Gray Spring Purse

I have been wanting to make a new purse for a while now, and I wanted to make another version of the brown wool purse from a few months back. This particular purse started life as a pair of gray cotton pants that developed an unfortunately placed hole.
I did make a few modifications. The chain handles are a bit pricey, so I replaced them with tapered fabric handles, and I put in smaller grommets on the sides, mostly because I didn't have the right size in silver. The sides are tied with some gray very narrow double-fold bias tape that I got from freecycle.

It is lined with some light slate gray/blue fabric and only two pockets because I messed up on the zippered one. =)

I do really love these pleats.

You may have noticed in the top picture that I added a button and loop as well, this purse seemed to gape open wider than the previous one and I forgot to add a magnet before sewing everything together. All I did when finished was slit the top stitching slightly, insert the loop, and topstitch it closed again. We'll see how it works when I use it.

Sorry for going dark for 2.5 weeks...I hate that.

A List of Weak Excuses

I don't know if anyone actually reads this blog anymore...I have been quite neglectful lately. Here are my excuses:

• I couldn't sew for so long that I had a hard time getting my mojo back
• I spent quite some time making tshirt blankets, which is all well and good, but not that creative for me anymore
• I was making Christmas presents, which could not be posted
• I have no models for the above-mentioned Christmas presents and clothes look so blah when not on a model
• I didn't make anything sewn for my parents this year
• And.....I was going through a bit of a blog drought

You can choose whatever excuse you like...they're all true.

If anyone is still out there, thanks. You're my favorite reader, no matter what the others say. =)

I made calendars for my parents for Christmas, which took a tremendous amount of time (and ink!). The only sewn thing I made was a wallet for my dad, which didn't work quite right, so I have to remake it. It is very unexciting, so I have no pictures of it.

I made a bunch of skirts for my niece and am hoping to have a friend take pictures with her daughters as models tomorrow. If she does, I will show those as soon as I can. I am a little proud of the skirts, I think they're adorable and they're a good way to use up some of my stash fabrics.

I also made this little purse for one of my best friends. She wanted a foldover purse, and this was my first attempt. I have a couple more done that are slightly bigger, but this was take one. I do like it, but it is a little small....it's wallet sized, roughly, maybe a little bigger. I didn't buy anything, it is totally from the stash, even the button. The colors are a bit wonky, it was dark in my house when I was trying to take pictures. It is actually a very light butter yellow (real butter, not the fake stuff) creamy corduroy with a mossy green print on the inside.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that the energy-saving bulbs give out very yellow light? I like it for lighting because it is very warm, but it makes taking pictures indoors a beast. The colors are always really off for me.

I hope you had a fantastic Christmas....my new year's resolution? To be a better blogger.

The Purse That Wouldn't Be

A few weeks ago, as part of an auction for a friend, I contributed a custom purse. The winner of the auction, Lula, let me know her wants, which were:

• an 11" drop from shoulder to top of bag
• a brown or grey purse, not anything black

It seemed easy enough, but then I asked a couple of clarifying questions and that's where things got confusing. In her first email, she said she wanted a large purse. In her second email, she said a small purse. In her first email, she said she wanted something more tailored, in her second email, something not tailored.

So I dithered and sweated and stressed, drew up a sketch, made a practice purse (which didn't work), let it sit, drew up another sketch, grumbled, whined, and finally just took the plunge. Here is the original sketch.....

...and here is the finished product. Not too shabby, eh?
I'm mostly happy with it. I wish that the bottom was a little bit wider, but other than that, I really like it. The shell is made from a very warm cocoa brown wool and the lining is orangey-pink cotton. I wanted the bag to be able to open wide when it was on her arm, as she is a mom, so therefore probably does quite a few things one-handed. So on the sides, I put in 4 grommets and an adjustable tie. The base of the purse is only 2 inches wide, but the top, when untied, is 5 inches wide. This, along with the U-shaped design of the opening, helps keep sticky fingers at bay. She also requested pockets, so I got the exact measurements of her cell phone and made a custom pocket (which is why mine doesn't fit so well). There is also a small flat open pocket on the same side and a zippered pocket on the other side. I wanted a little bit of color on the outside, so I put in a box pleat that has the lining fabric on the reverse, as well as tiny (1/4") "piping" between the two sections (I call it piping, but it doesn't have any cording in it). I also wove some brown wool into the chain to tone it down a little bit.

