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Recent sewing & weaving projects

2025/11/06

The nice thing about sewing (and many crafts) is that you can just use your creations afterwards and don’t need to seek additional benefits by sharing your work online or whatever. I’m still doing this round up of my favourite projects from the past few months just for the satisfaction of seeing my efforts collected together. Some of them were gifted away so the photos remind me that they exist at all!

Weaving

I sold my rigid heddle loom because I found it was too high commitment to get out all the materials, clear space and sit down for a long session on it. Soon afterwards I was possessed by the spirit of crafts and made myself a pin loom, which lets you do short term and modular weaving.

4 small greenish orange wool squares with different textures
Testing different weave patterns (I later sewed some of these together to make a cushion for my camera to rest on).

a tiny wool bag woven with navy background and pink dotted lines
A drawstring bag made from two pin loom squares, now holding my quilting clips.

To be honest, I haven’t been doing much weaving because I am conscious that I’m about to head to a hot country where I won’t need thick fabrics, and that is all the pin loom can make… but the feeling of going from a fiber to a piece of cloth is uniquely satisfying and I will return to it another time.

Sashiko

I got into sashiko (and also learned how to darn) because I wanted to repair a t-shirt, but it’s also a lot of fun to research or make these little geometric designs, choose fabrics and colours, etc.

different rectangles of fabric, layered and stitched with contrasting sashiko patterns

These are small towels made from old clothes (zokin). I use them to dust, wipe spills and I use the nicer ones as large coasters (maybe they shouldn’t be called zokin if they are used for that…)

two coasters with kakinohana (flower like repeating grid patterns) blue embroidery

These are actual coasters. I mostly followed a tutorial by The Green Wrapper on YouTube.

a zippered pouch with contrasting purple and green fabric, and a grid of red stitching

This bag has a layer of felt sandwiched between the inside and outside and it was quilted together with sashiko thread, so I’m putting it in this section, but it is more of a fusion. Again, I mostly followed a tutorial by bookhou on YouTube.

Pouches and tool rolls

These are why I got into sewing in the first place, because it is difficult to find cheap and nice containers and I wanted to make my own.

a square drawstring bag with green flowery fabric and blue and red twisted drawstrings
This very floppy square bag was my first sewing project (I have since learned about interfacing). I even twisted the drawstrings myself using a reverse wrap cordage method, which allowed me to use some of my old weaving yarns.

a canon lens inside the bag and lens caps in an inner pocket
While using it to hold sewing items I added sashiko reinforcement and a pocket. I have switched to using it as a camera lens bag and discovered that the pocket is perfect for lens caps.

a round bottomed, tall drawstring bag mostly made of pale green fabric
This is the upgraded sewing bag I made after. The patchwork outside was made somewhat randomly out of leftovers (I had a better plan, but forgot to check the fiber content of one of my fabrics and things went wrong when I tried to iron it).

the inside of the bag is made of canvas and has various tools like needles, scissors, thimbles, a hera marker, pincushion
I am very pleased with the inside. It has pockets similar to a tool roll and rolled felt bars to hold my needles for quick access. Holding items vertically using gravity makes it easy to remove and replace them, even by touch alone.

a green cuboid pincushion with multicoloured pins stuck into it randomly
I am thinking of making a smaller pincushion for the bag and retiring this one to the sewing supplies box. It was made using the ‘English paper piecing’ method which appeals to me because it allows me to construct accurate nets for 3D geometric shapes.

a denim tool roll with green patterned edging and white sashiko decoration, holding tools such as a craft knife, bone folder, awl, scissors and mechanical pencil
This is the most satisfying item I have made so far, a tool roll for my bookbinding supplies! It was a big upgrade from the sandwich bag I kept them in before. I only wish it had a magical pocket big enough for my 30cm long metal ruler.

tags: sewing, weaving.