Pictures of the Bridal Party Bags

I received the first pictures of the Bridal Party Bags for Devon's wedding in action!

Congrats to Devon and Dan!!!

Patchwork Purse

Last night, my friend Audrey and I took a class at Craft-o-rama, the best place to take crafty classes in Austin! I've taken their tote bag (sewing 101) class and their Wrap Skirt Class. As evidenced by the... uh... THIRTEEN wrap skirts that I've made and posted on this blog, it's obvious that I enjoyed them!

We decided to take the Craft-O-Rama Patchwork Bag Class in which Hayley, the awesome & friendly owner of the store, teaches you a bag that she designed.

The class was very fun with a great group of women. We chatted and joked around whilst singing along to lots of fun 80's music.... oh and we made insanely cute bags!

I'm hoping to get pictures of Audrey's ridiculously fun bag - I'll update this post once I do.

For now, here's mine. Enjoy!

Felt so Good...

Back in May of 2006, I made my first felted bag. Actually, I haven't felted anything since then, so I guess it was also my most recent! I used Crochet Me's Pike Place Market Bag Pattern. I didn't actually finish it, though. And I never sent it to my mom. The reason is that when I tried to use yarn to sew on the handles, it didn't look very nice or neat. I tried handsewing with thread, but my stitches were hideous and not strong enough for the very thick, wool fabric.

So, I put it in a bag in a rack of my UFOs (unfinished objects), stored in the back of my closet. And there it sat. And sat.

A few days ago, I was sorting through some of my UFOs and stumbled on this bag.

*Lightbulb*

I now have a kicka** sewing machine!

So on Tuesday night, my long forgotten UFO turned into a beautiful Market Bag that my Mom can take with her to Weaver Street Market. I'll add more pictures once I have some, but for now...

Sorry for the long delay, Mom!

A Bag for Miriam

Last year for Miriam's birthday, I made her one of the cutest ami's I've ever made/designed, this hot pink ami monkey. The monkey was tragically stolen from her (really!?! seriously!?!?). Anyway, this year, I wanted to make her something special again. Her baby is off to college and a lot of things will be changing in the new year.

I made a bag for her using the same basic pattern as I used for the bridal test bag. But, I drew out the size and shape that I wanted it to be instead of using the pattern. I wanted it to be big, but with a longer main handle, since she likes bags with long handles. The size is hard to tell from these pictures, but the body of the bag is 15" across and the length of the longest handle from bag body to shoulder is 12"

It's a carryall tote that is washable. Since she recently picked up crochet, maybe it'll be a good tote for her larger projects!

Bag Open, Lining

Bag Open, Back

Bag Closed, Front

Skirts for Megan

This weekend, I turned my apartment into a one-woman, self-imposed sweatshop of sorts, to the chagrin of Beethoven and Lily-cat. They aren't quite sure what they did to deserve the neglect.

Really, they should just be thrilled that they don't have opposable thumbs. Because, while I slaved away, this is what Beethoven did:


Excuse the blur... I had to be quick like a ninja so as not to wake him.

Despite their best efforts to lie on the fabric while I was trying to cut it... bat at the loose threads, knock over the sewing box... and roll around on their backs begging for tummy rubs, I actually was able to accomplish what I set out to do.

I made 5 skirts for my sister Megan to wear to work or for fun or whatever. She originally asked me to make her some wrap skirts for a more professional, albeit fun look awhile back. Ok, months ago! It's been on my list for a long time. Since I am seeing her this weekend (YAY!), I decided now was the time.

On Thursday night, I cut the fabric and between Friday evening and Saturday night, I had them all sewn. They are all machine washable and I pre-washed them so she can wash them on hot if she needs to (with a toddler, she needs to not worry about that kind of stuff!).

Sunday, I made a bag for my friend Miriam. I'm still handstitching part of the handle. Once I'm finished, I'll post those pictures as well.

For now, here are the pictures of Megan's New Skirts. (Megan, if any of these don't suit your fancy, no worries... ) ;o) The skirts are modeled by my new best friend Yolanda.

Some cute and fun skirts just in time for summer! The fabrics were all from hobby lobby with the exception of the Amy Butler (second skirt pictured above) which was sweetly donated by my friend Nicole. The skirts will be ironed out and probably look a heck of a lot better on my sister (sorry Yolanda, but you don't have much in the way of hips).

I'll post pics of the bag for Miriam hopefully tomorrow.

7 Bridal Party Handbags

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was asked to make some handbags for Devon's Bridal Party. She and Dan are getting married THIS WEEKEND which is exciting and wonderful. I'm super-happy for them!

