By Annie In Control Kit + FREE Kitten Embroidery Pattern

Submitted by Jessie on Fri, 22/07/2022 - 07:07
By Annie In Control Sewing Pattern & Kit

The By Annie 'In Control' pattern is a sturdy little caddy that's handy for a multitude of purposes. It has lots of pockets and expanding dividers for storing away essential items. It's a fun sewing project with lots of steps and clear instructions to guide you on the way. We have put together some kits for you to make as well. Choose from supplies kits or complete kits with the fabrics I have used.

     

I'm never one for following things to the letter so I made some edits to the version I recently. Mine is being used in the nursery as a nappy organiser so I added some embroidery and decided to hand quilt it. No quick task but it was good practice! So we have another kit option to include cotton wadding instead of the foam stabiliser. My handles are floppier too, as I used cotton tape and firm interfacing instead of the polypropelene and foam stabiliser called for in the pattern. We have some nice hardware for our kits, the darker finish is a little more subtle, though they are a touch wider than the 1" recommended so I increased the width of the padded handles on mine to account for it. Details on my edits made to the pattern can be found below.

Each step is explained well, I made two errors, though only through lack of reading carefully and being impatient, i.e. not turning over the page and reading the pattern from start to finish before starting! (I made the interior pockets the same on each side and I put the binding on the inside instead of the outside! But I might have done that anyway had I realised!? She says!). If you were really going to town you could add more embroidery to the expanding pockets on the inside too. You might be daunted by the number of pages in the pattern and feel swamped halfway through but once you have everything cut and quilted (either machine or hand) and the handles complete (I had to read those instructions a number of times!), you'll be well on your way to finishing. Creating the same size expanding pockets as I did for the interior does save time too, if you wanted to do that intentionally. 

     

 

Jessie Edits to By Annie In Control Sewing Pattern

1A. Cutting

From coordinating fabric cut:

  • Padded Handles – two 4-1/2” x 17” (width is bigger to account for slightly wider metal rectangle rings provided).

From fusible interfacing cut:

  • Padded Handles - two 4-1/2” x 17” 

From 1” wide strapping cut:

  • Padded Handles – two 16”
  1. I did not use Soft and Stable (foam stabiliser) for main bag sections to allow for hand quilting. Instead used cotton wadding for ‘Quilted Sets A,B,C’. I hand quilted 1” diagonal lines, using a Hera marker, YLI hand quilting thread in the colour Natural and an Tulip Hiroshima embroidery needle.
  2. Follow cutting instructions for Soft and Stable but replace with cotton wadding – and ignore Handle Stabiliser cutting instruction, as we are using firm interfacing and cotton webbing in place of.
  3. I did not stitch a division in the pocket of the main caddy (step VII. Assemble The Caddy – A. Assemble Caddy Front & B. Assemble Caddy Back). This was to avoid machine stitching in the hand quilted panel.
  4. I hand sewed all the binding to the backside instead of topstitching the binding as directed. This was to avoid machine stitching.
  5. I did not continue the binding strip to the front and back forming a loop (which you can see on the patterns front cover image. Mentioned in step VII. Assemble The Caddy - D. Bind Edges of Caddy). Instead I folded the top of the binding down, do this at the point of pinning the first side of the binding on, machine sew the binding as normal (see image below for close-up). Fold the binding back as normal. You will have a lovely, neat binding. Either hand sew or machine topstitch to finish.

     

TIP: If you are hand-quilting the case - The sizes for quilted pieces in the pattern are oversized, so they can then be trimmed down to the exact size after quilting. I noticed the sizing was particularly forgiving, so I marked the measurement lines of each finished quilted piece and hand quilted a little over that line (to save time). Please see photo below for reference.

     

 

FREE Vintage Kitten Embroidery Pattern

If you would like to add the embroidery details, please download the FREE kitten embroidery pattern and follow the steps below.

You Will Need:

  1. Transfer the design onto the fabric using the transfer pen, placing the fabric over the paper pattern and tracing the lines.
  2. The design is worked with 2 strands for backstitch (the dashed 'fur') and 1 strand for stem stitch (all the straight lines; bow, legs, whiskers etc).
  3. Wash away transfer lines and finish your piece as required.

     

 

Find the By Annie In Control Sewing Kits online now, or purchase the pattern individually here. Happy sewing!

 

Top