Laptop bag

Whew! This one was a long time in the making. I got the materials for the laptop bag probably a year ago (around the same time I got the materials for a still-unfinished dress. Heh.). In that time I've switched both my work laptop and personal laptop. Luckily I bought extra fabric so it was all good.

Map envelope

Ready to go :)

Cute idea I got from here

Sadly, there's no actual envelope generator--just the concept (as far as I know--someone correct me if I'm wrong!). My sister made one to welcome her boyfriend home, which was cute and inspired me to make one of my own.

I MADE A DRESS

Yes, this post deserves an all-caps headline.

I actually made two dresses from the same pattern. The second dress went much quicker since I had all the measurements from the first dress so I didn't have to keep trying it on and pinning.

Jewelry organization (pt 2)

Boards!

Taking the advice of my sister, I used nails and hooks for the necklace board instead of pushpins.

I didn't have a drill for to make pilot holes for the hooks, so I found the widest nail I could, hammered it in, and twisted the hook into the hole. Worked just perfectly :) I don't have enough necklaces for both the top and bottom hangers, but I figured I should just get the whole board ready in anticipation for more necklaces.

Jewelry organization

Top row: hanging earrings with hooks.
Second row: stabbing traditional backings into cork board.

Purse!

I meant to post this back in, oh, September. Better late than never, I suppose.

Every so often, I'll find myself at JoAnn Fabrics. I usually go for a specific purpose (e.g. quilt materials for a baby blanket) but almost always stumble out an hour later with $50 of craft/sewing supplies and wonder, "What just happened?!"

Recently, I managed to make it out without buying anything extra, but something far more dangerous happened: inspiration. So many pretty fabrics! So many pretty colors and patterns! So many embellishments! Next stop: Google.

I found a cute purse pattern (here:http://machenmachen.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/machen-machen-wasp-bag.pdf) that looked simple enough. I'd been needing a new purse for a while anyway. I kept trying out new bags and purses, but there was always something a little off about each one--too little, too big, handles too short, doesn't close. I figured, what better way to get a purse that fit my needs than to make it myself?

As it turns out, making a purse is much harder than quilting. With a quilt, it's all straight lines. The hardest part is cutting all the squares the same size and keeping seam allowances consistent. With a purse (or the pattern I made, anyway), there were curves and pleating and darting and buttons and pockets and handles to line up and oh gosh, did I sew the wrong sides together???

I ended up with this:

I love it. The snap was taken off an old purse that I don't use anymore (+1 for recycling!). I had to redo the pocket 3 or 4 times because I could not get it to flip out right. I learned some very crucial things:

• Basting is my friend, way more than pins.
• Washable pens are key
• Darts aren't scary! Neither are pleats
• Baste, baste, baste.

And of course, I couldn't have done it without my dear friend, who assured me that darts are not, in fact, unattainable by a novice sewer.

Unfortunately, my success with the purse convinced me I was an unstoppable sewing/crafting machine. A little less than a week later, I stumbled out of JoAnn's again, this time with supplies for a laptop bag. Dun dun DUNNNN. Yes. We'll see how THAT goes...