Wear a Dress Week & Another Amy Butler Lotus Dress

I certainly love the Amy Butler Lotus dress. So much, in fact, that I’d planned on wearing this version in celebration of International Wear a Dress Day/Week.

Except, when I got dressed this morning, I decided that I really wanted needed to wear these shoes.

Which don’t really go with my pink dress. At all. If I didn’t happen to have a meeting today and therefore be required to present an illusion of professionalism, I would have just worn the aqua shoes and pink dress and said “to hell with it.”

So, I pulled out my black stretch twill version (and I’ve got to reiterate my point in my earlier post about this dress–this one works so much better in a stretch woven, since it’s meant to be quite fitted) of the Amy Butler Lotus Tunic/Dress, because I know you can wear aqua shoes with a plain black dress. And it gave me an excuse to show it off to you guys.

I also know that a denim jacket (my fave–I watched it at the Sundance Catalog Shop forever until it went on clearance) goes with everything–including both aqua shoes and a plain black dress. So I think I did okay in my celebration of International Wear a Dress Day/Week… Right?

(My apologies to Antoinette for not wearing the dress I said I was going to wear.)

~Sarah

Bagged, baby!

At long last, the bag I made for our friends from Amy Butler’s new book “Little Stitches for Little Ones” arrived in northern New Mexico and I can now share the photos…

This one is dubbed the “Modern Nappy Bag” and is really something — its absolutely enormous! And it certainly doesn’t look like your run-of-the-mill diaper bag.

I used fabric from Amy Butler’s newish line of home decorator weight cotton sateen, August Fields. Some woodgrain fabric of the same weight from Joel Dewberry’s Ginseng line looked like it was made to match, so I lined the whole thing and made the many, many pockets with that…

I had a lot of fun making this bag, and hope the recipients enjoy it and are able to get some use out of it. What I like about it is that even if it’s a no-go as a diaper bag, it would be great as a tote bag for shopping at the farmers market or for a day trip where you need to pack a few things. It just doesn’t look “diaper-y.”

I also made the accompanying changing pad in a an organic terry cloth that was the same light blue color that was in the woodgrain fabric, and back it with the woodgrain. It’s meant to be quilted in a grid style, but I quickly last my patience with that. I am just sooooo not a quilter In fact, while I respect quilting as an art form, it is one of those things I just don’t have the temperament for at all. I did manage to do some horizontal quilting before I got frustrated, so it looks pretty decent. Needless to say, I can’t imagine I’ll be doing anything remotely quilting related anytime soon.

Funnily enough, this is the first baby gift I’ve ever made. Because I really don’t presume to know what folks want or need, I usually rely on that handy-dandy Target registry for these types of things. And, honestly, there hasn’t been anyone that I’ve been good enough friends with to merit making a baby gift. I hope that doesn’t make me a terrible person…

Which reminds me of an incident from earlier this year. One of my former coworkers was planning a baby shower for another coworker. And the first coworker asked me to “make up one of those nice bags” for this person to put all the other gifts into. She was referring, to the Amy Butler High Street Messenger Bag, of which I’ve made several. I was flabbergasted. Not only was I shocked because of the time and expense a bag like that would take (people really don’t understand how expensive fabric is and how much effort and energy it takes to make something quality–I’ve accepted that), but I was doubly surprised because I wasn’t particularly close to the potential recipient. You have to be pretty high up on the list to get a handmade gift–particularly an elaborate one like a bag that’s, face it, pretty physically tiring to make with all the layers of fabric and whatnot. The friend that I made this bag and changing pad for (actually, the bag is for the friend’s wife, but whatever) was just about my only work friend that I had when I was working at The Job From Hell several years ago. (Seriously, it was bad. You try going to school board meetings that last until 11:00 p.m. and tell me it’s not hell.) And I also know that my friend really appreciates things that are made by real people. So it’s really a two-fold criteria for these things with me: 1.) I gotta like you a lot. 2.) You gotta appreciate stuff that’s handmade.

I’m wondering if I’m the only one who is like this? Are the rest of y’all nicer than me about the handmade gifting thing?

~Sarah

Edited: I forgot to mention that a friend of mine stopped by the house right after I finished this up and mentioned that the bag was big enough and the right shape to use “Paris Hilton Style.” By which she meant that you could carry a small dog around in it. Hilarious! (And very true.)

Inked

I’ve cooled down a bit on my complicated garment sewing lately, partly because I don’t really have anywhere to wear dress, etc, and partly because we’re stuck in that weird time of year when I know it’s not going to be warm much longer, but don’t want to actually admit that I need fall clothes. But I did recently have the opportunity to wear a dress in good weather — since my hairstylist recently had a lovely wedding on the rooftop of the Ecotrust building in Portland’s Pearl District. It was motivation to get the Amy Butler “Lotus” dress that I’d started awhile back good and finished finished. It was a good thing I wore my “inked” dress, since I think I’m the only person in Portland without a tattoo (well, Josh doesn’t have one either, but my mom has two so the law of averages, their are a lot of tattoos in this city), I felt like I fit in a bit better…

Like I said in my first post about this dress, this is actually the second Lotus dress I’ve made, the first was actually out of a black stretch twill, which is — is you can believe it– the first basic black dress I’ve owned in my entire life (I’m just not a basic black sort of girl). I still haven’t gotten around to taking pictures of that one. However, this second dress is from a pink soft non-stretchy chino fabric from Italy (I think) that I got at Bolt. Comparing the two, as much as I like this dress, I actually think that it’s better suited for stretch woven, simply because the bodice needs to be very well fitted (I spent a lot of time on the fitting of this one) and the stretch is a bit more forgiving in that effort. But, regardless, I’m very happy with the result of this dress. I think it’s fun and I love the interesting neckline and vibrant pink fabric.

(Ooh, kinda crummy posture in this picture — remind me not to take photos for this blog after drinking marionberry martinis…)

My favorite aspect of this dress is the neckline, which is an interesting take on the traditional “sweetheart” neckline.

(Nice farmer tan, eh?)

I screwed up a little bit in the sewing, which I am not sure was in the instructions or not (I’m terrible when it comes to reading sewing instructions — I just charge ahead, I blame Burda World of Fashion). Since I was making the sleeveless version of the Lotus dress, I should have removed the seam allowance (1/2 inch) before binding the sleeves, so my sleeves are a bit wonky, which you can see in the photo above. I may still fix that if it annoys me enough..

(Oh, geez, and look how wrinkled I am in this picture…)

So, since I’ve made this dress twice, I can say it’s pretty sweet, it’s interesting neckline, the Sublime Stitching embroidery, the slight A-line, it’s a pretty complete package dress-wise. Turns out, my black dress would have been more appropriate, since in the hip ‘n’ trendy Pearl District everyone wears black to weddings. (When did that trend start??? Someone please explain this phenomenon to me! It was in the afternoon!)

(Don’t we look adorable in our handmade clothes?)

