A Rainbow of Flying Geese

i've been so impatient to post this!


frankly, i'm surprised that i waited a week, but i'll explain that with the fact that the previous week disappeared - what? it's monday again? wtf?


i mentioned in last weekend's felicities post that i'd done a swap with Holly, and i LOVE what i made her - if i hadn't known that she'd love it as much as i do, i probably wouldn't have been able to give it up!


one of the things on my xmas list this year was a fq bundle of Lizzy House's fabric line Pearl Bracelets. Pearl Bracelets is a print that she's included in previous fabric lines, and they've been incredibly popular, so Andover released a line of 26 colours of the print.



don't they look yummy, all neatly folded up along with Lizzy House's other new line, Constellations? (i used a previous line, Outfoxed, for my Improv is Foxy quilt. i'm kind of a fan)


anyone who knows Holly knows that she loves rainbows, and i happen to know that she's a fan of Pearl Bracelets as well, so OF COURSE i had to use part of my Pearl Bracelet bundle to make her a rainbow!




for the patchwork, i decided to use a paperpiecing pattern that lends itself well to rainbows, A Circle of Geese by Piece By Number. (Christina, The Sometimes Crafter, has a great tutorial for this block, if you're interested) the VMQG actually used this as a challenge block way back in April 2011, but i never got around to making it then.




Holly particularly likes the combination of rainbows and natural linen, so choosing my main fabric was a no-brainer. i made the tote in one piece and quilted it with straight lines echoing around the geese (so obsessed with echo quilting!). I continued the quilting down the entire 36" piece, so when i sewed it together, the back had a neat geometric quilting design.




i really really wanted to wash this, just to see the linen crinkle up, but i didn't entirely trust the Pearl Bracelets fabric not to run - the dye quality isn't quite as fabulous with this line as it has been with other lines, and it made me nervous!




i just did a simple boxed corner to create some depth to the tote, and added natural cotton straps that are nice and wide, perfect for carrying Holly's notebooks at QuiltCon (because i know she'll be taking lots of notes!).




and i lined it with a cheerful print by Benartex that i picked up at Spool of Thread, including a zipper pocket and a little loop for her to hang her keys or a coin purse on. (it's best if we don't look too closely at the zipper, okay? i shouldn't have used a contrasting thread for topstitching...)


i didn't use any interfacing in the bag, but i did use quilt batting. that means it's easy to pack, but still sturdy! i'm super happy with how it turned out, and i think Holly is too.





i'm going to link up with a few linky parties this week, since i haven't done that in awhile.

Urban Threads Love - the one where amy can't follow instructions

i'm really bad about blogging machine embroidery projects, mostly because i usually do pretty simple ones. take a towel and embroider a design on it? boring! usually i only bother to blog if it's a design i digitized myself, or if it's part of a larger project. and let's be honest - there are so many projects that i haven't gotten around to blogging, embroidery or not!


so you may not have heard me rave about an embroidery design company that i'm a big fan of, Urban Threads. they just had their 4th anniversary, and i'm pretty proud to say that i've been a big fan for almost that long. they make high quality machine embroidery, hand embroidery and digital stock art designs that cover a huge spectrum, but generally tend to be things that you won't find from most machine embroidery companies. skulls, roller derby, geeky, trendy, steampunk, etc, etc.


a little while ago, UT announced a new contest, using a free design that they're offering on their site. they always have at least one free design, and they have contests all the time, but i especially liked the thought behind this one. people tend to think that their customers are all young people, because they make really funky designs, but their customers actually range in age quite dramatically. they have a huge following among funky grandmas! so this design states "It's not about Age, it's about Attitude", and they've asked people to embroider it, take a picture of themselves holding it, and submit it, along with their age.



i've been thinking about modern quilting a lot lately, and about how awesome my guilds are, so i naturally started thinking about how the design was perfect for modern quilters. i think one thing modern quilters have in common is that they don't always feel welcome in more traditional guilds, and that really boils down to different perspective, or attitudes. i really love how both of my guilds have such a great variety of ages and experience levels!


i decided to take the design and make a totebag out of it. i was originally thinking that it would be a fabulous door prize, but my mom has already claimed the bag - sorry guys!


for one side, i stitched out the design onto grey twill in three shades of grey thread. then i added a slightly wonky log cabin around it, in different grey solids (all kona, fyi).



for the other side, i wanted to make a modern block, so i improv pieced a rectangle.



