New Stuff on Etsy

So my husband and I sat and lounged at the coffee shop this morning.
I brought my laptop and "worked" on adding some new stuff to my Etsy account.
Check it out! Here are some of the highlights!

My birthday loot!

Well, happy birthday to me! I'm pushing 30... but still young!
My family knows me well and they often get me crafty stuff for my birthday... this year I received some cash (cha-ching) and a gift card to a craft store (also cha-ching!).
So at the fabric store I bought the above: some purple suede, red denim, strippy cotton, blue linen & purple polyesther... I'm very excited about what they might become.

At the craft store I bought a corner embosser, some paper, lots of metal charms & chain, some more fabric and some stickers.
I've got big plans for the paper and I decided to use the charms as zipper pulls.
I just love birthday loot!! Thanks mom & grandma for supporting my crafty/fabric habits!

Happy Birthday Mom! a.k.a. Anatomy of New Bag Design :: PART TWO

Okay... so here's part two of my mom's birthday bag...
Now, where were we...

Here I'm marking where the zipper is gonna go in the inner pocket. This is a very fancy pocket... as you will see.



After sewing around the marks I made above, I cut a hole in the center of it and pulled the pocket through. This is what it then looks like... a big hole.



Now I pin the zipper into the hole.



Here is what it looks like from the back.



And then I sew it in. Doesn't it look nice?



Last part for the pocket, I add the back piece & sew it on.



Ta-da! A zippered pocket!




Next I pin in my label into the lining before I sew the two lining pieces together. Then I sew them together... my inner piece is done!



Now I sew the straps. After I turn them inside out, I add a touch of color to them with this topstitching.



Now for a little finishing touch... the button! I sewed it on and then I sewed on the elastic closure. It makes it quick & easy to open & close the main part of the bag. Plus, that button has tons of personality. Oh and by the way... I was gonna put a pink button on, but at last minute I changed it to a green.




Now I attached the finished straps to the lining of the bag after folding down the edge.



Okay... we're so close to finishing it! Here I insert the lining into the outer part of the bag. I poked myself with pins a lot here!


Next I pin my pretty, pink piping in between the lining & the outer part.


Nice! Now the lining is in & pinned with the piping. Lots of pins!! Again, here is proof I got poked a lot!



Very last step... I sew along the edge, sewing the three layers together. And it's all done!!




Looking nice, huh?! It was a nice looking bag in the end. I plan on making more for my Etsy account and I will call them DL Tote Bags. They're named after my mom, Debra Lynn.
Happy birthday mom!

Happy Birthday Mom! a.k.a. Anatomy of New Bag Design

Well first of all. Today is my mother's birthday! Yay!
And for her birthday I decided to make her a tote bag. As I was creating the bag in my head, I decided to document my journey so you can see how the bag came together.
So, here we go!

The first part is what inspired me. I really like this red bag because it was roomy and had great straps for slinging over your shoulder. But I liked the simplicity of this canvas book bag.
These two bags inspired my mother's bag. I imagined her using it to carry books around, since she likes to read.


































So next I picked out my supplies. The thing that grabbed me the most was this BRIGHT Elvis fabric. She loves Elvis, but I'm not so sure about bright colors. Nonetheless, I was not deterred. I decided to use the awesome Elvis fabric as a lining and then use a dull, muted black as the outside. The pink fabric I choose as an accent color which will show up as piping. The finishing touches is the bright green thread & zipper and the big, bright pink button.




























































































Next I started creating a pattern. The main reason for this step is so I can make another bag in the future if I like this one.
I decided on 16"x14" bag, but I think it ended up about 13"x15". I often make last minute size changes! The straps are about 22" long and I choose to have an inside zippered pocket and three large pockets on the outside.
















Of course, for the future... I marked the pattern pieces so I knew which was which!
















I turned the iron on next because I had to fuse on interfacing soon!
















Now I pin my pattern pieces to the fabric...














... and I cut it all out!




















And here's that part about the interfacing... I am fusing it on the straps, the four main pieces (lining & outer fabric) and on the inner zippered pocket. This makes it tougher!


















Now, for the fun part! I'm kinda joking about this...
I cut out strips of the pink fabric to create my piping.















And here's what the strips look like wrapped about the cord.















Next, I pin it in place...















... and then I sew it in place using a zipper foot. It's so, so tiny, but piping looks SO COOL on stuff I just couldn't leave it out of this project.
















Here I take my freshly made piping & attach it between the outer & lining pieces of the large outside pockets.















And after attaching, I turn it inside out.
















In this step, I attached the pocket to the main bag piece. I did this twice because I have large, outside pockets on each side of the bag.
















While sewing the other outside pocket on, I decided to include this little loop on the inner pocket. This is for hooking keys onto, so you don't have to search for keys inside this big bag! Nice, huh?
















Here is the exciting part where I sew the two outer pieces together (with their shiny, new pockets attached).
















Before I turn it inside out, I sew a little notch on each side at the bottom of the bag. This gives the illusion of a flat bottom, but eliminates the need for me to add another piece into the bag. It's mainly for looks.
















And ta-da! The outer layer!
















See my next blog for the rest of the bag... you're so excited huh?!!