Sewalong Challenge #8 Complete

Whoohoo, finished one!
I've been so far behind this feels like a huge victory XD
It wasn't what I meant to do, and the whole thing took me maybe 20 minutes, but, it fulfills the challenge so I'll take it.

Some time ago some friends bought me this teeshirt:

It's a little hard to tell because of the lighting but... it's tan. 

I appreciated the thought, 'cause as they well knew I love Magneto. But I don't care for brown. The only brown thing in my wardrobe is my jedi cloak, and that's only allowed because... jedi cloak.

So I folded it up and put it aside until I could decide what to do with it. My original thought was to make a red backpack with purple trim and cut out the picture and applique it to it. But when I got it out earlier this month along with a bunch of other teeshirts I'd set aside to refashion (funnily, I was actually looking for a different shirt from the same friends in particular) the print was much larger than I'd remembered. Aaaaand I decided I just didn't like it enough to go through all the effort of making a cute backpack.

Well! 

I recently started following Matt from the Great British Sewing Bee at Sew What's New (if you haven't watched that show, you should, it's full of really lovely, nice, creative people. I'm particularly fond of the history bits, and Patrick), and he posted a tee shirt refashion just this month.

I've seen these tee shirt bags before, but his tutorial is a nice clear one and I hadn't thought of zigzagging the edges to prevent overstretching.

Anyway, so I did that.

Challenge #8, Something Geek Inspired, done!
Also it's a refashion, so technically Challenge #6 done also 8D

And bonus, yesterday's harvest:

Water Bottle Holder Tutorial

So I've been pretty scatter brained lately (uuuuh... the last two years...) and making stupid mistakes in my sewing, just from not paying attention. I've found that running a mental commentary as if I were making a tutorial really helps me stay focused. So when I was making this, I thought why not just actually make it a tutorial?
Plus sometimes it helps to try to figure out how to put things into words rather than vague hand gestures.
So any C&C would be welcome!

My gramma asked me to make her a new insulated water bottle holder, she had this one she'd bought that either was for her old water bottle or she'd just bought it not knowing if it'd fit or... something. I'm really not sure. Point is it didn't fit the water bottle she uses now.
Fortunately, we have the same water bottle! This one from Target (coincidentally, we even bought the same colour). So I measured the base and the height and made a mockup for my own water bottle. I say mockup, what I mean is I just went for it 8D;; And made some adjustments to her's.

Anyway! You will need:
- Two 7.5" x 22" pieces of fabric (I'm using quilting cotton scraps) for lining and shell
- One 7.5" x 22" insulation piece (I just have whatever they had at the quilt store, I think it's Insul-Bright)
- Two 2" x 8.25" pieces of fabric for the cording channel
- Two 2" x 5" pieces of fabric for the tabs
- Two 1" x 5" pieces of interfacing for the tabs
- Two 16" pieces of cording

OPTIONAL:
- One 7.5" x 9.5" "Base," if using directional fabric like I did cut two 7.5" x 5" pieces

Seam allowance is .25" unless otherwise stated.

Continued after the break!

Sewalong Challenge #8 Inspiration - Something Geek Inspired

Augh, in my mind it was "Something Quilted" and I was already sad because I didn't finish my quilt for the WIP challenge (truth be told, I hardly touched it) and I've been thinking of it for like a week now. While I'm doing dishes, while I'm gardening... while I'm at work.... wondering what I could possibly quilt that's not actually my quilt.

I even thought about quilting my sister's quilt! Which she started last month, and is already at the quilting stage. She's 12 years younger than me, so it's making me feel like a slacker!

But today... I actually looked at the chart. "Something Quilted" is for December!
September is "Geek Inspired."

Which actually might be more challenging 'cause where do I even start? I have SO MANY "geek" sewing plans.

Technically, my Game of Thrones Messenger Bag fulfills this challenge (and July's refashion challenge!) but, new things!

But in the bags vein, I have several SDCC bags I'd like to refashion, I don't have pics of all of them but here are two I remember:

 These bags are huge and refashion really nicely.

I'd also like to inject some more general geek into my wardrobe, but we'll see!