You can never have enough!

Tote bags, that is.

I got to sewing again this morning and listed these two bags on Etsy. Do I rule or what?

This one, I made a while ago. It has a yellow lining and pocket. It's bigger than most that I make, measuring 17W x 14H. Not sure why I made it that big!

This is the one I made today. It's more like it - 15W x 14H. I had to piece the back, but I like the way the designs lined up! 

I used a swirly blue for the lining on this one and a Peter Max remnant to make the pocket.

For a day that started out with no electricity, RIP squirrel that landed on the transformer, it is turning out to be a pretty good one!

Time to start sewing for fall - Let's start with the Zombie Apocalypse!

Yep, summer is slipping buy. I sew a little something every day, but lately, I've been obsessed with the Zombie Apocalypse. True devotees have their go bags all ready. So, being the good citizen I am, I figured it was time to make a Zombie Apocalypse tote bag. I found some amazing fabric at Spoonflower (they'll even print fabric of your own design!), and have been having fun with it ever since.

Here's part 1 of the Zombie Apocalypse tote bag. More to come!

That's the finished product. Unfortunately, the picture shows the shadows of the quilting lines and it's not the best. Don't worry, there's another one below. 

This is the fabric and I love it. As soon as I saw it, I had to have it. 

 First things first. I found a brain coloring page on line and made some adjustments, then cut out some large brains for the tote bags and small ones for future placemats. 

I first made the bag front and back, using a 4" x 4" patchwork using recycled denim.  

Then it was time to sew. You can see the quilting lines a little better. I used my machine and did parallel lines approximately 1/2" apart. Then I stitched around the edge, close to the edge as possible.  

Then came the fun part - satin stitching around the brain. I did a wide stitch with essentially no stitch length. When it was completed, I applied a fray retardant solution to the appliqued edge.

A good denim tote needs a recycled denim pocket. The stitching was reinforced on the cotton faux denim lining. I stitched around it twice so that it was made to use and not baby. 

Time for handles. I cut 4" strips from another piece of denim then folded it and ironed it on a high heat to get a crease down the center. I folded raw edges to the crease and stitched them down on both sides. 

Then, I folded this in half and stitched down both sides for closure and reinforcement. The finished handle is about 1" wide. (I'll add a measurement of the length of the handle in my next post, but if you can't wait, measure the handles on a tote you like and cut your handles 1" or so longer.)

 

Brain on bag and handles. Now to put it together. 

That's the beginning. I'll be posting the photos and how-to for making the bag, adding the lining and handles, and finishing it all up!

You know you need a Zombie Apocalypse go bag - make one! 

More to come. 

Sewing and finishing stuff! (And always more to come)

I finished the button mannequin project. I'll have photos when the sun is bright enough to get a good view. I coated it with a concrete-like paint and finished it with a vinyl coating. I actually like it a lot. More to come!

I've lost a considerable amount of weight and need clothes. I don't want to buy them, so am doing a buy-a-few/sew-a-few combo. For the summer, I had bought a few pair of shorts, some solid tees, and made a number of skirts. I want to share one of the skirt sets as it's a recycle project, where I took a business suit and turned it into summer casual. More to come here too!

I've been working on tote bags too, like this one:

It has a recycled blue jean pocket in the lining and the lining itself is the large M&M fabric. All my M&M ribbon is finally gone!

I've cut out an open weave cardigan and am almost finished with a caftan that I'll throw on in the mornings. I want to make two of them. Next comes a couple pair of pants for the fall and winter. I plan on making several cardigans to go with the pants I have and use the tees from this summer underneath. I have a ton of receiving blankets that I use inside Christmas stockings and placemats, and they'd make the best liner for a woven fabric cardigan. I did buy two pair of jeans at Walmart. A girl's gotta have jeans, right? I'll be ready for the colder weather in nothing flat! More to come!

I'm sewing just about every day - how about you?

Old dogs can learn new tricks and tools of my trade

I make a lot of tote bags to keep and to sell, but I never mastered the bottom of the bag corners.

For a quick tute - Sew4Home How to Box Corners.

I did not use the cut out instructions; rather, I used the basic instructions. I didn't want to try this on a big bag that I might mess up, so I did it with a mini-bag. I had some 6" squares of M&M fabric and some M&M ribbon. Here's the end result:

I think it turned out pretty good. And guess what? I'm no longer scared to make boxed corners. I can do it!

