craft

After seeing a picture of this bag online, I just had to make one; I reverse engineered the bag and created one for myself in natural denim and terra cotta denim lined with cotton. It has an adjustable strap with clasps at each end so I can attach it either at the top to make it a tote bag or on the sides for a purse. I am going to pick up a carbinger clip to go into the grommets set at the top and on the front. The inside has a zippered pocket and a cotton print.

I haven't sewn anything in a while, so my stitches are not perfect. DH insisted that I let it go and I decided that he was right; I did what I could and pushed through the project so I wouldn't get discouraged and quit midway through. The cotton webbing that I ordered for the strap did not arrive even after a month of waiting, so I just went ahead and made a strap out of fabric.

One of the most challenging parts of making this bag was getting the proportions correct. I still don't feel like the measurements are visually ideal, but the bag will function well enough, and by the time I noticed, I was too far along to change anything. I may try again later, but we'll see.

This is the bag I talked about making for Ms Bento. It's made from suiting and trigger and lined with canvas. It's completely machine washable and naked of my tag, which I forgot to add. I made it yesterday, but by the time I finished, all the natural light was gone.

The ties were only made to be long enough to tie twice, so when something is in the top, it can only be tied once, which makes the knot pretty loose. I actually am reminded of bunny ears by the ties, so I thought about making another bag that looks like a bunny in this same style, but I doubt I would use it. I might add it to the shop, though.

Much prettier than the stock bag that came in the box, but somewhat less functional. For example, I can't bring additional containers for granola and elevensies in the same bag, though depending on what it is, I could tie it up top. I'd like to make another bag that is more functional, but I am having trouble with the design. I'll see what I can come up with after the idea has time to stew. I thought of adding a gusseted pocket, but I like how the lines of the design are now.

Also, today I walked to Target and had to carry the bag in my hand, holding the knot carefully so it didn't come undone. This bag was really made for trips to the office from a vehicle. I'd like to make a bag that is more flexible, but this would do for days that I bike to work. I had been bouncing around ideas for a long time for Ms Bento Sr, but had trouble deciding on a design. Once I thought of this idea, I had to just run with it without overanalyzing everything. I'm glad I just went with it; doing that helps me deal with my desire for perfection every time.

I hope to make some modifications for v2. Not just in terms of adding pockets, but also in terms of technique. The circular bottom gives me some trouble while sewing. Even clipping the curves, I still got some pleating on the main body, as shown in this picture. It actually looks pretty cute, even though I didn't do it on purpose. I might try pleating the bottom on purpose instead of trying to make it lie flat. I don't recall any pleating on the Mr Bento bag I made a few years ago, so maybe I'll take a look at it to see what I did differently.

The area where the two fabrics meet at the bottom of the ties also gave me some trouble, and it unfortunately shows. I'm told that I'm the only one who notices these things, so I'll try to relax. Plus, I know I'll get better with more practice, but for now, I'll try to relax and enjoy my creation =)

This is my second needle felting project, started on the same day as the heart, but finished today. It is a wrist pin cushion that looks like a watch! I have been wanting a wrist pin cushion for a while and decided to make one that looked like a watch. I read somewhere that pin cushions are often filled with wool roving to prevent rust, so I thought needle felting would be an appropriate way to make it. Actually, this is the project I had in mind when I decided to finally give needle felting a go.

Anyway, I am planning to offer these in the shop for sale, but I have to work out a few kinks in the design. For example, I used fleece as the wrist band, but wool apparently doesn't like to stick to fleece. I had to put more fleece on the underside of the band to get the watch face to stick to the band, but it doesn't seem very stable. I'll get that all worked out and post them in the shop soon, hopefully.

I made this felted heart using the anatomical heart felting kit by fancytiger on Etsy. Needle felting is a lot of fun -- despite pricking myself a couple times -- and I'm really excited to apply this new craft to some of my ideas for the shop. It's a bit difficult on my hands, but I've ordered a tool that should make the process a little less of a strain. Then again, yesterday I rode my bike, and my hands usually hurt after a bike ride. I'll be working on felting again today, so we'll see.

Not bad for a first try ^_^

I highly recommend the seller, who provided fast shipping and friendly communication. The instructions provided would have been better with pictures, but they were clear enough using the picture as a guide.

I finally got my crafty storage to a point where I'm willing to share it. Deciding on how to store my materials, supplies, and tools took a long time and was really difficult. My problem was that I don't focus on one craft. Sewing and crocheting are my main focus, but I adore learning new crafts. Sometimes I like to make embroidered felt flowers. I want to make paper and crocheted jewelry someday. Most recently I have begun learning how to needle felt, which can be related to crochet, but not necessarily.

The point is, my storage system couldn't be just shelves and racks for paper like a scrapbooker. I couldn't just have a set of large, lovely flat file drawers like a stamper. As much as I would love to have an old library card catalog as storage for beads like a jewelery maker, that just doesn't make sense for me. I have so many different and sometimes random items that I need to store so looking for craft-specific storage solutions didn't work.

