I wanted to make some fabric weights (get it? double entendre!). I found a great how-to video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKJTk7q7Dxw

and now I am low-key obsessed over these guys.

I actually started sewing again, after a many-yearslong break, during lockdown. Guess what? I sewed masks. I therefore have a little box full of random scraps from those days and I thought this would be a good way to use some of them.

The video provides a link to a template for an equilateral triangle, but any chance I have to play with a ruler and pencil, I take. I gave my template 5.75” sides. I tried a bigger triangle, but it make a honking big pyramid.

I also needed to make a triangle that would fit on my fabric scraps. You can, of course, make your template whatever size works for and pleases you.

But just you wait!

There is no true “base” of an equilateral triangle, as all of the sides are the same length; randomly (or not) pick two points to pin together. The only thing I have to be careful of with this part of the process is to make sure that the lines on both sides of the long, skinny triangle match = stick the pins through the lines on both sides.

the . . . stars? That long end gets folded up to meet with the beginning of the first seam.

But we have one more very special side to sew.

This seam only goes about halfway from the base up toward the point. You use the hole to turn the thing right-side out. I mark my stopping point with a vertical pin, about an inch from the point.

Getting close! Stuffing is next.

I found some ancient rice at the back of a shelf in my basement: Sing it: There’s a shelf at the bottom of my house . . . There’s some rice in a jar on the shelf at the bottom of my house . . . Okay, end of song. A funnel is helpful in getting the rice where it needs to go. You could instead use a cone made from a piece of paper if your funnel is missing. I was considering stuffing the weights with lentils; I have used them for hackysacks and they work great for those. But today it is rice.

I don’t fill these super-full. I try to make sure that the last bit of sewing will be pleasant and not include rice spewing everywhere.

I am using seam binding of uncertain origin for the little handles - the video person uses 3” lengths and so do I.

I tuck the raw edges in so that there is an approximation of a point at the top of the pyramid. I then start sewing up, beginning a few stitches below where the third seam ended. This way I am sure to avoid gaps.

When I have a few stitches under my belt, I insert the folded ribbon and then stitch straight through all of the layers, back and forth, until I get to the point and the whole thing is closed. Then I work my way back down to where I started, just to be sure that no rice will escape.

No dark fabric here to hide the wonky stitching, but hey, that is okay.