As I was ironing the seams open on another project this morning, I started thinking about what I use when I sew that I consider required tools. I started a mental list:

1. Seam ripper. I know, that sounds like an odd must have, but it gives me the confidence that if I 'mess something up,' I can take it apart and start again.  It's my mistake fixer. I have a few around the house in all the areas where I sew. I happen to use the Clover flat seam ripper. 
2. Good sewing needles. I buy Sullivan's for hand sewing and Schmetz for my machine. Without a sharp, proper sized needle, for hand or machine sewing, it's difficult to make a good seam. I use my sewing machine and hand sew about equal amounts of time. It took years to settle on Sullivan's, but I have never regretted it. Great needles have made all the difference for me. 
3. My Bernina 1130 and my 3-thread Bernina serger. I purchased the 1130 about 28 years ago. I love it. I take it in religiously to have it serviced and cleaned. My guy at Nancy's Calico Patch in Newport News, VA keeps it running like a top. He's tried to interest me in newer models, but I'm still that old dog and I won't change if I don't have to. I use the serger for finishing seams and that's about it. I'm fine with that too. I know there are fancy sergers that will do just about anything. Mine was free with the purchase of the 1130. I don't have an embroidery machine. All embroidery I do is by hand.
4. Quality thread. Guttermann makes about the best thread for my purposes, in my opinion, but I do use Coats and Clarke too. It is so annoying when a thread breaks while I'm hand sewing. That's a function of either the needle, cheap thread, or both. I'm a stickler for making sure I have the same thread in the bobbin that I have in the needle when I machine sew; I've had too many bad experiences with mix-and-match experiments. My new thing is variegated thread. I have embroidered in the past with variegated threads and I'm glad it's available for sewing now. 
5. Amazing scissors and pinking shears. Find a brand you like and keep them sharpened. I have two pair of "don't you dare cut paper with these" scissors. They fit my hand well and cut like a dream, but only when I keep them sharpened. Again, my guy at Nancy's keeps them in good shape for me. 
6. Ironing board and iron. I keep the board set up. A friend came by once and said, astonished, "you iron?" I press fabric, seams, fusible webbing, fusible interfacing, transfers, and who knows what else. Yep, I iron. A lot. As I sew, so shall I iron.
7. Marking pencils and pens. Love them. Can't find the perfect one, but before my rotary cutter was ever used, I was marking and cutting with scissors. 
8. Rotary cutter. I was late to the rotary cutter game, but I use mine often. I have two. The hard part is finding 65 mm blades. (My cutting mats tie with the cutter. I have a rotating one, a large one, and a couple small ones.)
9. Rulers! I have a 4" wide, a 2" wide, two wedge shapes, a 4" square, and several others. I still have the first see through ruler I bought back in the stone age. 
10. Fabric glue, fray stopping agent, bias tapes, pins (they must be long and with a beaded head for me), magnetic pin cushion, tomato pin cushion, clear plastic containers for fabric and notions, and bookshelves - these all tie. They're all super necessary for me. I have to stay organized or I lose track of what's what. The containers are clear so I can tell what I have!
11. Oh, and let's not forget fabric. I have years' worth of fabric squirreled away. I could use more! You can never have enough. I have Sponge Bob, firetruck, Halloween, Strawberry Shortcake (both vintage and new), Christmas, Hanukkah, rainbow, fruit, Peter Max, and oodles of other theme or print fabrics. Don't forget my box of receiving blankets that I use for the center layer of placemats and my heat resistant batting for potholders. Oh yeah, I have a lot.
12. Plans. I have thousands and thousands of projects in my head ready to come out at any time. Potholders, tote bags, placemats, kids' clothes, clothes for me, quilts, and gosh knows what else. 
13. My dog. She's great at feedback, listening, hanging around, being supportive, and in general, giving me dog looks that reassure me that maybe I'm not a crazy fabric lady after all.

Okay, there are probably a thousand more things, but that's the start of my list. What's yours?

Sewing Catch Up - Quilt, Buttons, Tote

I'm back in Virginia after being in Texas for a week. While there, I had the opportunity to take a photo of a quilt that my sister and I made. She started it for her husband before she died. He sent it to me and a couple years later, I sent it to him. He had collected beer bandannas, and here's the result of my quilt-as-you-go quilt:

It is a little smaller than queen sized. My sister's work was done by hand. Mine was primarily done by machine. Michael, who passed away last week, picked the flame fabric for the sashing and binding. The back is a mix of several types of muslin; I could not match what my sister had used, but it's okay; it looks great. They lived in Grand Prairie, Texas. Before I traveled to Texas, I cut out a quickie hexagon mini quilt. I always have to have something to sew! I'll post pictures of that later. But I digress! The quilt above was finished in 2012, and it has taken this long for me to get a picture. Somehow, I let it get away without photographing it. Here is the initial story of this quilt - Sewing a Memory

One of the things I'm working on now is a button art project. The first installment of that project is here - Button Art. I took an updated picture of the work in progress today:

I have a long way to go. I can only do a few buttons at a time and allow them to completely dry before I can shift the form and add more. I'll reattach the stand to the form when it's done.

