Long Winter

More snow fell during the night, and I don't know a single person who isn't winter-weary. The upside of a harsh winter is the bonus indoors time to, well, sew. On a recent snow day from school, the kids kicked back with the Wii and playing in the basement and I did some sewing.
The organic cotton modern chair fabric is a particular favorite currently. Somehow, I own quite a bit of fabric featuring chairs. I also covet robot fabric, bike prints, fairy tales and anything predominantly red.

Before the Snack

Here is Snow White, before she takes a bite of the poison apple and falls into her dreamless sleep. I'm making a series of canvas shopper bags with webbing handles and outside pockets to spotlight fabric. This side is zippered. On the reverse is an open pocket. On this bag, it shows Snow White after her snack. (The panicked dwarf is identical.)

$5.71

I recently visited the IDEA store just off of Springfield in Champaign. It is an indoor garage sale for crafters and people who like stuff and stuff. Since I fit into both categories, I had a wonderful time browsing. I rumaged; I gasped; I didn't resist. I came home with under six dollars worth of things and things: bias tape still in the packaging, interesting buttons, embroidery hoops I can use to frame fabric for the wall, vintage bingo cards for the covers of notebooks. Check out http://the-idea-store.org/ and then go visit.

New Purse

Inspired by a purse pattern I received for Christmas, I made a warm-and-snuggly, dead-of-winter bag. Corduroy and patterned velveteen make the exterior of this squared-off bag soft. A square of accent fabric on the flap of the purse is an idea straight from the pattern, as is the exterior pocket. However, I made my purse considerably smaller than designed. I also installed a zippered pocket on the inside and finished the project off with a hoop bead dangling from the lid. Next time I would sew a pocket for a pen or pencil and make the bag just a little wider so access to my goodies inside is easier.

February's Fabric

The organic cotton fabric called Free to Grow is February's fabric-of-the-month on my pouch web site. Visit www.inmyvastsparetime.com to be tempted by the bonus of free shipping.
I love the strong colors of this organic fabric. I exhausted my supply of dark gray zippers making pouches from it, though maroon or black zippers would look good as well. The lining of the tulip pouch is coordinating stripes (also organic). The smaller striped coin pouch is lined in the tulip pattern.

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.