Bag Lady

I am a newbie bag sewer. While I doubt they will ever make up the majority of my sewing, I am discovering how fun they can be.

You don't have to worry if they will fit a person, and the ones I have made so far are not very big. So except for all the fusing-of-the-interfacing and cutting-of-all-the-parts, a basic bag doesn't take up too much time.

(Obviously the bigger, more complicated ones do take rather a lot of time and skill, but I'm not referring to those as yet.)

Here are a few I've made this week.

Pink Clutch

Fabric: Glam Garden by Josephine Kimberling. Still working on the scraps and yardage from my original order of this line from Hawthorne Threads.

Pattern: Simplicity 2305 by Cynthia Rowley. I haven't gotten around to making the dress or skirt from this one, so I figured I'd at least take a crack at the clutch. It seemed really simple. It was. It's basically a square that you fold in half. I am a little disappointed in the lack of, well, structure in the finished product, but perhaps that was my fault. I used a medium weight fusible woven interfacing, but I am starting to realize that I may need to stock up on hair canvas if I am going to seriously make bags. This purse delivered a lot of cute for not much effort, but it is definitely only suitable for casual, occasional use.

Recognize the applique? A recent purchase from Maisonette, which I pictured in this post. I am ashamed to say that I was in a hurry and...um...hotgluediton. *hanging my head in shame* And so I'm calling this bag a craft. I wasn't going to waste valuable time hand sewing something I will only use from time to time.

The inside of the clutch is basically just a zippered pocket on the lower half of a folded square. I initially wanted a jeans zipper for this, but alas, I had none long enough. I opted for this hot pink jacket zipper instead. I think I actually like it better.

I used the lining fabric from the interior of the pocket, as well.

For the second bag, I made a birthday gift for one of DD's friends. We had gotten some cool activity-y things from the craft store, so I wanted something functional that we could gift them in. I'm picturing her using this to tote library books and fun-stuff-to-do when she goes boring places with adults.

Child's Activity Satchel

Fabric: Flower Power by Jennifer Paginelli. Lining is purple Fairy Frost from Michael Miller fabrics. I had originally gotten the Flower Power fabric for aprons, but it was the only thing that suited this project. I was lucky enough to be able to get the bag out of it with enough leftover for a cafe apron.

Pattern: Simplicity 3662. I've had this pattern for years, initially intending to use the basic jumper pattern included in it. Never got around to that, and while thumbing through looking for bag patterns, I was thrilled to find that this old forgotten pattern had exactly what I needed. Win for pattern hoarding!

As DD's friend is on the tall side, I made the handles longer than called for. Actually, I believe it wanted you to use 1" webbing as the straps, but I:

1. Cut strips 3 1/2" wide and 30"-ish long

2. Backed them with fusible interfacing

3. Folded each strip in half, right sides together

4. Stitched a 1/4" seam allowance

5. Turned, pressed, & top stitched.

Voila, straps. I've made so many apron ties that I think I may have made these in my sleep. Once you make stitch & turn tubes a bunch, it quickly becomes old hat.

I decided to double top stitch the pockets and upper edge. I thought it just looked more profesh. Oh, and cheeeeeck out my fabric matching?! I never bother with OCD stuff like pattern matching. Happily this was pretty easy to do on a pocket, so I took the extra 5 minutes. Glad I did.

The button is not functional, but I thought the bag needed "something", so I added it.

I added a quick little ribbon tag before I put the lining in. I keep a little stash of inexpensive printed ribbon, and it's perfect for stuff like this.

I decided to quadruple top stitch the straps, and I totally love how they came out. Very sturdy.

I have an excellent clear foot that I use for evenly spaced topstitching like this. It has 1/8" increment marks on it all the way up to 5/8", and is such a huge help at getting my seam allowances and top stitching accurate. I highly recommend you check out all the nifty feet that either came with your machine or are available from your dealer. As I sew on a Viking, I usually have to buy any specialty feet. But the ones I've thrown down for have been sooooo worth it.

More to come later; I have a few Modkid Maya's that I've sewn, shop updates, etc.!

