What's Up: Work on Skirts, MaiseyBelle Reversible Bags, Flower Scrap Pins, Yet Another Cowl Neck Jersey Top

Greetings and Salutations!  I'm in the middle of finishing items for the Urban Crafter's Trunk Show on Saturday, so today's post is going to be fast and furious so I can get back to getting things together.

Marides' skirts are next on the list for client work.  The first skirt is one of my bias trim skirts and it is coming along nicely.  Marides chose navy twill with Amy Butler Midwest Modern II Fresh Poppise in sky, and the colors work well together:

Marides' second skirt is a yoked a-line from Joel Dewberry's Tile Flourish in Amber.  As the print is large and striking, I wanted to match the print across the center back seam and join it in a thoughtful way between the yoke and the skirt.  Everything was going well until I forgot to fold back out the center back seam allowance after matching the print so one half of the back was 1/2" wider than the other.  If you had been in my neighborhood you would have heard the long ARRRRGGHHH I let out.  I didn't have enough fabric to cut a new piece so I had to order more.  I tried to console myself with the knowlege that this is only the second time I've had to go out-of-pocket to fix a mistake, but it's still frustrating - especially since my mistake was so, well, dumb. 

Devon's aunt ordered another MaiseyBelle Reversible Bag for a friends' birthday (she's a great supporter - see my Seven Bags in Seven Days post) and since it only takes a bit longer to make two v. one, I made a second one for the show.  I still love this bag!

I've also been putting together some flower scrap pins to have a small, less pricey option on offer at the show.  These are easy because I can work on them at the kitchen table with the girls while they are doing crafts. 

One of the things I've learned about myself over the years is that I'm not very good at keeping a slow-and-steady pace.  I tend towards more of a go hard-crash-go hard-crash pace.  For a long time I thought that this was a flaw that I should fix, but I've learned that I'm much happier and more creative this way.  I have learned to see the crash coming so that I don't completely run myself into the ground so that it takes a whole week to recover.

And that's what I saw coming as I contemplated what projects to do this past weekend.  I wanted to do a corsetted pencil skirt - I want one for myself and it would be a good thing to have as a sample at the craft show - but it requires a level of effort and concentration that would have just sent me crashing into a pit of exhaustion.  So instead I did some mindless cutting out of wallet pieces and a couple of quick cowl neck tops (one for myself, one for a friend's birthday).  I changed things up a bit by adding a 6" band to the bottom of one top and contrast thread on the other:

And then I went out on the town with my friends Candice and Kristen for an evening of cocktails and laughter and stories.  Here I am posing with Cora and Maisey in my handmade outfit (and the girls wanted to get in on the action by also wearing things that I've made) as I head out the door:

I'll post later this week with more info on the trunk show and pictures of the set up.  Have a great week!

What's Up: Skirt Party, New Clutch Wallet, New Bag for Etsy, Progress on Corsetted Pencil Skirt

This week was . . . something.  I had big goals for what I wanted to get done before the skirt party on Saturday night.  And then, of course, my plans hit some bumps.  Bumps in the form of crummy tummies and drippy noses and hot heads (not me, but my kids).  I managed to get most of it done with the help of Disney (so I could get 90 minutes of sewing in while the younger one napped) and at the sacrifice of a few hours of sleep.

I did find success with my two big problem-solving challenges of the week, even though the first solution didn't work out in either case.  I had to have a talk with myself at the beginning of the week about this.  I wanted (due to the constant pressure of feeling like all sewing minutes should be used fully and productively) my projects to turn out right the first time, and when I felt this wish I had to say firmly, "No, they won't."  Remembering that helped me approach the projects with curiosity instead of desparation.

Challenge #1 was the clutch wallet I talked about last week.  I looked at some tutorials online and tried one of them but didn't much like the result and jumped ship halfway through when I realized it wasn't going where I wanted it to.  I tweaked things and the next wallet turned out a little better:

I almost broke my sewing machine trying to get through all of the layers of upholstery fabric and the end result was still too messy so I decided to keep this one for myself and try again.  Number two worked out much better and it found an owner at the skirt party on Saturday night!

It is constructed completely from scraps: the outer fabric is scrap upholstery fabric (when I showed it to the woman who gave me the fabric, she said, "Oh, it's Anna's couch!") and the inner fabric is upholstery swatches.  I need to make another one this week for a custom order and then I'll write up a tutorial.

Challenge #2 was the corsetted skirt for my client Diane (see picture here).  I turned the pattern I drafted into a muslin and had her stop by to try it on.  The "corset" lines weren't quite where they needed to be but now I know what to do (see blue lines):

 

So I now have a map and once the fabric arrives (charcoal denim), I know I can get there!  Which is a good thing to know because I wasn't quite sure when I told Diane, "Sure I can do that!" 

With all of the new challenges to contend with it was fun to end the week by making something that I know.  I made a new MaiseyBelle Reversible bag to bring to the party Saturday night.  As you know (see here), I've been hankering to make something with the colors tangerine tango and purple, and here it is:

The MaiseyBelle Bag is my version of Heather Bailey's Marlo Bloom Bag.  I didn't like making the fabric & interfacing handle in the original pattern, so I figured out how to make a casing for a wooden handle and use that instead (let me know if you want a tutorial for this).  For this bag, I made a Kanzashi flower - thank you Dani at Live Creatively Now for the tutorial!  I wanted it to be extra big so I used a mixing bowl for the circles instead of a glass.  This left a big hole in the middle to fill, hence the large button and felt circle.  Next time I think I'll make a second flower of smaller petals to put on top of the larger one.

The week ended with my second skirt party, hosted by Jen.  There were five smart, creative ladies present, which turns out to be the perfect size.  I got bunch of orders and even sold a couple of things (but not the aforementioned MaiseyBelle bag so that will be going into my Etsy shop soon).  And I've now got work lined up for about the next 8 weeks!  Not a bad way to end the week!

Seven Bags in Seven Days

It sounds like a competition, doesn't it?  If only, because now I would get some kind of prize!!  Instead, I got this on my thumb:

The little round whole in my thumb came from pinning and unpinning around a thousand pins.  I guess I must use the same part of my thumb to do that each time!

But enough about my sacrifice; here are the seven bags:

Or do I get to say that I made fourteen bags since they are all reversible?

Thus ends my largest order to date - a total of nine bags for Devon's Aunt's Christmas list.  She bought the fabric and mailed it to me (and she included extra yardage so my stash has grown!) and I got to mail a big box of handmade handbags back to her.  It was great to have so many to do because I found a new way of sewing the MaiseyBelle that saves about three hours of time per bag and I discovered some new ways to make fabric flowers, like this one:

and this:

Whew!  Not a bad week's work for a naptime/night-time worker!  I have one last order to finish up and then I'll be making five pairs of kids' pajamas, four little zipper bags, three fabric flowers, two clutches, one party dress . . . . and a partridge in a pear tree.