canvas portside duffle

January 10, 2014January 10, 201427 Comments

next in the gifting line up, the thing i was most excited to make – a portside duffle!

when Jen of Grainline Studio released her Portside Travel Set pattern a few months ago, i really wanted to get it for a “someday in the future” project (the pattern includes a duffle, dopp kit, and small zippered pouch – awesome value, really, and would make a great wedding/father’s day/graduation gift!). i exercised restraint and held off on buying the pattern, though – until i drew my brother-in-law’s name for our family gift exchange and i knew it would make a great gift for him.

he’s a tall guy (it’s a huge bag!), he’s a musician (needs to haul stuff around!), and he’s a creative person (appreciates handmade!). plus i feel like i have a good sense of his taste. it just seemed like the perfect thing. when he opened it he seemed to really like it, and didn’t even realize i made it until he saw his initials inside (see below), so it paid off for sure!

i’ve been interested in sewing with heavier materials lately. i bought a beckel tote for my mother in law for Christmas and the thick canvas and the heavy duty topstitching was fascinating – i bought it at this awesome bazaar in town where i could talk to the woman that sewed it (on an industrial Juki, she said), so this was sort of my chance to put my Bernina 380 to the test and see if i could make something similar in style.

i bought heavy thread, cotton webbing, and a bunch of metal zippers at JoAnn, plus natural and camel colored canvas duck in the outdoor section there. some of the hardware was harder to find and i had to get it at Mill End. the bag is lined with yarn dyed essex in leather, which i got as a remnant at Bolt.

my husband said the machine sounded different as i sewed this bag – i honestly don’t think my old machine could have handled the super heavy material! walking foot, size 16 needle, i pulled out all the tricks to keep it running smoothly.

i quilted the bottom with a layer of batting to help it sit upright if he set it down.

and skipped the dopp kit, but made the little pouch…easy and quick:

i ran into just a couple snags – i think there was a missing pattern mark on the end pieces as to where i should place the straps, and i found the lining a bit too large for the bag, which may have been due to the fact that it’s linen and stretchy versus the decidedly non-stretchy nature of the outer. not sure, i’d have to make it again to find out. and my husband has requested one, so it’s on the horizon once he figures out the colors he wants!

pretty fun making such a heavy duty, masculine bag though! it just feels so LEGIT, you know? when you finish a project and have that sense of “wow, i actually made that!”, it’s always fun.

lickety split field study bag

January 6, 2014January 5, 201414 Comments

for all the sewing i’ve done from Rae’s patterns over the years, i’d never made one of her purses! she was kind enough to send me the lickety split and the bonsai bag patterns in advance of the holidays, and i sewed up a lickety split for our awesome day care gal as a Christmas present.

Rae actually released this pattern in 2009 (forever ago in sewingbloglandyears)! i’ve always thought it was a neat design and it looked like it could be sewn quickly but also had nice style to it, so it seemed like the perfect project for my gift sewing spree this year.

you can see in the older patterns how Rae’s pattern writing and digitizing skills have progressed over the last four years, but even though it’s an “elderly pattern” it’s still digital, a smart design, clearly written…and a lot of fun to sew!

i used a really pretty Anna Maria Horner Field Study linen (Flower Circuit in Sunny) for the bag, which was given to me by Jess (that gal seems to have become my main fabric provider lately, hehe) and lined it with a pink kona cotton from my stash. i skipped the outer pockets but added one to the inside. the bag can be reversible if you want!

it took a bit more fabric than i expected due to the looooong handles and being cut on the fold, so i ended up piecing two outers together on one side which looked completely fine. after taking these photos, i decided to add a snap (just a normal size 16 metal snap, nothing fancy) at the top center to keep it from gaping open. it just took it from “tote” to “purse” a little more, too.

my big ol’ belly makes it look a little small and out of proportion maybe, but to me it’s the perfect size bag to use everyday for lots of different applications (diaper bag, errand-running bag, gym bag, lunch bag, grocery bag, car bag for road trips) and i love that the straps can be tied to be longer or even separately (say onto a stroller handle or cart) if desired. the boxed bottom is great, too, gives it a nice shape.

the title of the pattern actually describes both the design and the sewing…it truly came together lickety split!

i’ve got fabric picked for another one to keep for myself. 😉

girls’ trip to gilroy

October 30, 2013October 30, 201313 Comments

first of all, thanks so much for your kind words and well-wishes from yesterday’s post! i really appreciate it. 🙂

okay. so i know i’ve mentioned a few times recently that i went to visit my friend Jess from Craftiness is not Optional. today, it finally works out that we can post about it!