The other problem is the sheer volume of stuff that I own. Not to say that I should necessarily expand my storage to fit my stuff, but many of my first attempts at organization were too small to begin with. I figured I needed something big and customizable, but not too expensive, and something that would fit in my room.

Ikea, of course. The PAX/KOMPLEMENT system at Ikea was perfect for my purposes. Not only can you choose the number and sizes of drawers and shelves, but also you have a wide variety of interior organizers available made specifically to fit the wardrobes.

The problem was the price. With all the fittings I needed for it, the wardrobe would have easily reached over $600. And so my search began for a used wardrobe with a close configuration. After weeks of obsessively scouring listings and being disappointed by flakes, I came home with one and adjusted the interior to fit my needs for less than half the retail cost. I have been slowly organizing it for 4 months, and it's finally in a pretty good place. I'm not a neat person naturally, so keeping all my fabrics folded and all my yarns organized is difficult; I make a point to stay mostly organized in my wardrobe because otherwise productivity suffers.

Next I'm going to organize the compartmentalized drawer (first drawer in the wardrobe) and my desk, but having this much done feels awesome. This is the first time ever that I've had my crafting stuff organized. When I'm done with everything, I'll post pics of it all together.

Those limp $1.49 Ikea pillows just don't do my pillow cases justice. The POW pillow case is stuffed with the Ikea pillow. See how much better the question block looks? I'm gonna pick up another $5.99 pillow at at Joann's next time I'm there.

In any case, I finally got around to making my second fleece pillow case inspired by Nintendo's Super Mario Bros.: the gold question block. I adore how the POW and question blocks look together, so I'll probably make them in pairs and list them as a set for the holidays.

I doubt I will list the prototype for sale right now, since I'm still deciding on whether or not to add the circle details in the corners. Also, I originally wanted the back of the pillow case to look like the blocks do in the video game after you hit them, but I didn't get the correct color for that. I just can't list it in the shop until I'm satisfied with the design, so stay tuned for the question block pillow case's appearance in the shop.

I'm really excited to learn needle felting. I've always wanted to learn, and last night I came up with an awesome idea that would be most appropriate as a felted project. I found this blog entry on betz white about the felting tools I bought. I'm going to keep that technique in mind for making felt appliques. Now all I have to do is wait for my supplies to arrive in the mail =)

This is the fabric I bought at a garage sale today. It has Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Flopsy Mopsy Cottontail, and carrots all over it. The garage sale was located much farther than we thought, but my sister and I had fun digging around looking for things to buy, basically to make the trip worthwhile. She bought a bunch of scrapbooking stuff, and I came away with the awesome fabric above, a vintage pattern for an empire cut dress, and a bag of ribbon.

Yesterday, I also went out to a garage sale and thrift store with my mom and came away with some cool items. I bought a couple pillow cases for lining in purses or something, plus a bag of nice metal-toothed zippers for cheap, and a skirt I'm going to mod to fit me (it's only a size too big).

I used the pinker today, and as soon as I finished, I proclaimed that it is the coolest sewing thing I've ever bought. I pinked the edges of the rabbit fabric before I wash it to prevent unraveling.

I can only imagine how much better it will make everything from here on out. ♥

This is the antique Singer pinker that I finally got a hold of. I bought it on Etsy from Jape, along with a toy Singer sewing machine, which the seller gave me a deal on that I couldn't refuse -- and am now almost wishing I did. The seller was fantastic, though; great communication and she even gave me free shipping. I would definitely shop with her again.

The pinking machine is what I'm really excited about though. I bought it because using pinking shears on the POW pillow case was difficult and inefficient. Rather than making the edges look more finished, they sometimes ended up crooked or worse. This machine will cut everything in a continuous strip rather than having to be careful where I end my cut so I know where to begin the next one.

Unfortunately, I'm a little dubious about a couple of things. First of all, the pinker is not in the condition that I thought it would be. Of course, after ~80 years, it's bound to have dings here and there:

But what I'm most concerned about is the condition of the handle, since I wasn't sent pictures of the handle, nor was I informed of its condition.

I bought the pinking machine to use it, not for its value as an antique. Otherwise I would be more concerned with the condition and the fact that none of the serial numbers match each other. I found serial numbers on the manual, the metal arm, the blade cover, and the C-clamp, and none of them match; 121379, 121369, 120994, and 121716, respectively. Then again, I'm not sure if they are supposed to match on this machine.

But! All these concerns melted away when I took another peek in the original box and discovered a straight-edge blade. The blade was actually in one of the photos the seller sent me, but I didn't recognize it for what it was. The blades for these machines are rare, so having a machine come with one not only increases its value as an antique, but also as a tool. Finding that blade was a truly pleasant surprise. I'm so excited about the pinker!

I got a little antsy working on a new cupcake container, so I decided to take a break from it and make a new card holder. Hence, the new ant card holder! The pictures don't really show the correct red, but I made a note of that in the listing.

Also, Selina Kyle almost got out when the pizza guy came =/ Though really, if she wanted to she could get out since she is totally faster than me.