Another Multi-Tasker Tote!

Finally delivered this bag to a friend who was in desperate need of a new diaper bag.  (I also totally forgot to take pictures of it until I was outside her apartment.  Yay! for camera phones!)  I've had it finished for a while, but I was hung up on a few tweaks to the pattern, and had to stare at the bag for a while while I figured out what to do.

I, of course, used the Multi-Tasker Tote pattern, because it's awesome, and added a couple elastic pockets to the inside.  I switched out the interfacing for fusible fleece because it stands up so much nicer, but isn't super stiff, and outlined the butterflies and flowers in gold thread.

The big tweak was that purple pouch inside.  She wanted a place to pack an extra set of clothes, but she wanted it to be removable.  It seems obvious now to just add a couple buttons to the bag lining and buttonholes to a velcro pouch, but I had too many ideas at first and couldn't settle.  So I just made the whole bag and left it to the end.

My favorite part is the key chain.  I found clip hardware at Joann's and now have to add the strap to every bag I've ever made.

Linking up with Kelly for Needle and Thread Thursday!

 

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween, so here's my Sinister Swarm Washi.  I was just going to wear black, but then realized this was actually clean!  How could you pass up that?

Spooooooky black knitting on my needles.  Not really spooky, but black and gray, and I think that counts.  It's a Chunky Dean Street hat for my little dude out of some Wool-ease I found in my stash.  I love this fast knitting with chunky yarn and giant needles.  

And here's that Bimaa I miffed the cutting on earlier in the week.  All finished, with a little bit of breakfast already on the tummy.  That's how you can tell a good piece of clothing, when it gets dirty fast.  

Here's the back.  I'd cut two fronts and sewn it all up, only realizing the mistake when the collar didn't go on right.  Duh!  So I took the two pattern pieces, traced the difference, and added some seam allowance.  The result is that little semi-circle seam at the top of her back.  Easy, and I only had to pull a few stitches out of the shoulders to sew in my patch.

Here's her scary face.  It's actually really scary.  How does a two-year-old know the Children of the Corn look?

Happy Halloween!!!

Linking up with Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday!

Scrap Happy Purse Pattern!

So remember way back when I cut into some pieces of my Flea Market Fancy?  It was to make this!!  It's the Scrap Happy Purse from Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts.  The second she posted a picture of her version on Instagram asking for pattern testers, I was in.  It's such a cute bag, why wouldn't I want to make my own!

The pattern was really easy to follow, it's mostly a basic tote, with a great outer layer.  I was able to use a bunch of scraps I'd gotten in a scrap pack from the Anna Maria Horner store clean out a couple months back.  I'd been saving them for just the right project, and this was perfect.  Then, I added a couple charms I'd gotten; two were the FMF, but there was also an AMH velour, a couple Tula Pink prints, and some dots.

All that quilting is really awesome too.  Because it's quilted so densely onto batting, it pretty much has all the stability I'd want.  And then, when you add the home dec weight lining, you have a bag that will really take a beating.  I've been toting it around for a while, and it's been great. 

I love the size of this tote.  I can carry around a book or a small knitting project, or I can just tuck in a diaper and wipes if I'm doing a quick trip with the toddler.  I'll probably make another of these because I have plenty of scraps, but I might have to add a couple more pockets because I can never have too many pockets.

The pattern is available here. 

Thanks Amanda Jean for letting me test for you!

Linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday and Funky Polka Dot Giraffe for Too Cute Tuesday and My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday!

UR Here Swap and Some Vintage Goodness!

Just finished up this little Starbucks cup sleeve.  I really am cutting it down to the wire on my last two swaps of the month.  I think because there's one thing to swap, then ANY goodie you want to add, there are just too many possibilities and my brain just wants to make all the things!

This one is for the UR Here Starbucks Mug Swap on Flickr.  Perfect timing, because we just broke our Starbucks mug, so we only have one giant mug left.  The rest are those little tea cups that you get with a dish set, and they really don't cut it when I need coffee in the morning.