Jess and i both had to back out of going to Sewing Summit this year, her due to a nursing babe, me due to first trimester total lack of energy, but we both reaallllly wanted to meet each other and i had some saved up airline miles, so we decided to plan a trip when timing worked better! AND since Em and Sadie have become such cute little long distance buddies, we thought it’d be extra special if she and i went to visit the CINOs together. a girls’ trip!

oh boy was Em excited to go play with Sadie in person. we had an EARLY flight but i had never seen her jump out of bed so fast! i’d never taken a solo trip with her before, but she was so proud and happy to be going, travel was a breeze.

we flew down the second weekend in October, at a time where Portland weather had already turned to fall, but central California weather still felt like summer! no chill in the air at all, it was so nice.

we hit the park, and the girls played dress up/my little ponies/barbies pretty much nonstop all weekend. it was super fun to have them all wearing handmades, and to see Jess’ creations in real life! at one point, Em, Sadie, and Charlotte were all wearing roller skate dresses.

hehe i think Charlotte and O are twins with their “slow to wake up-ness.” 😉

i slept in Jess’ sewing room, a pretty amazing place to be – girl has a seriously enviable fabric stash! once we finally got the girlies to settle down and sleep at night, she and i pretty much talked blogging and sewed until it was time for us to crash too. here’s Jess serging with her hand on the pedal whilst dodging my suitcase.

it’s always more fun to sew with a friend, and though i was super slow because of all the chatting and unfamiliar setup, i did manage to sew most of this blouse while i was there (and took photos of her in her version too!). Jess cut out like a million leggings for KCW (which she posted about here). oh and we also fabric shopped, of course, at a store we don’t have in Portland – Hancock Fabrics.

we picked out a joke fabric challenge for the other one to sew with, so look for that at a future date. Jess posted our stacks to Instagram and people guessed right away which stack belonged to which blogger – i mean, i HAD just found out i was having another boy, so i guess it’s pretty obvious, eh? 😉

and then i went animal style at in-n-out for lunch.

last time i’d had those burgers, i was newly pregnant with Em. i wasn’t sure if i had built them up in my mind as being better than they actually were, but they did NOT disappoint 6 years later. SO FREAKIN GOOD.

on Sunday, i got to hang out with my pal Cherie and her lovely family, including her new baby girl, at an amusement park nearby while Jess was at church. Em and Yuki rode a ride together! such a fun bonus to see Cherie and visit with her while i was in town!

the week before the trip, i went on a little sewing frenzy and made little gifts for each of Jess’ girls and Jess herself (plus a couple little gifts for Cherie’s girls that I didn’t get photos of, gah!).

here’s the CINO rundown at least…

a simple doll blanket and doll diaper from this free pattern for Charlotte, the 3 year old little mama.

the diaper has a buttonhole to pull a tail through, just in case she’s more of a stuffed animal gal than a doll gal (like I did for Em here). it’s made out of fanfare pink elephants, with some toweling on the inside. the blanket underside is a pretty gray gauze.

an apron for Sadie (the 5 year old) to cook in (found out Jess is one of those “purple haters” while i was visiting…HA! oh well, DEAL WITH IT, JESS!!). 😉

the fabric is anna maria horner’s sinister swarm in blueberry, with a michael miller cotton couture in violet pocket. it’s made out of a fat quarter and i keep meaning to do a tutorial, it’s a quick and fun little kid apron and great for gifting.

for Ava (the almost 1 year old), a briar rose crickets skirt with bias tape finished hem.

i figured she’ll be walking soon and it’ll be skirt wearin’ time!

and for my hostess Jess, a foldover clutch out of violet craft domino dot in clementine, with yarn dyed black essex linen contrast panel.

clutch tutorial is my own, with contrast panel supplemental tutorial over at you & mie. it has a minty green zipper and lining. thought it’d be a good date night purse for Jess.

i interfaced the outer fabric so it has some nice sturdiness to it, and am pretty happy with how it turned out.

