Wednesday 4 July 2012

Life of pi.............and other mathematical marvels

I have finished my sewing room which is just marvellous and has sped up my productivity no end, plus my mood is far calmer now I am not searching for pins, needles, scissors, fasteners, elastic......................you get my point. I won't tell you exactly how long it took as then you will guess at how bad it really was, Needless to say I am pleased, as are my husband and children. We can now sit down for dinner around the kitchen table without me having to shift half a made bag out of the way first.

Another thing that has happened is I have set the wheels in motion to have my own website. How exciting is this? The domain name has been bought and labels with the name Funky Yoga Bags have been ordered. There are a lot of sites online that sell yoga bags, most of them import from the East and nearly all of the bags are either too small for a decent mat or the mat has to be rolled up precisely to fit it in. So, who knows fingers crossed my offerings could be welcome.

I have already been making and sewing drawstring bags with a water bottle and iphone pocket but I wanted to also sell a zippered bag.


It took a while to deconstruct the pattern in my head. I knew how I wanted the bag to look but it was the working out of how to do it that was causing me a headache. As with all things, how I could make a zippered tube correctly came to me at midnight. I knew that all I needed to get me started drawing up the dimensions was to know how to work out the circumference of a circle. Waking up Andrew I shouted out how do you work out the circumference if you have the diameter, to which he sleepily replied 2piR (I couldn't work out how to do the symbol on my keyboard). He then fell straight back to sleep and I sat there thinking, huh?

From then on I had it nailed and actually it was simple to make. From measuring the diameter of my mat rolled up and adding on for seam allowances and extra space, I then calculated how wide each panel needed to be. As this was a trial run I didn't line it, and there are still things I am not happy with but overall the pattern works. Whoop.

close up of the zip as I was so chuffed

Its too long so I will change the pattern for next time


My aim is to have the bag big enough to hold a big mat with a towel without having to squeeze it all in. As  I am completely self taught when it comes to sewing, this style of bag had always seemed a logistical nightmare and I am dead chuffed with myself for having worked it all out.

As I type this I am being squeezed of the kitchen table by Martha and her friend who are making puppets for a puppet show that is apparently going to be performed. I better go before I disappear beneath a ton of pom poms and feathers.
  Plus this has all become rather self-congratulatory.