Charley Harper Lovelines

2014 was another wonderful year of sewing and acquiring all the fabric my heart desires. Successful outings at Urbana's Market at the Square, Lincoln Square's Holiday Market and the Unitarian Universalist Art Fair in West Lafayette, IN drained the stockpiles of pouches and fabric baskets I made while the kids were at school over the course of the year. My plan for 2015 is more of the same. I want to make things I feel like making in the fabrics I find interesting. At the top of my list are prints currently being released by the estate of Charley Harper. Available in cotton, a light canvas and even knit, the fabrics will appeal to sewers all over, I'm sure.

Helpie-Selfie Shelf

I have a deluxe sewing arrangement. Our dining room has been converted into my sewing room, complete with a large table built by my husband at the perfect height for cutting fabric. I have two large wall cabinets for fabric storage, a wall rack for rolls of oil cloth, a corner for a permanently-erected ironing board and a lounge chair for just thinking about sewing. More than that, when the kids are at school, I am free to build a day around whatever sewing task seems interesting. Sure, there are regular chores to take care of, but it's possible to plan the have-to's of the day out and leave several hours aside for making things. But, during the summer, kids are home. Our kids have their own pursuits and are certainly easy-going, but I have been finding it difficult to focus on sewing when I'm interrupted. Even if I set aside 90 minutes to work on items for my market booth, young visitors checking in about calling a friend or having a snack disrupt my fabric flow. My solution to the snack-interruption problem is the "helpie-selfie shelf".

Marked off by washie tape in the fridge, any items found on the helpie-selfie shelf are free for anyone to eat at any time--no permission necessary. Sure, the shelf is heavily-weighted to carrots and grapes and foods that won't ruin the next meal. Yes, some items need portion notes (only two dates at a time), but for the most part I'm thrilled with the helpie-selfie concept. Two of our three kids love to snack; they are thrilled they can eat whenever they want. Everyone in the house is reminded that a quality snack is a fruit or a vegetable or snippet of protein. And, I get more sewing done.

USS Indianapolis Reunion Project

At the end of the month survivors and family members of the crew of the USS Indianapolis will meet in the city of the same name. One of the organizers of the event is a customer of my farmers' market booth. She designed red, white and blue tissue covers with a bead specific to the reunion to give out at one of the weekend's events. I appreciate the service and the sacrifice of the crew and families of the USS Indianapolis, and I wish them a satisfying reunion. (You can visit the reunion web site at http://ussindyreunion.com/)

Market Time for Me

Though Urbana's Market at the Square has been running full-force since the first Saturday in May, I will have a booth for the first time this season this upcoming Saturday. It has been a long, cold winter. I entertained myself collecting new fabric and sewing new items. Please look for me when you're at the market June 21 or 28, July 5, August 9 or 23 and September 6.

Everyday Tote

There is a lovely online site for sewing and knitting treasures called purlsoho.com. Their associated blog of ideas and tutorials, called The Purl Bee, featured this tote bag. Made of canvas with a bottom band of essex linen, a tiny amount of neon brightness on the outside hints at the over-the-top interior. The pattern calls for binding all the interior seams with more neon. I've tried the pattern with small print fabrics as the binding and large print ones for the bottom fabric band. I'm using one for my summer purse, and I'll have a variety of tote bags for sale at the June 21st Market at the Square.

What's In the Bag?

My niece is approaching a birthday, and the party will be puppy-themed. It's all very exciting, and I just mailed off the handmade portion of her present. It's wrapped in this drawstring bag. I had to line the bag in the end because the cupcake fabric is too light in color to fully conceal the contents, and my niece is too young not to peek (so are her siblings, and I don't want to be responsible for any scene like that). What's inside the bag? It's a puppy-themed, fabric-covered sketch book for musings, stickers and drawings. It closes with a multi-colored pencil. I hope she likes it.

