Sewing Crow Purse

Here’s a project I started over 2 years ago (!) that I finally finished. I saw this purse in an issue of Quilt Sampler – it was in a photo of one of the shops that was featured – and fell in love with it! Through the power of the internet, I googled “Sewing Crow” and quickly found the pattern by Kindred Spirits

I picked some bright colors for the applique, and when I was done stitching I sprayed the piece with distressing spray (walnut crystals mixed with water) to tone down the colors and give it a more aged look. I am very happy with the results. The handles were painted a glossy black, and two buttons were added for decoration. I will paint some gold stars on the handle, and also make a small wool strawberry to hang from one button, and find a little pair of scissors to hang from the other. Then it will be the perfect sewing bag!

The bag is roomy – the finished size measures about 12 X 15 – so it is big enough for most any project you want to take on the go. You can easily fit a full-size pattern, several yards of fabric/wool, and other accessories. I used a nice piece of orange Jo Morton fabric for the lining, and added two interior pockets (one in yellow and blue – Jo fabric of course).

I briefly considered embroidering something on the other side (“Keep it Thimble”), but instead opted to finish it up for now just to get it done! I can always go back and add the embroidery later. I’m so happy to finally have this finished! Are there any projects you’ve been meaning to finish – pull out one of them and see if you can finish it before the end of the year :).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a great turkey day!!!

This is the wool applique table runner I started working on last year. This is from one of the Need’l Love books that features fall patterns. I added acorns and oak leaves for that extra touch.

This guy wanted to have his picture on the blog too! He is the cousin to the other owl I made. My son has named this owl “Fancy” and the other owl is called “Sooder” (not sure how he came up with that one!).

Tutorial – Beaded Candy Cane and Wreath

My son and I have been having fun making some beaded christmas ornaments. I remember making ornaments like this when I was a kid and thought he was at the right age to have a lot of fun doing it. I started out with something simple – a wreath and a candy cane. These are simple and cheap to make, and you have the benefit of some great bonding time with your kids!

For the wreath you need:

18 Green Paddle/Star Beads
17 Red Faceted Beads (round)
10 Tri Beads (any color, all the same color creates a nice looking candle)
1 Red Pipe cleaner

Start by putting one green paddle bead on the pipe cleaner, then add a red faceted bead. Continue with this pattern until all the red and green beads are gone. One end of the pipe cleaner should have about 1 inch sticking out. Bend the beads into a circle and wrap the short end of the pipe cleaner around to secure the circle. Take the long end of the pipecleaner and twist it so it sticks up in the center of the wreath. String 10 tri beds on this end to create the candle (my son got creative and created a striped candle). Take the free end of the pipe cleaner and tuck the end into the top of the candle to create the flame.

You can finish this by tying a red bow out of narrow ribbon and gluing to the bottom of the wreath just under the candle. Loop clear thread through the top bead and tie into a loop to create a hanger.

For the Candy Can you need:

16 Red Tri Beads
18 White Tri Beads
2 Red Faceted Beads
1/2 Red Pipe Cleaner

Start by stringing one red faceted bead on the pipe cleaner. Leave about one inch of pipe cleaner free on the end. Then string on 2 white tri beads and then 2 red tri beads. Once those beads are gone, string on the last red faceted bead. Tuck each end of the pipe cleaner into the top of the red beads. Bend into a candy cane shape.

Finish by tying a green ribbon around the middle of the candy cane and tying on a clear thread hanger at the top of the candy cane.

Have fun! I have an idea for little christmas trees, but I need to special order the paddle beads. I will post a picture when done.

Handbag Retrospective

Still here!! It’s taken awhile to get back on track after the porch sale. I am working on some new things, but nothing ready to post yet. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to post a retrospective of some of the handbags I made a few years ago (before I started blogging). Bags are one of my favorite things to make, since you don’t need a ton of fabric and you can usually complete on in a weekend.

This is a messenger bag I made for my husband. This is my own pattern – but I was inspired by the bag Jack Bauer carries on “24.” It’s hard to find a basic bag that a man would carry, so that’s why I designed my own. I used Black Canvas for the outside and a lightweight black cotton for the lining.

This is the Black Forest bag (pattern by Melly and Me). This is a great fall purse, although it would pretty in Spring/Summer colors. I downsized the original pattern so it is more like a handbag than a tote bag. I love the little green buttons – they are the perfect accent!

This is the Birdie Sling (pattern by Amy Butler). Her patterns are always well-written and the bags are very stylish. Her bags tend to be rather large, so I reduce the size so I don’t get overwhelmed when carrying them (I am about 5 ft tall). I used Decor Bond as the interfacing for this, but it is way to stiff. The hand doesn’t fall right – but hey, that’s how we learn. After I made this bag, I found out about interfacing called “Shapewell”. It is sturdy but it is not stiff like Decor Bond. When used in this type of bag, the fabric drapes nicely (I saw some bags that used it a a fabric store).

This the Chelsea Bag (pattern by Amy Butler). The notched handles were fun to make – they are note as hard as they look. I really like the simplicity of this design and when you use very bold and graphic fabric, you get something that looks tres chic! This bags uses an very stiff interfacing (almost like poster board) called Timtex. It was interesting to work with, as it does not have much give. It also is pretty thick, so you really have to take your time when sewing it.

This is the Parasol Bag (not sure of pattern, maybe Pink Sand Beach?). This was made with some delicious looking Batik fabric! This is a great stash-buster and also can look very different depending on what types of fabrics you use. You can also just use one fabric on the outside, instead of doing the different panels, which is another way to change up the look.

I hope you enjoyed my virtual purse show! More new projects will be posted soon :).

Halloween!

I was hoping to get this posted yesterday, but I think today is fine – the sugar high has finally worn off! My son wanted to be a spider for Halloween this year. I was so proud of myself because we picked out the pattern and bought all the supplies in early September! I was going to get it down early, but of course I was sewing it at the last minute :). The costume is from McCall’s 6180, but with a few modifications.

I made legs longer and didn’t put the ruffle at the bottom. The ruffles were cute, but since he is a “big boy” now they didn’t suit him. I had a lot of trouble turning the tubes to make the legs (the fabric was very thick and it was a struggle), so I used black socks for the tubes instead. Since we wanted to have some bend in the legs, my husband taped up florist wire to create a frame, wrapped batting around it, and then we put the sock over it. It yield nice long and fat spider legs – but the costume was very heavy! My son was a real trooper and wore it to a party on Friday night, but we figured we could do something better for the legs for the BIG night.

For Spider 2.0, my husband taped together 6 dowels, and covered them with electrical wire. We then cut the legs off of Spider 1.0 and used the socks to cover the dowels. More electrical tape was used to tape around parts of the socks (which created a nice jointed leg effect). The legs were much lighter, but since they stuck out it was a bit harder to navigate. My husband rigged up a harness so the legs would slip over my son’s arms, and then we tied them down with a piece of ribbon. All in all, Spider 2.0 was a great success and he got a lot of compliments while trick or treating.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!