earth friendly sewing

Another gem from Lexie Barnes' Sew What! Bags. A great way to stylishly store all those plastic grocery store bags I seem to accumulate even though I try to store reusable totes in my car.

cute little deer

Close up of some fabric from JoAnn's. It was from their Christmas collection and 60% off, so was $2 a yard. Not bad, especially since I can use it all year round.

wristlet obsession

I can't seem to be able to stop making these wristlets! Here are four more I made tonight. The Dia de los muertos bag is from a cute messenger bag I made for my daughter a few months ago with fabrics she chose. Work is about to get very hectic, so I think I'm sewing fast and furious since getting in an hour or two in the near future will be nearly impossible.

prairie gothic

I just love Jane Sassaman's Prairie Gothic line. Check out this close up of a little bee in the pattern.

zipper mania

Still perfecting zipper installation on these great wristlets from Lexie Barne's Sew What! Bags book. The pink patchwork bag is from a leftover quilt square from a quilt top I made for one of my daughters. All are lined with linen. There are still gaps at the top where the zipper isn't quite sewn in perfectly, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Drifting into Skirt Territory

Slowly I am gathering up the nerve to make myself a skirt. I've made oodles of kids skirts from online tutorials, but have been a bit too intimidated to make something as ambitious as an adult skirt (probably because of the amount of material required). I'm not a huge fan of paper patterns, but am wondering if Amy Butler's Barcelona Skirt Pattern or Francesca DenHertog's Sew What! Skirts might be better for me. I've flipped through the book and love the patterns, although I'd probably only make three or four of them. The Barcelona Skirt comes with three patterns (paper, alas!), all of which I'm likely to use. Decisions, decisions.

Fear of a Zippered Planet

So... this is my first zippered project! It's the "wristlet" from Lexie Barne's Sew What! Bags (http://www.sewwhatbags.com/about.htm), my favorite sewing book at the moment. I've made almost all of the projects and find them really well explained and not too difficult. The "wristlet" is a lined bag (I lined mine with ivory linen) with a cute little strap. The zipper looks ok, but it's not perfect (I didn't photograph the wonky parts on either side of the zipper). But I'm pretty happy with this first try. I had been studiously avoiding making anything with zippers. The only adjustment I made was to iron on some very heavy craft interfacing to make the bag stiff. I plan to chuck all of my cosmetics into this bag and then into my handbag.