it's been in my fabric bag ever since. I think someone had been trying to make cushion covers, then got disturbed.



If I cut out a strip roughly twice the length of my passport I can sew it into a book shape with two open ends.



If I then turn it inside out, it will hide the seams.



...checking to see if it will fit...



...and finish off with a few very old buttons. I love these buttons :)



I just hope it stops it getting as messy as my last one!

It's that bag again...

The sewing machine and I don't talk about the last tote bag incident. We sort of skirt round the issue, laugh nervously then change the subject. There was much thread snapping, much cursing and I still have a half-finished (read: totally destroyed) unevenly stiched mess of inverted seams in my fabric bag. I am going to leave it there as a warning - a bit like the shrunken heads displayed outside scary tribal villages in old movies.

A couple of weeks ago I was out in the styx renewing my first aid certificate at the local St John's ambulance centre, a process which happens every three years. In my lunch hour, I came across a wonderful haberdashery store and pulled a good few metres of really thick cotton out of the remnant bins. Like most haberdashery stores, remnants can't be cut - but unlike most haberdashery stores these remnants were between three and seven metres long, really pretty good quality fabric and amazingly good value.

Like most crafters, I horde fabric. I can't sew for toffee, but I have bags of the stuff. I just get it out every now and again and play with it.



This was one of the larger bits I acquired. It's 6.5 metres in length, bright and stripy. They guy in the store said only a special sort of person buys fabric like that. I'm going to take it as a compliment.



As usual I'm just winging it. It's not too bad with this fabric though, because it's stripy, so easy to cut straight. I'm going to start by cutting a strip of fabric about 80 cm wide and 90 cm long - then folding it in half length ways so the pattern is on the inside. Then I'm going to run the sewing machine down both sides so I get a 35 cm ish by 90 cm tube with two seams.



If I then turn my tube inside out and fold it in on itself, I end up with something that looks like a lined tube but with the side seams hidden. I can pull the bottom of the tube through the top and sew through one layer closing one end of the tube.



Then I can sew the base in place on the inside. This leave me with three hidden seams and the one you can see is at the bottom of the bag on the inside. If I was going to line it - you wouldn't even see that one, but as it's already two layers thick and it's really heavy cotton, I'm going to leave it. It is - suprisingly - a fairly tidy seam, so I'm not even going to tack a ribbon over it. It's hard to show all this, it's a bit like fabric origami.



It's a little taller than I want it - so I'm going to tuck the top over and sew it in place once I've done the handles. If I was going to line it - I'd stitch the lining underneath this strip. It also allows me the opportunity to stitch an inner pocket in place if I want to at a later date.



Handles next - one strip folded at the edges then folded again. I've stitched down both sides to make it even.



I can attach these by running the sewing machine over the ends.



A few buttons to finish off and that's it.



I must admit I really enjoyed making this, the machine behaved perfectly, with no snapping or breaking. So this might be the truce I was looking for :)