Anyway, it's done now...and ready for shipping. I hope she likes it. I don't know that I have ever stressed out so much about a purse, and I don't really know why. =)

Not Completely Idle

I haven't been completely stuck (more on that later), I did do a couple of small artsy fartsy projects for school. Total cost? $1 from Goodwill.

Sometimes we need clipboards for various things...and I wanted mine to be pretty. So I used some of the ginormous stack of scrapbook paper I somehow ended up with (despite the fact that I do NOT, nor will I ever, scrapbook), a couple of awesome stickers from the dollar aisle at Target, and some modpodge, and came up with these: Mine is the one on the right....

Regarding the one on the left, we have to use these official bathroom passes at school, and last year the kids were constantly putting them in their pockets and forgetting them, and then I would have to track them down and get it back, if I could even remember who had the pass. So this year, I put it on a clipboard. And in order to try and thoroughly shame them, I added a little something to the back.

I kind of like them. =)

As far as the stuck part goes....I am supposed to be working on a custom purse for a client who won it in an auction, but in her first email she said she wanted something more tailored than slouchy. In her second email she said "I like the sage one the best (which was slouchy), but maybe not as tailored (it had two pleats). I'm more of a funky person. Well, I'm pretty traditional, too. So..."funky traditional." Does that makes sense? And I don't need it to be huge...just big enough to tote my wallet, digital camera, cell, and whatever my girls toss in on a regular basis."

I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. This has sent me into an unexpected tailspin. I am really stuck. None of my current patterns really fits this. I made a pattern, which I really really like, but it seems too structured for what she wants, so now I'm stuck again. I made another sketch during a meeting last week, and it may work, but I still keep going back and forth about this purse!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know the exact fabric I want to use and I just need to take the plunge I guess, and make a practice one.

The Whys and Wherefores

I've been reading some blogs lately that have caused me to think about why I sew. What are the reasons that I do this thing that can drive me absolutely nuts? Why do I sew?

Here are the answers that make the most sense to me:

1. I sew because it relaxes me. I have a pretty high stress job (what? teaching 120 fifteen-year-olds isn't that bad, right?) and sewing is something that I can do that is completely unrelated to the job that I have. There is something about taking a piece of fabric that is essentially unusable as-is, and making it into something beautiful and useful that completely relaxes me (well, most of the time...been going through a bit of a block lately).
2. I sew because it's my creative outlet. I can't really draw (ask my students) and while I do not claim any expertise at this thing, I do recognize that I have a little bit of talent to see something flat and see it in my head as a three-dimensional object. I like to challenge myself to see if I can then take that idea and make it a reality. Lots of people have ideas, the true test comes in seeing it in real life in front of you the way it looked in your head.
3. I sew because I'm a tactile learner. I learn by touching, so I like to do things that allow me to feel what I'm doing. I love the way fabric feels - which is why I really struggle to use certain cloth (like suedecloth) that feels "wrong" to me. By the way, tactile learners are the kids (and adults!) who doodle, sketch, shred napkins, and touch everything on their way through a store.
4. I sew because I like to give gifts. As a teacher and a reforming money moron, I often don't have the money to give people things that cost a lot of money, but a hand-made gift is something that people appreciate (generally speaking). I started by making baby blankets for friends, and have graduated to making quite a wide range of items.
5. I sew to make money. It may not be the primary reason, but it is nice to make a little extra cash every now and then. Until word started getting around that I could do things like hem pants and sew buttons on, I never realized just how rare that talent truly is. In the world I grew up in, everyone could sew, and it wasn't until I got to college that I realized most people couldn't do something I regarded as being so simple.

