Struggling

I've been struggling to find my sew-jo since I last posted.  Those shopping bags are STILL not finished.

In the last week, I just decided to move along to something else and come back to the bags after I get going again.

I saw that Svetlana at s.o.t.a.k handmade had released a new pattern, the Nina Wristlet.  I really love look of the wristlet, so I bought the pattern and ordered the same little swivel snap hooks that she had used, too.  I chose this Kokka cotton/linen fabric that I had in my stash.  The wristlet turned out super cute, if I do say so myself.  The making of the wristlet was not without "problems," user created problems, that is.  I did not read through the entire directions before I started and had the card side of the interior all sewn before I realized that I was supposed to interface each of the pieces before sewing them together.  Well, I just modified and put interfacing behind the sewn piece.  It worked out okay, but the card slots could really use the extra stability, so don't make the same mistake I did.

Yesterday, I made up this baby blanket to send to my cousin and his wife.  They are expecting a new baby any day now.  It's been quite some time since they have had a little one (their two older children are 17 and 13-and this baby was planned), so I wanted to send them something to welcome their baby girl.  I bought some double gauze from Japan in the fall and as soon as I had it in my hands, I knew it wanted to be backed in a pink knit and become a baby blanket.  I just squared up the ends of the double gauze, cut off the selvage, rounded the corners and stitched and flipped it, then top stitched twice.  It's really soft and I kind-of wish that I had an adult sized version for myself.

Next up on my agenda is a pattern test of a baby-sized quilt.  I was picking fabrics tonight.  We'll see how well what I pulled looks in the light of day.  

Some Makes…

 Just to catch up, various things that I have made since I last posted:


A pouch for my friend.  I used this free appliqué pattern, and then just made up the size of the pouch to go what looked good to my eyes.

This bag was a pattern test for Clover and Violet.  The Cecelia Bag.  I believe that the pattern release is today, so I think it's okay to show the photo, I know there were lots of photos on social media of the various testers' bags.  I've attempting to do a lot of using what I have, so I made the front and back pocket panels using scraps from my bin.  The rest of the fabric and supplies all came from my stash, too.  I was lucky to have all of the hardware that I needed without having to purchase anything.

Some reusable shopping bags that I am sending to my SIL in CA.  I made them following this tutorial.  These came together okay, but they ended up being smaller than I anticipated.  Next time I would make them a bit bigger, possibly and do the top edge just a bit differently.  They do roll up very nicely so that they can be carried in your purse.

I also made myself an ear warmer wrap.  I figured that if I was on my second day off of work, due to the cold, it might be a good idea to make something to keep my ears warm.  I used a combination of these two tutorials:  this one and this one.  Each tutorial has you sew a button on for closure, but I just used Velcro on mine.  It came out a bit wide… it looks like a hat in this photo, but it's not.  Next time, I think I would make it just a tiny bit narrower.  I plan to test it out this evening.

Overboard....

I might probably have gone overboard on the pouch making:

My friend, Emily, was making a LOT of pouches for a garden walk faire and that put me in the mind to make some pouches, too.  Plus, earlier in the year, Emily was being totally generous to a few quick responding friends (she had put an offer on her FB page) and gave away a few pouches she had made. I was lucky enough to get one!  Anyway, it is such a nice size.  When I asked about fabric cutting sizes, she was nice enough to share with me.  I figured out/made up the rest on my own... pouches can be pretty standard once you have made a few.

So, on Thursday, I went on a cutting spree and cut out fabric for 10 pouches.  You might notice that there are only 9 in the photo... I ran out of time before I had to clean up for company and hadn't finished the 10th pouch yet.  Today, I sewed up the 10th pouch and cut out 8 more pouches, because that's all the interlining supplies I had on hand.  I had planned to finish them all today, but then I had a lazy day instead.  I'll finish them tomorrow.

Of course, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with all of them!  I did manage to sell one of them to my friend.  My dad's cousin said she wanted 6 for Christmas gifts, but I'm not really sure if she wants them now or closer to Christmas.  We'll see on that one.  If all else fails, my family will be getting lots of pouches as part of their Christmas gifts.

In other news, I manage to make three trips into Chicago in one week:  1) a Cubs game with my dad/step-mom, step-brother and his g-friend, and my husband  2) a fancy dinner and 30 minute cruise off of Navy Pier for my friend's birthday  3) a concert at Soldier Field

These are only photos from the fancy dinner and boat cruise, of course.  We were actually supposed to take a sunset cruise on Lake Michigan, but we missed our boat.  We were running a bit behind, but still okay on time... except that the boat company has like three different spots on the dock and we followed what we thought we understood based on the map, but that ended up being wrong.  We're all college educated adults, so I think that the map/tickets and the boat company booths could all have been more clearly labeled.  Something like, "Your boat leaves from spot A/B/C" and then have each booth labeled with an A/B/C.  This would make a lot of sense to me, anyway.  Luckily, though, the sunset cruise was not the last cruise for the night.  So, they let us just switch our tickets to the next boat and that ended up being pretty cool with the night skyline of the city.