Jump Rope Dress

Ahh, finally done!

I am embarrassed at how much I dragged my feet on this project. Even when I had time to sew, I found excuses to not work on it . While sewing on 7 buttons and hand-stitching the inside collar, I looked at this mass of what suddenly looked like prairie-homeschool-corduroy on my lap and thought, "this dress is awful, I might hate it, and I am going to have to chalk up all this work to a learning experience."

However, as I neared the finish line, it began to seem kind of cute-ish. When I put it on DD (who was thrilled, BTW), it looked even cuter. Like the classic shirtdress it is supposed to be, it was perfectly age appropriate and timeless on my 5 year old girl. Whew.

Fabric:

Cotton corduroy from Joanns. I have been pretty happy with all the cord I've purchased there. It is slightly thinner than what you might get from, say, Robert Kaufman or Michael Miller, but that suits our milder weather. This particular cut has been sitting in my stash for nigh on 2 years.

Pattern:

Oliver & S Jump Rope Dress. Comparing O & S's pattern catalog against my 4 years worth of Ottobre backlist issues, I tend to have similar ones already on hand, so it is hard to justify purchasing one. Don't get me wrong, I really like a lot of the their patterns; it just doesn't make sense for me personally to collect them. But, this is the only non-Big 4 shirt dress pattern I have been able to find in my daughter's size, and I have heard so many good things about O & S that I wanted to try one of their designs.

Well, this is a completely awesome pattern. So well drafted, such good instructions. Even with high expectations, I am very impressed. This one was a labeled a 3 scissor pattern (out of 4), and I think that's about accurate. I usually use quicker, ready-to-wear techniques to construct my garments, but for this one I wanted to go old-fashioned and did everything exactly like the instructions said. Pressed open seams and all. Several of the style features were out of my comfort zone, and I'm so happy to have challenged myself:

-Button placket - You see these on the sleeves of men's shirts--it's a faced opening that is not on a seam, but rather opens up in the middle of the fabric. On this dress it's on the center front of the bodice.

-Collar

-Cuffed sleeves with a button tab that comes up over the cuff

-Gathering the old-fashioned way -- Make two lines of long stitches, then pull up on the threads to gather the fabric. I usually use my serger to gather, but in the spirit of slow old school, I forewent the serger this time.

I think the length is perfect for now, with a enough growing length to last us into next Fall.

I had this Latte With Linky bracelet for me, but I thought it went so perfectly with this dress, so I put it on DD. She LOVES it.

The pockets have a faux flap on the front, so when you sew the button on, you also sew the flap to the front of the pocket.

Unfortunately not matter how much I told her that, DD insisted that there was another pocket opening underneath that flap. Of course, she came home from school with a missing button. Denying that she had tried to dig underneath the flap for the fabled second pocket and popped off the button. Sigh.

I thought the sash tied in a bow looked all Happy Hands at Home, so I did a knot instead. Under much protest from the wearer. "But I want a pretty booooooow...!!"

Mostly everything on this dress is top stitched, but it sort of melts right into the corduroy. BTW, I am a poor photographer, but my camera really hated this fabric. I wish the details had come out a little clearer. The silver lining is that, even in person, any top stitching mistakes are basically impossible to see.

These button tabs are faux, as well. Hopefully she doesn't try to unbutton the cuffs, because then we'll have more missing buttons.

Classic expression for her. Just. Thinking so hard about some hare-brained idea. Such as, "Mommy, I have a great idea! I'm having a party tomorrow, so let's send out invitations. Here, I'll address them."

(You can guess what the addresses look like. Then when I try for the umpteenth time to explain that this is not how the world works: 1 day notice parties, lumpy envelopes with play-doh creations inside, markered addresses like "Prncus Avlin, hr has", the waterworks come...sigh. Then, more of these expressions.)

Lots of stuff to come.

Projects on my mind

It seems my resolution to sew all of our clothes this year includes another goal. That is, increasing my sewing skills. It's really two-fold:

1. By sewing so much, I will get better at it.

2. By including an adult man, adult woman, and a toddler boy into this resolution, I will have to learn to sew NEW THINGS.