i pieced both sides until they were 13.5" wide, then joined them together into a long strip about 31" long. i folded that strip in half, sewed up the sides and boxed the corners. the bag ended up being about 13" tall, 9.5" wide and 3" deep.



i decided to add a pocket, because apparently all tote bags need pockets. i had this strip of pieced scraps that i'd trimmed from the outside, so i incorporated it into the pocket as well.



the straps are quite long, because i thought the straps were too short on the last tote that i made. i generally carry totes in addition to my purse, so i prefer it if they hang a bit lower. you can see here the difference in length between the two totes.




i had the bag finished in plenty of time for the contest. i even had my mom take a picture of me with the bag, in plenty of time.



but then i realized that i was supposed to be doing the rocker hand or a thumbs up in picture. so i asked the fabulous Carol to take a picture of me and the bag at the last FVMQG meeting. except that i somehow thought that i was supposed to make a peace sign in the photo.

urgh! and the ridiculous thing is that as she was taking the picture, i was thinking "god, i feel like a tourist. i wish i could just do a thumbs up or something" gah!



now i have this awesome picture that Carol took, but i still didn't have a picture for the contest.



so here's a less exciting picture that i took this afternoon, complete with the dirty railing of my patio. i probably should've washed that......




in other news, the goal for tonight was to get caught up on e-mails, blog comments, etc, but i've just been informed that someone is coming first thing in the morning to tear up my kitchen floor (remember how it flooded back in november? i hate my strata), so i'll be clearing out the kitchen tonight instead.

so that goal has been moved to tomorrow, since i'm assuming i'll be stuck at home supervising anyway. if i owe you a reply, and you haven't gotten one by tomorrow evening, please nag me about it! i'm not ignoring you, i promise, i just get distracted and/or overwhelmed and then it get buried in my inbox.

A Precious Tote

sometime last month i decided that i needed a new tote to carry my embroidery and such in. i thought it would be nice to have a bag that i can take to FVMQG meetings and other appointments that will always have my current project and all of its necessary supplies in it.

i dug around in my stash and came across the echino that i was hoarding, that you saw me use for a couple of the pouches that i posted last week, and thought it would be perfect. i could make myself a tote, and participate in the My Precious QAL at the same time! i had a lot on my plate, as usual, so i thought i'd just whip up a super simple totebag, the kind that there are multitudes of tutorials out there for, usually swearing that they'll take half an hour or less.

as if!

in the beginning, i had faith. i dug through my bins of notions and found some black strapping, which is quicker to use than making straps out of fabric. i found a bright pink sheet that perfectly matched the pink on the echino, and i cut out two pieces of the lining and the outer fabric. i veto'd interfacing or stabilizer, because it was supposed to be a quick tote, something that i could easily toss into another bag, etc.

i sewed the two echino pieces together, boxed the corners, and that's pretty much when the plan began to unravel. i started to think that since i was using such awesome fabric, that i'd been saving for so long, i should at least put a pocket in the tote. might as well make it useful, right?

and in order to make the pocket useful, it should probably have a zipper in it. and i have about six million zippers, so that's cool.


except for the table, rubbermaid bins and shelves in front of my carefully organized zippers, blocking the way.


i set the tote aside for a few days and worked on other stuff, contemplating the effort of moving everything around in my studio, and wondering what had possessed me to store my zipper stash in such a ridiculous place. eventually i caved and went out and bought a damn zipper.


it was at then that i realized that i would want to finish the edges inside the pocket. i contemplated setting up my serger, but decided that it would be too much work, and i'd be better off lining the pocket. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING EITHER. two minutes to set up the serger versus an hour to do the damn pocket? obviously the 60 minutes is shorter than 2 minutes, right?

so i was an idiot and lined the pocket. and since i was at it, i might as well make a long narrow pocket to hold pens, but of course i wouldn't compare the length of the pocket to the length of a standard pen, that would be too smart. so now i had a somewhat excessively long narrow pocket.


but whatever! i have precious fabric! i have strapping! i have pockets! i have lining! after i added the pockets, i sewed the rest of the tote together lickety split, and there ya go! i had a tote bag!



i totally wish i'd done fabric straps now. oh well.









and for perspective, me with multiple totes hung off my shoulder. i'll be blogging that other tote soon too.



and then it took me a month to take pictures, and i totally missed the May linkup for the My Precious QAL. whoopsidaisie. on a positive note, now it's done in plenty of time for the June link up, right?!