~Sarah

Book Review: Amy Butler’s Little Stitches for Little Ones

As you probably know, I’m a huge Amy Butler fan. I so appreciate that she has built a brand that has succeeded in encouraging newbies to sew, while also meeting the needs of experienced sewers/sewists. It’s a winning combination. One of the things I appreciate most about her new book, Amy Butler’s Little Stitches for Little Ones: 20 Keepsake Sewing Projects for Baby and Mom, is Amy’s acknowledgments on the first page of the book,

This book is dedicated to the sewing community at-large. Without your enthusiasm and spirit, the fine craft of sewing would not be as vibrant.

I was really impressed with that shout-out. I believe that one of the keys to ensuring sewing’s long-term success (which is important, otherwise it will be harder and harder to practice our craft because of inadequate supplies and a lack of shared knowledge) is growing a community. It seems that (and this isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this) Amy really understands that we’re all connected and integral to sewing’s success as a craft and industry.

I am a complete doofus when it comes to knowing what to give people as new baby gifts. In fact, I am eternally grateful for the whole “Target Baby Registry” thing or else who knows what I’d have given any number of acquaintances who have had babies over the last few years. However, I have a friend who is expecting his first little one ANY DAY NOW and wanted to make (of course) he and his wife something nice and thoughtful as a baby gift.

But, what to make?

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to receive a reviewer copy of Little Stitches (published by Chronicle) that bailed me out just in time.

The book is very comprehensive, with projects organized in six different categories: “Comforts” (snugly stuff), “Style” (clothes), “On the Go” (bags/bibs), “Decor” (that one’s obvious), “Playtime” (also obvious) and “Memories” (hand-sewn albums). Each of the twenty project is rated according to difficulty level, with a nice distribution from easiest to hardest, with most projects being in the middle of the range. It also comes with the most complex pattern pieces — the simple square and rectangles you draft yourself, as in In Stitches. The clothing projects are available in sizes for babies ranging from newborn to twelve months, with a (rather amusing) illustrated size chart. There are very comprehensive (if you’ve ever sewn an Amy Butler pattern, you’ll know what I mean) written instructions accompanying each project, and one or two illustrations. Each section has introduction pages of photos of the projects that follow. It is also spiral bound –which I so appreciate because it lays flat — and contains a handy pocket for the pattern pieces.

Little Stitches is definitely, and I think intentionally, geared toward people like myself (no, not complete doofuses) who are wanting to make a special handmade gift for new parents. This is definitely not a “quick and easy” type of guide that would be of use to busy soon-to-be parents who want to create some DIY baby projects. Check out what I mean:

Even though some of the projects like the last one I posted are simple from a technical perspective, it’s definitely a labor-intensive endeavor. But, I am sure that anyone of those projects would be absolutely adored by the recipients.

One of the real highlights are the toys. Seriously, I had the urge to just make them all for our friends. They’re that fun and charming. And, they really highlight vibrant fabrics.

These blocks would be great — and probably less dangerous when the little one learns about throwing things and their siblings!

And this cat thingy is just precious…

My favorite, though, is the snail toy that converts into a pillow/cushion.

There are also two bag patterns included in Little Stitches, and both are not only great-looking diaper bags, they both seem as if they’d make really functional everyday bags if you simply omitted or modified the bottle pockets. The “Modern Diaper Bag”, in particular, struck me as just about perfect as a big shopper that would work well for farmers markets — or any other time you need to haul a bunch of stuff around and still want to look cute.

The two “Memories” projects would both make lovely gifts for grandparents especially. The “Brag Book” is rated at the easiest difficulty level and is a simple, folding album with stitched details. It also integrates paper craft, which is pretty cool (love that craft cross-pollination!). I’m also too embarrassed to admit this (but not quite), but when I first saw that particular project, my first thought was “Cool! I should make one about the dog for Josh!” (Yes, I’m a dork.)

My only real quibble with this book is that the font is too small and fine to be easily read, especially against some of the darker backgrounds. My sewing style is definitely more of the glancing at the instructions as a plow through my project, and the typography does hinder that a bit, making it harder to find my place quickly and easily. I know that some people really didn’t care for having to draft out some of the pattern pieces in In Stitches, but it doesn’t bother me. My recommendation would be to create pieces on paper rather than directly on fabric, as Amy advises. That way, you can use the pieces over and over without having to repeat the drafting. Plus, the pocket in the book provides enough space that you can store your self-drafted pieces as well. You should also be aware that this is not a sewing instruction book, it is definitely for someone who knows their way around their machine, or has a good sewing reference book. The techniques used aren’t difficult, but if you’re not confident with the basic sewing techniques (although the glossary in the back is helpful), you may want a bit of support from another source.

All-in-all, I highly recommend this book as a great one for gift-givers. I can see many, many well-loved gifts coming out of Amy Butler’s Little Stitches. I look forward to sharing my project from the book with you soon! (The gift needs a few finishing touches and a trip to the post office. Sorry!)

~Sarah

Behind the Times

Whew! I’m still trying to catch up blog-wise since our computer crash (we lost 100+ photos through that whole mess). So, we’re a bit behind the times with posting some completed projects.

My mom’s birthday has come and gone once again, and once again, I made her a new bag (the woman used to just have one bag and carry it until it died, so I’ve taken it upon myself to ensure that she has an appropriate wardrobe of bags for various occasions). Last year, it was the Amy Butler High Street Messenger Bag. This year, it’s another Amy Butler pattern – the Downtown Purse (I’ve made a few of these, they’re the perfect gift to show off some special fabric; check them out here and here.)

Check it out…

This one was made using some great mid-weight cotton sateen from Joel Dewberry’s Ginseng line (the same line Josh used for his “Shoeberries“), and I lined with some quilting weight cotton from Anna Maria Horner (I think… Eeg, I usually save the selvage so that I can remember this stuff). Check it out – the lining looks like those wicker chairs everyone in the eighties had.

Please tell me you know what I’m talking about…

Once again, I narrowed the front flap just slightly so that I could attach the straps into the lining rather that on the exterior (it looks so much nicer, in my opinion). This time, I used an oversized orange wood button to create the closure and shortened the flap by about an inch to create the space the button needed. I kind of think the button’s the best part of the bag.

Josh also screen printed my mom some custom logo’d pillow cases and a T-shirt; unfortunately, the photos were eaten by the monster than killed our computer… We’ll try to arrange an on-site photo shoot so that we can show those off, too.

Oh, and she didn’t seem to notice that itty, bitty imperfection…

~Sarah

Feelin’ Stitchy

In my last post, I mentioned that I’m planning on making another Burda shirt for Josh—this time with a bit of monkey embroidery… I usually farm out my embroidery needs to my mom, who’s amazing, but since this is a shirt for Josh, I’m thinking that I should do it myself. To give myself a bit of practice (Mom taught me, but she’s kind of, er, fanatical about stitch evenness and embroidery perfection, so I’ve never embraced the craft with a lot of zeal as a result), I’m doing some embroidery on an Amy Butler Lotus Dress (this is my second—I made the first in two evenings and haven’t had a chance to take pictures yet—it needs a good wash/iron before the big photo shoot) made from some Gino’s Chino. Here’s a peek at my concept.