I've gone through a lot of mutations in the sewing cycle....I first learned to sew clothing when I was in elementary school, I've sewed quilts, I actually stopped sewing for several years in high school and college, and now I sew bags. I can't say that I will never get tired of bags, but there is something about it that appeals to me and has kept my attention for longer than any previous addiction. Why? Well....that's a post for another day.

Ruffles and Flourishes

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a post by WhiMSy love in which she described her workspace. I was immediately captivated by the pictures of her ribbon, which were in small plastic bags. I asked her where she got the bags (JoAnns) and condensed my stash as well. I started with this....and ended with this.Here is why I like this system:

1. I can see exactly how much of each item I actually have. Those spools are all different sizes and can totally mislead you on how much you have of a particular ribbon.
2. I can keep all the ribbons in a smaller container (although I don't)
3. it is so much easier to dig through my ribbon stash without everything getting all tangled up.

Thanks so much for the inspiration Nikki!!
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Other Random Thoughts.....

• The other day in JoAnns, I found these spools of 1/4" satin ribbon (100 yards each, baby!!!!!!) for $2.50 apiece. I use this ribbon when packaging items sent to clients, so this is awesome.
• Mom and I went to Pacific Fabrics today...I like that place, it's the only local place I can find hex purse frames. These were sitting by the door. By the way....I was accosted at Pacific Fabrics today by a saleswoman who walked over to where I was sitting, picked up my bag (one of the gathered clutches), asked if I made it, and then told me I should have used a different kind of magnet. I'm sure she had the best of intentions, but still. Grrrrr.....

Auction for Kori - slightly extended

When I started this blog, I never thought I would make some of the connections I have made so far. One of the women I have become close to through this blog is named Kori.

Kori had had to set her blog to private for reasons I won't go into here, but she is dealing with a lot of stuff right now that no one should have to deal with. Kori's husband is named Richard and Richard has cystic fibrosis. He is also in the last stages of colon cancer, which is spreading through his body as we speak, attacking many of his organs and making his pain almost unbearable.

Kori's life right now is full of wills, funeral planning, and watching her best friend die in front of her eyes. She is also dealing with some crushing financial burdens due to hospice and hospital stays and an upcoming funeral as well as helping her two sons deal with the loss of their father. One of her other online friends, Shannon from the Nut House, is hosting an online auction on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 11 and 12, and I was blessed to be asked to contribute some items for this auction. 100% of the proceeds will go to Kori and her family to help defer some of the costs she is dealing with...and as a way that some of us that are far away and can't be there to physically support her in person can help her.

If this is something you can do, I would encourage you to go to Shannon's blog on Tuesday and participate in the auction. I will be contributing a messenger bag and a custom designed purse, but there will be many items available for sale. Thanks......Christy

Purse Lovin'

Despite the fact that I love making purses, I am not actually that familiar with big-name purse designers. There are lots of reasons for this, but I have recently discovered a couple of blogs that I am sure EVERYONE else knows about and have begun my education.

Purseblog.com and the bagcraze blog are both great, and have given me some insight into more of the big designers. I tend not to like really, ridiculously expensive purses and don't EVEN get me started on Coach purses (whatever genius was able to convince millions of American women to pay Coach thousands of dollars to advertise for them is BRILLIANT - but I HATE those purses).

However, I L.O.V.E. these. If I had millions of extra dollars, I would spend some of them on these. The first one is by Jimmy Choo and retails for a cool $1500. This bag makes me shivery and happy all over

This one is by Louis Vuitton and it can be yours for merely $900. I love, LOVE this shade of blue in almost everything, and while I don't normally like enormous gold baubles on my purses, I really like this so very, very much that I want to keep a picture in my candy jar and just look at it instead of eating candy. Which might be the Best Diet Ever.

