My Sewing Space

My sewing machine has been busy here lately, but not much of it has been blog-able. Some client sewing, some gifts. The client sewing has all been picked up and the gifts are all done. This is the point where I start thinking, "I could still make such-and-such for so-and-so!" I've learned it's best to squelch that voice with one big "NOPE!" Being done a little early and having a little breathing space makes the holiday break with the kids much more enjoyable. Yesterday, I thoroughly enjoyed sewing a simple little thing just for me: This is Noodlehead's Open Wide Zipper Pouch . Sometime in the last year the zipper broke on the cosmetics-counter freebie bag I used for makeup when traveling and I threw it out. I'm just getting around to replacing it now. Behold! The wide opening! This is great for pouches that you might need to root around in. Or just want to see into. Love it. Sometimes it's the little things. I love that green tab a...

These zippered pouches are the last things I sewed for the art sale. I made three others awhile ago that I'm going to include also. Not terribly exciting, but I thought it would be good to have some simple things at a lower price point. The sale starts tomorrow (and ends on Sunday) and other than setting up my table, I'm ready to go. So excited!

These little zippered bags are gifts for friends. This one is for a young teen.  It's made from decorator fabric that someone gave me recently.  I sandwiched a layer of felt between the outside and lining to add a little body. This one is for a woman who loves purple.  Her Christmas decorations are purple, her garage door is purple.  Loves, loves, loves purple.  The fabric is leftover from a bridesmaid dress I made for my sister-in-law. The fabric is actually quite lightweight, so I quilted it with a lighter purple thread.  I'm a little rusty with the stippling, but I find it's an all-or-nothing sort of thing.  I have a hard time ripping some out and re-doing parts to make it look good, so I just keep going.  It is what it is. I have some other gift items to post about yet.  A couple of days ago I went back to sewing for me.  I got a little work done on my jeans.  Unfortunately, I think they are too tight now.  T...

Even though this project wasn't for me, I still enjoyed it.  :)  A woman from church brought me a store-bought make-up bag and asked me to make one like it, but deeper.  She also wanted a flat, pencil case-type bag in the same fabric. The bodies of both bags are interfaced and there is layer of batting in the boxy one.  I used a thicker cord than I usually do for the piping.  I think this helps the bag keep it's shape but the combination of the batting and heavier cord made it hard to get the piping to look good.  I had to stitch around the bag more than a couple times before I was satisfied.  The bag on the left is the one I was copying.  I put the zipper in the center along the top rather than on the edge.  The pieces bordering the zipper do not have a layer of batting.  The zipper color isn't a great match for the bags.  I probably should have gone with pink, yellow, or off-white to compliment the dots in the fabric. ...

I made these up to sell. The woman with the shop where my other things are for sale asked for more stuff, so I'll try these and see what she thinks. She has mostly decorative things for the home, so I'm not sure these are really what she's looking for, but they were pretty fast and easy and will work for gifts if they don't sell. The off-white plaid one is backed with a stiff fusible interfacing. All the others have a thin batting between the outer fabric and the lining. The green batik (smallest one) is quilted in a grid pattern. The middle two are made with traditional box corners (some good tips here ). I like that this makes a bottom for the bag, but it also pulls in the side seams making the width of the bottom narrower than the top. I found this tutorial that shows how to make a straight-sided triangular bag. Brilliant! You can see the difference here: The pattern for the bag looks like this: I love finding things like this online. It would have taken me a rea...