See, I love sewing rectangles together and making stretchy t-shirts, always will, but I wanna learn some other schtuff.

Well, I've had this Oliver & S Jump Rope Dress pattern sitting in my pattern drawer, getting lonely because I know it would take me longer than sewing a bunch of ruffles with my serger.

Yeah, sigh, it's taking me longer. It has actual pattern pieces and a collar and a placket (like on a polo shirt), y'know.

Doesn't help that I missed a couple sewing nights this week (ack! I knew I would jinx myself by sharing!). I've actually come to the conclusion that 10-14 hours a week may not be enough to dive into my sewing year. I need to incorporate it into my daytime schedule somehow. Hmm.

In the midst of enjoying a little slow-down with my current dress project, I've had some other sewing related items on my mind...

-As I cut & sew in the evenings, I've been listening to episodes of the Sew Forth Now podcast on my iPhone, headphones in. Don't let Lori's laid back tone fool you--she is an excellent, experienced seamstress. She is super stylish, and everything she makes is awesome. I love her interviews with famous bloggers/people in the sewing world and her pattern reviews. I've already learned quite a bit from her. She sews a lot for herself and for her kids, and while she's definitely in a different stage of life than I am, I enjoy listening to her sewing chatter.

-I am considering participating in Casey's Swing Dress Sew-Along, which uses Sense & Sensibility's Swing Dress pattern. I am a huge fan of Casey's blog, which covers all things vintagey, cooking, crafts, and sewing. This would be a great project to learn some basic female-form fitting techniques, of which I am totally clueless.

-Also pretty much 90% sure I'm going to do Peter's Men's Shirt Sew Along over at his blog, Male Pattern Boldness. I have been dying over Colette's new Negroni pattern, and along with the David Coffin's Shirtmaking book my MIL gave me for my birthday, I think I'm ready for a project like this.

-I have some lovely fabric coming in for some new cafe aprons for my etsy shop. And I still need to put up some other items I've already completed. More on that in the next week!

Back to *cough* The Studio for me...

Maisonette Love

What do I love?

-Fabric
-Boutique-ness
-Bungalows

Well folks, I am happy to say that I have found a wee bit of my personal Shangri-La right here in North County. At one of the craft fairs I did recently, a fellow vendor told me that she loved my fabrics (duh), and asked me if I got them from Maisonette, a local fabric store. I said:

"Huh?"

And after she explained, I said:

"A local fabric store that sells GOOD, FABULOUS fabric and is in a bungalow??! Nearby??! LET ME HOP IN MY CAR!"

Okay, so maybe I didn't go right then (I was still manning my craft fair table, after all), but you betcha I went as soon as I could. And it is....oooh....it is WOOOON-derful!

It's like fabric orgasm. Once you walk in, you will say to yourself, "I am never settling for less than this again." It makes other fabric stores look like total crap. I mean, yeah, sometimes you still have to go to them, but not for quilting cottons, NO. Do not. Go to Maisonette first. Support your local independent store, and you will not only feel good about where your dollar is going, you will walk out with some freakin' amazing stuff. They have:

-Amy Butler
-Anna Maria Horner up the wazoo (have I mentioned she's my absolute fave??), including her glorious new voiles & velveteens
-Heather Bailey
-Kokka/Japanese prints
-Ty Pennington's new line (sounds odd, but trust me, it's amazing)
-Michael Miller knits
-So many beyond awesome boutique patterns, including Colette!
-Jumbo rick rack, vintage buttons, french flannel, MM bias tape, adorable unique ribbons
-And way more

Fabulous beach themed fabric & gray cotton rick rack for a custom apron order. This is really not the most representative of the kind of fabrics they have there. I just wanted to point out that I went in for something super specific that I hadn't been able to find anywhere else, and they totally delivered!

Japanese canvas for an apron for my son. I cannot look at this fabric without getting a silly grin on my face.

