Please, oh! please love me!

So I've been busy lately; creating.

I've come up with three new designs. One of which I finished last night, but I am still unsure of it. More on that later.

But I've been creating in hopes of building an inventory I can be proud of. I'd like to branch out into the world of craft shows. And honestly, I'm nervous. And I'm sure that it's mainly insecurity.
Am I good enough?
Will they love?
Please, oh! please love me.
It's nonsense and I know it. People can either take it or leave it. I've seen crafts that I would never, ever purchase. But someone, somewhere thinks it's awesome and will buy five of 'em. So I shouldn't be nervous, but I am.

So I've been creating. And I'm brainstorming things like only having certain items at my shows and only certain items online. I'm hoping this is incentive to look at both & purchase from both. Plus I'm brainstorming & hoping for a nice holiday season.
But mainly, while brainstorming, I'm creating.

This includes an item I finished yesterday. It's suppose to be a "derby bag." Like a little satchel or bowling bag. Anyhow... I built the pattern and overall the pieces went together perfectly. But I'm unsure about it and the structure of it. I wish I had a mentor or something, but really I just mentor myself. Nonethelss, it's an interesting design and maybe I just need to work on it... make more... see what happens.

In conclusion, I am hoping to be in a show soon. I'm not sure what the definition of soon is, but soon would be nice. I'm gonna keep an eye out for upcoming stuff... usually that's all it takes to get me motivated.
Until next time...

The Big Crafty :: Phase One & Two

This is a pre-post to The Big Crafty.
I'm going today to check it out and see if it's my cup of tea.
And if I feel okay I will try out for the next one.
The fee is $65 and you have to be juried to get in. That's the part that scares me. Everything is great until someone starts picking apart what's good & bad about your product. Bleh...
So... we'll see.
I'll post later (after I get home) about my thoughts & feelings.

OKAY... it's later.
We went and it was damn hot. Miserable, to say the least.
But we did a quick run through, mainly because it was so hot.
It looked awesome! I only saw one vendor who was selling bags. And another was selling zippered pouches. So I might have a market.
The show is juried & that freaks me out. So I think I'm gonna build my skills & inventory and prepare for next year.
That's it for now.
Oh! Wait... did I mention how damn hot it was?

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?!!

Hey! What's that cookie doing there...

Hee, hee! See the above pic?

This little gingerbread cookie just popped up outta nowhere on my web page. Seriously!

I went to the page to look at something and I noticed him just sitting up there waving "hi" to all my visitors. Isn't he cute?

I have a pretty good idea how he got there, so I'm not worried that my page is being hacked into by an evil gingerbread man.

Life is funny. It's obvious he's meant to be.

... in other news...

I've been making my own little men lately. These little dudes are Fuzzy Friends. Their felt stuffed with polyfill and the dog version has a squeaker inside. So easy too!

So, really, here's my first mini-tutorial. It's meant for someone who has had some minor sewing experience.

1. Get some fabric that doesn't fray... again, I used felt, but t-shirt material is another good option. If you're feeling really hip, use an old t-shirt. You only need two pieces that are about 8"x11".
2. Fold one of the 8x11 pieces in half lengthwise. With a magic marker, draw HALF a man/woman shape on it. I've also made other shapes... If you choose to do something else you might want to just draw it on the unfolded piece of material.
3. After you've drawn your shape, cut it out still folded (or not if you drew some other shape). Then unfold the man. Pin him to the other piece of fabric and cut the same shape out of that piece.
4. Hide the magic marker by flipping the fabric piece with it on around so it's touching the other piece of fabric. Magic Markings should now be on the inside of the two pieces and can't be seen. You now have the front of the man/woman & a back.
5. This is the step where you add fancy stuff. On one of the pieces you can add button eyes, a heart or an embroidered mouth. Whatever you decide. I don't add anything if it's for a dog or a child under the age of three. Trust me, they don't care if it doesn't have eyes.
6. Now put the pieces back together (Magic Marker on the inside) and sew almost all the way around the edge of the man, either by hand or machine. Leave an inch gap between the start & finish stitch to help stuff it.
7. Okay... now stuff it! I use polyfill. If it's for a dog, add the squeaker towards the end of stuffing (adding a little more after the addition of the squeaker).
8. Now sew the one inch hole up.
9. Ta-da! All done! Now give to dog, child or cuddle with it yourself!
   

Of course, if any of this is confusing, write me and I'll fix it here and send you some tips!

Have fun!

Craft Room!

I have a vacation coming up and I'm not gonna be spending it the way I thought I was. 

Bummer.

Instead of spending it with my husband, I'll be spending it alone so he can go back to Nebraska to spend time with his mother.

I was really trying to think of what to do by myself for four days and I decided to re-do my craft room. Right now it's a mess! So I think I'll take some "before" pics, redecorate & reorganize it and then take some "after" pics. 

I'm kinda excited about it and I've put some thought into what I want. I'm even considering painting it. Who knows!

Nonetheless, that's the plan. I can't wait to post pics!