I have a thing for clutches...which is weird, since I normally don't carry them. Or go out.

Meanwhile, I have been working on a few things for other people...a John Deere bag for a friend's son, a messenger bag for my hairdresser, a black gathered clutch for a recently engaged friend, and of course, school is starting soon and I will need my own school bag. August looks like it's going to be fun!!

No Couch, No Pillows, Yes Purse

I went to Ikea the other day - they are having their semiannual sale you know - and wandered around in there for an hour or so. I haven't been there for quite a while, it is just not as much fun without an Ikea buddy. I went in for some rugs...which is about the only thing I DIDN'T get. I DID get:

• a 12"x10" butcher block shelf to use as a platform for hammering grommets and snaps - $2
• 4 yards of fabric $4
• 2 pillowcases $2

The fabric sale was a big part of the reason I went to Ikea in the first place. I love the Ikea fabrics. They are mostly heavy decorator weight, but are flexible and soft (for the most part). I love the big, oversized dramatic designs, and I love that they let you cut it yourself. =) Of course, the fabric I liked the best was not on sale, but I may go back and get some anyway, because it is just, well, AWESOME. I think I must have a fixation on trees, because these were my favorites. Left to right, Gunilla, Fredrika, Saralisa, and Majken.

I don't actually have a couch, or a place to put throw pillows, so I tore apart the pillowcases and ended up with a nice piece of fabric with a nifty design.

I can't find the original pillowcase on the Ikea website, and of course, I forgot to take any "before" pictures, but it was just a square pillowcase with a zipper on one end. This is what I ended up with. I would like to switch the links between the handles and the bag itself, in fact, I went to JoAnns this morning partly to get rectangular links, but when I tried to pry them open far enough to slide them on, one of them broke. So...I used these instead. I am not totally happy with the links, but other than that I like the bag. I wasn't sure if I would, it is really bright, but I do.

I also managed to smash my thumb pretty seriously with the hammer...fun times.

Tomorrow

I have some M.A.S.S.I.V.E. photo editing to do tonight, but I will be updating the etsy shop tomorrow. Here is one of the things to be included.

Random Projects

After posting the last post, I realized I actually have been making things....some I have pictures of and some I don't.

I made purses for the class officers I work with at school. They were impressed. =)

I've been making a lot of these....

and some more of these........and this design has been living in my head...it's not perfect yet, but this version is closer. There are about 4 designs that I am going to work on making better this summer and this is one of them. Pardon the wet spots, I was attempting some steam action.

Weekend Projects

I have been feeling a surge of creativity recently, and have been tackling some of the backlog of projects, UFOs, and preparing to restock the etsy shop at the beginning of July (er...notice how empty that space to the right there looks?). This weekend I worked a track meet all day on Saturday, so the majority of this was done on Sunday.

I modified the pattern I've been working on, it's closer.....it's harder to make this pattern with upholstery fabric, but I do like the way it drapes. It's lined with dark goldish cotton. I actually had these cut out for quite a while...they may be a birthday present for my sister. Or not. I am pretty proud of this...it is my own pattern (super SIMPLE pattern, but still). It is for my niece. You can tell those are birds, right? They are also my own pattern. I need to refine the top bird's body a little bit, but I do really really like it. And of course, for the etsy shop....more t-shirt bags. Gotta love Goodwill. Ok, back to the birds...can you tell what they are or do they look too "artsy?" And do they look too close to anything else you've seen? I drew them myself, but I stalk so many craft blogs that I am really afraid that I copied them from someone unknowingly. Has anyone seen them somewhere else?

Apples and Cantaloupes

I recently got some free fabric, and wrapped up in the midst of some not so great stuff, was this amazingly perfect scraps of cantaloupe colored twill and coordinating apple print. I fell head over heels in love and have been salivating over it for a few weeks now, waiting for the perfect project.

I think this might be it.

I used one of my favorite tutorials from Lisa Lam.

And I still have some more fabric - I'm thinking minilicious pouch for the summer etsy update.

