Oops.... Didn't mean to leave the blog empty for this long. I haven't been working on many blog-able projects lately with Christmas coming up. I'm not going to spoil Christmas-morning surprises for the sake of blog content!

I did sew something for myself recently. If you follow my Instagram feed, you will have seen that I'm totally hooked on English Paper Piecing and specifically hexies. I entered into this new sewing project slowly. I upgraded an Altoids tin with a pincushion to hold needles, some hexie pieces,  folding scissors, and thread for basting on the go. I quickly grew out of that solution. As I moved from basting to stitching rosettes, I needed a larger on-the-go hexie sewing catch-all. Around that time, I was also seeing photos from Aneela Hoey's new book all over social media. The cover project is the Fold-Up Sewing Folio. I immediately saw the potential for this folio to house all my EPP necessities.




I struggle to make anything without modification, so I made a few changes to the folio.

- I chose to piece the main "lining" section along the left foldline. As I was using scraps of my flamingo pajama fabric, I didn't want to waste it in the unseen lining of the flap pocket.
-The flap pattern piece as drafted has four facets, if that makes sense. Instead of a nice rounded flap it has three angles. I used a French curve to smooth this out into a neat curve which I think gives a much cleaner finish. And I didn't have to pivot at the points and poke them out.
-I extended the vinyl piece by about 1/2" so that it there would be less of a gap between the vinyl and top/bottom seams. I didn't like the look of the gap between the vinyl edges and the folio edges.
-Since I knew this would be a dedicated hexie-sewing accessory, I had to hexie-fy it. I used 1/2" hexies in the flamingo fabric to make a pincushion instead of the rectangle called for in the pattern. My pincushion is filled with crushed walnut shells and is detachable thanks to the inclusion of Velcro pieces on the folio and pincushion.
-Again, since I knew this would be for hexies, I decided to include a dedicated thread-holding solution in my folio. I use individual bobbins of my basting and stitching thread rather than carry full spools around. The plastic Handi-Bob I tacked in means that I can hold my bobbin in the folio and pull off a length of thread easily. I keep my spare bobbins in the flap pocket to switch out colors/types of thread as needed.
-As drafted, the body of the folio has a layer of medium-weight fusible interfacing and a layer of fusible fleece. This felt too "floppy" for me. I would rather have a sturdier base to work on and to shield my paper pieces from crushing when the folio was stuffed in a purse. I added a piece of Pellon 71F just to the center section of the folio. This gives great structure and helps the entire folio keep it's shape when closed.

Project Review:
I can say with certainty that this was a complete success. I've been using the folio for all my hexie sewing, inside or out of the house, for a few weeks now. The two zipper pouches are a good size to keep all my pieces and notions together. I've fit 15+ sets of hexie rosettes in the vinyl pouch with no issue. The Handi-Bob works like a charm. The only thing I would say is that the slip-pockets in the center-section are rather useless. I haven't found anything to keep in them that won't fall out if the folio is anywhere but flat on a table. I might replace the slip pockets with another zipper pocket if I made this again.



Book Review:
This is the first project I've made from the book but it won't be my last. The Folio is clearly the star, and there are a few projects that are almost throwaways (Needle Book, Tomato pincushion) but I think it's a good collection of projects for the beginner to intermediate seamstress.

The full-color photos are the best part of the book. And honestly they are a savior when sewing. The illustrations provided in-line with the instructions appear hand-drawn and lack some of the clarity I would hope to see in a published book. Luckily, the project instructions I've read through are not so complicated that you couldn't resolve any confusion with a good study of the project photos.

The pattern pieces are provided on a sturdy piece of paper. Tracing or photo-copying is required though as the paper is printed on both sides. However there really aren't many pattern pieces required as so many of the projects feature unpatterned rectangles.