i'm linking this up to {Sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations and Manic Monday at SewHappyGeek, and tomorrow i'll link it up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

Heather Ross's Everything Bag

a couple of things coincided for this project, which is probably why i managed to finish it!

first of all, i need a new bag. i really NEED a new bag! remember the shiny blue and glittery purple bag that i made myself for the vancouver handmade nation premiere? way back in july 2009? yeah, it's busted. i replaced the straps in the spring of 2010, because the vinyl had ripped entirely, and when i did that, i threaded thin strapping through the new ones, to add strength. the vinyl has ripped again, and the bag is only being held up by the strapping. plus, it's gotten a bit scuffed and stuff, since i've been using it almost constantly for more than 2 years. once i make a new one, i'll take it apart to scavenge what i can from it, like the handprinted lining.

i bought some Ruby Star Rising specifically to make a new bag, but of course, i'm hoarding it and scared to cut into it until i know for sure that it's the right project.

i've been looking around for a good pattern to use - i don't think i've ever used a pattern for a bag, i always just make them up myself, but there are so many neat patterns out there that i was intrigued. i've been eyeing the Noodlehead 241 tote, because i think it would be a good showcase for the RSR prints, but i realized that it was too small. i'm still contemplating enlarging it, but we'll see.

in the meantime, Craft Buds has been doing Craft Book Month for the month of September, and let me tell you, ohmygoodness do i have craft books! i decided that their challenge was a good motivation to try some of the bag patterns in the many many books that i have. for their challenge, i could have used a project that i'd already made, like the bibs and pillow from Doodle Stitching, by Aimee Ray, or the quilt that i made from Elizabeth Franson's book, Practical Guide to Patchwork, last winter

but then last week's Iron Craft challenge was "Hold it" - open to interpretation, but most obviously a bag challenge! definitely a sign that i should get moving on a new bag.

so i spent a few hours going through a whole bunch of my books and made a list of my options. i decided to make The Everything Tote from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross first. i wasn't sure that it would be a good pattern for an everyday bag, but i thought that it would be good for carrying quilts around, and i was hoping that it might prove suitable for carting a load of laundry.



cute, right? to tell you the truth, i didn't look at the fabric requirements very closely. i decided to make it out of vintage sheets, since it was technically a sample, and it looked like it would take a lot of fabric, given the size. if i HAD looked at the fabric requirements, it would have been a good indicator of what was to come - they were wrong anyway.

i didn't google the book, or any of the patterns in it, before i started working on it. it didn't even occur to me. it's a beautifully photographed and styled hardcover book - wouldn't all the information required be in it? after all, if i wanted to search the internet for info, i might as well just use one of the online patterns or tutorials that i have bookmarked.

so i started on the bag. all of the patterns are printed on a large folded sheet of paper adhered to the inside of the book. they all overlap each other, but each pattern is a different colour, so it's fairly easy to see which lines to follow. you need to trace the pattern out onto other paper, but that's not a big deal, and it's definitely preferable to books that require you to go to a copy shop and enlarge them.

i didn't actually trace out all of the patterns because other than the bag itself, the patterns were all rectangles. instead, i measured the rectangles and used my rotary cutter and ruler.

the pattern calls for the straps and the front binding to be cut on the bias. it doesn't say why, and honestly, i don't know what the justification was. fabric cut on the bias is generally stretchier - but you wouldn't want straps to be stretchy, really. i wondered if the pattern is designed to be bias because you're applying it to curved areas - but the way the pattern is written, the bias strips are sewn together before they're applied to the curves, so you loose all the benefits of a bias anyway.

but i was determined that i was going to follow the pattern the way it was written (because i never do that!), and since i had plenty of fabric, i did as i was told and cut the strapping and binding on the bias.

i started sewing the bag together, and it came together nicely. it's a fairly basic pattern, with boxed corners, and a simple body structure. since the edges are bound in the last few steps, it's super easy to add the lining. i didn't follow the instructions for the pocket exactly, because it said to apply it 2" below the raw edge of the lining, and that seemed awfully close to the top of the bag, so i lowered it a few inches.

then i basted the bag and the lining together, and got ready to start on the binding and the straps.

and that, my friends, is where the problems began. the pattern calls for the binding and straps to be lined. i understand part of the strap being lined, because you can see the lining on the over the shoulder portion of it. but why line the part that's attached to the bag itself? and why line the binding across the front and the back? but i did it anyway, because i was following directions.