Drawstring Bag

A lady I met though Eclectic teaches a kind of jewelry braiding called kumihimo (see her web site at http://ikumihimo.com/). She recently hosted a class at Parkland and needed pouches to hold student project supplies. I made a scad of drawstring bags to her specifications, and now I'm thinking that the notion of a drawstring bag has fabric potential. Reusable birthday or holiday sacks with a simple pull closure would be both useful and easy to store between events. These bags aren't lined, but another layer of fabric would be both helpful keeping the gift secret and a chance to use another pattern.

Hat Pouch

My husband's good friend works for an engineering company, and one thing they do is measure and record damage to roads and airport runways as accurately as possible. Using GPS, they mark and survey projects hither and yon, so they need a way to carry their GPS locators pointing up to space. Of course, it's best for each employee to have their own hat, and so I present removable GPS pouches to wear on your head.

The pouches snap on to each hat, so the hat can be worn when there is no surveying going on. A buttonhole in the back of each pouch leaves room for a cord to trail down to some sort of back or belt pack. It warms my heart to see how sewing and technology can work together. I only wish some cute car or airplane print fabric could have been used.

New Prints

I'm busy sewing away for upcoming summer dates at Urbana's Market at the Square. Fresh fabric prints are a mix of cutesie and pretty. This way I can stay entertained and past customers will have reason to browse my booth just in case there's something they have to have.

Bunny Bags

I love to plot a fun Easter basket, and I will even admit to having a secret basket in my laundry room to hold gifts for the kids' Christmas stockings that I might buy months in advance. Sadly, I can't include anything in an Easter basket (or stocking) for my kids they could identify as having been made by me. Yes, they are old enough to confirm that there is no magical creature leaving them trinkets, but we all have fun pretending. I spied on Pinterest a pattern for felt bunny bags, and decided they look enough unlike a zippered pouch that I could make them and fill them with candy for the kids this spring. I made 7 to include my younger nieces and nephews. I like felt; what it lacks in durability and washability it makes up for in texture and simplicity. Google "sleepy bunny goody bag"; there's still time to make your own.

From Cats to Mice

Someone out there is busy. Someone is busy designing new fabric I have to have. Yes, it's getting more expensive, but I can still think of fun projects to make. I've registered for six Saturdays at the summer's Urbana Market at the Square and all the Lincoln Square Holiday Market dates. Expect to see things made from a variety of new fabrics, from cats to mice.

Prototype Paper

At the moment, I have two fabric-covered notebooks in my farmers' market line-up. One is a covered composition notebook with a ribbon to mark your page and a pocket inside the front flap for storing notes and receipts. The other is a pocket-sized version of the same thing. But, I wonder if a small notebook would be more useful if it were spiral-bound so pages could be removed more neatly. I found online a tutorial for covering a steno pad. It features loops for a pen to hold the notebook closed. Resizing and re-orienting the pattern's principles, I covered small spiral notebooks with wires running down the side or across the top. I like the size of the smaller one, but the pen looks better tucked along the longer side of the side-bound notebook. If you see me in the next couple of days, I will be hauling out these prototypes for your feedback. Gather your thoughts.

Super Tote

I'm excited to play with a new purse pattern from Noodlehead called the Super Tote. This large, zippered-top, purse/tote bag features an outside pocket, inside pockets I made to my own specifications and a pretty pleat on the sides. I trolled the Flickr photo group for Noodlehead patterns to see what other sewers had done with the project, and so leap-frogged over more basic choices I might have made on my own when first trying a pattern. Instead of heavy weight stabilizer, I used canvas to make the bag more hefty. I noted several people used Essex linen for the neutral sides and handles, and one lady quilted her linen to the canvas layer to create a look of textured sturdiness. I love this idea, and will definitely use it again; imagine a colored thread line quilted over yarn-dyed linen next to some pretty print fabric.

