A Little Thing

A while ago I saw a cute little sling bag where one handle is longer than the other. It is carried by the longer handle slipped through the shorter handle and the whole thing slung over a shoulder or wrist. I got a link from the Junie Moon site for a small, wristlet size version that uses only two fat quarters. I had a couple of fat quarters of fabric that were begging to be used and this is what I came up with:

I love the idea of a bag called 'Japanese Knot Bag' made up in purely Texas themed fabrics. Its completely reversible, only twelve inches tall with a circular bottom about the size of an everyday bread and butter plate. The pattern and instructions I started with are posted here. I did not interface the fabric at all but I did add a layer of Timtex to the circular bottom for some extra durability. I also changed the way the handles were completed so I didn't need to do any hand sewing. The technique I used is from the 'Five Fat Quarter Shopping Bag' instructions I posted here. I would like to make another one but in a size where the bottom is about the size of a dinner plate but I haven't figured out the proportions yet so this will take a little more thought.

I see myself using this when I am out and about and need a little more with me than can fit in the pockets of my shorts. But this bag is also perfect for using at the ASG conference later this year. At one point during the proceedings, there is an awards banquet and each chapter tends to wear or display some sort of locally themed item. Most of the group going from Houston will probably be wearing their Texas pride on a wonderful garment. I think I can make do with this little handbag.

I hope your weekend is going well. My big sewing machine died so I am hauling out my old straight stitch machine. I think the problem is the one Brother has with a lot of their product...a power supply issue. Both of my other Brothers have had their power supplies replaced at least once each. Fortunately these replacements have been at no cost to me so I am not afraid of a big repair bill. I just want it back soonest because I have some embroidering I want to do.

Since I had to go back to where I purchased it (about 50 miles away), a friend and I had a mini shop hop today. I picked up a lot of little goodies at the three shops we visited but didn't spend a lot of money. It was very, very nice to spend a stress free day in the company of an avid sewer who is also an incredible quilter. I hope we get a chance to do it again. It was even nicer for me as she did all the driving as I am trying to recover from a nasty cold. Thanks!

The only sour note on the day was that I forgot to remove a silk pre-made purse from a dye bath I started it in last night. Its been sitting in dye for almost 24 hours and I am not confident that it will survive that long in dyes from 15 years ago. I hope it will be dried and set by the morning at which point I'll post the results. Here's hoping it will turn out all right or at least accepteble.

Puzzle Blouse - Update

I finally hemmed my second attempt at the Puzzle Blouse. The original was based on a 38" x 40" rectangle of a very light weight linen. This second attempt is based on a 36"x 40 " rectangle - 36" to go around me, 40" for the length. As everything is on the bias these measurements may seem a bit off but they seem to work. Now that I have worn it for most of a day I am now thinking that I take take it down another couple of inches in the width and play around with the armholes.. The too bright pictures below are an attempt to see what a sleeveless verion might look like. As I only folded the extra fabric under my bra strap its not a true rendition of what it would look like but its close. I think I should make another template, for the armhole, to go with my template for the neck and have another go at it.

The fabric was from Laura's Fabrics and Gifts from her big sale last week. Its just a simple quilting cotton but I love the little pattern. I serged all the raw edges and used one of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine to secure the hems and sew down the seam allowances.

I can't believe I am playing around with this pattern so much. There's just something about playing with bias for a simple top that is totally intriguing to me. I think the next one I try will be cut a bit narrower but in a cotton knit. How does pink sound? I have some in my stash... if I can find it.

Have a great weekend!

Zipper Purses Redux

While searching through my zippers the other day I came across a five and a half yard spool of black zipper tape that I had purchased many, many years ago. For some reason I believed that I did not have the zipper pulls that went with it. I realized that the spare zipper pulls from the other purse projects would fit this zipper tape and decided to make another bag without the benefit of the DVD or book I had borrowed for the previous projects. This is what I came up with for a pouch to hold all my extraneous electronic accessories when I am travelling.

This project was a barrel of laughs from the moment it made it into my head. I was wrong about the zipper pulls... there were about twelve scattered throughout the package but I didn't discover that until I spent about thirty sweaty minutes trying to insert one of the other zipper pulls onto this tape. I finally got just one on the tape and began to sew on the ribbon. The ribbon I had on hand was 7/8" wide rather than the 5/8" used by Mary Mulari. The ribbon came from JoAnns and was on two three yard spools by Offray. I joined the to pieces together so I would have enough length. I did the first sewing on one side of the tape and decided to check out what I had done.