I made the test bag (details in the above linked post) by shrinking the size of the handbag pattern from this book (bag is pictured on the cover). My good friend Nicole helped me out with the tough spots and the test bag ended up turning out very cute. So I figured that the actual bags would be no biggie.

whoops ;o)

Devon was sweet enough to send me the fabric that she wanted me to use -- which was a huge help so that I didn't have to stress over whether or not the bags would match the dresses properly. The fabric was beautiful - a textured, loosely woven silk with turquoise and pale green flowers and a satiny-off-white. The "wrong-side" of the fabric is the one that Devon needed me to use, though, since it matched the dresses better than the right side. Being a total beginner, I didn't know that this would pose much of a problem. But, alas, it made it a bit more difficult.

I went out and bought special needles for my machine that would sew silk and pinking shears.

The body of the bag looked fine, but the handles of the bags weren't quite as cooperative. With the small size of the handles and pulling them inside out and then sewing the tops, the loosely woven silk was fraying from the pressure. Apparently, using the wrong side was making it worse, as the textured silk was woven in such a way that the wrong side is the side that frays.

As sewing the handles together at the top is the last step, I saved this step for last in my assembly line. This means that I made all seven bags before I realized that the tops weren't looking so hot. And by not so hot, I mean, they were falling apart as I stitched them, and would probably get worse and fall completely apart just in time for the bridal party pictures.

Awesome, right?

Pictured below is the best out of the bunch, I apologize for the fuzziness of the picture. I was a bit crabby when I took it!

I stared at the 7 ghetto bags and tried to figure out a solution. This means that I wrote several whiny emails to Nicole begging her for advice. I thought about adding a bias tape seam around the handles and mouth of the bag... but the handles are so tiny in diameter, that it could end up looking even worse. Plus, bias tape is generally cotton, as Nicole reminded me. She suggested a french seam - which I knew how to do but didn't know that it had a name. But, unfortunately, the fraying was SO bad that there wasn't even enough fabric for it.

I looked at my 7 ghetto bags and was very sad - and worried about whether or not I could get them done in time for the wedding. Sure, I could send what I had to her, but they looked so pathetic looking. And let's face it, the pathetic-look doesn't generally go with the rest of the wedding decorations.

I started looking up hundreds of clutch bag patterns online and thought of just starting over with a new bag design.

At home one night, I was staring at the bags lying out on my coffee table, trying to will them to tell me what the solution was. While I was staring them down, I realized that the body of the bags was actually really cute. It was just the handles that were tragic and disasterous.

hmm.

I took my pattern cut out and cut off the handles. Then, I made the body of the bag only in the lining fabric, outer fabric, and batting. I took the handle pieces that I cut out and laid them on the fold of each of the fabrics and cut out long and short handles.

I sewed the handles into tubes and turned them right side out... I did a top stitch on the handles. Then, I sewed the handles into the tops of the bags.

Viola. No visible fraying.

For the other 6 bags I cheated and took the bags formerly known as Ghetto and cut off their handles. I made new tube handles for them and sewed them in.

Anyway, I hope that the bride and the bridal party are happy with the results. It was a great learning experience for me & I hope everyone likes them. Eventually, I'm hoping to get a few pictures of the girls carrying them to post up.

In other news, I spent last week in Seattle with family. It was great to hang out and veg with family and I got to meet my newest niece. Of course, all aunties think their nieces and nephews are brilliant--- but get this, my newest niece is already so very alert and actually smiles when you laugh. So sweet. She's so very interactive for a wee lil one month old!

It was great to get away. My allergies actually were completely clear the entire time I was there, which was a wonderful and welcome change.

Anyway, for the future nursery, here are some letters for decoration that I crafted. Just got the letters from Hobby Lobby and modge-podged pretty scrapbooking paper that I cut out to them. Cute and easy baby project-- if you are looking for a good gift ;o)

Test Bag for Devon's Bridal Party

Lately, I have been taking on some projects for my family and a few friends to help them out while gaining some sewing skillz. The latest one is for my younger sister's bff - Devon - and her bridal party. I'm going to make small bags for her bridal party that coordinate with their bridesmaids dresses. The original plan was to do just fun bags for them for the bachelorette party, but time wasn't on our side.

Really, though, it's actually kind of exciting for me to be helping out with the bags. Bridgid and Devon have been friends for years and years. When they first became friends, I was their driver to many a freshman year event. So, I hung out with them a lot. Back then, I also met her soon-to-be husband... since Devon is actually marrying her high school sweetheart. I know, I didn't know that actually happened in real life, either :o)

Anyway, I'm thrilled for Devon and very happy to help out with her wedding. So, hopefully the bags don't suck.