Yes, of course it’s going on the shoulder of the dress.

~Sarah

Bagged

My fabulous Amy Butler Sophia Bag—the one that made my fingers bleed—has gotten kinda of dirty. Between taking it on the MAX, leaving it sitting on the floor of my cubicle at work and accidentally kicking it and the general wet grossness of the weather here, it’s looking pretty funky. Now, I’m faced with a bit of a problem: how to clean it up. You see, it’s interfaced with buckram, which can’t be immersed in water because the structure (starch) will dissolve. So, I may have to (break with my hard and fast policy) and get it—gasp—dry cleaned. (I hear there’s an eco-cleaner near our house, at least.) Anyway, because I didn’t want to deal with deciding to go to the dry cleaners just yet, so I made a new bag for myself. (I know normal people would not understand how completely, utterly logical this is—but I know y’all get it.)

I’ve mentioned before what a tremendous fan I am of the designs of Etsoku Furuya, produced by Echino. I really like a lot of the unusual Japanese textiles, and Bolt carries a lot of goodies, most of which I can resist—but not Echino. I’ve made the High Street Messenger Bag out of her wolf fabric already and it’s just some of the most dynamic, vibrant prints I’ve ever seen. (There’s something wonderfully dangerous about having such a bad-ass fabric store within walking distance of our house. We’re very lucky.) I picked up the cherry-colored version of Furuya’s interpretation of the leopard print and found some cheapo complementary fabric for the lining. (Echino is, as we Oregonians say, “spendy,” so saving on the lining helps.)

Ever since I made Josh’s step-mother one of the Amy Butler Downtown Purses, I’ve been meaning to whip one up for myself. It’s a great size and when I say “whip one up,” I really mean it. It takes no time to make this back—just a bit of wrestling at the end when attaching the straps.

I’m rather proud of the way the pattern placement ended up. I’m not as precise about that as I could (should) be, but this time I went to some fairly significant effort on the location of the leopards on this bag, and I think it paid off.

The pattern placement on the back turned out pretty well, too.

The bag’s a little wide for someone as short as me (I know that sounds weird—but if you’re short, you know what I mean). But the fabric’s what is really shown off here anyway.

I used buckram again for the interfacing to give this bag shape. I really like the structured shape that it creates. However, I just used what we had around the house, and Josh uses a much heavier weight buckram for his hat brims that I do for bags, so I had to do some more intense-than-usual wrangling with the finished bag. This included having to give up on the suggested attachment method (top-stitched to the outside) and going to attaching to the inside and hiding it in the lining. That’s a weird description, I know, but you can probably figure out from the pictures what I did. If I’d been thinking ahead, then I would have narrowed the flap just a smidge in order to account for the strap residing inside rather than outside the bag. I have a feeling I’m the only person this bothers, though.

I also added a pocket to the inside of the bag. This was really easy—I just cut off the top of two additional pieces of lining fabrics, sewed them together, added the size of pockets (I made four, but wish I’d made three—the two on the ends aren’t that usable) I wanted and basted it to the lining. Much better than the original pocket-less version. What was Amy thinking? She usually goes overboard on details like that… (My attempts at photographing the interior of the bag were not too successful, as you can see.)

(Sidebar for a short lecture: That envelope in my bag? That’s my ballot. Filled out and ready to go. Oregonians: don’t forget to vote by May 20. Postmarks don’t count. It’s got to actually arrive by the 20th. So make sure that your ballot in the hands of your county elections office by Tuesday. End of lecture.)

Notice the blouse I’m wearing in these pictures? That’s the Project Runway/Simplicity blouse I made a couple of months ago. I haven’t worn it much because the elastic in the sleeves annoyed me beyond belief and basically looked 100% dorky. So, recently I got around to ripping the elastic out and all is well in the world again. I wear this a lot with jeans and this ancient black jersey pencil skirt that I believe will be with me for the rest of my life. An added bonus is that it coordinates quite well with my new bag.

So, I’ve got to tell you that while this latest project from me isn’t too thrilling, Josh is working on some really unusual stuff. I don’t want to say much more. But, I’m always amazing at his willingness to think of some of the craziest things to craft—ever.

Just wait. You’ll see.

~Sarah 

What’s going on?!

Something strange is going on in our little sewing world here.

First, Sarah just keeps fighting with every single project that comes down the pike. Case in point: Sarah’s first attempt at Amy Butler’s Lotus Tunic/Dress. A lovely, straight-forward pattern that has all the makings of a real winner. All the fitting issues were worked out. It was lookin’ good. Except one small thing. The fabric. It was a wool “melange” that we got at the Woolen Mill Annex during our little field trip last month. Pretty stuff, a beige and black herringbone with a blue and red windowpane woven into the fabric as well. Aside from the wool, however, the rest of the content of the “melange” was unknown. And unlike wool, this stuff just kept raveling and raveling. Then the itching started. Sarah tried the dress on for fit (perfect) before attachign the facings and sleeves and promptly broke out in hives. So, the lovely dress is now sitting in the washing machine, and maybe that’ll help and the reaction is to something the fabric was treated with and not something that makes up the wool “melange.” Oh well, it was only 2 or 3 bucks a yard.

And, we’ve seamed to have developed a zipper situation as well. There were at least three attempts at the invisible zipper insertion on the aforementioned dress. Then there was the big problem. Josh is a big fan of the quarter zip sweaters and sweatshirts and decided to make one himself. Using a reasonable-looking Burda pattern, he had a go at it and it was going fine until the zipper portion of the project. Let’s just say that it turns out that Burda had intended that the entire sweatshirt (including the zippers) be sewn reverse. As in the seams are on the outside. But we didn’t realize this and chaos ensued. You’ll understand what we mean when we post the finished project.

Oh, and Sarah volunteered to put buttonholes on a jacket her mom had made (she can’t figure out how to do the buttonholes on her new machine) and it turns out that Sandy had sewn her button on going the wrong way (vertically rather than horizontally). Arrrggg…

Sarah was super-excited to get her newest Burda World of Fashion in the mail last week. And, unlike every other issue ever, this one was certainly a bust. Especially considering that it contained a pattern that has got to be hands down, the ugliest, most horrifying pair of pants ever conceived! They are, simply-put, god-awful. They’re so bad, that it wouldn’t even be ironic-funny to make them as a joke. They’re that bad. Judge for yourself.

It’s hard to imagine anything could make these worse. Pleats maybe?

Finally, and this is probably the weirdest of it all, we took Sarah’s mom out to Fabric Depot yesterday evening after we were done watching the Blazer game on TV together (an ugly loss to Indiana, by the way) and that was sure an interesting experience! We pull up and the cops were parked out front. They were escorting someone out of the store. We’re not really sure what crime was committed, but that’s kind of an odd sight outside a fabric store. the excitement died down and the police left, so the three of us headed into the store. As we’re walking in, to our left someone’s puking in the parking lot. Absolutely awesome. All of this so Sandy could get half a yard of fabric.