The first thing I discovered was that the join for the two pieces of ribbon was now on the outside of the bag. Ugly but not disasterous. I also discovered that the zipper pull was on the wrong direction... that is, instead of pulling down from the proposed top of the bag to the bottom it was inserted so that it would open from the bottom. I decided to try to insert another zipper pull but after 45 minutes of trying I couldn't get it to work so I went to Plan B. The bottom became the top of the bag. That presented a whole other set of issues... like how to seal the top to make it the bottom. In the end I just kept sewing until I ran out of zipper, then I created a funky seam and sewed it up.

This bag is bigger than the original due the wider ribbon used. The original was about 10" x 10" while the new bag is about 12" x 12". I've tried it with all the power cords, chargers, games and extra batteries I tend to haul with me and they fit with a little to spare for other toys. So all is good... except for the ribbon join BUT if I cover it up with a weird button a viewer might believe that I meant to do it that way all along.

I wonder what the TSA will think when they search my bags next time?

Bling

Yesterday I was trying to get my bead related stash in some sort of order. It shouldn't have been a big job but I found my various pliers in three different rooms and in the garage. The beads were in a drawer with the buttons, in another drawer with beading needles and in a bin with a couple of beading trays. Something had to give. I gathered all these supplies into one big fabric covered bin and brought a little organization to the chaos... not a lot but enough that I will only have to look in one place for the right supplies.BTW - this bin came in one of the silent auction baskets at the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild Auction in April and is much bigger than it looks - 15" x 7 1/2" x 20". The construction is pretty neat. The side walls are hard cardboard covered with batting and fabric. The whole thing is held together with Velcro at the corners. I wonder if I can replicate this technique the next time I need a fancy container?

While I was feeling down right smug about this activity I realised that I had a lot of hand held electronics that had little naked holders for charms. Not to let this horror continue I then proceeded to play with the beads and made some bling for my cell phone, Nintendo DS and my Sony e-reader. Don't they look less naked now?

I used 3 inch headpins, added beads from the jar of mismatches and then I attached them to these neat little jump ring holders made for cell phone charms. Here is a link to a wholesaler of these neat accessories. They sell them for $0.25 each at retail.

And now a special note from Alex:

Hey there! Me again. I just don't get it. I played with Alice for about six hours today, training her to play fetch with me. Even though she wanted to spend time embroidering stuff on nightshirts for her Dad, I got her out of her chair for some good exercise. Hey, she even got to retrieve the ball from under the dresser three times and the buffet about eight times. That kind of movement is good for the abs right? Now she's hidden the ball and is not letting me sit in her lap while she watches the evening news. You know what I say about all this.........NOT FAIR! Even though she spent most of the night sick and in the porcelain room, she should be thanking me for such a fun day ... definitely not fair.

Did you notice how my fur is almost back to normal? The Babes are loving it!

I HATE Amy Butler - Update

I was over at Junie Moon's blog and she tried the business card case which is a freeby on Amy's website. I decided to use some of my scraps and try out the pattern. Junie may have gotten it wrong but maybe I could get it right. WRONG! We both ended up with one card pocket rather than two. Maybe if the pattern makers spent less time having you chalk mark your fabric before cutting (who would mark when rotary cutting is so much faster and accurate) and spent more time using the English language more clearly we would all have more success with her patterns. Here's a link to Junie's comments.

By the way, check out the rest of her blog as she really comes up with some amazing little projects. The pictures of her guest bathroom are clearly suitable for Archetecturial Digest.

The Schlepp Bag

I first saw instructions for this bag at a board meeting for the Houston ASG Chapter. Apparently someone had showed it at neighborhood group and another member (an engineer no less) created instructions on how to make it. I took a copy as I was intrigued by a bag made out of squares and immeadiately saw an opportunity to use up some the five inch packs I have been picking up at my favorite quilt shop. I tried to make one and it turned out incorrectly. I then was e-mailed a scan of a similar pattern, resewed my bag and it turned out wrong again. For some reason when I used this pattern it all came out correctly. Anyway, here is my bag:

I used a pack of five inch squares from Moda but have no idea which pack it is as I have discarded the packaging. You need 32 squares if you do the lining and exterior in squares. My pack did not have enough squares so I added five extra from a spare fat quarter. I cut the straps from a fat quarter as well using two strips of 22" x 5" and ending up at about 1 1/4 wide after folding and stitching. I think , if you choose to go with a five inch square rather than a seven inch square, (as in the pattern) you should stick to one manufacturer as they all seem to cut their packs a little differently. I used Fusible Thermalon Fleece by Pellon for the batting that is attached to the lining. I cut it a tad smaller than the actual size of the squares to reduce bulk. I also cut another piece the size of the finished bottom to add a little more protection to the bottom when it is in use.