For my own Super Tote, I went with Marimekko on the outside and an IKEA canvas stripe inside the bag and behind the various pockets. A sport zipper highlighted with an extra strip of orange can either seal the whole bag up or fold into the open tote. The pattern is certainly not quick to assemble and the bag uses lots and lots of fabric, but I'm still hoping to make 4 or 5 this year for the fun of exploring color and feature options.

This Is My Point

I pledged at the beginning of 2014 to emphasize quality of materials over volume and expense. This is not to say I plan to spend more money on supplies than I can recoup in a finished item, but sometimes the narrow margin is worth it. Marimekko fabric is one example. This Marimekko laminate print is easily-recognizable to many people. It's priced accordingly. And yet, the soft and luxe feel of the fabric is worth it. Though the Marimekko cotton prints can feel a little coarse, the laminates from the company are a stem-to-stern pleasure to work with. Items made from the laminate usually sell early, so the fabric must be "worth it".

The Internet Is Always Right

One of my good customers challenged me to make a fabric cover for a steno pad. My first impulse was to Google the task. Sure enough, a high-quality tutorial popped up. I used it nearly verbatim to make a fabric-covered steno pad with loops for a pen closure and interior pockets. I think it's super-cute, and plan to shrink the pattern down to cover mini spiral-bound notebooks. I like a notebook with pages attached by stitching or coils (rather than glue) and this idea is just the solution.

On The Move

My sister and her family are moving, and it's time to get serious about looking for a house. From a distance, the process sounds fun. A new house means fresh picking-and-choosing of so many things. Let's paint! Let's plant! Let's recombine favored possessions in a new nest! The reality of moving is more drudgery and paperwork, so I'm sending off a new fabric portfolio for the task. This fabric folder features a large center compartment for file folders of real estate listings and a notebook of questions to ask the realtor. On the front is another zippered pocket for the city map, an open pocket for smaller notes or a calculator and a small zippered pocket for business cards. On the back of the portfolio another open pocket can hold house flyers and floor plans. The fabric is brand-new, and possibly more my style than my sister's. I don't get to pick out a new house, but fresh fabric sure is fun.

I Like the Results!

My fried, G, operates a booth at a social workers' convention every year. For the last few years, she has included in her offerings pouches and totes from me. She thinks of a slogan, and then I use fabric paint to screenprint or spoonflower.com to customize fabric. This past fall's theme was "keep calm" and it's my personal favorite. "Keep calm. I'm a school social worker" decorated the pockets of several canvas tote bags. My friend said they sold well.

Sure, Why Not?

At the Holiday Market this last month, I had for sale at my booth pillows with reverse applique. The two flavors offered were an ampersand symbol and a pi symbol. My thought was to attract either the language or the math crowd (though one pi pillow actually sold to a mom whose son with born on March 14th). Inevitably, some shoppers will see an item in my booth and think of the possibilities. This is how I came to make a schwa pillow. In truth, I made two schwa pillows. This one was first, and the second one I made for the customer's daughter. The daughter said she liked the idea of a schwa pillow, but since her name started with and "E" she might just turn the pillow upside-down sometimes.

New Year, New Machine

I'm ringing in 2014 in style with a new sewing machine. Though I love my old machine, I ran it into the ground. Now I have 2 machines (in theory) for just-so accomplishing of sewing tasks. I anticipate another fun year of choosing fabric, playing with fabric and selling the results at Urbana's Market at the Square, Eclectic, and the Lincoln Square Holiday Market. To focus my efforts this year, I have compiled goals. I plan to: focus less on both the volume of sewing I can finish and the cost of materials which will free me to emphasize the patterns and projects that most grab my attention. I also hope to design a few larger-scale items like Advent calendars or table runners or small wall quilts. I pledge to keep one eye on using up my stockpile of supplies before acquiring the latest-and-greatest fabrics because finding a way to use something now I bought "just because" is a challenge of creativity. To the extent that my first and last goal seem in conflict, I reaffirm that my sewing business is, more than anything else, just good fun.