Since I'm very green at sewing, I picked a pattern that was from a beginner book that teaches the basics. Keywords: Beginner and Basics. Even though it was supposed to be pretty simple, I enlisted the help of my friend Nicole who is an expert sew-girl. She studied costume design at UT and actually understands patterns (something that is completely lost on me).

I've been teaching her crochet, so it was kind of a trade off of sorts. And let's face it, she gets to hang out with moi, which is a privilege in and of itself. ;)

I helped her out with her and her boy's theme party costumes --they were to be GI Joes for an 80's party. She had bought the camo pants and black shirts and we ironed on a GI Joe graphic to the front of the shirts. I was there to make sure that it was somewhat centered and straight.

Eventually, after procrastinating, we started on the "Beginner" and "Basic" bag.

If Nicole had not been there, I probably would have given up and tried a different pattern.

There were a couple of steps that were really confusing... and a few that are just plain annoying.

Now that I know what to do, the next bags will be much easier... it's just that there were a few things on the first bag that I coulda woulda shoulda done differently. Also, the bags for Devon's wedding will be with a thinner, smoother material, so it will be easier to do some of the steps.

Anyway, the bag is still cute, but it did take some time and elbow grease. We made it much smaller than the original... and I think it's tres cute. The small orange is pictured to show approximate size.

Closed bag.

Bag open, lying flat, back.

Open Bag, Lining Exposed.

Latest Skirt

I made a skirt for my friend Tiffany on Saturday for taking care of my kitties over Christmas. I'm hoping to get pictures of her skirt soon.


After I made hers, I figured, eh, why not make another one?


So I made one for me. These skirts take about an hour to make and are very comfortable.... one size fits all.

My next sewing projects are 7 bags for my sister's best friend's wedding... and pillows for another sister's living room.

Christmas Sneak Peeks

This is a very special sneak peek at some of my Christmas Projects this year. I will post full pictures after the gifts have been given...

Sneak Peek : Skirts

5 wrap skirts one for each sister and one for my sister-in-law. They get to decide who gets what. Full pic of each skirt after they are given - for now a glimpse of each fabric with the trim. Secret Gift #1:

Whatever could it be?

Secret Gift #2:
hmmm...

I hope everyone has a great time celebrating the holidays.

Sew Happy :o)

My current Crochet Projects are TOP SECRET works in progress for the holidays... so I figured I'd post on a new crafty obsession of mine!

I started taking some sewing classes at Craftorama on South Congress- this super-friendly, hip, fun shop.

My interest in sewing began when I made handbags a few years ago for Christmas. I wanted to line the bags, but had no idea how. I attempted to whip stitch them by hand, but the result was messy and the construction was shoddy.

Sewing machines seemed ridiculously intimidating to me not to mention prohibitively expensive.
But, recently, when I made my crocheted dress, I realized how great it would be to sew a dress that had crocheted embellishments or was lined. In addition, I've become interested in making more crocheted bags which I would love to line. And I also thought that understanding sewing patterns would help me with designing more crocheted clothing items.

So, I signed up for a beginning sewing class at Craftorama.

It was shockingly easy and a lot of fun. It was almost bizarre to me how fast I could make something. I frequently tease knitters whose projects take longer than my crocheted ones... but this machine sewing thing really beats all. I love it!

I made an adorable little tote bag in cowboy print.

Isn't it fun?

Here is the back and the detail on the button and pocket.

I just love it. It's a bit small to be at all practical, but it was a great first project and it really got me excited to try more stuff. Of course, later that week, by some fluke, our holiday bonuses paid out early. I went to "just look" at the Austin Sew and Vac store around the corner from my apartment. They were in the process of packing up the store because they were moving 2 miles down the road that very week. The owners were there with their daughter and her toddler son. Her son was playing with quilt squares on the floor. Even though the store was somewhat chaotic, they were very helpful.

I was able to get a Janome 625 at a HUGE discount. It was used as a floor model at the Maker Faire in Austin and so was "out of the box". Originally, I had been planning on getting the cheaper, base model... but the 625 is one that I can grow into... not to mention with the discount, they were very close in cost.

The Sew and Vac store offers a free session on getting to know your sewing machines and are experts at fixing them. In their new space, they are going to offer lots of sewing classes and will have tons of fabrics.

I was still a little bit intimidated, though, so I decided to take another class at Craftorama to get more comfy with the machine.

I took a wrap skirt class and check this out!

I totally want to make a ton of them. I think it'll be great practice at sewing straighter lines... and not only that, but the skirt is super cute and one size fits most!

whoop! whoop!