The bag, using five inch squares, came out to seven inches on each side and about ten inches tall. This is a nice size for a light shopping day, a book bag or as a gift bag. The five inch packs come in many themes so it should be easy to match one to an event. The other suggestion I have seen is to cut your squares so that there is a focus fabric in the middle diamonds. That would look very planned and not as scrappy as mine.

Thanks to the Internet I have another little bag to add my sewing repetoire but I must give credit to the other two designers for figuring it out as well. Apparently the original was on the HGTV website a little over a year ago and I found the quilt guild class instructions by cruising through one of the links in a discusion thread.

Jane Parker Purses

This is a convenience post for those interested in taking a class from a local ASG member on June 14. Here are photos of several of the purses the class will be based on:

Sorry if your are reading this looking for new blogging wit from me!

I HATE Amy Butler

Maybe that is a bit strong but as I sit here with sore fingers and a weary soul, I realy do hate her. She published a book called 'In Stitches' with a sub tite of '25 simple and stylish sewing projects'. The projects look stylish but, make no mistake about it, the projects are not simple to sew. I started off with the Patchwork Handbag (called the Funeral Purse earlier) which was supposed to be very difficult. As it was the last project in the book and I had no real problems finishing it, I assumed that all the others would be very doable for my sewing skills. I next tried the Clutch handbag (called the Girlie Bag by me earlier) and again had little trouble with it. I was working up to the Fashion Checkbook Clutch. A seemingly wonderful portfolio style case to hold a checkbook, credit cards, pens, lip gloss and miscellaneous papers. Who could resist trying this project after seeing this picture?

There are 81 steps to this project and 25 separate illustrations to aid construction. With all those details, how could I go wrong? Well, I went wrong many times and ended up ripping out the last three layers and joining them by hand. The exterior looks pretty good if you squint a little. The back side has an additional pocket on it but I didn't know it was there until I started construction.

The interior looks pretty good but that odd flower on the credit card pockets is there to cover up the blood I accidentily got on the interior while trying to machine sew it all together. There are some parts that have been sewn at least a dozen times through 12 layers of stuff and still I could not get a great result. Again, squinting helps.

Amy Buter may have designed this project but she has a couple of women who actually wrote the instructions and six testers to work through the patterns. I blame all of them for my less than stellar results only in that after sewing several projects with the same pattern makers intructions the testers couldn't help but get good results. I am also to blame for tackling a project that I was ill prepared to complete. I really think I can get a great result at some point in time, just not this past week or so.

BTW the fabrics I used were all from the Designer Fabrics Outlet in Toronto. I used about a quarter of a yard of drapery fabric for the exterior and about a third of a yard of silk dupioni for the interior. The cording , which I substituted for the pattern's ruffle, was also purchased in Toronto. I used significantly less than the yardages asked for in the pattern .. and I have no idea why. I used a 'by the yard' mid-weight zipper as I could not find a pre-made one, locally or in my stash. I could not find the recommended zipper pull/handle thingy but I am still looking around to find one. I don't think I will actually use this as a clutch but as a correspondence folder. I really need a place to hold my envelopes, note paper, stamps and little address book and this looks like a good solution to that storage problem.

A new look at Bias

This past Monday I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Dayton Texas neighborhood group for a session by Suzy Seed on making her Puzzle Blouse. The Puzzle Blouse is something anyone can make from virtually any fabric and be guaranteed of an excellent fit. In the past, I have worked on two similar tops - one designed by Carter Smith (and reviewed earlier this year) and the other developed by a fellow ASG member. The Carter Smith top is a little tough to tweak for a better fit and turned out too short for my taste. The other is a very clever design where a square of fabric, placed on the diagonal, has its corners brought to the middle and sewn up. This top also turned out too short for my taste and, while the front is on the bias, the bad remains on the straight of grain.

The Puzzle Blouse solves two problems for me - its easy to make the blouse as long as you want and the whole thing is worked on the bias so it drapes beautifully. I originally made the blouse as shown in the instructions. It also ends up with nice cap sleeves that cover a multitude of sins on me. The length was great, the fabric draped well but the width was just too broad for me. Today, I worked with a friend and determined that I needed to reduce the width I used by two inches to get the fit I like. The first blouse I made was of very thin/fine linen and I covered the long seam and one of the short seams with bias tape. To test the new width I increased the long seam's seam allowance by an additional one half inch and made another seam down the back to match the front. Here is a picture of what it looks like now .. which should encourage me to use real muslin for fitting rather than some lovely fashion fabric.

