Handbag Giveaway at Handbag Heaven

Posted on November 10, 2009
Filed Under bags, giveaways & contests | 1 Comment

teal_bag

 

Handbag Heaven is having a “30 Bags in 30 Days” Contest throughout the month of November.  To enter, you’ll need to provide your email address, which will put you on their mailing list, but you can opt out of the list at any time.  You can also earn extra entries by providing emails of your friends, but you can skip that part if you want.  I’m not affiliated with Handbag Heaven in any way — just passing this along (and increasing the competition!).

Update & Giveaway

Posted on November 9, 2009
Filed Under giveaways & contests | 1 Comment

 gingher-sarah8in

Wow, I didn’t realize I had been away from this blog for so long!  I really believed that I could continue to have a life while going to graduate school.  Keeping up with 2 blogs would be a piece of cake, or so I thought. What was I thinking?  Every day is filled to capacity with school and my usual daily chores.

 I did manage to get some sewing done over the weekend, including 2 dog beds and curtains for a solitary window.  But the rest of the weekend was consumed by software upgrades and reading assignments.  I’m afraid I have no new bags to show you at this time.  However, I need to make some gifts soon, and that means at least one new bag.

 Oh, and this grad school thing? It was an idea hatched in my husband’s somewhat sadistic brain.  And the dog bed project? Another idea from Daniel. What will he think of next?

 Since I have no projects to show you right now, I’d like to send you over to the Sewing Business Blog for a giveaway. Denise and Sarah are giving away a pair of 8” Gingher Designer “Sarah” Series Dressmaker Shears. These collectible shears have been discontinued by Gingher, and can be quite expensive if you manage to find them.  To enter, go to their blog post and leave a comment about a favorite fall or holiday project. The entry deadline is Saturday, November 28th.

Quilted Log Cabin Pillow

Posted on August 11, 2009
Filed Under home decorating, quilts | 3 Comments

No tutorial for you today, just a shot of the quilted log cabin pillow cover I finished up yesterday.  At the moment I’m trying to brighten up a colorless rental house, and all those small bits and pieces of fabric I’ve collected are finding a purpose here.

For this project I constructed 4 easy log cabin quilt blocks. Sewn together, they finished to a 12″ top.  I simply quilted the top to a piece of Warm & Natural batting (no backing here), using straight lines.  I added a back, and inserted a 12″ pillow form.  The cover is removable for washing.

Next up on the sewing machine – perhaps another pillow cover using just large squares, or maybe a pieced pillow case.  Then I may be ready for a new bag.

Tutorial: Clothespin Pocket Apron

Posted on July 27, 2009
Filed Under aprons, bags | 5 Comments

 

Now, before my friends are all “look, she’s actually doing chores,” I need to explain something first. If you’ve heard that Dan does the housework around here, that’s only partially true.  He does most of the sweeping and dusting because he finds my dust-induced asthma attacks extremely annoying. He also does most of the cooking, because he enjoys it, but he won’t touch the oven, so I do all the baking.  He can also do laundry, but quite honestly, our clothes sleep much better at night if I’m the one who handles that chore.  Let’s just say that his laundry “technique” is lacking.

For the first time in years I now have a clothesline in my back yard. Three of the four lines are missing, and the one that remains is in need of replacement, but that can be fixed eventually. I still have enough room to hang out a load of laundry, and I’m not heating up the house by running the dryer all afternoon. Oh, and I’m saving money, too!  I’m sure that my enthusiasm over a clothesline is shocking to anyone who knows me, but you’ll just have to accept this strange behavior. 

After hanging out the first load on my new/old clothesline, I realized that keeping clothespins in a plastic grocery bag just wasn’t going to work for me, and reaching up and into a bag, whether it’s a grocery bag or something made specifically for this purpose, just wasn’t very comfortable. I needed something waist-high.

An internet search revealed several great patterns for clothespin aprons and a variety of aprons, which would eliminate the need to reach up and into a bag, but all I really wanted was a small pocket to tie around my waist, not a full-size apron with a huge pocket.  I didn’t want to use a lot of fabric, either.  After a few quick sketches, I came up with some measurements for this quick and easy pocket with apron strings.  A simple pouch would work well for this application, but I added a pleat to give myself a little more room for my hand to reach in, as well as for some extra clothespins. The finished apron measures 7-1/2″ wide by 16″ tall (from the bottom of the pocket to the top of the waistband), and the pocket is 12″ deep.
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Bag Tutorials

Posted on July 24, 2009
Filed Under tutorials | 2 Comments

I’m back.

Those are dangerous words.  Perhaps I should have said, “I think I’m back.”  The last several months have been a wild ride, and have included the illness and death of a parent, packing up a house, moving over 600 miles further north, applying for graduate school, getting settled again, and some freelance web design work.  (This site is due for a huge redesign as well, but that’s probably several weeks down the road.)  So, while I hope to be posting much more frequently now, I won’t make any scheduling promises that I can’t keep.

I would like to write some more tutorials, but my sewing machine still hasn’t seen the light of day since the move.  Soon, though.  Meanwhile, I have some links to share with you.

First, a reader pointed out to me that The Buttercup Bag Pattern from Made by Rae is now available with a commercial license.  Your purchase will include the bag pattern in two sizes.  Thank you, Mayya, for letting me know about this!

i have to say always has great tutorials!  Here’s one for a laundry sack that is really too pretty for dirty laundry.

Elizabeth has a free pattern and instructions for the Diana Hobo over on her blog. I think this will be my next bag project.

And the fabric scraps pictured at the top of this post?  I’ll be making a patchwork pillow cover out of those.  Soon.  I hope.

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