and then it got even more confusing. the instructions tell you to lay the binding down, right sides facing, and stitch. then you fold it over, and stitch it again. basically, just like a quilt binding. but with way too many layers of fabric, and seam allowance bulking things up right where you're supposed to be folding it over. i read the instructions over and over, because the way it's written will give you a very narrow binding. and if you look at the picture earlier in this post, that bag doesn't have narrow binding, it has wide binding that is scale to the size of the bag. i was getting really frustrated, and starting to think that i'd completely lost my ability to read patterns!

i decided to veer off from the instructions, and to apply the binding with just the single fold along the top of it, because i couldn't see how else i could get it to actually look like the picture. i basted the inside binding in place, folded it over, and topstitched through all the layers. i did a double line of stitching to make it super neat and tidy. my binding, that i'd cut to the pattern dimensions, was longer than it needed to be, but that was easy to trim, and wasn't a big problem in the grand scheme of the bag.



you're instructed to sew the strapping pieces onto the bag the same way that you sew on the binding, starting stitching 1" from the bag body on each side. that leaves the straps unfolded, and therefore wider and comfier than if they were narrow. that makes sense. but the way you sew it on, with all those extra folds? that doesn't make sense. at this point you have even more layers to sew over, since you have the bag body and lining seams as well. the pattern calls for a heavier weight fabric for the exterior of the bag, and i used a sheet - a heavier weight sheet than a lot of them, but not as heavy as twill or anything like it. and in addition to that, the strapping is two pieces, that you overlap (more layers!) and handsew as the last step. why? why not just sewn them together into a big loop and apply it that way? i thought that the handsewn way looked bulky and slightly sloppy, so i sewed my strapping pieces together. it was a bit harder than it had to be, because i'd already lined them, but i managed. and then i applied the strap portion the same way that i applied the binding.

and it was done. hurray, it was done!






it took me about 4 hours to make this bag, plus a bunch of pinning time for the strap that i did in front of the tv. i realize that my sewing is not as fast as it used to be, but still, it seemed like a long time for such a simple bag. there was a lot of effort spent on pressing the straps so that the lining wouldn't show (do you know a trick for that? i don't remember it being that difficult!), and a lot of time spent re-reading the pattern and thinking "WTF?"

i mentioned the other day that i've been having a hard time with motivation, and that's true. in addition to that, every project i've started has been very frustrating. i was originally going to make a stuffy for the Craft Buds challenge, but that turned out even more miserably (stuffy making has never been my area of expertise, but still, i don't know what went wrong!). by the time i finished this bag, i was feeling pretty discouraged.


but then i came online, and realized that everyone had problems with it. and not only did a lot of people have problems with the Everything Tote, a lot of people had problems with everything in the book! i found quite a few reviews of this bag, there's this one, this one, this one, and this one. and the Amazon reviews are awful - there are more 1 and 2 star reviews than there are 4 and 5 star reviews, and the 4 and 5 star reviews seem to be from people who haven't actually tried to MAKE anything from the book!


there's a flickr group dedicated to Weekend Sewing, and their group conversations have a ton of info about the errors in the book. from what i've been reading, there used to be a web page or a blog post on Heather Ross's site where people posted corrections as they came to them, but that info has all been removed. it's been replaced by a very brief errata - that's still wrong! it still has the incorrect fabric requirements for this bag - though it's a different incorrect requirement (the book said 1/2yd each of two fabrics, the errata says 1yd each of two fabrics, reality requires 1 1/3yd each of two fabrics to accommodate the bias strips). the members of the flickr group have created their own errata, and it is much more detailed than the one provided by Heather Ross.



so. all in all. i like the bag. i wish i had made it a little bit deeper - it holds a smaller load of towels, but not a full load of clothes, and i'll probably continue using my cherry vinyl bag for carting quilts around, because i discovered quickly that i prefer something than can be zipped closed. there are other projects in the book that i like, and that i'm interested in making, but i will be very sure to check the errata before starting another project, and i don't think i'll make any of the clothing in it - for one, a lot of the items are rather baggy and shapeless, most attractive on a very angular, hanger type body, which i'm not, but also because i really don't trust that the sizing will be at all accurate.