So, mysteriously itchy fabric, a wonky zipper curse, an inside-out sweatshirt pattern, backwards buttons and a little too much excitement at the fabric store. What a week…

~Josh & Sarah

I’ve stopped whining…

Because my Sophia Bag looks so awesome!

Even though it resulted in a serious pin graveyard and some bleeding fingers…

It was totally worth it.

I covered a lot of my changes in my first entry about this bag. You remember, the post where I whined a lot. But here’s the quick recap: I added some handbag feet. I chose the black plastic ones—simply because black worked with my color scheme. They don’t have the satisfying click of the metal ones, but they look the way I wanted. I’m surprised Amy didn’t include these in the original pattern, because this bag really benefits from them.

(Please excuse the imperfect stitching… There were a lot of layers involved in the bottom of this thing!)

I also omitted the piping from the bottom. Not that I didn’t give it the ol’ college try, but it just wasn’t working for me. Actually, I don’t think it was necessary design-wise, anyway. The bag has such a a strong shape that really stands on its own. (Both figuratively and literally!)

I also changed the pocket configuration in the inside of the bag. The pattern just has two large pockets on each side, which really didn’t suit my purposes. I left one size as is with the two pockets—those are perfect for my wallet and the assorted lipsticks that I must carry with me at all times.

I then divided the other pocket panel into four so that I could accommodate the other stuff that I lug around—namely, my snazzy new red CrackBerry BlackBerry.

Just a few more pictures of this bag (can you tell that I’m infatuated?)…

The two side panels have “tattoos” centered on them, which looks pretty funky fresh.

I used 3/32 inch piping and did a bit of top stitching with red metallic thread.

All-in-all, I’m really happy with the way this turned out. The contrast between the classy design and the funky fabric really works for me and suits my style. I did take Liz‘s advice that she left in this post awhile back to look for this light-weight meshy grid stuff in the craft section for the bottom of the bag. Well, I’m not sure if I found the exact stuff at the Fabric Depot, but whatever it was that I ended up using—it worked. Thanks, Liz!

I also have to pat myself on the back with this one. Not only did I let go of my obsessive need for everything to look perfect (that just wasn’t happening), I employed hand stitching relatively successfully. The directions called for you to slip stitch the lining into the bag and I actually did it without trying to come up with some hair-brained, half-baked plan to avoid the hand stitching and use the machine. You have no idea what a huge step this is for me. When I learned how to sew, my mom taught me. She’s really good at hand sewing, really fast at it (she’s a fierce embroiderer—which I hate) and she generally did that step in the sewing process for me. So, I never really developed my hand stitching skills. Anyway, I did a very passable job of stitching in over 40 inches worth of lining! Do I get a sewing merit badge for this accomplishment?

~Sarah

No Pain, No Gain?

from sarah the sewist 

I spent a lot of this weekend working on Amy Butler’s lovely new pattern, the Sophia Bag. However, this pattern has officially kicked my ass. Or at least my fingers.

Yep, that’s my index finger—one of the many victims of this little project. As of this evening, I have had to stop bleeding on my fingers three times, and suffered a couple of bruised finger tips. I never knew that you finger tips could actually bruise! I believe about half of our pins are now toast as well.

Yes, I’m feeling sorry for myself. No, I’m not apologizing for feeling sorry for myself.

This bag is shaping up to be a pretty cool one, despite all of the drama.

For something a bit different (okay, maybe a lot different), I’m using an Alexander Henry home dec weight fabric called “Tattoo Too.” It’s absolutely brilliant. It’s got lots of funky stylized “tattoos” all over…

I love the slightly edgy look of this fabric constrasting with the very girly, old-fashion shape and lines of this bag. It’s fun and a little unexpected.

Here’s a close up of one of the tattoos—the only thing that would make this better is if it said “Mom” in the heart instead of “Amor:”

Just like Amy’s High Street Messenger Bag (several of which I made this fall), there are a lot of pieces to this one—but, luckily, I’ve made enough of these bags to save my sanity and label, label, label each piece (ask my how I learned this lesson).

I also had an adventure with the piping, somehow buying way too thick of cording to make the piping—I know I bought the quarter-inch stuff like was called for, but I think my stuff was a lot more dense that most cording, so I zipped back over to Fabric Depot before they closed last night and bought three yards of 3/32 cording instead. (I’m a big spender—my total came to 62 cents. This may be some sort of fabric store buying record.)

So far, I’ve made a few changes, including the piping size: after staying up until 2:00 a.m. last night wrestling with the bottom panel with all of its piping and interfacing, etc, and then getting up wrestling with it some more, I just decided to omit the bottom panel’s piping. (Sidebar: I really need to investigate my options for creating a sturdy bag without so much thickness. There’s got to be a way.) Oh, and I added feet to the bottom.

I had hoped to finish this up this evening, but honestly, my hands and fingers ache. And the trusty Kenmore really needs a break. It was starting to get pretty aggravated with my abuse. It’s been so good to me, so I need to return the favor. After this project’s done, I’m going to give it a good de-linting and clean out as a reward.

Well, off to nurse my wounds.

Hard to give away…

from sarah the sewist

As we’ve mentioned a time or two, we’re continuing to work on holiday gifts for everyone, and we’re finally starting to feel like we’re making some progress. I just finished the gift for Josh’s stepmother. It’s the Amy Butler Downtown Purse. This pattern came in the mail yesterday—thank you Lisa Lam over at the wonderful site U-Handblog. I had won her monthly bag contest awhile back (for the Amy Butler Messanger Bag I made for my mom’s birthday), and had my heart set on the Amy Butler Downtown Purse pattern as my prize… Unfortunately, this particular pattern was out of stock, so I had to wait. This pattern arrive was pretty fortuitous!

I am particularly happy that we didn’t need to run out the “storm of the century that didn’t actually happen” (the weather folks here in PDX had everyone on high alert this weekend, claiming snow and wind) to get supplies for this one either (sort of my MO—get started, realize I don’t’ have a critical piece for my project, have to run to the sewing shop, etc, etc).

A couple of weeks ago we bought a yard or so of some absolutely beautiful cotton from Windham Fabrics “American Coverlet Collection.” You can read about the design concept for this line here, and visit the American Coverlet Museum’s site to learn about their work preserving coverlets. What an exciting effort they’re undertaking trying to preserve this unique American art form! Anyway, as you can see, this is gorgeous stuff.

Of course, me being me, I did make some changes. I’m continuing my infatuation with fusible fleece. The stuff just has so many uses… Since we didn’t have a lot of Timtex, I backed the sides of this bag with two layers of fusible fleece, which created a pretty thick, very sturdy structure for Downtown Purse. I also used the fusible fleece for interfacing the strap, which I think makes it a bit more comfortable to carry—I had done this when I made my friend her Frenchy Bag, and she seemed to like that particular feature.