The accessories!! Since I already have quite enough fabric for most of my projects, the extras are of the hugest draws to Maisonette for me. Adorable crocheted trims from Riley Blake, ridiculously choke-on-the-cuteness strawberry buttons, and an amazing jewel-ish applique I have ear-marked for another bag from Style Stitches.

I have never heard of these Jamie Christina patterns?! But my sister and I died over this dress, so she had to get the Honey Girl. We can't wait to make some adorable Summer tops and dresses from it! I mean, yes, it includes the dreaded shirring, but look at the awesome result!

Okay, and here is one of the biggest things: I can't think of any fabric store...or maybe even store, period, where the salepeople are so nice. I am willing to endure whatever to get my supplies, but sometimes I weary of the rude clerks at just about every fabric store I go to. Ahem. You know the ones I'm talking about. And also the quilt shops where the staff assumes I'm either a) a clueless young person who knows nothing about sewing or b) I know nothing because I don't quilt. Like I said, I endure it because I just need my supplies, and my expectations are low. But how nice is it to shop somewhere where they are respectful AND helpful AND knowledgeable?? It's lovely. :)

Can I have a Maisonette gift card for my birthday?? ;)

(BTW, I am in no way affiliated with Maisonette, and they haven't asked me to write this blog post. I am just so excited that I had to share. :) )

Tillbrook Mia

These Tillbrook Fairies made quite a splash when they came out, oh, something like 2 years ago? Naturally I have hoarded mine, saving them for the perfect project.

But now I have decided that there is always more fabric. So into the rotary blade and sewing machines goes my treasured pieces.

I wanted to use up a good bit of the 5 total yards I had of this line. I still have about 2 yards of the all-over fairies and .5 of the mushrooms left after this, so I will save those for a later dress. Probably something super Summery or something.

Since we're just barely into Winter, and this pattern is short sleeved, I also sewed a long-sleeved shirt (Ottobre 4/2004 #36) and 3/4 leggings (Ottobre 2/2007 #17) out of some cream colored 100% cotton interlock from Joanns.

Technically you should sew leggings out of knit fabrics with lycra in them, but I suck at following rules. This is what I had on hand that matched, so I went with it. I put slightly more ease in the leggings (added width at the side seams and around the crotch/back centre seam for DD's badonkadonk), and I think they fit fine. The first pair of leggings I bought at Target 5 years ago didn't have any lycra in them, and they held up fine for several years. We will see how these do.

On with it:

Fabric: Tillbrook Fairies by the Alexander Henry Collection. I used the border print for the skirt, the all-over fairies for the bodice and ruffle, and the mushrooms for the sleeves and belt.

Pattern: Pink Fig Mia. This was my first Pink Fig pattern. I must say that I am not drawn to hoard very many of their patterns, because so many of them seem to be similar. I think this is one of 2 or 3 peasant top patterns they have in their collection. For the price of a boutique pattern, I would rather get something unique, complex, and with several versions, as in Sandi Henderson's wonderful Portobello Pixie line. Oh well. I will say that this pattern appeared to be well-drafted, and the instructions were good. I came out of it with a smidge more respect for Pink Fig than I started with. This is one of the cutest peasant top patterns out there, and I do recommend it.

The Tillbrook border print actually has quite a bit of burgundy at the bottom, which I'm not a huge fan of. I set my rolled hem right at the bottom of the last mushroom row to cut most of the burgundy off.

The Mia actually has a double-layered skirt. The top skirt is cut so that it is slightly shorter than the underskirt. The underskirt has a 3" ruffle attached to it, so this way you get a good 2" of ruffle peeking out. I totally adore the look. (And so does she.)

The belt keeps riding up above the waist seam, so I may add some waist carriers at the side seams to keep it more in place. The waist seam isn't hideous per se, but I think it looks much better if it's covered up.

She insists this is her ballet dress, and asked to wear it to ballet. Which I haven't signed her up for yet. Because I'm a bad mom. Or, because I haven't been able to find one that is close and doesn't conflict with her school schedule. Help?!