overall, this was frustrating. Heather Ross is a designer that i really like, and the book itself is beautiful, full of mostly lovely projects, but there seemed to be no technical editing done at all, and the instructions for many of the projects seem clunky and illogical, as if someone without much experience sewing designed them. i honestly don't see how these patterns could have ever been tested without the errors being discovered. i don't know why this is. has the trend for craft books created such a rush to print them that there's no time for testing? i'd rather wait a few months more. testing could even be done as a marketing ploy - have bloggers test the patterns, and then when the book is released, have the bloggers show off what they made during the blog tour. makes sense to me!

blah blah and mother's day...

you know those weeks when everything that's going to go wrong will? yeah, that was last week. the third week of the month is always a little stressful for me because it's guild week, and i always feel like i have a million things to do, but last week was all that and a whole bunch more. i DID get my iron craft project done - super early, actually, but i still haven't had a chance to photograph it. maybe i'll get it done by this week's deadline. ;)


however, i did manage to make a simple header and change the blog around a bit. what do you think? i overestimated my photoshop skills, but i'm still pretty happy with how it turned out. (and i managed to embroider a word in metallic thread without it breaking! score one for the fancy $7 metallic needles!)


and while i'm getting my butt in gear to post about current projects, i thought i'd post another catch up - i've gotta get caught up eventually!


so, wanna see what i made my mom for mother's day?


i bought her a bunch of books, because we're big book lovers in our family, but the night before, i decided that i should sew her a bag to hold the books in.

i'd picked up this fabric months ago, because i knew she'd like it. it was a slightly odd fabric because the metre of fabric was actually 4 different prints. remember panels of fabric, when you would buy a length of fabric with a pattern pre-printed on it, usually an incredibly ugly vest of some sort? it was like that, but with coordinating fat quarters printed on it.





two of the prints had a black background, and two of them had a white background. i knew i wanted to use the cat print on the outside of the bag, and it had a white background. a white totebag seemed very impractical, so i decided to use vinyl for the bottom of the bag. not only was it black and easy to clean, it would also hold up much better than quilting cotton.






in theory, this was supposed to be a very simple bag.... i cut the vinyl 15"x5", the two outer pieces 15"x11", the two lining pieces 15"x15", and two pieces of quilt batting to match the lining, and pieced together some scraps to make two 22" long strap. i quilted the batting to the lining and assembled the bag, but somehow it ended up taking me way longer than i thought i would.... maybe it was the crime shows that i was watching while sewing it!

machine embroidered silk tarot pouch

i made this a few months ago, when i got these tarot cards. they're so freaking amazing, and gorgeous, and perfect, they NEEDED to have a proper home!


i used very lightweight sandwashed silk, leftover from my mixed media heart brooches.

i knew that the silk would be much too flimsy for the bag, but i really wanted a natural fibre for the pouch, and i loved the bright pink, so i interlined it with cotton quilt batting.



the quilt batting gave it structure as well as strength, and made it strong enough to machine embroider the anatomical heart design from urban threads onto it. i switched up the colours a bit to stay in the same colour family as the fabric, and i love how it turned out.

a little bit of the batting showed around the embroidery stitches, but i'm choosing to ignore that!

i lined the bag with more of the same silk, and sewed a channel about an inch below the top to thread ribbon through.






it ended up being the perfect size to hold the card deck, including the gorgeous little book that came with it, and a little stuffed heart that a dear friend made me.

handmade nation and sewing FOR ME!!!!

it's beginning to look like i won't have the time to write about handmade nation before i leave on friday, so i'll just do a quickie post about it for now. i really want to write about it in more detail, because i've had several really good conversations about it since (andi and tishie!), and it's really correlated with some thoughts i've had lately, and other conversations that have been going on on other blogs. interesting, for sure. i took notes, so maybe i'll have time to write something up while i'm back east!

but overall, it was fabulous! it was really awesome to see so many people out for it - even though i barely knew any of them! i've been so out of the loop the last few years. i wish i'd been feeling better earlier in the week, i totally missed how many local twitter and blog folks were planning to attend, i could have met up with some of them. i did meet becka from bliss in a teacup, and that was awesome! (i got to see the goodies from their shop in person too - gorgeous! i'm so in love with the playing card magnets, and the wooden bookmarks that aren't up yet!) and i ran into jackie, who i haven't seen in a long time, which was also awesome!


my sister and i went together, and it was so awesome to hang out with her. photobooth vancouver was there, so we both tried to take pics "showing our DIY". my bag was too big to fit in the picture with me!!