But I did at least finish this today.  I even planned ahead and made sure to have a cup model for the sleeve.   Starbucks might have a faulty drive thru speaker, because I swear I said I just wanted a cup, but they heard PUMPKIN SPICE!!! OMG!!!  Oh well, I made sure to drink all that latte so nothing could possibly spill on the sleeve, because I'm a good and cautious person.

I kind of used two different tutorials to make this.  The basic "how do you make it" tutorial came from One Crafty Home.  I also used the template from there.  Then I poked around some more and found this tutorial from Jeni Baker and loved her stripey sleeve.  Handy since I had a bunch of Anna Maria Horner already cut into strips!

I might make up a drawstring bag or a mug rug to add to the pile of goodies, but I'm really bad at time management this last week, so we'll see.

Oh, and that book?  Found by accident at a community yard sale last weekend.  For $1, I just bought it without looking inside, but it's pretty magical.  It's everything I usually end up Googling when I make clothes (plus things I didn't even know about) all printed back in 1977!  There's so much good info in here, but also "How to Sew Shag" and "How to Make Foam Furniture for Your Rec Room!"  Amazing find!

Linking up with Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday and Kelly over at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday and Flamingo Toes for Think Pink Sunday!

 

Chugging Along!

I finally decided that I needed to get started on this project again.  It's such an easy sew since I don't have to cut a bunch of pieces or match seams.  But I did need a small vacation from it after deciding I needed 16 (!!!) more blocks to bring it up to a twin size quilt.

Well, after sewing up a couple pairs of pants and some selfish sewing, I'm back at it.  I poured over my big scrap bin and dug out some more pieces from the way bottom.  And I pulled some scraps from my weekend sewing and added a couple spots of Anna Maria Horner to the two lighter blocks.

Also, can you find Darth Vader and C-3P0 on the dark blue block?  I found some scraps from my son's PJs and had to add them.

Plus, I managed to come back from Jess's place with this awesome pile of batting and fabric scraps.  My new block count includes three purple blocks and three pink blocks.  I'm not big on using those colors, so it was a stretch for me to even get the few that I already made.  Luckily, purple is the one color that Jess seems to always have in stock.  That bag will probably make up the purple blocks, and there's a few pink scraps that might get me part of the way to my goal there.

And seriously, that's probably all the batting I'll need for the rest of the blocks.  I'm going to cut it all out tomorrow to see where I stand, and then piece together the rest.  I think if I get all the batting blocks cut, it will be easier to just sew my butt off.

Linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday and I Have To Say for Show and Tell Tuesday!

Where I Cut Flea Market Fancy, and the World Didn't Explode!

I've spent all afternoon working on a really awesome project.  I'm pattern testing for a blogger I've read forever and squeed a little when I got the email yesterday.  Right now, it's super double secret, but hopefully I'll be able to share the pictures next week because I actually cut into these beauties for it.  And two Anna Maria Horner scrap packs that I've had stowed away for the right project.  It's awesomesauce.

I did manage to finish the last block for my Sew Pieceful swap.  And I got them shipped out!  I'm pretty proud of myself for getting that all squared away two weeks early!

Here's all the blocks together.  I ended up not changing out that brown polka dot fabric for white after seeing some of the other blocks that people have made in that palette.  I think the white would have been too white, so I hope she likes it.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday and Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday!

Small Finish, Long Week

Toby the Cat is very bummed that this isn't my finish for the week, and is determined to cuddle under my Rainbow QAYG Quilt no matter what!

Honestly, though, I am pretty bummed.  I finished all the blocks, had my backing picked out, and was about to quilt the two together when I realized that I needed to make it a twin size.  Right now it's 4'x6', so that means adding another column and two rows.  Sixteen more blocks!!  But I have a feeling that a certain little girl will want to have this when she gets a real bed, so I'm going to keep going.  I may have to "help" some friends with their scrap stashes because I'm pretty much out of decent batting scraps.

I did manage to finish this Multi-Tasker Tote, though.  Sorry there's no amazing pictures of it; I was too excited to deliver it to it's new home to pause and take any.

