A posse of bandoliers

The Old Girl is alive and kicking!  Singer tell me that she was manufactured on 12 July 1932.  How's that for detail!  They also have the manuals available for free download.

Anyway, after a bit of a slow start, and a few 'aha' moments from me as I remembered her quirks, she's going great guns.  Together we've manufactured a posse of bandoliers (more Matchbox than Snack though), loosely based on Deborah's Snack Bandolier.

In my bulk manufacture I did a few things differently:

• My boys are 3 and 6, and their friends are just turning 4 and 7, so I made my bandoliers longer - I measured my boys to get a size which fitted reasonably well.  I also lengthened the elastic casing, but found that I had more than enough length and trimmed it off.

• My old girl only does straight stitch, so I didn't do the zig zag topstitching.  I managed to give my Bernina a siezure trying to do a contrast honeycomb stitch on the original I cut for the Kinderboy, and it was looking quite effective and would be worth considering (just don't do as I did and try and do it at 100kmh!!)

• I widened the fabric casing for the elastic to 3", and did away with it entirely for the Schoolboy.  I had some tartan elastic which he loved, so I let it shine (I used around 45cm).  It had the advantage of speed as well as allowing me to fit more cars onto his bandolier.  I'd use this method if I was teaching someone with little/no sewing experience how to do the project.

• On two of my bandoliers I cut one main fabric section 5" wide, rather than two at 3".  I also ironed it as Deborah recommends for the elastic casing - much quicker because you don't have to turn the whole lot through.
• I made the pocket bigger - 4" x 6" - so that it ended up being around 3" tall and the full width of the bandolier.  I think that this was probably a bit of an overkill in terms of width though, and on reflection it could have been 4" square or 4" x 5".

On the whole, I'd highly recommend it as a quick project for anyone with even limited sewing experience.