Recently Womble had his 2nd unplanned hospital admission for the year. Each time I was basically toss items in a bag prior to ringing for an ambulance, I would forget items and we would have to purchase them again. We have decided that we should make up “hospital” bag to have on standby. We would make up a packed bag with the essential items he needs if he goes to hospital for a few days, all the items would permanently live in the bag. The only things we would need to add each time is his latest book and my knitting. Years ago we had one made up with some items but he went for a long period of time without going to hospital we disassembled the bag.
We have a toiletries bag already for when we go away but it is largish. For hospital you don’t need one that size. I decided to make him a mini version of our large one. In my stash I found a fat quarter of laminated cotton. It is a piece of cotton with a waterproof coating on the printed side. Looking back I purchased it in 2014 with the plans on making my snack bags. I clearly never made the snack bags and it has sat in my stash ever since. When looking for potential fabric for this mini toiletry bag it was perfect. It wasn’t feminine, it was practical by being waterproof and it was sitting idle doing nothing. For the inside I was able to use a scrap of the same ripstop nylon I used on our large toiletry bag. I placed my pattern pieces on different section of the leftover nylon so that minimal fabric was cut. I still have a small piece of the nylon leftover to use in another project sometime.
In addition to a pouch for toiletries I wanted to make up a pouch to sit on his hospital bedside table. He often keeps a few small items within reach of the bed on his bedside table. These items can easily be knocked off the table. In my mind I envisaged a small clear pouch so that he could see what was inside it but big enough to hold a few items.
In my stash I knew I had some clear vinyl. I think I got it years ago in one of the Sew Boxes when I got them each month. I think I have only use it in 2 projects over the years. I remembered that when I had sewn with it I didn’t like it. It was hard to work with as it stuck to the sewing bed. This time I did some research for tips when sewing with it. It was suggested that use a Teflon foot. I have regular Teflon foot but I didn’t have a zipper Teflon foot. I’m not sure if you can even get them for my machine but even if you could I don’t install zippers on that many items which are sticky such as vinyl or plastic. It was suggested instead of a Teflon zipper foot you could place a piece of tap under your zipper foot to help it glide over the vinyl. They also suggested using a larger stitch length.
I cut out my vinyl pouch first and began installing the zipper. Originally I had the zipper underneath the vinyl held in place with tape. On my first attempt I missed some of the vinyl as my foot was too far over. I decided to unpick it but sewing would wait for another day.
On day 2 of vinyl pouch construction it occurred to me that I should make the toiletry bag at the same time. Part of the toiletry bag had the laminated cotton which would be sticky under the presser foot so it made sense to install the zippers on both at the same time with tape under the foot and to use the Teflon foot on both for the pouch construction. Sometimes I get so focused on a project I become oblivious to the logical stuff.
On the 2nd attempt at the zipper I stitched the zipper in the normal fashion as I would making a zipper pouch. The only difference was I didn’t include a lining fabric on the inside of the pouch. Originally on the laminated pouch I top stitched along the zipper on one side like I normally do when making pouches. Unfortunately the fabric was getting stuck on the sewing bed and wasn’t gliding under the machine even though I used a longish stitch length. I didn’t like the look of it so I tried to remove it. Unfortunately, the stitches became very short and I wasn’t able to easily rip them out. I can normally unpick and rip out small stitches as I have don’t it many times but this was another level. In the end I only unpicked about half of them. Normally I don’t give up and it was frustrating me to no end that I wanted to. I asked Womble if his OCD could handle it if I left only half the stitches in. I had to really to remind myself that the stitches were insignificant, the pouch was still functional even if they were left as is. It was more important to actually get in and finish the construction of the pouch instead of wasting time removing stitches that didn’t matter. So I left them in and moved on.
After discovering how much it was catching on the sewing bed as I was doing the top stitching I decided to place a piece of tearaway stabliser underneath the seams to glide across the sewing bed easier. The stabiliser and the Teflon foot made assembling the rest of the pouches so much easier. I have a large roll of stabliser in my stash, I need to remember to use it more as it does take away some of the sewing stress.
I am really happy with both pouches. The fabrics and zippers all came from my existing stash. I do have some vinyl and laminated cotton leftover but it was good to get in and use some of it in a practical way. I am slowly trying to sew through my fabrics without buying more unless I actually need them for a project. I have a large zipper stash, at times I may have to purchases zips if I need a particular length or colour which I don’t have for a project. In a couple of years if my zip stash gets too low I will replenish it. These days I’m only keeping stash supplies of items I actually use. Items I don’t use frequently I’m using up but not replacing.
Both pouches have now been filled with items and are in a temporary hospital bag ready to be used if need. There is some sticky residue on the vinyl pouch from where I held the zipper in place with tape. It will come off in time. It doesn’t interfere with the function of the pouch so we are both not worried about it. We have nick named the vinyl pouch his “Prison Pouch” as in the state where we live Prison Guards are issued with a clear vinyl bag to use at their workbag so that you can see the contents inside. Our local hospital treats prisoners and we often see prison guards during shift changeover carrying their bags as they go to and from the patient’s bedside.
Cassiy