Also, I truly hate the removable false bottom that a lot of bags have. After making a zillion of the Amy Butler High Street Messenger Bags and never finding the stupid quilters template that you’re supposed to use to make the false bottom, I now avoid that phase of bag making as much as possible. My latest creative brainstorm was to use two layers of Timtex to make up the bottom of the bag. (I know, I’m living on the edge… two layers of Timtex—the stuff is a tremendous pain in the butt to sew as a single layer, let along two.) It worked out just fine and seems to have created the needed stability at the bottom of the bag.

I really got a bit obsessive about matching the patterns on this one… Like, I think pretty much everything matches up. Which is weird, because I usually try to be kind of serene about that sort of thing. I mean, there only so much you can do to make sure your fabric pattern lines up, right?

Can you tell that I really, really don’t want to give this one away? I really am proud of this one. I think I’ll make a very similar one for myself sometime soon.

On The Newsstand…

The first in an occasional series of posts on stuff we find interesting.

What can we say, we still love a good magazine or newspaper. In a “paperless” world, there is still nothing like getting a magazine through the mail slot. A bath isn’t complete without bubbles and some light (or not so light) reading. Here are few things that we came across this month.

Having trouble finding jeans that fit? Virginia Postrel has an article in December’s Atlantic about changing ready-to-wear sizes, technology and $900 jeans for sale in England. There is an interesting data about how different in shape we all really are and how “in a tough apparel market ‘better fit’ has become the latest competitive weapon.” Truncated version available here. Guess we sewers/sewists have an edge here in the whole effort behind “better fit.”

Surprise, surprise Amy Butler lives in an incredibly cool looking house. You can see it in the November / December issue of Martha Stewart’s Blueprint. We found that this magazine is kind of uninspiring but worth looking through in the check-out line or browsing at the store (if only we could organizer our life ala the “tipometer”). The Sewer’s favorite part is the “winter themed” pics that were obviously taken in the summer heat. Big props to Amy Butler and husband for featuring their Arbor Snowboard, we are big fans of Arbor’s long boards and nice to see them in an unexpected spot.

From USA Today, always double stitch the crotch of your pants!

Another one down…

We’re plugging away with our Christmas gift making, and finished this up recently—an Amy Butler Swing Bag for Josh’s mom. It’s in one of Amy’s fabrics, two different ones from the gray and yellow theme from the “Belle” line. A lot of people have made this bag, and we can certainly see why. It comes together quickly and looks really sharp. It could use some pockets, but then it wouldn’t be as simple to make reversible—not that that’s a critical feature of the bag, but it’s a nice novelty. We think she’ll enjoy this one.

There’s been a lot written about this pattern, and people have done beautiful interpretations of it, so we’ll not bore you with what a great pattern this is. But, we would definitely recommend this if you’re working on handmade holiday gifts, as it doesn’t take a ton of fabric (so you can splurge on something nice) and is so, so, so fast to make.

P.S. We’re working on some changes to this blog, so our links to our blogger friends have disappeared for some reason… The links will be back once we finish with the upgrades, we promise.

Out of the Trenches

from sarah the sewist

My Indygo Junction Trench Topper that I was sewing as part of the Great Trench Coat Sew-a-long on Pattern Review is finished and I broke it in by wearing it to work today. I was a little uncomfortable with it just because it’s a lot louder than most of my wardrobe, but it worked with dark jeans, a white collared blouse and my black cowboy boots. Someone even told me that it gave off a “vintage cool vibe,” which sounds good to me. Not to mention, Josh and I went out to The Screen Door (yum!) for dinner this evening, and he claims that two diners noticed on my jacket. My style is generally not that noticeable, more cute than anything, so it’s kind of nice to have something distinct and eye-catching.

I wrote about my progress here and here and it was really fun knowing that there were quite a few other folks working on a trench at the same time—although mine is more of an indoors jacket, rather than the outwear most of the others on Pattern Review are planning and sewing. It’s funny, I was planning on sewing this jacket, but it jumped to the top of the queue when the sew-a-long was announced. The super-cool Amy Butler print from Bolt in an unusual cinnamon color and the lovely pink Moda fabric from Fabric Depot for the contrasting bands were a fun combination.

I covered the issues that I had with this pattern in my last blog entry, but I do want to re-iterate that while I had some problems, they were completely fixable and Indygo Junction seemed very happy to get the feedback about the errors in the pattern drafting. The other thing I noticed with this pattern is that it’s already rather petite-ified. By that I mean that I didn’t shorten the sleeves, and only took in the shoulders a smidge—which was great for me. My fix to the belt issue worked, and I think it looks like it was supposed to be this way.

Anyway, since this jacket is unlined, and since the Sewer and I don’t have a serger (waaaah!), there was a lot of seam finishing on this jacket. Which was a colossal pain in the butt. Well worth it, but a pain, nonetheless.

I also faced the pink bands at the sleeves and bottom so that they’d have more of a structured look and flare out a bit more. Which I think turned out pretty nice, since the two fabrics were different weights. The contrasting bands actually, oddly, toned down the busy look of the main fabric, which is sort of interesting.

I must have placed the three stupid button on this jacket at least three times. Each. It was really difficult to figure out the right spot for the buttons, and I still not completely satisfied with the way the buttons look on the jacket. I am really crappy at hand sewing and avoid doing so at all costs. Our sewing machine does a lot for us—including auto buttonholes and it’s really easy to use the machine to attach buttons. However, like I mentioned in a previous entry, the buttons I chose for this jacket were too big for the auto buttonholer, and it turns out, also are too big to sew on with the sewing machine. Which sucked. So I spent all of last evening sewing and re-sewing the buttons.

Basically, the buttons won.

I’m planning to make this trench again, especially since I’ve worked out all of the weirdness with the pattern, and since I have a decent stash of raincoat fabric on hand.

Cat-tastic!!!

We don’t have a cat. In fact, both of us are horribly allergic, and our dog thinks that cats are extremely suspect. So, no cats for us. However, we’ve got a lot of kitties in our extended family. Since we’re beginning to embark on our Great Making Everyone’s Christmas Gifts Odyssey, we decided that Josh’s dad’s cat, Lieutenant, really really needs a Kitty Tunnel from Amy Butler’s In Stitches book. (We’ll review the entire book soon—promise.) Not only that, Lieutenant needs, really needs, a funky-fresh, Miami Vice-style lime green flamingo print Kitty Tunnel lined with hot pink fluffy fur.

This is a super-basic “pattern” in the book. There actually aren’t any pieces included, you simply go off of some measurements Amy provides to draft a tunnel and drawstring that’s lined with faux fur. Basically, it’s like a tube that closes on the end—apparently cats like to have options in their Kitty Tunnels, sometimes they want to go all the way through the tunnel, other times, they want to snuggle up in a cave.

