Weekend Away Travel Bag

Another zipper pouch, this time a little different. This is the Weekend Away Travel Bag, one of the projects featured in Heather Ross' new book, Weekend Sewing. The book has a lot of great tips and gorgeous pictures, but I have to say that I wouldn't recommend it for a novice stitcher. The directions seem to assume a certain amount of knowledge that a novice might not yet possess. On the pattern for this bag, for example: part of the directions tell you to press the top of a side panel and side panel lining down 1/4", then pin right side together and sew a 3/8" seam. Which completely leaves out the necessary detail of only sewing the three sides you didn't press, otherwise you can't attach the zipper panel. Some one who has experience and can anticipate the next step would know that, whereas a beginner might not. I've also read that there's extensive errata (corrections) for this book. But I will definitely keep you updated as I complete more projects, maybe I'll change my mind.

As for this pattern, I can't say I'm a fan. It turned out okay in the end, but it took longer than I would expect for what is basically a simple box pouch. It just seemed unnecessarily fussy and complicated for what it was. Part of the problem might have been that I already had an idea in my head of how to make a pouch like this, and this didn't match up, so it felt wrong. But I'm going to try to make one of these the way I see it in my head, so I'll find out which I like better.

A Day in the Park

Another new bag! Another oliver + s pattern! Well, it's actually Liesl and Co., but it's the same person. This is the A Day in the Park Backpack Tote. Super cute design, kind of complicated, but it turned out really well. This was the bag I had already begun when I got all my new fabrics and couldn't wait to start a dress instead. I was also kind of intimidated by this pattern, because there are a whole bunch of pieces and it looked complicated. But once I hunkered down and just did it, it came together pretty quickly. I accomplished several "firsts" with this pattern, namely first zipper pocket, first magnetic snap, first time using heavy interfacing, and first time using rivets.

There's also a flickr pool of just these bags, and it's pretty neat to see all the different ways people interpret the same pattern.

as a tote:


as a backpack:


the inside:

Tote bags

Time for totes! These were made from dishtowels, the Orla Kiely for Target collection. Really great fun prints. If you're lucky, your Target might still have some left, but they're pretty much sold out at this point, I think. I really wanted to find the green pear print one, but no dice. My starting point for these was a tutorial from Ashley, over at Film in the Fridge. Definitely check out her blog, she does some amazing stuff. Then I tweaked the size a bit, added a couple pockets, and Bob's your uncle (actually, my cousin) you have a tote bag! Or if you're me, you have three!

Bag #1:


Which reverses to:


Bag #2:
(I did a little applique on the pocket here).

Which reverses to:


Bag #3:


Which reverses to:



I think I'm going to keep the brown one, and put the other two up in my Etsy store.

Busy, busy...

I'm still here! Well, to be more precise: I was gone on vacation, but now I'm back! No new dresses (yet...as my mom says, how many dresses does she need?), but I've been making tote bags. I found an awesome tutorial online, and I've been staying up too late working on them. I've got one finished, and two more about halfway done, so I'll post pictures and a link to the tutorial in the next day or two.

While on vacation, I picked up a little embroidery project at a craft store (Hobby Lobby, anyone? We don't have them here). I've never attempted it before, but I needed a portable project for the looooooo*gasp*oooooooonnnng car ride. (Hey, did I mention it was long?) Well, probably not the best pick for a bumpy car ride, but I got the hang of it eventually. I don't know when or if I'll ever finish it, probably not until my next roadtrip, but I'll be sure to get some pictures up if I do.