Mommy, you can make it!!

My son has so much confidence in me! We needed a thank you gift - and decided the recipient could really use a big tote bag.

"Mommy, you can make it" the Munchkin told me. He helped me pick the fabrics from my stash, and told me to put a "J" on it for her initial.

The tote was totally "off the cuff" - using a reusable grocery tote for rough dimensions, I pretty much made it up as I went along. The fabric was a home decor weight "canvasy" fabric with a lot of fray, so I did a lot of enclosed seams and zig zagged edges where needed.

I then used the Lazy Girl Designs Perfect Pouches pattern and made a large flat pouch for inside, and then used variations on that pattern to make a pencil case and a boxed bottom pouch out of the rest of the scraps.

I am not sure which was more fun to see - the look of appreciation and pleasure on the face of the recipient, or the look the Munchkin gave me when I showed him the finished set.

Both were really great feelings!!!

Just a bag

Just a small, simple, lined gift bag with a boxed bottom , padded bottom insert, and in-seam tie.
Custom ordered to present a special gift.
Orange and brown - fitting for who the gift was coming from -
that I just happened to have in my stash.

The recipient will never meet me, will never know who I am
(and unless he looks very carefully, will never see where I signed and dated my work).
The bag may never be used again.
But my simple little bag is now a continent away, in the possession of someone very involved in the world of textiles and fashion.

I know it is there, and that I made it.
And that in itself is very satisfying!

Back to Bags

I've had a few bags cut out and waiting in zip-top bags for assembly for quite some time now. All from Lazy Girl Designs, these are by no means difficult bags to make - and I have made each of them at least once before...

...so you got me why I have been letting these wonderful fabrics languish ... all cut up with no place else to go.

I got back in the bag groove last weekend - and was determined to finish up at least 2 of these - possibly three - by the end of March. So I pulled out the first one - determined it needed free-motion-quilting, and my machine that does that was in the shop for a tune up. That one got set aside. Pulled out the 2nd one, and while starting it realized the tension on my old machine was off... and in cleaning it and adjusting it I totally mucked it all up and put it out of commission.

By Tuesday I had my good machine back in place, my old one was sent in for repairs, and I was back in business.

Then I got to step 2 - or perhaps 3 - of the bag and made a BIG mistake. HUGE. Nearly put the whole project in the scrap bin.

However, thanks to the Lazy Girl Yahoo group and some great input from the gals there, I was able to regroup, and over the weekend finished up one of the bags. This is Claire - in a fresh garden green - all dressed up and ready for spring.

So now in-between trimming blocks, assembling bigger blocks, doing some hand applique and working on some other things, I will be "bagging-it" - working on Claire's friends Miranda, Mini-Miranda and that great little gal the Runaround.

Will they all put in an appearance by month's end? I doubt it - but at least they are peeking out of their bags and on the worktable, and getting excited at the now real possibility of a Spring 2010 debut.

School Tote Redux

Well - the school bag for the Munchkin just did not work out as I had planned. Although it looked cool - and the concept of recycling Daddy's jeans into the Munchkin's messenger bag was really fun - the reality is that he rarely wore it as a messenger bag. It was normally being carried by an adult in and out of preschool -which does not work well with a messenger bag strap - the denim was too soft to have much "standupability" so the bag was floppy - and then for some reason the front flap started to fray out at the top seam.

So, while promising the Munchkin that he would still have the planet fabric with the rocket on it, I took a pair of scissors to the bag and began to refashion it.

I had a bit of the space fabric left, but little else. I took out the lining and cut that into useable rectangles, redid the flap into a patch pocket, made some straps, scrounged a lining fabric from my stash - and this is the new result:

It still holds his folder and sneakers for school, is easier for him and the adults around him to carry, and is much less bulky to store on the off days.

I still want to do something with the denim - but for now the rocket flies on.

Hisashiburi...

Translation.... "long time, no see" - or in this case, write.
Twelve days since my last post? Where has the time gone?

Let's see ... it has gone here... making a messenger bag for my little guy's first day of preschool (which was the 14th - today~!) - because he wanted a bag that mommy made rather than a store bought one. So I recycled a pair of Daddy's jeans, gathered some scraps on hand, and added in a great space theme fabric with a daddy-designed felt rocket applique, and this is the result:
And this is the happy recipient - sporting the 3D glasses that his special friend Jill sent with a boatload of books and videos (trying to keep said kiddo happy and occupied so Mommy could sew on Labor Day weekend. It worked -kinda..)

So then Mommy got to work on this:

A great mesh bag (fiberglass screen from the hardware store coupled with more of the stellar fabric from the Messenger bag)... for swimming school!!! The first day was the 12th.


So while the Munchkin was at preschool and Mommy was at home cooling her heels - my friend Shellie came over and we worked on a dozen of these:
Oh - and while doing that, I also made this... from scratch (the sauce, not the pasta)... yummy!

It's good to be back! I will try not to stay away so long next time.