The front and back bodice are both completely shirred, and the sleeves each have 2 rows of shirring. Combined with all of the rolled hems, this project is not difficult, but definitely tedious. I love the look of shirring, but I can't say that I enjoy sewing all of those shirring rows! Plus, I have had too many shirring disasters over the years (pulled out elastic, too-tight elastic, elastic that won't shir), that I always feel a little nervous when I do it. I think I've got it down by now, but I'm still left with the tedium.

Love these 3/4 sleeves. :)

See what I mean? Could there be more rolled hems? Okay, there could, but I mean seriously. This was definitely a 2-night project.

I wanted the ties to have a little more whimsy, so I did my own thing and made them shaped. It's subtle, but I love the way they turned out.

I did a quick little ribbon bow and ribbon covered headband for this, and you can't see, but I also hot-glued 2 pearl buttons in the middle. It goes with this dress, but will also match anything else she has that's pink. Part of me is scared, however, that it looks like a baby headband. DD loved it and wouldn't take it off though, so that is all that's important. I refuse to squash her free spirit (hey, did it work with me????).

I am trying this sewing schedule where I get all the dishes done, etc., and DD down by 7pm. Then I sew from 7-9pm. After that I can come down and spend some time with hubby or read. So far it's working great, and I am loving the production level I have. A few nights a week, I let myself sew until 11pm, in which case I can usually finish an entire project. Of course, times and needs change, so we will see how this works out long-term. If needs be, I may have to adapt the schedule.

Next up: either pjs for my son, or a corduroy shirtdress for her. We will see...

Ruthie Clutchness

My dear friend Lyn has been making up all sorts of these Ruthie Clutches over the past few months. Since I had recently finished up the one I was working on (see above in Amy Butler Lotus and 100% pure Irish linen), we decided that maybe we could work out a few of the kinks we'd had with the pattern by doing a little sew-along.

I went through my stash and cut out several purses, and then a few days ago we got together with Shari and each made a purse.

Note to self/everyone: 2 hours and 15 minutes is not enough time to chat, watch your kids, and teach each other to make this purse. Nope. I ended up finishing mine and Shari's at home a few nights later. But whatever.

Here's how hers turned out:

You may notice that this is the exact print from the pattern envelope. Yeah. It is. I had it in my stash, so I figured I would use it for this--its perfect pattern mate! It was actually a little bit of a puzzle to figure out the layout they had used.

The fabric is a very large-scale plaid-ish print, and they cut the purses on the cross-grain to get them to look like this. (e.g. the bottom of each bag piece was parallel to the selvedge). Believe it or not, both the band AND the body of the purse are all from the same fabric, each one part of a different stripe going down the length of the yardage. I love it, I love Anna, and Good Folks is probably my mostest-est favorite-est fabric collection ever.

Button a la the downsized Walmart crafts department. I was in there recently when I needed, of all things, a carbon monoxide detector, and was surprised to find some actually cute big buttons.

For the one I was supposed to work on, I made one in up in the blue colorway. I was making this one for my sister, and it seemed the most apt fabric in my stash for her. I've also made her a wallet out of it for the same reason.

This button is another Walmart find! I love how it looks like a broach, but it is actually a button.

To be completely honest, I kind of screwed up this band. If you'll notice on the pink one, the band is crisp, and the topstitching is even. That's because when you pull the band fabric over the stiff interfacing, you want it to be tight, tight. Well, I thought it was too tight on this one, so I trimmed it. Bad idea. Now that stiff interfacing sits between my topstitching and the top fold, pushing the topstitching down and making it wonky. The topstitching should actually catch in the interfacing.

You'll also notice I haven't ripped it out and fixed it. That's because I think it looks fine from 2 feet away, and I know my sister won't care. REALISTIC sewing, rather than anal OCD, people.

I enjoy all of these, but I love mine the best. And isn't that how it should be?