Everything but the bottom super hard interfacing came from my friend's (yo Letty!) crazy fabric stash that was handed down to her.  The outside is denim that I quilted onto fusible fleece (because she had bags and bags of it!) instead of using the lightweight interfacing that the pattern called for.  It makes the bag stand up on it's own, which is something that I wish I'd done with mine.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but I did randomly spaced straight lines in navy and orange thread.

On the inside, instead of the one small pocket, I added a bunch of pockets with elastic tops.  I used this tutorial from Sew Thrilling Crafts.  It was super easy, so I'm going to have to add these to every bag I make from now on.  There's six pockets on the inside, of varying sizes, and the four orange pockets on the outside, so I don't think she'll have any problem with storage.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and Flamingo Toes for Think Pink Sunday!

Multi-Tasker Tote

I logged onto the Anna Maria Horner Rummage Sale (which is over now, but the patterns are here) I was looking for the Socialite Dress pattern, but I couldn't resist getting the Multi-Tasker Tote pattern too. 

I've made my own bags before, but they were usually just basic bags.  The second I start getting clever and add pockets or flair things start going wrong.  So I obviously need a pattern to get me started. 

(Giant bag with ukelele for scale, and that ukelele would totally fit inside the tote should I ever need to bring it to music lessons)

This bag is huge, like way bigger than I thought it would be, but it ended up perfect.  On it's inaugural run, I managed to stuff my giant Form and Fabric knitting pouch, camera, toddler quilt, and a library copy of Game of Thrones.  That's a whole lot of stuff, and I still had room to spare in all the outer pockets. 

Oh, the pockets.  There's four on the outside that are kind of crazy shaped.  I got all nervous to sew them, but the instructions were awesome and made me feel a little badass when they turned out right.  There's another pocket inside that I sewed down the middle to split into two. 

(Love that tracing the pattern just looks like a horrible Matchbox traffic accident)

I think the next time I use this pattern (which will be as soon as I get to the store for more interfacing) I'll try to scale down the pattern and make more of an around town purse.  That's simple enough to do with a trip to the Staples' Copy Center.

(These Amy Butler prints would be kind of awesome)

I may also try to get more grownup fabric.  The birds and chevrons are from Cloud 9 fabrics at Joann's, and they're so cute, but might be just a little too diaper bag-esque.   Still, wicked cute and I'm pretty happy about how it turned out. 

Linking up with Sew Many Ways!

Socialite Dress

I love making clothes.  My kids will never run out of pj pants, and I love dressing my daughter up in crazy cute dresses, but I haven't made much for myself.  Clearly I needed to fix this, since clothes in stores are usually boring and not made to fit me. 

Enter the Socialite Dress from Anna Maria Horner.  Thanks to her site's rummage sale, I was able to get it half off because of a rip on the cover.  I love how simple it is.  It just drapes off the body, but it's cut so that there's just enough shape and you're not just wearing a sack.

(The aqua fabric at the bottom of the stack is a Michael Miller that became my second Socialite Dress)

I'm so glad I made a muslin first with this dress.  My measurements were in different proportions than the suggested size, so while I kept the top mostly the same, I added a bit more wiggle room in the booty.  Luckily, I was able to just mark out how much more room I wanted to add, an inch at the armpit and two inches at the hip down, and then mostly just followed the original curve of the dress. 

Then, to make sure that the pockets would still line up, I measured from the armpit down to the first mark for the pocket and made sure that these were the same on both pattern pieces and the original.  I used the same method to make sure the notches would line up too.

And I almost forgot to give myself extra fabric for the armhole facings.  Remembered that just as I was about to cut them, and was able to add two inches to the end to compensate for the inch I'd added to each armpit.

(Goofy face, because running around the backyard taking photos of myself is just weird.)

The result is perfect (maybe a little short, but perfect for leggings).  I love this crazy firework pattern from Anna Maria Horner, called Shattered from her Innocent Crush line.  And how perfect is it that this was the yardage I'd bought to make a dress a month before I decided on what pattern to use.  I only wish I'd been able to finish it before the Fourth of July, because it would have been breezy with just a hint of patriotism. 


Linking up with The Train To Crazy's Make It, Wear It Thursday!