What Happened to the August U-Pick…

Nobody likes bad news, and no one likes to share bad news either. I’m hoping, however, that this will be good news too – at least to some of you!

The photo above is the double zipper case that was our August U-Pick Winner (40.55% of you voted for it). Well, I didn’t like sewing it at all!

My goal for SewCanShe sewing patterns is to provide easy techniques and detailed instructions so ANYONE can succeed. And have fun sewing too!

After buying the actual zipper case from Target (it was only $5) and taking some measurements, I sewed this one. I used two layers of fabric fused together with HeatnBond lite in order to get a similar weight to the polyester canvas fabric used in the store bought one.

It was doable, but not fun. I had never sewn a straight strip of clear vinyl directly to a curved piece of vinyl, and I hated it. I usually try to sew vinyl only to fabric because that’s pretty easy. There were other steps that were tricky too.

The whole time I wondered how many of my readers would enjoy sewing this if I didn’t enjoy it. Many might give up.

And then the case turned out floppy. Not attractive at all in my opinion. So why sew it? I want you to be happy with the things you sew from my patterns!

Then I tried a different approach: quilted fabric and foam stabilizer instead of HeatnBond, and a boxy case with NO curves.

It turned out much prettier, but the clear side can’t hold very much so it’s not very functional. I didn’t like this one either.

Then I decided to combine both techniques. I went back to the old design and used quilted fabric with it. The quilted fabric has more body and looks better, but I still hated sewing the vinyl together around the curves!

The second time I did it, those vinyl curves looked even worse than the first!

Maybe that was because I was rushing.

Regardless, I couldn’t finish it. I actually threw it on the floor and left my sewing room.

So… what will I do now? My goal is to write patterns that 100% of my readers can achieve beautiful results with. I want to make sewing fun, not frustrating. If and when I write a pattern for this double sided zipper case, it will need to be very detailed and include videos. Maybe I’ll make another video course.

But for now I am moving on to something way more fun and easy.

I remembered that 39.33% of you voted for this sweet and simple gnome! That’s probably only a few people less than voted for the zipper case.

So everyone who wanted another gnome sewing pattern should be really happy because it’s coming soon!

UPDATE: The Easy Gnome Pattern is ready. Enjoy!

xoxo,