A few notes about the Ruthie Pattern: I would consider it an early intermediate pattern, because the band part is very tricky. By the time you get to it, you have 5 layers going around the top of your purse--all which must be EXACTLY the same size, or you will get puckers. That's kind of a lot to ask of a beginner. I have sewn a ton, and I struggled with it. Some ways to help get it to all match up:

-Make the notches that the pattern pieces suggest
-Exact seam allowances
-Measure each piece against the other pieces as you sew, especially the band interfacing, which is the wrong length on the pattern piece. We ended up making ours least 3" longer, I think.
-Pin in quarters around the top of the bag as you attach each new piece (lining, band fabric, band interfacing, topstitching)
-Taut sewing -- pull all the layers taut between each pin as you sew
-And some other stuff I would need to make a tutorial for, but I'm done sewing this bag

I highly recommend the pattern though. It sews up soooo cute, and makes a great gift.

In other news, I am definitely working on my family's wardrobe. Perusing our needs, it seems my daughter is in desperate need of dresses, dresses, dresses. Admittedly I have been rather neglectful as of late in that area, so I am making amends. Look for lots more dress posts in the future!

New Year's Resolution: My hands only

I wanted to take this cool picture of my hands for this post, but it's 1am, and that's so not happening. Instead, enjoy blurry iPhone pics courtesy of Steve Jobs.

Carrying on then.

I never make New Year's Resolutions. Okay, I never even make any kind of resolutions. I have a cynic inside me who doesn't believe in them.

But goals? Oh yeah. It's okay if you fail at a goal. A goal is a good idea that might happen if you kind of try. That's the only kind of standard I usually look for.

Looking over last year's goals, I didn't seem to meet many of them. Which is totally okay, because I had a rough year as far as life upheaval goes. I can cut myself some slack. What really struck me though, is that I made too many goals! What was up with that? I mean seriously.

This year, I thought, how about just one. That way I don't have to keep track of anything. So I made it a big one:

My New Year's Resolution:

I will not buy clothes for one whole year.

If my family needs clothes, I will sew them up. Yep, I'm including my whole family o' four in this. That way, I will have images in my head of them ragged and naked to keep me motivated. If I fail, they will suffer, muh-hah-hah-hah-haaah!

In all seriousness, this is going to be awesome for them. They all love it when I sew them clothes. Even my husband. Okay, so far I've only sewed him t-shirts and pj pants and boxers, but he wears them to death, so that must be a good sign, right??

My Id came up with some possible snags.

Id: Swim trunks? Jeans for Women/girls/boys? Men's Dress shirts? Leotards? Sweaters? Underwear?

Let's see...fabric & patterns for all of those in the stash already. Check. Check. Checkcheckcheckcheck.

Id: Old Navy, Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, etc., sale emails?? Target? Forever 21??! It's all so...so...cheap! Just this one outfit or two. It's so cheap. So cheap! SO CHEAP!!

No cheap clothes for us this year. I always cave to those deals when I have supplies to make several of the same thing already in my stash. No more doubling up and only imaginarily sewing. I gonna do it for realz this time.

Id: Time?

Going to have to find a way to make time. Sewing makes me SO HAPPY. Wearing handmade items and seeing others wearing them makes me SO HAPPY. If that's not valuable time spent, then I don't know what is.

Id: Tights & socks? Men's jeans? Buying others' handmade clothes? Hand-me-downs?

Thought hard about it, and these are going to have to be the only caveats. I'm not subjecting my husband to happy hands jeans, so when he needs new ones we'll just go get his Levi's like we usually do.

I can't make those nylon tights, and I don't see the point of knitting everyday socks (not that I know how to knit right now anway!). Counting these as "accessories".

I'm going to make an exception for clothes that others make, because I want to support handmade stuff. One of these days I'm going to own something that Eva's made, and maybe it will be this year!

Oh and hello, not going to count hand-me-downs! Half of my son's clothes right now are hand-me-downs, and I love it! I'm reducing my consumption with them, and I feel super good about that.

Oh! Oh! Just a thought I need to throw out there. In the online sewing world where I began my modern sewing journey, aka Sewing Mamas, sewing your family's clothes is NO BIG DEAL. I know of ladies who not only sew all their family's clothes, they sew their freaking cloth diapers, wipes, napkins, you name it. And they do it beautifully, with awesome talent. These women inspire me, and it's only because of their example that I would even think to do this.




Viva la Resolution!!