Jess overwhelmed me with gifts for me and my little ones (including baby!), which you need to go check out in her post today! she is quite the fabulous gifter. here we are doublegramming (side-by-side stolen from Jess, hehe thanks girl).

it was really an inspiration to see Jess in action. the girl just gets stuff DONE, ya know? i’d always wondered how she does it all, and basically she doesn’t seem to procrastinate or hesitate to do anything. she finishes a garment, gets photos, edits them quickly, blogs it. she wakes up, starts breakfast, cleans up immediately. there is just an efficiency, motivation, and positive attitude to her both in blogging and in life that i really admire, she’s an amazing mother, super patient and sweet with her daughters, who are in turn really sweet to each other.

she was such a joy to be around, especially in the mornings. whereas i stumbled groggily out of bed and made some tea to wake up, she already had crepes halfway done. 🙂

i came home with a new outlook on how to blog more efficiently and less “in my head” like i tend to do. plus i just really love what she’s built with her blog and we had some really great discussions about blogging in general. it was cool. i LOVE meeting blogging pals in real life, and for our kids to meet too was icing on the cake (speaking of cake, she is really an awesome baker – whips up all sortsa stuff like you wouldn’t believe).

thanks sooooo much for having us, Jess, and thanks to Rory for allowing two strangers into your home for a weekend! we had a blast, and we’re already talking about how Jess and Sadie can come visit us next time and we can do a “tasting tour of Portland.” 🙂

check out Jess’s post about our trip here!

feather skirt for sadie

October 8, 2013October 8, 201315 Comments

i may have mentioned here before that Em and Sadie, daughter of my good blog friend, Vintage May partner, and amazing sewist Jess, are the cutest little long distance buddies. they text emoji “conversations” back and forth, they FaceTime, they send each other drawings with giant 5 year old lettering and stickers across the envelopes (with Jess and i squeezing addresses into whatever blank spaces we can find). i’m sure the post office loves those.

for Em’s birthday in May, Sadie was excited to send a present, and she and her mom worked together to make this ADORABLE skirt, which quickly became Em’s favorite and is in constant rotation. Sadie turned 5 in August, so it was high time we returned the favor!

Jess had written a post saying Sadie loves feathers, which gave me the hint i needed to sew up this skirt for her. the pattern is the Oliver + S Swingset Skirt, which hadn’t grabbed me as a must have until I saw Gail make a few. now that i’ve made one, i’m totally hooked! it’s not quite a circle skirt but it’s very twirly, i love the triple waistband (two rows of elastic and one ribbon), and i love the fact that it’s lined! it’s a quick, fun sew but has more style than the simple rectangle of fabric skirts i usually make.

i used a vintagey lace trim for the “ribbon” since it seemed very CINO to me. i think it came from Cherie (Daiso?).

the feathers i hand drew, stuck on with steam a seam lite (affiliate link) and topstitched around the edges and up the middle using silver metallic Gutermann thread. the top feather is white seersucker, the middle is heather ross far far away double gauze, and the bottom is violet cotton couture, all scraps from prior projects (maybe you can guess them? i used the HR pre-blog/flickr only).

the skirt fabric itself is Denyse Schmidt for JoAnn a couple years back. still getting good mileage out of the 2.5 yards I picked up, originally intending on making something for myself with it!

i sewed a size 4 since Em and Sadie appear to be almost exactly the same size, and threw in some other goodies including this drawing of Ariel (Sadie’s favorite Disney princess) done by Em. Ariel is wearing a “on HUMAN legs!” pink fancy gown, complete with a castle, ocean, and seagulls.

word has it Sadie was thrilled to get our little gift. and one day soon, these two little long distance buds are actually going to get to meet each other in person!!

plans are in the works. 😉

tutu for a two year old

September 20, 2013September 19, 201321 Comments

just as divided baskets are my go to gift for baby showers and new babies, dress up clothes are my go to for two/three/four year olds. i love giving personalized superhero capes (my simple tutorial is here), especially to boys. but tutus for little gals are so sweet and fun, and for new 2 year old K, daughter of longtime family friends and daycare buddy of my son, i felt that one was really necessary.

i love this tutu pattern – easy and painless to sew, and it feels so elegant. it’s from the book Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson (affiliate link) and if it looks slightly familiar, it’s because i used the same pattern for Em’s Angelina Ballerina halloween costume a couple years back! Em and her friends still wear it as dress up, which is the beauty of this tutu – it ties in the back and is highly adjustable as the child grows! i like to make it a little on the long side so it lasts.

i took Em shopping with me at Fabric Depot to pick out the colors of tulle and ribbon – i nudged her away from a few super bright/clashy colors, but in the end these colors are pretty much all her choices and i love it! the fun part of this pattern is picking out the layers of color. we started with a deep magenta, then a couple lighter pinks, ending in a pretty gold color. i think it looks a bit like a sunset.

the ribbon is satin but the less-expensive stuff – i should’ve upgraded to a double sided satin, but didn’t think about it until i was back home sewing. you see both sides of the ribbon, just be aware of that. they both need to be pretty.

the color is bright and fun and K had her mama help put the tutu on right after she opened the gift, so I hope that was a good sign that it’ll be in solid dress up rotation for a few years to come. 🙂