The picture from the book really shows a nice Kitty Tunnel that seems to fit in with the decor in a tasteful way. Our finished product is not exactly what normal people would call “tasteful.” Josh’s dad will love it. Love it. Seriously, it sort of sucks that we have to wait a few months to send it, because the result is so bizarrely awesome, that we know it’ll be a hit. Even if you don’t go a little over the edge like we did, this is a quick-to-sew, simple, inexpensive project that will probably thrill the cat or cat-lover in your life.

Our dog’s stuffed raccoon toy had to stand in for the cat in this photo shoot. Needless, to say, the dog was not impressed.

(We swear, we don’t encourage our dog to get in the pictures. She’s camera ham. If we get out the camera, she’s there. It’s been that way since she was a puppy.)

The Vinyl Countdown

from josh the sewer

Pictured here is the Sewist’s birthday gift. My Dad likes to say “Vinyl is Final” when explaining his choice of house siding; this phrase stuck with me as making this. Being somewhat limited in my sewing skills, my choice of projects are small. The Sewist loves bags so I decided to bust out the Amy Butler Messenger Bag pattern again. Instead of doing something that I could get through easily and quickly, I decided that she NEEDED a pink sparkly vinyl bag, to deal with the wet winters here in Oregonia. For the interior I went with the Echino Beehive in eggplant that I picked up from Bolt. The appliqué is reflective fabric, that kind you see on coats for high visibility. At the Mill End store they sell it in 12 x 18 sheets for $4. This is actually cool, at $25 a yard on the bolt it is much cheaper to buy the sheets to make tall and wide things.

The first part of the project was making the appliqué. I found a crow picture on the internet and blew it up in Photoshop. I printed it, cut it out of of paper, traced it onto the back of the reflective fabric and cut very carefully. I stitched the crow to the outside flap with silk and metallic thread that astonishingly matched perfectly. This part went really really well. I was feeling really good about the project at this point. Next was the vinyl (here the sound effect should sound like DUM, dum, dah; ominous like).

Wow, the sparkly vinyl is really cool and pretty, but my god it is hard to work with, especially if you have no idea what you are doing (see: me). I decided to make the strap first, though it is a middle step in the instructions. I like to get the little things out of the way first (and I am actually working on a separate post about this, because it is interesting how differently the Sewist and I look at directions). Following the pattern’s directions, I folded the two sides toward the middle, to deal with fabrics stubbornness, I glued like crazy and stacked books on top to hold it down. After a couple of hours, I folded, glued and stacked again. Now it was time for the sewing. I actually was able to get it stitched, terribly. The vinyl was incredibly sticky and it took me PULLING it though. I figured this was bad for the machine, so I called the Sewist at work and spoiled the surprise. I was drenched in sweat, the strap was really terribly screwed up and the sewing machine looked tired. The Sewist was not impressed with what I was doing to her machine so I called it day.

The next time out I sewed the exterior together, which was going great when the right sides were together. So the problems were back again as soon as the exterior of the vinyl touched any part of the machine. I was really close to quiting and going to Nordstrom’s and buying something, when it hit me that there has to be a way to do this (the Sewist mentioned a Teflon foot). I googled “sewing vinyl” and on this site someone mentioned wax paper. Melting wax paper onto the exterior worked swimmingly. The other bit about working with the fabric is that is is impossible to iron the seems open, so I trimmed them short (but not too short). The last bit about the vinyl is it is really difficult to turn inside out.

The interior actually came together as expected.

For the strap I went with a different tactic, I cut a 3.25 inch wide slice of the exterior and 3.25 inch wide slice of the Enchino Beehive which I backed with fleece interfacing, like the straps from the Very Green Bag. I sewed everything right side together and turned inside out. I think with the strength of the vinyl one layer will be sufficient and the fleeced fabric should be pretty comfortable. Turning the strap right side out took some time and an incredibly sore finger, but the results are pretty nice, though a little puffy. I again stacked books on top of the strap to get it to lay flatter, which is working, though in need of another night at this point.

The changes to the original pattern include:

no tab, actually no clasp also, the flap is heavy enough to stay shut;
no flap pocket, neither the Sewist or I every use it on the bags that we have;
no top-stitching on the outside, not necessary, no desire to wax paper again;
strap, as I mentioned;
tool pocket has more usable slots, for things like cellphones or iPods
and no canvas backing, this things weighs a ton already and is plenty stable.

Lessons learned:

probably the last time for sticky vinyl, too too too hard to deal with for any length of time
and anytime I am dead tired after making a seam, I probably am doing something wrong.

The next bag I make (one that I might actually use myself), will probably be our first adventure in designing a pattern. The Amy Butler Pattern is really great, but I am finding more not to like every time and there are things like shape and size that I would do very differently.

The crow is in honor of our dog, who hates them. We have always joked that if she had her own company it would be called “30 or So Crows” for the number she would like to catch every day. Another sign of our complete dog dorkdom!

Happy Birthday Honey, enjoy!

Intern’s Ottoman

The ottoman for the Best Intern Ever (we wrote about this project on Labor Day) is done. She said she wanted something black, gray and brown, and this Nigella slate imperial fans fit the bill perfectly. This is the fourth Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow that we’ve made, so it came together in no time, and was truly a joint effort. We both cut and sewed this one, worked together in the stuffing.

Just like the others that we wrote about here and here, this looks great and took a lot of stuffing. Unlike the others, we used some smarts (thanks to commenter Christina). What Christina suggested was inspired by punching bag guts—take fabric scraps and stuff them in the center with the soft filling all around. Not only was it cheaper to stuff, it actually resulted in a way better loft than the two large ottomans we made for ourselves. It is much firmer and much more “sittable.” If that’s a word.

The stuffing technique:
By the way, the Best Intern Ever loved her ottoman.

It’s Labor (of love) Day Weekend

Here at Casa de Sewer-Sewist we’re celebrating the long Labor Day weekend by juggling a bunch of different works in progress. There’s nothing like a three day weekend to encourage you to start more projects than you can finish. There’s something about that extra day to make you overly-ambitious.

Anyway, Josh is slogging along on another pair of Simplicity 3891 pants. (The photo at the top of this post is Josh working on these pants, by the way.) This time, he’s tapered in the leg so it’s shaped more like a boot cut pant rather than the exaggerated, ultra-wide cargo leg that is intended in this pattern. Again, he removed the numerous pockets and is just sticking with the patch pockets on the butt and hips. Oh yeah, and, because Josh is not a 12-year-old, he’s not putting zippers on the sides this time either. Josh is, of course, infusing his own unique personal style into this project. We’ve mentioned before that we’re big fans of Nordstrom, but too cheap to shop there (except the shoe department, the anniversary sale, the Rack and Sarah’s beloved Jag Jeans). Well, a month or so ago Josh spotted some really snazzy cotton Faconnable brand pants that were brown with orange facings and orange top-stitching. Well, these snazzy pants were something like $150! Josh knew that he could create an even more awesome pair of his own “Faconnable” pants for around fifteen bucks. He’s also adding a bright orange zipper in the fly.