Sushi Tuesday

One of my purchases during my quilt retreat/shop hop jaunt to Ohio in April included a yummy lime green sushi fabric. In the midst of all the more traditional orientals, this fun and funky fabric just jumped out at me, and I immediately had a project in mind for it.

See -Tuesday at RIT is known around my office as "Sushi Tuesday" - mainly because our favorite student employee takes full advantage of the weekly "foreign food specials" in one of our dining facilities and is sure to get her sushi on Tuesdays. When I saw this fabric, I immediately thought of her, and wanted to make something for her "Sushi Tuesday" lunches.

A friend of mine gave me this yummy peach fabric to coordinate with the sushi fabric -and so I made a Hobo Lunchbag, a chopstick holder and a rolled up placemat - and rounded out the set with a small square sushi fabric knapkin.

The chopstick holder is a variation on a bag I received while I was in Japan that held a folding fan - the tie is attached to the top flap so no matter what size chopsticks you put into it (the wooden disposables tend to be smaller, while laquered chopsticks are usually longer) you can adjust the tie accordingly. I used black grosgrain ribbon, so that gave it a little texture, and picked up the black in the sushi print nicely. I used the same ties on the placemat, simply sewing them into the side seam before turning the placemat right sides out.

Kiss Bags

Wanting to do something a little different for Valentine's Day AND do a little stash busting at the same time, I decided to take this pattern and make some little gift bags to fill with chocolates.

I made the smallest size, actually cutting it at 6 inches instead of 6.5. It was the narrowest I can go on the free arm of my sewing machine so I recommend caution on going that narrow, depending on your machine. I also made it a smidge shorter and boxed the bottom with 1.5" corners instead of 1" - resulting in a squarer bag. I was working with remnants and trying to make all the bags uniform in size, which dictated some of my cutting choices.

I also used ribbon instead of bias strip for the button loops, which worked very well.

I production lined 9 of these - completing everything except the buttons - in about 2 1/2 hours, which included cutting. I had never made this pattern before.

I would definitely consider making these again - in a variety of sizes. They were a great stash buster and could really show off fun fabrics.

Anti-Procrastination Night

Last night was a "work on projects I have been putting off" night. I think I was inspired by my Sassy success of yesterday, so I just kept on going.

One project was a trial run at a Japanese Knot Bag. I was not entirely happy with how it turned out - but there are a few other versions of this pattern out there. I am going to poke around until I find one that works how I think it should - either that or create my own. Stay tuned.

The other project was a revisit of my Disappearing 9 Patch. FabricMom gave me a little "kick in the pants" to get this one back out again.

I was kind of dreading pulling this one out. I thought I needed 4 more 9 patches, and since it had been a while since I had done these, I was not looking forward to figuring out which fabrics to put where to avoid duplications.

Easing myself back into this, I took my big 9 patches and cut them into the smaller blocks. I decided to spread them out on the living room floor - just to see what it was going to look like - and lo and behold I think I have enough as it is without making any more. With the addition of borders this will be a nice size lap quilt. I think instead of adding more blocks I am going to cut up the remaining Charm Pack squares to make a middle border just for some more interest, and a bit more size. I just need to count to be sure I have enough to go all the way around - but I think I do.

So I was procrastinating for nothing...
Still cannot figure out why I procrastinated on Sassy so long...
Go figure.

Lunch Time

Through the month of April, the wonderful folks at Sew Mama Sew were holding a tutorial contest, and crafty folk from all over the world entered their wonderful tutorials and ideas - posting them for all of us to share and enjoy. I had hoped to enter my watercolor seahorse tutorial, but alas that is still a work in progress and missed the deadline.

One of the winners in this little contest was the Square(ish) Bottom Hobo Lunchbag. I had been wanting to make some fabric lunch bags for each member of the family for a while now, but was undecided on the design. This little tote was a great combination of the furoshiki style that I have been utilizing, and a more structured bag.

This train version is for The Munchkin - not only does it hold his lunch AND breakfast for the day - it matches his Miranda day tote (as well as the pillowcase, two totes and a Wonder Wallet given away that I managed to get all out of this 2 yards of fabric). I was a little bit shy on the fabric needed for one strap, so the fabric is pieced half way up, but it does not seem to make a difference. You could get really "patchwork" creative with this - as the bag is fully lined it really makes no difference if either the covers or linings have some extra seams.

The other thing I did was to change the technique for boxing the bottom. The original instructions call for doing the corner "triangle" thing, which always seems to go wonky on me. Instead I cut a 3x3 square notch out of each bottom corner (and threw those in my quilt block scrap bag!) - and then just sewed that closed after I stitched the sides and bottom.

I made a 2nd one - but did not get pictures of it last night. On that one I took some scraps and added a square pocket inside - good for milk money, little notes, or condiment packages - and also made the bottom portion of the bag 1" taller overall to accommodate the tall round containers I transport my soups in.