Organic Yumminess

I've been thinking about ways to jazz up a utility bag. This is the base model: sturdy canvas with webbing handles and accent pockets on the sides. In this case the pockets are made from a line of organic cotton prints I couldn't pass up. I could also add a smaller zippered pocket to the inside of the bag, making it good for a trip to the grocery store. You could tuck your coupons in one outside pocket, your list in the other, and secure your money in the inside compartment. Maybe the top of the bag needs to close with a snap or magnetic clasp, or even a zipper. There's also room for trim on the outside of the bag. If I make this bag for my personal use, I think I'll adorn the top hem with a row of zipper scrap trim. Hmmm.....

It's A Miss

Another recent pattern acquisition yields various sizes of rectangular pouches. I like the way the zipper wraps around the ends of the bag. Inserting handles into the end seaming is also easy and effective. But, this first attempt at the pattern took forever. 6 seams on the inside of the bag are raw unless I add bias tape to neaten them up. Too much work!
Once in a while, I like to try a new pattern. This one has been in my mind to figure out. Sadly, it's a miss.

Product Development

The dead of winter is a perfect time to try out new patterns and learn new sewing techniques. I found on Etsy.com a pattern for this clutch with an inset zipper. I made the body out of stabilized linen, but the center panel is nicely-sized for a little snippet of something more dear.
It takes me a time or two of making a new pattern before I understand which measurement, pressing and reinforcing steps are the critical ones. On this clutch the red inset zipper nesting inside the top banding is a little wavy. I'm still satisfied with the results, and I think it's a cute little purse.

Bench

I love red, so I gravitate to red fabric. Unfortunately, red fabric does very poorly in the sunshine. These benches in the family room were covered in a pleasant red print, but they faded. I had no option but to buy more red fabric and recover the cushions. By chance, the pattern repeat matched almost exactly with the dimensions of the cushions, and the back seam is therefore practically invisible. The sun can shine into the family room and fade this fabric, too. I will just turn the cushions over and backwards.

Make a Note of It

I'm a list-maker and a note-taker. I have yet to advance to any electronic organizer. For me, post-it notes and the backs of empty envelopes do the job most of the time.
Recently, K and I sat down to make something out of the growing pile of used gift cards and hotel room swipe keys I originally collected to be used as pretend credit cards for kids playing house. We made tiny notebooks...a whole bunch of them. Let me know if you need one.

Assistant

My daughter, K, loves to help out. Partly, it's her age; she loves being able to do the same things I do. Part of it is also her temperament. K calls herself my "Sewing Assistant", and she routinely selects beads for zipper pulls, inserts business cards in completed items or fetches the right color of zipper from my stash. In her spare time she cuts fabric from my scrap bowl into smaller bits, or tapes them down to paper in a collage.
Around dinnertime, K is anxious to help my husband put dinner together. Generally, I shop for the food and put the menu together, but M cooks the food while I sew.
For Christmas, I made K an apron for her "Kitchen Assistant" duties. She wears it with pride.

Fabric of the Month

The vast majority of my pouch and purse sales take place in the parking lot of Lincoln Square. Since my husband is technology-oriented, he has encouraged me to consider that a web site is also important for letting people buy fabric pouches at their convenience. He helped me set up the site and taught me how to maintain it (more or less). It's called www.inmyvastsparetime.com.
To my immense entertainment, people I don't know have begun ordering from the site. I have mailed orders to California, Missouri, New Hampshire, and cities in Illinois.
I have decided to market a "fabric of the month" on my web site. January's fabric is this lovely Japanese frog print. It will be available on my web site with free shipping all month long.

New Year, New Fabric

Even though I don't need a reason to buy new fabric, I see the new year as a good opportunity to refresh my craft supplies. The Holiday Market is over, but the Market at the Square is still months away. Now is the time to experiment with new patterns and make a few things for around the house.
In the possession of some Christmas money, I went on a spree. I still love robots on fabric, so I bought a new piece of cotton-linen from Japan and a blue cotton fabric from closer to home. The gray and pink floral fabrics are organic cotton. The brown florals I've been wanting. The black Pac Man fabric dates me. The green trees were on sale.
I bought other fabric, but only so much can fit in one photo.

Ho-Ho-Ho

I have a craft friend, a lady I met at the Farmers' Market this summer who makes a variety of lovely crafts: photo notecards, shopping bags crocheted from strips of plastic grocery bags, lap blankets, and other things. From time to time she mails me something she made. I do the same. This small Santa wall hanging has been mailed off to G. I hope she isn't expecting it, and will enjoy receiving something unexpected in the mail the way I have enjoyed opening things from her.

Holiday Workshop

I am pleasantly busy sewing special-order pouches for holiday gifts. K and I made a run to the post office Monday to send some of these pouches to a lady in California. They are not liquid, fragile or potentially hazardous...just an excuse to buy more fabric. But, I don't think the post office cares about that.

In the Paper

Shared Space, an artist and crafter cooperative store in downtown Urbana, was featured in yesterday's News Gazette as a place to buy locally-made gifts. What a kick it is to see my pouches in one of the article's photos! I've pinned the paper to the design board in my sewing room. It's my version of a stuffed trophy fish up on the office wall.

Kindle Cover

My husband tells me the new Kindle will be a hot gift for people this Christmas. He's the type who follows (and reports) technology trends even if he doesn't have a personal interest in acquiring the new gadget. So, we don't have a Kindle, but I was moved to make a cover for one anyway. It's padded and has an elastic closure to keep the Kindle from sliding out if the case is tipped upside down. I sold a couple at the last Lincoln Square Holiday Market.
Is it wrong to want a Kindle only so I could make a pouch for it?