Pattern Weights and Storage Bag

I am still working on the shoulder pads for the 1952 dress.  Of course, I used the rotary cutter when I cut them out which made me realize that I could use some small, flexible, low-height pattern weights.  My first thought was to make weights about the size of a roll of pennies.  I cut the fabric (the leftovers from my jean jacket) 3” wide and 6” long; folded the fabric in half and sewed ¼” seams, leaving one end open.  A chopstick was handy to help turn the fabric.

Filling the fabric tubes with BBs was easy.  I couldn’t find my kitchen funnel, which was probably too big anyway.  I ended up borrowing a silicone mini-muffin cup from my bento supplies.  It worked great and had I located my funnel, I would have still used the little muffin cup. By the way, it took 4 ounces of BBs to fill the fabric tubes. I didn’t fill them to the top as I wanted the finished weights to have flexibility; also, it left room to sew them closed without the machine needle hitting a BB.

I made some larger weights, too.  For those, I cut the fabric 4” by 11”, using ½” seam allowances.  They were filled with 12 ounces of BBs.

As always, storing my sewing items in this little house is a challenge.  So, while I am sewing them I am already planning where they are going to go. None of my available boxes or tins were the right shape or size. However, there was a large piece of the fabric left so I thought I could make some type of pouch for the weights.  For a pattern, I chose view C of Simplicity 9949 as it was about the right size.  I have had this pattern for years but it is still on the Simplicity website.  I modified the pattern by adding five inches to the bag.  The outer fabric was block fused with heavy interfacing and handles were attached once the bag was finished.

Because I didn’t know where I was heading when I started this project, I was happy to use scraps.  The bag is sturdy enough for the weights, but when making the next one, I will give it more structure by using some Timtex, template plastic, or something similar.

I think the weights would be wonderful made up using embroidered ribbons (reinforced with fusible interfacing) instead of fabric.  Wouldn’t they be a pleasure to use?  Also, the bag could be embellished with some of the same ribbon and/or quilted.  Leather for both the weights and the bag is appealing, too.

Well, I’m not placing an online order for leather scraps or embroidered ribbons anytime soon.  I want to see how well these work and what other changes, if any, need to be made. Prototype. Yep. That’s it.