I was on a roll after finishing the black pants. I wore them that weekend to the Denver ASG chapter’s fabric sale. On the way home, I stopped at the local quilt store to buy two By Annie patterns: the In Control Caddy and the Catch All Caddy.
Pam and I had another sewing playdate scheduled later that week so I could make a caddy to take to our ASG retreat at the end of April. I already had the perfect sewing-themed fabric for it in my stash. But there was only enough to make one, and I didn’t know which size would be better.
The In Control Caddy is smaller than the Catch All Caddy. So when my stash yielded plenty of this fun knitting-themed fabric, I figured I’d make one of each before deciding on the size for the sewing one.
Here’s what they looked like when the quilting and cutting was finished:
At Pam’s house that week, I made the smaller one. All that was needed was to finish the binding. But the process was a bear, and I didn’t like how the binding looked. And then, that very evening, YouTube showed me this fabulous binding hack.
I woke up super early the next morning, just itching to fix the binding.
After some quality time with the seam ripper, it was time to try again. The binding hack made it a thousand times easier! Sewing on the binding when the side piece is flat is a breeze. And it gives you a nice 1/4” stitching line to follow when you add the front and back pieces.
I think the “binding hack” instructions should totally be part of the pattern. So much easier!
I love how my knitting project fits in it. There’s enough room to spare for when I’m knitting a sweater, but not so much that it would feel half-empty otherwise. All my knitting buddies heaped compliments on the caddy that weekend 😄
A week later, I finished the larger caddy. Here they are side by side:
In the end, both of them went to the retreat. The smaller one with my knitting project in it, and the larger one stuffed with most of my sewing and pressing supplies. They were a hit with everyone, and I loved how the various pockets and dividers kept my things organized and easy to access.
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Changes I made:
For the smaller caddy, I left out one of the bellowed inner dividers because I knew I wouldn’t need it in a knitting bag. The other divider has two compartments, which is plenty for me.
I also left one of the outer pockets large, without any stitching to divide it. I wasn’t sure what would go in it, but I wanted one pocket to run the full length of the caddy, just in case.
No structural changes on the larger caddy.
I added a label on each one, and used the easy binding hack on both. The binding is hand-finished instead of edge-stitched because I find hand sewing a nice Zen-like activity for a weekend afternoon, and it gives me more control to boot.
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For tracking purposes: the In Control caddy took 2.25 yds and the Catch All needed 3 yds, which puts me at 28 yds sewn up YTD.
I’ve been sewing a lot and blogging… well, not hardly at all, so stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 of this catch-up series.
Happy sewing!