Gathered Purse Take 2

First of all, I must state that it is absolutely glorious here this weekend, it is a perfect 72 degrees all weekend and completely clear skies, very light breeze....aaaahhhhh. These are the days that make me remember why I love this place so much.

I made some sun tea, the first of the season. I normally put some chocolate mint leaves in there, but I just planted the chocolate mint plant yesterday and want to give it a chance to put roots in.
I also finished this purse last night and carried it to the store today. This is a modification of the pattern I made last week and I must say that I like this one better. It is larger, for one, and I like the top part a lot better. I made it about half as wide and made the slot for the handle much smaller - only an inch wide.

The fabric is from Ikea and the lining is linen. The closure is a magnetic snap...love those things. I did realize that since this is decorator weight fabric, the gathers don't hang as smoothly as the last one, which was made of a very light linen/polyester blend. I also put in a gusset on the bottom of this purse, which the last one did not have. I like the rounded corners on the smaller one but I like the shape that the gusset gives to this one.

I still am going to change one more thing before making it again, and that is that I think if I slant the top of the bag slightly down, I won't have trouble with it sticking out oddly at the sides, right under the handle. It looks fine until I gather it and then it gets a bit wonky.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I am going to keep this, gift it, or give it away, but I do like it. This still isn't the fabric I intend to use when I do get it right though. Does anyone know of a good tutorial for doing a rounded gusset?

Giveaway with Disclaimers - Edited

**Edited to add - I carried this today and now I l.o.v.e. it and got several compliments on it**
I saw a purse on tv a while back that I really liked the design of, so I quickly sketched it and then let it sit for a while. Last night, all my papers were graded and my house was relatively clean, so I decided to make a purse. I flipped through the sketchbook and decided to work on this one. I like it, but it isn't quite what's in my head yetHowever. If you would like it, it's all yours.....leave me a comment, I'll draw a name on Wednesday night.

Disclaimers - this purse is not perfect. There are some bugs I need to work out, but it is cute and functional. Just not perfect. Just so you know.

Rusty Plum Buckle Purse

This was a commission from my best friend K. She has amazing taste, so it made me a little nervous to get carte blanche to do what I wanted. I have posted about this purse before, so I am not going to go into too much detail, but here are the basics:

plum and rust colored linen

interfaced with fusible fleece

lined with retro styled flames in quilter's cotton

4 pockets (cell phone, ipod, camera, and etc pocket)

brass colored accents

It did take me about 2 months to do this and about 3 weeks to do the last part, which was adding the buckle. I still am not completely satisfied, but it is close to what I wanted. I like the wraparound look a lot, but it's not quite right. I like the idea of putting a flower on this, but knowing K the way I do it wouldn't have been right for her. The next time I made this pattern I will do the flower...maybe something like what I made for this project. I also need to flatten the top out just a bit to see if I can cut down on the warping for the flap.

Flowers...or no flowers?

I went home last weekend so my dad could change my brakes (thanks dad!). Everything is blooming and we had beautiful weather. I mowed part of the yard and planted some violets for mom and now I'm all itchy....but oh well. =) And then I worked on a purse when I got home yesterday. It is just......not right. Yet. I'm still working on it. I am making it for my best friend, who likes things original, yet also simple and classic-looking and I am afraid of putting too much stuff on it. But it needs SOMETHING. I am posting a picture here, feel free to make suggestions. I thought about a fabric flower out of the rust colored fabric (it looks pink, but it's rust), but am not sure. I would put it on the lower right hand corner of the flap. I also thought about sticking to the original plan, which called for a wrap around thingy. See above for the original plan. The purse is made out of plum and rust colored linen with some powerful interfacing on the inside. This is my own pattern and I had some issues with my practice version, so I upped the stiffness on the interfacing and now I am afraid I went too far. Oh..and it isn't pressed yet, so hopefully some of those puckers will go away and the sides will look a little smoother.

So....flower or no flower?