The one I made today has not had its edges finished but fits great. I will try to rope someone into taking a picture of me in it this weekend and post it later. If you are as intrigued as I am by this type of clothing construction here are the directions I used to make my second try. Please note that this pattern idea came from Suzy Seed and she should be credited if you use these, or similar, instructions with others.

Supplies
1 – 1.25 yards of fabric – suitable for all blouse weight fabrics, woven or knit, printed or solid. Avoid fabrics with an obvious one way design
Sewing machine and/or a Serger
Matching thread
Measuring tape

Measurements and Cutting

_____________ Width – Your high bust measurement or your high hip measurement, whichever is larger. Rip or cut your fabric along the selvage edge to equal this measurement. Mark this side with a pin or marking pen. (I ended up using this measurement minus two inches)

_____________ Length – if you would like your top to sit at your waist use your width measurement. If you would like it longer add two to three inches to your width measurement. Rip or cut your fabric from raw edge to raw edge to equal this measurement. ( I ended up using my new width plus four inches for the length)

Construction

Fold your fabric with length measurmeent along the fold - right sides together if you would like the stitching hidden or wrong sides together if you would the stitching to show on the finished blouse. Sew or serge a scant quarter inch seam along the short ends.

With your fabric laid out on a flat surface, folded edge toward you, fold one corner up to the open side. Mark where this corner meets the raw edge with a pin in one of the raw edges. This finds the true bias of your square/rectangle.

Holding the edge with the pin as one end of the seam, pull the raw edges apart to form one long seam. Serge or sew this seam with a scant quarter edge seam. The previously sewn edges may or may not end up aligned with each other. Do not be concerned as this will differ among blouses.

You will end up with a weird floppy square/rectangle with no opening, one side plain bias and the other with seams on it. The flat side is the back of the blouse while the seamed side will be the front but tha is your choice.

Shake out the blouse and lay out on a flat surface. Determine the bottom edge and cut a body opening from corner to corner. Do not cut through any previous stitching.

Determine the size of your desired arm holes. Eight to nine inches is typical but additional length can be added when you try on your blouse before finishing. Cut two slits for armholes from the shoulder down the sides.

Fold the blouse together along the center front so that the armholes line up with each other. To cut out a neckline, mark a point about four inches from the fold toward the shoulders. On the fold, mark a point about three inches below the neckline. Cut a curve from the mark on the fold to the mark on the shoulder. On the front only, cut another curve about one inch below the first, cut on the fold, to the mark on the shoulder. (I used a template from an old t-shirt to cut this hole)

Try on your blouse and adjust any of your cuts for the arm holes and neckline to suit your taste and body size. Simple tubular sleeves can be added as this point.

Finishing – The raw edges can be finished by serging, or serging then sewing a small hem, or sewing a small rolled hem or applying a bias binding.

Notes:

As an alternative to the blouse, this pattern can also make a jacket. In that case increase the width measure by an inch or two, add tubular sleeves to the arm holes and open the center front.

The pattern can be enlarged to make a dress by doubling your length measurement and completing as noted. It can also be used for a skirt by adding about twelve inches to the length and adding an elastic waist band.

The neckline can be adjusted for a variety of shapes – a slit or V can be made about eight inches long. A collar can be added if desired but required additional fabric.

The addition of an elastic waistband would result in a blouson edge.

If you have some time and want to try a unique bit of clothing sewing try out this top. I don't think you will be displeased with the results.

THANKS SUZY! YOU CONTINUE TO INSPIRE ALL OF US.

BTW - Dayton Texas has a lovely store in it called The Vineyard. It consists of a series of boutiques selling knick knacks, flowers, clothing and accessories. There is also a great little cafe that sells wonderful sandwiches, salads and a tempting looking daily special. The clothing area had a discount rack and I scored a brown French Terry sweatshirt for $10.00. They also had a large variety of unique purses, including one made of candy wrappers and some of the most beautiful pajamas a girl could want. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

Indiana Jones #4

This afternoon a friend and I went to the movie 'Indiana Jones and the City of the Crystal Skull'. I am so glad I went because I don't have to feel deprived about not seeing it. It was not as good as my expectations but it was definitely worth the $7.25 it cost to get in ... excluding the popcorn that is!

The plot is a little convoluted and the movie had several continuity issues (as all these movies do) but it was good to Harrison Ford as the goofball man of action character that he plays so well. It was a little disconcerting to see a man of his age doing some pretty athletic stunts. My knees were aching by the time the movie was over. This may be a movie that I would go and see again with a larger, more diverse audience because I think audience reactions really can enhance this kind of movie.

For those of you keeping track, I did not do another survey of male versus female weight issues as the lights were down by the time we made it to our seats. Next on my list for summer viewing ... Hancock.