Lastly, I've been moving my sewing room/computer desk and that has taken a lot of my time, but I did find time to make a couple of Peter Max tote bags! I have them on Etsy.

I put a Velcro closure pocket inside with my label.  

That's it for now. Well, one more thing - it's amazing how much stuff you find when you're cleaning a sewing area!

Sew well and stay cool.

Sewing a memory

My best friend's mother recently died. About a month after, she came by and brought some sewing items of her mom's. One of them was a cross-stitcher organizer. It was a fabric three-ring notebook with floss organizers, pockets, a zipper closure, and handles to carry like a tote bag. She asked me if I could use it. I don't cross-stitch, so was sort of befuddled as to what to say.

Then I looked at it closely. Hmmmm....if I take the three-ring part out and take the pockets off, I could make a tote bag. The pockets would make a great potholder or oven mitt. Hmmmmm. So, that's just what I did. The fabric is quilted, so it's nice and sturdy. I removed the binding and took out the zipper, I discarded the three-ring thing and the pages that were in it. Yes, I do discard things from time to time, rare though it may be.

I folded down the top of the remaining binder fabric and stitched it down, catching the handles in the seam to provide stabilization. Then I sewed the sides together, starting at the top to make sure the top lines matched up. I double stitched this and then turned it inside out. Here's how it looks:

Not bad if I do say so myself!

Next to use those pockets. I found an oven mitt pattern on line and put it together. Ooops, the pattern required enlarging and I didn't do that, so the oven mitt was a) too small to turn properly and b) too small to put my hand in it! What now? Potholder! I cut the forlorn mitt into an almost square, rescuing what I could of the fabric. I found some matching bias tape in my stash, made a hanger with a piece of fabric that I "unquilted" from leftovers, and done.

It's not he best potholder I've ever made; it has a seam up the middle and the binding bunched in one place, but I don't dare take it apart! this is one of those "thought that counts" items, right?

I'll be giving these to my friend on Thursday. They're her memories now, and mine because I made them.

Max, Peter Max, Calling Peter Max!

Here I go again. I'm not done with my Peter Max fabric. I've made potholders, a tote bag, and tonight, made another lined tote bag to sell on Etsy. I've got enough fabric to make at least one more. We'll see how this one sells. the Peter Max/M&M potholders sold today. They were fun to make too. But tonight, the house was quiet and I hit the sewing room, taking apart some more of the curtain that I have, and came up with this lovely item.

It's about 15 x 13 and is lined with a cotton blend fabric rather than the Peter Max fabric I used on its larger counterpart. I have some turquoise fabric that matches the turquoise thread and designs on the Max print, so I went with that.

I made the handles out of the hem of the curtain. I cut it off and folded over a hem, then folded the whole thing in half again and stitched three rows of stitching to provide stability and long life of the handles.

I always try to make sure there's a signature showing somewhere on the bag, and in this case, it was front and center on one side and to the left of center on the other. I'll be sorry to be done with this fabric as I've so enjoyed working with it! How can you not love those hippie dippie colors? My bedroom was filled with this stuff when I was a young teen.

The top of the curtain was used to make a large pocket for inside the bag and I cut a small bit of Velcro to use as a closure for that. You can see the lining fabric with this photo of the inside of the bag.

The bottom line is I got some sewing in today. It's been a whacky week and I was hoping to get to the machine for a little while. My next project is a Smurfs dress for a little girl somewhere. I think it's a size 5, but will know for sure the next time I mention it. A friend on the Hippie Sewing email list sent me a white zipper to use to finish it up, so there's no reason for me to not get started on it.

Buh bye Mr. Max.... for now.

Peter Max Tote

I've had a vintage curtain panel, genuine Peter Max, for some time now. I've been waiting for it to speak to me. The fabric is too heavy for a garment. It's too precious for a pot holder. I wanted to make something that would last for a while and show off the fabric. I'm traveling Wednesday. I had a light bulb moment - tote bag! I need a bag with shoulder straps that I can use instead of a purse, and there you have it, the planning began.

I cut the hem off the panel and made two shoulder straps, each about 39" long. I folded them toward the center and stitched, reinforcing with a few more rows. I chose orange thread to keep with the Max and 70s theme.

I used the fabric from the curtain header to make pockets for the inside. I cut four pieces of fabric, about 40" x 40", and made a lined basic tote, adding the pockets to the lining and the Velcro closure for the bag itself after I completed construction of the bag and lining.

I have a large piece of the fabric left and am not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I'm very happy with phase one - the travel tote with shoulder straps.