The fabric (a nice medium-weight Robert Kaufman 100& cotton for both the orange and brown; this stuff is great value and nice to work with):

The orange zipper (note that the partially-constructed pants are laying on the Alice Starmore shawl that it took the Sewist eight years to knit—sewing is definitely more of an instant gratification hobby):

Sarah’s got a couple of projects going on as well, including a Burda WoF skirt from the latest Burda Plus Fashion mag. (Sidebar for a minor rant: On what planet is a Euro 22—which is a petite Euro 44 or a US 44 or a US RTW 12—a plus-sized pattern? It’s fine, but just slightly annoying, but the upside is that it opens up a whole other set of available fabulousness that is Burda WoF. It’s nice that this is sized for petite, though.) This is in the brown Robert Kaufman stretch Vera sateen that I wrote about awhile back. Apparently, as you can see from the photo to the right, Sarah has completely forgotten how to insert an invisible zipper. This is a nice, classy gored skirt that, once the zipper situation is addressed, will be a good work staple.

Finally, we’re working on a project as a gift for Sarah’s intern at work, AKA the Best Intern Ever. It’s another one of the Amy Butler Gumdrop Pillows, in the ottoman size. (We wrote about this pattern here and here.) Because the Best Intern Ever really doesn’t have a lot of furniture, just like all college students, the ottoman seems like a good choice. This one will be in the lovely Imperial Fans fabric from Amy Butler’s new Nigella line, in the slate color. It’s cut up and ready to be sewn up and stuffed.

Despite all these projects, we’ve actually been leaving the house, enjoying the last bit of summer here in Oregon.

Very Green Bag

from sarah the sewist

(This is one of those projects that is so not my style. But I know the recipient will love it. The shape of this bag is fabulous, but the fabric… It’s just so green. I hate green. And the frogs. For some reason, I have no problem with banana seat bikes, garden gnomes or goldfish on my clothes and accessories, but frogs? Not my thing)

I saw this froggy fabric from Heather Ross’ new collection for Free Spirit and I new that I just had to make something for my friend (also) Sarah who loves all things green, and especially all things froggy. Enter the Amy Butler Frenchy Bag pattern. This is a very simple pattern really great for showing off interesting fabric combinations. I combined this with a green that appeared in both of the main fabrics. (In fact, I think this bag may encompass 90% of the naturally-occurring shades of green.)

The result? Well, pretty green.

The Frenchy Bags (I made the larger, shoulder bag version) come together really quickly and easier, just like the other Amy Butler patterns I’ve used lately. However, like everything I sew, I had to tinker a bit.

First, I think this bag is supposed to have four pockets, not two. If it isn’t, then dividing the two large pockets into four is definitely an improvement—they sagged inside the liner until I sewed them in half. Now the pockets are perfect for a cell phone (my pal has, of course, a green phone that’ll look awfully snazzy with the bag), smaller wallet, compact, that sort of thing.

I also omitted that magnetic snap for a few reasons: it isn’t really necessary, because this is a shoulder bag, so hopefully your arm will keep the bag closed as intended; the opening for this bag is actually on the small side, as it tapers where the two fabrics are joined; and, I didn’t have a magnetic snap, and really didn’t feel like searching one out.

The biggest modification that I made was that this bag calls for sew-in interfacing, like Pellon 40. Anyway, I really hate sew-in interfacing. It’s a pain, wastes thread and just annoys me for some reason. (I accidentally bought three yards of it a month or so ago and have been trying to use the stupid stuff up.) Anyway, knowing that my friend is a very busy teacher/dog walker/pet sitter, and that she’s always running from place to place and, therefore, this bag will probably really take a beating, I decided I wanted to make this thing a bit more durable that it was originally designed.

Searching through piles of fusible interfacing at Fabric Depot, I found something that looked promising: “Fusible Fleece.” Now, I have no idea what fusible fleece is, but the lady who cut it for me thought that it was probably something you use for quilting and other related crafts. Anyway, it felt squishy, not like stiff Timtex, and seemed like it would do a bit more to protect the contents of the bag from abuse. Needless to say, I think this decision was a good one. Excepting the pockets, I used the fusible fleece everywhere the sew-in interfacing was called for. The result was bag that had a lot of body. Which isn’t a very good description, but better than “slightly puffy.”

Basically, by using the fusible fleece, I created a bag that has a really defined shape, but still is relaxed looking. What I’m most excited about, though, is the way the handles turned out. You can see in the picture that they have a padded look, and, as a result, feel extremely comfortable on the shoulder. Since this is a shoulder bag, that’s pretty important. I think that I’ll do this to bag handles from now on.

We agreed that quite a few people will likely be getting these bags for Christmas this year—it’s that simple to put together.

As always, the dog got in on the action:

Stop, Drop & Stuff

We’re both sick—nothing like a late summer cold to make you feel stupid. In order to alleviate the boredom, we decided to work together and make the GIANT, Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillows. The fabric is Joel Dewberry’s Manzanita Basket – Red Mix. Originally Josh wanted to use this fabric to make a shirt and then the Sewist thought of making a dress out of it (something like the Charmed Dress, but actually a dress and not half of one). Thankfully we didn’t because this fabric is a little, well, busy. This looks cool as pillow, and maybe could work as some Dr. Jack Ramsay 70s style pants (if you know who Dr. Jack is, you know what we mean), but not a shirt and certainly not a dress.

The pattern was simple and easy, like the regular gum drop pillow that the Sewist made a couple of weeks ago. These, too bad we can’t curse to describe them, are BIG. The dog has decided that they are great to crash into and they are going to be great as ottomans (or perhaps a Weapon of Mass Destruction in a pillow fight).

Being sick, we looking for something uncomplicated and the sewing and construction was definitely that (well the Sewer did run out of bobbin thread, with 4 inches remaining to sew and screwed up rewinding it, which lead him to call the bobbin a favorite term from Deadwood, which almost killed—because of the coughing—the Sewist she laughed so hard).

However, finding enough stuffing was an adventure. As you well may know, the Fabric Despot is not the Sewer’s favorite place. After making sure that he was dehydrated and unlikely to have to urinate, and therefore use the porta-potty/men’s restroom, we headed out. We found a five pound box of Fiberfill and asked for more. After being told to go to customer service and then told to go to the wholesale desk, I exclaimed “(redacted) this” and we left. The Sewist was in need of new pillows so we went to Ikea and bought 4 for her plus two cheapos in case we needed extra. We took all of the old pillows and the two extras and cut them open and stuffed the drops. Still very short. That was Saturday night. Sunday we head downtown to Nordy’s Rack and bought two Calvin Klein King Sized pillows (only 12 dollars a piece, because if you tried to sleep on them your head would fall off, trust us—they’re insanely large for pillows). With the addition of these pillows and a little hand sewing they were done.

They turned out to be pretty pricey in the end (with fabric and stuffing probably 40-50 bucks a piece). No more big pillows until we can find a cheap source for lots of stuffing (my friend in the furniture biz will be hearing from me shortly). The absurd thing is, that however we crunch the numbers, it’s still (we think, our number crunching is not that reliable) cheaper to buy pillows from Ikea or some other cheap place than buying Fiberfill from the Despot or anywhere else we can think of.

