Wow so it's been weeks

Ok, so since my last post.. It's been a while! Yikes! Ok, what has been happening in my world? Well it hasn't been to very interesting. I was out of town for a funeral which was very sad, and attended my first military style burial with the guns and flag etc. I visited mom for a few days and spent about 7 hours with my best friend trying to figure out her embroidery machine.. man that was a waste, although we had a blast--even though it was an anxious blast. Mom picked up some more fabric for me and a new tote bag pattern which was forgotten at her place because someone moved it from where it was (dumb step-dad--why does he have to touch things that aren't his)!

Today I've been working on a new project for Christmas gifts. I hope they turn out like I want them too, because well, I think they will be great. I took the idea from another crafty blog and am loving it so far. We'll see how much I get done. :)

I can't finish the one project because I picked up the wrong thing so I need to get some ribbon to make this work.. but I can get that tomorrow--along with a knitting needle. woohoo!

Well, I'm outta town for Thanksgiving and my last birthday in my 20s, so I hope you all have a great Turkey day and enjoy your family and friends! And definitely good luck to all of those who plan to venture out for Black Friday! Muahhhahahahahahahaha. (I will be safely tucked in my bed and sleeping - I hope)!

Project #3 in-between and finished photos

Outside of bag

Finished product:

Pattern Creation

Ok, so what I did for this project is design "the look" of the bag on paper first. Now, this can change through the process of pattern creation.. but next I went on to creating and then cutting out the pattern. The first attempt at creating the pattern that I wanted yielded a minor error.. it was WAY too small! So, I went back and started over. I used printer paper and drew the pattern that I wanted and then cut it out. Where the one piece of paper was too small, I used scotch tape and put two sheets of paper together to get the size pattern that I wanted to create.. the following pictures will show the pattern that I cut out and used to cut the fabric.

Haha ok the following photos will show the fabric, design and the look of the tote/purse.




I absolutely love this photo because well, the bag body kind of reminds me of women's granny panties. :giggle: But don't despair, the bag body is much better than this..









Here's the rest of the outside of the bag body.
What I am doing with the inside liner is making a somewhat opposite version of this one. The curved edges will be brown, the V section will be the white with the stars and the middle edge (not yet shown) will be the striped pattern.







The handles will be brown on the outside with the stripes on the inside.













This last photo shows the pieces that will go on the outside/inside sides of the purse to make it a little more broad.








Well, so far this is as far as I have gotten. I need to go to the craft score and pick up some D rings and figure out how they will fit into it all since they'll be part of the handles as well as pick up some fusible heavy interfacing to make the bag a little more heavy duty. Additionally, will I make this bag a zippered bag or create a flap to "close" the bag from outsiders.. decisions decisions.

Sewing

I am so lucky to have a neighbor who can sew. She came over on Friday to look at my ancient sewing machine and showed me several things I had no idea about. It really does help to have a manual, but unfortunate for me --that the manual was lost and not included with the machines gifting to me.

However, I finished my first tote bag/purse and have used it since Nov 1. I am planning out my second as we speak because I really REALLY want this one to be more along the lines of a different image I have in my head. I am currently avoiding this bag that I love

and would love to have the pattern for and a similar material, but instead, I'm going to be trying my hand at creating my own pattern. While this is going to be much harder on me, I think I'll be able to achieve as long as I take my time and plan everything IN WRITING! LOL Wish me luck!

Thanks to Morissa

Who can be found here hubby and I enjoyed a nice dinner at a fantastic Japanese Steakhouse for a much smaller price. We used her info from Restaurant.com and ordered a $25 gift certificate for just $2.00! In the end we spent about $25 out of pocket since the meal was around $46.00. It was so yummy!