(the last one is funny because i wanted to get up on the bench to show my skirt, but realized at the last minute that i didn't have time!)

my sister is so awesome! i love the look on her face in these pics.

i managed to get both of our tickets early enough to get goodie bags - goodie bags are always fun!


with all the paper stuff taken out

the soap smells super yummy, and thankfully wasn't an artificial flower scent - i wouldn't had to toss the whole bag then! really, scented soap probably wasn't the best/most accessible idea!

andi's bag had different goodies -

i'm super jealous of the little birdie pin, it's so cute! i don't know who made it, there wasn't a business card attached.

so fun! i love the little silkscreened totes they were packaged up in!

there was a craft fair set up before and after the film, and while i didn't buy anything more than cupcakes, andi found a brooch that's so totally perfect for her.

she also beat me, and bought the wooden bookmark from bliss in a teacup that i'd been eying. it was really better for her though - she even recognized the wood grain that it was. andi's such a wood snob!

most of the craft fair stuff wasn't really my style - gorgeous stuff, but pretty "boutiquey", not so much funky, you know? there were a few things i really liked, but since i'm trying to spend very little money before i go back east (i'm saving it all for prairie thrift stores!!), i resisted temptation!

there was apparently a book signing earlier in the afternoon, but i'm not sure how folks found out about it - i didn't hear about it until we arrived at the theatre and discovered that the book signing wouldn't be part of the Q&A afterward like originally posted. the Q&A was really great, and is part of what i'd like to write more about. and i got Faythe to sign my book anyway, so it all worked out!

here's a kinda crappy pic, the only one i got inside the theatre -

(taken from the balcony above)

lots of vancouver crafters blogged about it, most of whom had way better pictures than me - especially kim werker's, they're lovely! definitely check out cabin + cub's post, laura bucci's post, daulhaus' post (i completely fell in love with her pottery mugs), henryandlili's pic, and coco cupcake's post (i had two of her cupcake - ohmyGOD yummy!).

there were a few press mentions before the premiere, and it was really neat to see and talk to people who are totally disconnected from the primarily young "indie" scene, but read about it and decided to come out. there was an article in the Georgia Straight and Faythe was interviewed on Breakfast Television. (i STILL can't get the sound to work on my computer, and want to watch that so bad!)

and also go take a gander at the pics posted on handmade nation's flickr photostream, and the wrap up blog post!



in other exciting news, i sewed FOR MYSELF this past week. i never do that! i whipped up a couple of skirts, both altered from vintage clothing, made a few pairs of footless tights, and most excitingly, i made myself a purse!

the first skirt is pretty basic, i just cut the top off of a mid-calf length vintage fortrel skirt and added a super wide elastic waistband. i love the pleats!






the second was a bit more complicated, because the fabric piece i had was from the middle of a dress - andi already made a skirt out of the bottom for herself, and cut off the top. i LOVE the velvet fabric, so she gave me what she had left. it was barely enough for the skirt - i added a cotton waistband, and still didn't have enough to turn the hem up, so it's just serged.

(it's wrinkly, cause i took this friday morning after the premiere)

i added a pocket too, cause pockets are awesome!


i haven't made myself a purse since high school - i can't believe it's been that long! it's so ridiculous, i've been working for vinyl for so many years now, yet everything i sew is always for everyone else. this one was a prototype of sorts, so there are definitely things i'd do differently next time, but i'm still pretty happy with it.



it's HUGE, i know! i wanted it to be big enough that i could put small purchases in it, instead of using shopping bags, and i wanted it to hold magazines and a ziplock with my current embroidery project in it. it's bit too big, truthfully, but oh well!





the lining is this GORGEOUS handprinted cotton from thailand that i've been hoarding.

i did a long pocket on one side, with stitching to separate it into three - one for my cell, one for my camera, and one for a pen or lipstick.


and on the other side i did a zippered pocket out of the purple glitter vinyl


i made a button loop and covered a button in the glitter vinyl, but honestly, i know i'll never do it up. i should've just left it off, now the loop is driving me nuts - hence why it's pinned down! i do LOVE how the covered button turned out though!

i didn't take pics of the two pairs of tights i made, cause honestly, they weren't that exciting, but this pic, taken outside the theatre, shows the black pair. the other pair is a deep cranberry/plum colour. just basic cotton/spandex 4 way stretch, they take less than an hour to whip out.


i'm so glad i finally got around to sewing FOR MYSELF! now i just need to alter some tshirts and make myself a new hoodie....