Cuff Baskets

If you haven't checked out www.pinterest.com, you should. It's a site full of virtual bulletin boards you and your friends create to showcase interesting photos found online. Of course, craft ideas abound. An unstructured fabric basket is one idea I pinned on my "crafts" bulletin board. When I couldn't stand it anymore, I tried making my own. It turns out canvas-weight fabric works wonderfully. Though flopsie when empty, these baskets hold their shape when full of the many whatnot collections I have. Bright fabric from IKEA makes baskets good for kid things; I'm bringing a few to the Lincoln Square Holiday Market this Saturday to see if others agree.

Working in Bulk

It's quite possible that I am pursuing sewing right to the edge of obsessive hoarding. If I like a fabric, I'm tempted to buy it in all its color options; I order zippers 100 at a time. I feel productive storing away a finished pouch with tens or dozens of other pouches to be taken to the Holiday Market.
My friend G is a school social worker, and she designed and ordered pouches and canvas bags for her annual convention again this fall. The completed custom order was a satisfying outlay of a whole mess of zippers and rectangles of fabric.

Lincoln Square Village Holiday Market

The boxes are out, and I'm dusting off the display tables in the garage to prepare for the opening weekend of the Lincoln Square Village Holiday Market in Urbana. It begins this Saturday and runs Saturdays from 8am to 1pm through December 17th. I will have a booth there all 6 dates this year. I'll have a few holiday-themed fabric baskets, clips, and gift card pouches added to the "all season" pouches and bags I make for the outdoor farmers' market. All are invited!

Candy and Fabric

It's a fabulous day when I can camp out in my sewing room and make good progress on projects. A little music, a coffee, and I'm all set. Even though I enjoy choice candy, I find I can't have it in my sewing room. I'm just never sure how long I'll stretch out the crafting time, and I'm liable to eat myself sick if I bring food into the room.
But, candy and sewing do go together. This pocketed Halloween wall hanging was sketched out by my oldest son when he was a preschooler. I used his pumpkin shapes and faces as templates for a field of fused fabric jack-o-lanterns. The kids like to load the pockets with candy and then unload them when it's time for dessert.

Frivolous Owl

Recently, K and I sat down with 2 friends to make things. We went wild with fanciful acrylic beads from Delish Beads (check out www.delishbeads.myshopify.com), making rings and necklaces. This one is my favorite; the owl is huge, but I find the colors go with lots of outfits. Does this say more about the clothing in my daughter's and my closets, or the very cute owl?

Make a Note of It

I have a new cell phone; it's a so-called smart phone. Now I can take pictures and keep a calendar and scan bar codes with my phone. I've been trying to make the most of the thing by switching over from paper to electronic versions of lists, notes and schedules. But, I miss paper. Sometimes what you need is a little notebook in your purse for jotting down gift idea or things to do the next time the kids have a day off from school. So, if I'm going to revert to "the old way" of doing things, I can at least cover it in fabric.

Oh, But Look

I bought a yard of red and green Marimekko fabric on Ebay, thinking it would be good for slicing into festive pieces for pouches and fabric baskets to be sold at the Lincoln Square Holiday Market and at Shared Space. Today the fabric arrived in the mail; I love its large scale, and I'm tempted. I wonder if I should replace the fabric over our fireplace with something new. Or, maybe my husband, M, would make a second board and frame it with molding so I might have two large swaths of Marimekko fabric to liven my family room--one for the warm months and one for the cold ones.
Now, to find out how often M reads this blog...

Lunch

It is astounding what patterns and ideas abound on the internet. I browse often; this lunch sack made from a Gingercake Patterns tutorial is one result. Though I'm not a fan of the time it takes to construct tapered fabric handles, I like the purse-like look of the sack. I lined it in a wipeable fabric and used insulative batting for function, but of course the real fun is playing with fabric combinations on the outside. The next time I'll substitute cotton webbing for the upper part of the handle to see if that short-cut helps to endear the project to me more.

Yoga Bag

Thanks to frequent farmers' market customer, K, for requesting a yoga bag. She googled around and found reference photos and possible patterns and got me off the dime to try making one. Her bag was the pro-type, and this one is version 2.0. It's a lined drawstring bag with banded fabric and an integrated zippered pocket for keys and i.d. The shoulder strap is long enough for carrying the bag across your body (in case you might ride your bike to yoga class).
Now that I see fabric can have a connection to exercise, I might have to try it.

Binding

I've been thinking of ways to streamline my sewing so I can have good variety at the Urbana Market at the Square when I have a booth there, and also time for other things. Using pre-packaged bias binding is a big time saver when making a messenger bag purse, for example. Usually, a solid color on the edge of the purse lid helps with the utilitarian look. But, homemade bias binding can be any pattern. I couldn't resist the extra step when making this purse so I could combine both the floral and stripe pattern by Riley Blake. I like the result.

Oo-la-la-laminate

In an attempt to make a pouch that was wipeable and good for make-up, contact lens supplies and the like, I ordered oilcloth. Oilcloth can't be ironed or pinned, but its extra body lends itself to a boxy pouch shape.
Now I've discovered laminated cotton fabric. Available in a wider variety of more contemporary patterns, laminated cotton can be wiped clean just like oilcloth. It is literally cotton fabric with a clear coating laminated to the top side, so it's softer than oilcloth. I figure if I line the boxy pouch design with oil cloth, but splurge on more expensive laminated cotton for the outside, I can have the extra structure I want along with plenty of fabric pattern choices.

Consider the Source

I had a fine time at the Urbana Market at the Square this past Saturday, and I'm gearing up to return this coming Saturday. Back-to-back Saturdays at the farmers' market is something I haven't tried before. One limitation of the tight scheduling is that I only have a few days to sew items I'm running out of. If I'm out of a raw material, ordering more to be mailed to me will be very last-minute as well.
Nevertheless, I do need a few more items. I am down to my last 2 black zippers. I explained this to my mom, and she encouraged me to order more zippers right away. A few minutes in the conversation passed, and we returned to the idea that I was short on zippers. My mom said, "Well, you better order more zippers, if you only have 2 left." She should consider the source; or course I have zippers left, more than 100, I'm sure. I just don't have a comfortable quantity of black zippers remaining. And I could really use a few more vanilla, navy, slate, turquoise....