Ubiquitous dog being cute with the sewing project picture.

PS—If you know of a cheap, or even reasonably-priced, source for Fiberfill, please let us know! We need more pillows around here!

Bag: (fake) Pig (skin) in the City

from josh the sewer

I did it. I made a bag and it isn’t too girly. When the Sewist and I started (well, mostly the Sewist) making her mother’s bag, I also cut out the pieces for my own bag attempt and sat it I aside until I had some time to put toward it.

Earlier this summer when we were looking around the Mill End Store, I noticed a bolt of pleather football upholstery and thought it would look kind of cool (almost made pants, but that would not work too well and, really, I ain’t the type for those kind of duds).

A month later I found the Moda “Varsity” fabric in the 50 percent off rack at Fabric Depot. (Already this bag is off to a weird start, I really don’t like either place that well, and don’t get me started on the Porta-Potty situation at Fabric Depot, errrrrrr. Oh, and I don’t like football that well either).

Since the football stuff is really thick, I did not use the canvas in any part of the construction except for the side panels. Like the Sewist’s bags, I left off the tab. I used white thread to contrast with the pleather and only topstitched the strap, which I also sewed a couple times to the main bag for reinforcement. I always end up carrying heavy stuff when I bother actually carrying stuff at all, so it makes sense to make it extra durable. The other change I made was to the tool pocket were I cut down on the pencil and pen holders and went with a spot to put a cell phone and a place for the iPod Nano I don’t have.

I also learned that, like everything else I sew, the seam ripper is my best friend. Which sucks. I would really like to sew something without picking something out over and over again. The strap, in particular, became intimately acquainted with my seam ripper. A word to anyone thinking about making this out of pleather: it’s a tremendous pain to make the strap. If you try to iron it, it’ll melt. So, first I tried basting it down, which didn’t work. Then I tried gluing it, which didn’t work. Finally, I glued it, then stacked books on top of the strap to hold the glued sides together, holding it in place for 24 hours. Which worked really well, until I forgot to check how much thread was left in the machine’s bobbin. So, I “sewed” most of the strap without a bobbin. Back to the seam ripper (because even though there was no bobbin thread, the top stitches stuck). Finally, after try number 172, I sewed the damn thing together. And it looked pretty good.

Despite all of the excitement in constructing the strap, I enjoyed putting the thing together. The pleather wasn’t that bad to work with, it rolled a little, but was manageable. Now that I am done, I am not sure I like it enough to carry around, partly because the pleather is eerily soft and I don’t actually go to that many places that I actually need to haul enough stuff to warrant carrying a bag…

A First

from sarah the sewist

Since Josh is working on a pretty complicated, involved project at the moment (more on that when he’s done), I decided to start (and finish) a simple project… You know, to create some balance in the sewer-sewist sewing world. During the Fabric Depot 30% off sale (which seems to have been running perpetually lately), I picked up the Amy Butler pattern for the Gum Drop Pillows. These things are basically HUGE octagonal puffs.

Oddly, this is the first home decorator item I’ve made in twenty-odd years of sewing. I’ve racked my brain and I don’t think that I’ve ever made a curtain, pillowcase, pot holder and certainly not a quilt. It just never occurred to me. I learned to sew clothes years ago, and that’s what I’ve stuck with. But, Josh and I have been complaining about our profound lack of “stuff” in our house, and I saw this pattern, and figured it’d be pretty simple and low commitment.

I used some lovely, typically fun Free Spirit 100% cotton poplin from Heather Ross’ “Lightning Bugs” collection. I sewed the smaller puff, with alternating yellow and brown panels, with white in the same fabric as the top panel. The instructions have you cut out what is half the pattern pieces, trace them and then flip the piece over and trace the other side. That was way too fussy for me, so I just cut out each side with my rotary cutter, flipping the piece over to make the whole panel.

Then I just sewed the entire thing together. It was that easy. That part took literally less than an hour.

Then the real fun began…

Since I’m sort of cheap (both of us are, actually), I really didn’t want to spent $20+ on stuffing. We have quite a few old pillows laying around the house, so I simply de-stuffed a couple and used that filling to stuff the new puff. Our dog took quite the interest in this part of the process (maybe sewing can really be a family affair?) and decided to “help” by sitting right next to me, staring as I de-stuffed and re-stuffed. I think it blew her mind—it was just too much like her de-stuffing her toys. (She may have been thinking, “Mom’s really a DOG?!”) All-in-all, it took one and a half old king-sized pillows to stuff the puff. I’m not sure if that’s equivalent to the recommended 10-twelve ounce bags of filling called for in the pattern.

Finally, because I really couldn’t think of a way to strong-arm the puff (it’s really BIG) into the sewing machine to close the hole left for stuff, I was forced to hand sew. I hate hand sewing, and truly cannot remember the last time I hand sewed anything. Despite that it took me forever, the finished product turned out pretty great…

Except one little thing… Can you spot it?

Yeah, I forgot this was a directional fabric. For about five seconds I considered re-doing the entire thing. Then I realized that would be insane. So it is, how it is.

I actually really like this puff, and I think I’ll make the larger version soon, so we can have an ottomans. They’re that big.

Oh, and the dog loves it.

Bag Lady

from sarah the sewist

I’ve been on a mild bag-making spree, and Josh is proving to be a very valuable adviser in creating extremely cool messenger bags, one for me and one for my mom for her birthday.

First, my Will the Wolf Survive? messenger bag:

Now maybe the fabric designer wasn’t inspired by the Los Lobos song, but it’s been on Josh’s playlist (you know, the one in his head that he sings out loud since we’re the last Gen-Xers in America that don’t have an iPod) ever since I bought this fabric.This is one of the the most wonderful fabrics ever, designed by Japanese artist Etsuku Furuya, made by Enchino.

I have been carrying this bag every day since it was completed and got the ultimate compliment when Josh and I were grocery shopping the other night. Our cashier first asked me where I got my bag, and after I told her that I made it myself, she asked me if I’d considering making one for her. This was a wild experience, and I can’t get over it. I really don’t like the idea of someone else having “my bag,” though, so for now, it’s just something to inflate my ego about to sewing skills and funky aesthetic sensibilities.

The second, the This Thing is So Wildly Over-the-Top that My Mom’s Bound to Love It Bag:

The fabric is from the new Amy Butler “Nigella” line, and it’s really my mom’s style… And really not mine.

There’s a special message for my mom hidden on the inside of the strap:

It’s not any fancy-schmancy machine embroidery (and you know I didn’t do it by hand, due to my strict no hand-sewing policy), our little Kenmore’s monogramming feature didn’t do half bad.

Josh has a theory that pretty much everything can be improved if you add piping, and I think that my mom’s bag kind of proves his point. The piping really does put the bag in the realm of over-the-top that’s just right for our purposes.