ponderings and projects from one crafty mama
This morning I took this design I had sketched:
And turned it into this purse:
Of course, I adore the shape of this bag, but I want to know what you think of it. I’d love it if you’d leave a comment to let me know what you like and what you’d change about this design. It’s highly likely that this will be the next pattern I’ll make available for sale, so now is your chance to make your voice heard. Many thanks!
Today, I dug to the bottom of my scrap basket for the “just right” fabrics for these two purses. When Hubby arrived home and peeked into the sewing room, he exclaimed “what’s all that?!?” at the mess of fabrics laying all over. It’s amazing how many little scraps fit into my bin, and how enormous they look when they’ve been dug into for a few hours trying to find this or that. I’m pretty pleased with what I found in there, each purse has a wide variety of prints, with the color being the unifying factor in the design.
They’re newly listed in my Etsy shop, click on the picture to view the listing details.
I made this purse last week, and have been using it since then, trying to decide if I needed to make any modifications in the next one. So far, the only thing I need to change is to make the center pocket a little shorter, as when my cell phone is all the way at the bottom, it’s a bit hard to reach when it’s ringing.
The front is accented by the pieced flap (this one is Amy Butler fabrics) which is bound in bias. The bias binding is repeated around the edges of the bag itself.
Inside, there are three pockets, two larger outside pockets and a smaller inside pocket. This design keeps everything organized. There’s plenty of room inside for what you need without being big and bulky to carry around. Here I have wallet, cell phone, keys and GPS. The flap closes with a magnetic snap to keep everything secure.
From the side, you can see just a peek of accent fabric. I used nickel rectangle hardware on the strap, but future models will also have a slider to adjust the strap length.
I’ll be making a few more of these this week to stock in the Etsy shop, so keep checking back!
A friend of mine asked me to make her something like this a few weeks ago, so today I sat down and sewed it up. Then I kept sewing and ended up with two more. The idea is it’s a safe place to keep your cell phone/mp3 player/other electronic do-hicky. You can clip it to the handle of your purse or diaper bag, or thread the strap through the belt loop of your jeans (I modeled this for my family while they were eating dinner, the concensus was I looked dorky like that, but if you’re cool, you can pull it off).
I love the one made with Amy Butler fabrics so much I might keep it (if I can get over the dorkiness of wearing it on my belt loop). The red-and-black combo came about because the only other zipper I could scrounge up in my sewing room was black, and…well, I was on a roll, so I had to use that black zipper to make one of these.
I’ve had several requests for a group in which people can share the wallets they’ve made from my tutorial, so I have created a Flickr group for this purpose. Here’s the link:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/thatdarnkatwallets/
. I’m new to this, so please let me know if it doesn’t work properly.
I’ve also created a group for those who’ve made my “coming and going bag” from the pattern available in my Etsy shop, the link for that group is here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/comingandgoingbags/
. Everyone who has created items from my patterns is welcome to join, or if you’re thinking of sewing something, feel free to browse the photos for inspiration.
I am pleased to announce that my “coming and going bag” pattern is now available through YouCanMakeThis.
My pattern caught the attention of Kim at YCMT, who contacted me last week about the possibility of distributing my pattern through their site. I am pleased to make my pattern available to the larger audience that YCMT offers. My pattern was also featured in this weeks’ newsletter, which you can read here.
I just marked down some of the purses in my Etsy shop, hop on over and take a look!
Here are the pictures of the first actual project sewn on my Rocketeer. Actually, there are a lot of firsts here: first project on the Rocketeer, first zippered pocket in the lining, first try at this new pattern I drafted. It gave me a few fits while I was sewing, partly getting used to the machine (I adjusted the presser foor pressure three times) and partly because the pattern needed some tweaking along the way. However, I’m glad I didn’t throw it in the trash midway, because the end product is nice. Not perfect, but nice.
Here are some close-ups, and a view of the imperfect zippered pocket:
This project has finally come to fruition! I alluded in an earlier post that I was working on a PDF pattern for my “coming and going bag”, and I put the finishing touches on it today and made it available in my etsy shop. I have to thank Mary for giving me the kick-in-the-pants I needed to finish by posting her version of the purse on her blog. I also owe a big thanks to all the sewing mamas who tested my pattern for me and gave me their feedback!
Have I been busy sewing this week! I’ve got several purses made and more planned, in addition to *maybe* getting the kids’ Christmas pajamas sewn before Christmas rolls around. The trick to that has been making time to sew without the kids around.
Here is one of the projects I got done. I know I’ve said it before, but this is one I love enough to want to keep it! I have a thing for the matchiness, I have a wallet for each bag I carry (easy for me, though, since I make them). This set came out adorable, and so fun to carry! The round handles are swingy, and slide onto your wrist if you need a free hand. I’ll definitely use more handles like these on other bags!
The other thing I’ve been working on is a PDF bag pattern, which will be coming soon to my Etsy shop. Right now some of my sewing friends are trying it out to work out any kinks. Thanks, gals!
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