More Supplies

I buy fabric all year long, but I buy a little more in the new year. Since I keep track of my expenses and sales for each calendar year, the realization that I should be aiming to sell more finished items than I purchase in supplies weighs on me as the months tick by. But January is full of potential. I know I will spend more than I make right now because the summer farmers' market season has yet to begin. This is a time for hunting around for new fabric that I think people will like and new patterns to use for the fresh fabric. They keep making prints I have to have. Maybe I'll even use up the last bits of older fabrics to make room on my fabric shelves for the new.

Simple Device Sleeve

My daughter is 9. She knows what she likes, and she knows what she wants. She frequently buzzes through my sewing room, spies a new fabric, and asks me to make her something. From time-to-time I judge her enthusiasm to be more than fleeting, and so I follow through on her request and sew a custom something for her. Yesterday a fresh piece of fabric from Marimekko arrived. My daughter saw it and asked me to make a cover for her mini i-Pad. The project is simple and satisfying. Here are the steps:

Choose fabrics for the outside and lining of the pouch. Track down a little piece of elastic that will fold over the corner of the pouch and keep what's inside from slipping out if you pick up the pouch upside down. I use Pellon 987F fusible fleece as a layer of padding; sometimes I also interface the outer fabric with Pellon shape-flex 101 if the outer fabric is a little thin and needs beefing up. For my daughter, I omitted the interfacing. Cut two pieces of outer fabric and two for the lining. I generally look up online the dimensions of whatever electronic device needs a pouch. I cut pieces that are: width of device + depth of device + 1/2 inch (quarter inch seam allowance times 2) + 1/2 inch wiggle (could go more snug with 3/8 inch) = width of fabric. Length of device + depth of device + 1/2 inch seam allowance + 1/4 inch wiggle = height of fabric Cut the fusible fleece smaller on all sides so that the fleece will mostly catch in the seams, but not add bulk. Fuse the fleece to the back of each outer fabric piece.

Sew the elastic across the upper right corner of what will be the back of your pouch. Leave a little play in the elastic so when it wraps around to the front of the pouch everything will stay smooth.

With right sides together, sew the top of each outer piece to the top of each lining piece. Press the seams toward the outer piece, taking care not to melt the elastic with a hot iron. You will catch some of the fleece in the seam. Pin the two long rectangles right sides together. Match the seams where the outer fabric meets the lining fabric carefully. Sew around the rectangle, leaving an opening for turning in the bottom short end of the lining rectangles.

Trim the four corners and turn the pouch right-side-out through the opening left in the lining.

Iron the entire piece, including the open seam to prepare to top stitch the opening close to the edge. Push the lining inside the pouch for a final pressing. Insert your device. Done!

894

Welcoming 2015 includes taking stock of 2014. In the case of my sewing business, taking stock is a literal activity. This morning I am counting up exactly what items I have left from another year of selling fabric pouches, baskets and bags at farmers' markets. I need to submit my sales tax payment for the 4th quarter to the state. I need to determine the whole year's profits for reporting to the feds on Turbotax. I'm curious to know which items I sell are the best balance of supply costs, fabric I'd like to work with in the new year and customer interest. Again this past year, the most popular item was a simple zippered pouch. The starter project Google offered when I searched how to install a zipper means I can rationally maintain a large and luxurious supply drawer devoted only to zippers in warm colors. I need so many zippers. I used 894 of them in 2014.

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.