Grow, Make, Learn, Thrive: January 2019

I've been using this rabbit "stake" to soften the hides from the kits we dispatched in December, plus a backlog of stiff, dried hides from whole rabbits I'd purchased some years back.

I had heard that some people work their hides over the back of a chair but I wasn't having any luck with that, and doing it with my fingers (as the person who taught me about processing rabbits does) was a nightmare. Chase discovered this tool in a book. I was surprised, as I'd already read a lot about working hides online and had never come across this.

It was a revelation. The pointed edge is much more effective at scraping and stretching than anything I'd tried before. I can sit comfortably in a chair with my thighs over the base to keep it steady, and use minimal arm movement.

Now that I finally have an effective tool, I'm learning more about the proper dampness of the hide to soften it permanently. I'd definitely been working with the hides too wet when I first tried a few years ago - I would stretch them and then they would stiffen completely as they finished drying. Lately I've been erring on the other side with too dry. I've been using a squirt bottle and damp towels to soften just the hide and not the fur itself, and experimenting with various degrees of dampness. I'm doing one at a time instead of a big batch.

Here's a hide that dried out soon after I started working on it:

Here's the same hide a few days later, after I'd re-moistened it and was able to work it thoroughly:

24 hours later it had still stiffened a bit more more than I expected, but is still suitable for my primary goal (dog toys).

So far I've done seven and only one has come close to perfect. I'm guessing it will take 30 or so to really get this down.

I whipped up these four self-lined drawstring pouches the day before leaving for my Christmas vacation. I filled them with homemade cookies and gave them as presents. They were a hit!

They were so fun and versatile that I decided to put together a tutorial for making your own. It took me two hours to make these four, so about thirty minutes each. It's a perfect beginner project. Lots of pictures included to help! Click on any picture to see it pop up in a bigger size.

What you will need:

Paper, pencil/pen, and scissors to draw and cut out your template.
Fabric (large enough for you to hold in half and cut out template twice).
Sewing machine, thread, fabric scissors.
String or yarn.
Tapestry needle (for pulling yarn through bag).

First draw up a template for how you want the pouch to look. It should have a straight line at the top (where it will open). I wanted mine to be fishbowl shaped, like a classic old-timey pouch. You can make your pouch rectangular or square or longer or shorter. It needs to be wide enough that the opening of the bag (double the length of your straight line) will be able to fit around the base of your sewing machine so that you can sew parallel to that edge.

Sketch your pattern out on paper, and fold the paper in half vertically as you cut it out, to ensure that it will be symmetrical.

Lay out your fabric so that it is folded in half where the straight line at the top is. Cut out TWO of these. (I recommend ironing your fabric after you fold it, before cutting. Go ahead and iron over the crease, as it will be helpful later.)

This is what I've cut out (second one not shown). You need two since the pouch will have two sides.

Unfold it at the top. For each side of the pouch, one half of this shape will be on the outside and the other half will be the inside lining.

Lay the two parts you've cut out together, with the pretty side of the fabric hidden between.

You're about to sew the two parts together all the way around, EXCEPT where I've indicated between my index finger and thumb. You'll want this section to be about 2-2.5 inches. This will be where you flip the pouch inside out so that the pretty side of the fabric is showing. It will also be the hole through which the string comes out, so this hole MUST start just below that horizontal crease in the fabric where it was previously folded.

Start sewing at the bottom part of where the hole will be, and go all the way around until you get to the top of the hole.

Ta-da! (I ironed the fabric after sewing so that it would look nicer for the picture. This isn't necessary for this project, but if you move on to sewing clothes or other fancy things, you'll want to get in the habit of ironing over all of your seams to help the thread settle in and help everything stay even.)

Now go to that hole and open it up.

Gently start pushing the fabric from the inside of the pouch through the hole, to turn it inside out.

Almost all the way inside out...

Done flipping inside out! It won't look very nice at this point.

Use your fingers, a capped pen, or other blunt narrow object to push against the seam from the inside, and even everything out.

Looking much better after pushing the seams out.

Now here's where the magic happens - flipping it so that it will have its final pouch shape! Hold your fabric so that the hole is toward you, on the bottom half of the pouch. Pull the left and right sides of the fabric apart, so there's space on the inside.

Begin stuffing the top half down into that space.

Now it's self-lined!

And it has our final desired shape!

Iron the pouch so the fabric lies nice and flat, and the top is creased instead of balloon-y.

Go back to where the hole is. You're going to sew the hole up by going along the very edge of the fabric, except for a small section at the very top (where the string will be going into the bag).

I was in a hurry and used white thread here, but if you use thread that matches your fabric color, this seam won't be very noticeable on the final product. I left about a 1/2" hole for my string at the top.

Turn the pouch so that it wraps around the base of your machine, and sew a line ALL the way around, about 1/2" from the top (or however long your remaining hole is). This is the casing for your string - it will keep the string at the top of the bag as its opened and closed repeatedly.