Monday 26 June 2017

Market Machine Bag

I recently bought a new vintage machine, a lightweight model to take to meet-ups and Modern Quilt Guild meetings. She's an Elna Lotus SP dating from mid to late 1970s and although she comes ready to carry, I thought I would make a bag to keep her in to stop her getting banged about in the car and to keep the dust off whilst in the house.  I've been longing to make the Market bag from Anna Graham's Handmade Style book and the dimensions were the perfect fit for the machine and pedal.



I made a few modifications:
  • Added zip casings and an open ended zip so the bag closed partially across the top
  • Added plastic canvas to the bag base, holding the edges in place with some big hand stitches. This is all covered by the lining
Otherwise, it was as instructed in the book  I used materials from my stash including a long treasured Japanese zip from Ayumi and some fabric vintage scraps. The linen was a carboot sale purchase from a few weeks back and the leather on the handles was from a leather cushion cover bought years ago in a charity shop and last seen in used for a pocket on the Aeroplane bag!




I used a mix of By Annies Soft & Stable and Bosal In R Foam Sew-in scraps left over from other projects and zig zagged them like with quilt batting but it collapsed at the join so I added an extra strip over the top during the quilting process and that worked just fine. The Soft and Stable has a slightly nicer feel but that's purely subjective and they both sew easily and add structure.


It was my first time sewing leather handles. I added some of the canvas Denyse Schmidt lining fabric to strengthen them and I stitched them using Schmetz leather needle, along stitch and a walking foot. This leather is quite thin so it was straightforward.


The straps can take the full weight of the bag but I tend to carry it underneath just to reduce the strain.   I'm really pleased with it, a lovely pattern from a very useful book, perfect size for the new-to-me machine and I enjoy seeing those special vintage prints against the linen.
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12 comments:

  1. I loved your bag so much I ordered a copy of Anna's book! Your Lotus is the first machine I ever used - my mother bought it in 1972 (after much persuasion on my part since she didn't sew at all but I was taking evening classes and loving it! - that machine was really expensive - I think $235 which at that time in Canada was a small fortune - about the same as my parent's mortgage at the time!) I loved that machine. My father took an upholstery class however and broke the machine. Sadly I have no idea where it ended up. How wonderful it was to see one of it's mates in your lovely bag :)

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    1. That's such a sweet comment Kathleen! It is a lovely machine, I've wanted one for ages as the design is timeless and was ground breaking when it came out.

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  2. Gorgeous, lucky sewing machine. x

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    1. As a mature model, she deserves some comfort!

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  3. that's lovely! I always enjoy reading about your detail/process :-)

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    1. Thankyou! It feels a little old fashioned to write a detailed blog post these days but I still enjoy doing it, love a bit of geeky sewing detail.

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  4. I have this book and now I'm wondering why I've not made anything. Maybe because I got a copy just as I seemed to lose sewing mojo. Your bag makes me want to go sew! I need to get back to it asap!

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    1. I've made a few things from it and as with Anna's pattern in general, they always come out well. I hope you get your sewjo back!

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  5. This is beautiful and I love your addition of the zip, what a great idea!

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    1. Thankyou! It was really quite easy to do as the casing attaches at the top edge of the bag and is hidden by the binding.

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  6. That was my 21st birthday present in 1979. It's still in the loft but has lost a small piece at the moment.

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