Closet Flashback: Kitchen Attire

I admit it...I hoard aprons. I sew them up then forget about them in the back of my kitchen closet. It's sad because they are so fun to wear! I decided to dig one of my favorites out and put it to good use for Halloween cookie making. It's a pattern by Amy Butler from one of her books (I think it's in "In Stitches") and sews up beautifully every time.

 

Here's an action shot :) 

 

 

I like how you can tie this half apron high on your waist or low on your hips depending on how you like to roll...(bad baking pun intended)

 



 

The waist is accented with little pleats.

 

I don't think the mini pocket really serves a purpose but it's cute anyway!

Closet Flashback: The Weekender Bag

The Weekender is how my mom taught me to sew and I have some very fond memories attached to this bag. She made one too and walked me through every step of the process. I had only dabbled with sewing before attempting this pattern and afterwards felt pretty much ready to tackle anything. It's a really fun project to make BUT it's a beast.     

I was heading out of town this weekend and dug through my closet to find this trusty bag! It hasn't seen the light of day for a while so it was time to put it to good use. It's the perfect size for a quick getaway and holds up really well over time (at least mine has).  

I have aspirations to make this pattern again someday in really girly fabric...maybe something in pink? 

Here is the original posting for both bags...

Closet Flashbacks: The Houndstooth Blossom Bag

I don't know if it's just me, but I make stuff then forget I have it for a couple of years. Is that weird? I was looking through my closet the other day and realized that I have quite a few pieces that I spent a lot of time on that have been neglected. I decided that these unloved and ignored specimens need to make a comeback. That's when I decided to start an occasional series to help some unloved friends emerge from the depths of my wardrobe. It's my attempt to finally wear/use clothes, jewelry and accessories that I've made and stashed over the years. It's also an opportunity to use some RTW garments that may have been forgotten too.    

 

Since I have a fondness for Amy Butler patterns, I decided to drag my first Blossom bag out of the depths to start this series off. I originally posted my first bag here in 2010 and then my second one that I made for a gift a little while later here. 

 Today I dug out a dress that I got from Target over 5+ years ago and paired it with the houndstooth bag...love it!

While these flowers have nothing to do with the bag, they do match my bright orange toenails and are beautiful.

Here's the bag in all of it's glory. The size is great because it's not too big and has handy dividers inside of it. I remember how much fun I had making it (both times!) and am wondering why I haven't been using it more. I'm just glad that it's now back in my purse rotation :) 

Inside Out Bag

A couple of months ago I found this tutorial for the "Inside Out Bag" over at the Purl Bee (click here for their instructions) and loved the simplicity of it. I finally got around to making it and I think it's going to be a perfect summer bag. I used a really nice canvas that I've been hoarding for over a year and some Amy Butler fabric that caught my eye recently. This is an easy project that doesn't take a lot of fabric, webbing or bias tape.

Lonsdale Dress in Polka Dots

 A couple of months ago I made a muslin for the Lonsdale dress (see post here). It fit me perfectly and was wonderful to sew. I couldn't wait to finally make it in this Amy Butler Lotus Full Moon in tangerine fabric. I underlined the whole dress and used alternate seam finishing techniques because my serger was in storage when I made this. I call it my "Magnum P.I." dress because I watched copious amounts of that show while working on this project.  

 I really like the narrow waistband, pockets, fuller skirt and longer length. I don't generally go for full skirts or below the knee stuff but I really like it on this dress.

 I have two issues though which are not pattern related. The underlining makes it difficult to tie a nice clean bow that hangs well and the underlining makes the skirt look wrinkled because the two layers cling together. I've read of other people having this issue but it's not a significant enough problem to deter me from wearing the dress.

I've been meaning to get some pictures up for the last few weeks so this morning I went out and tried to get some decent shots BUT I had some technical difficulties so these were the best I could get with the patience I had available.

 

I already have the fabric for a 4th of July version of this pattern which I'll be making soon. The next one won't be underlined and I have my serger back so everything should go faster!



Yoga Mat Bag

I had some leftover Amy Butler fabric from a previous project and wanted to actually finish something in one sitting. After yoga yesterday, I realized that the project should be a new mat bag.

 I used a pattern from Joel Dewberry's book "Sewn Spaces". The book is filled with visually appealing projects BUT the patterns are horrible. There are missing instructions and pattern pieces and some of the measurements are off. F R U S T R A T I N G. I thought I was going crazy so I even Googled it and fortunately, it's not just me. Apparently, the patterns provided in the book just stink. The editor should've sprung a few extra bucks to get some pattern testers before publishing the book.

 Regardless of the cryptic instructions, I finished the bag in an hour or so. It'll do in a pinch but it makes me want to make a much sturdier, lined and interfaced bag in the future. When you learn to sew making Amy Butler bags, patterns like this are just disappointing.

This is a random shot of my sewing buddy. I can stitch all day and he will stay with me looking up occassionally to make sure I'm ok before going back to sleep. Dogs are awesome.

Mom's Bday Apron

I made Mom a new apron for her birthday. If you noticed, we are apron crazy in our family. I used the Amy Butler Domestic Goddess pattern again (I made it for MawMaw here) and used fabric from Amy Butler's "Love" collection.

Mawmaw's Apron

 A little while ago, I was aimlessly trolling fabric.com for new yardage. I say aimlessly because if you're like me, you go to that site with one thing in mind then spend 45 minutes drooling over a million other prints that are totally unrelated to your original intentions. Happily though, this is how I came across this cow print. As soon as I saw it I knew that Mawmaw 'needed' an Amy Butler (Domestic Goddess 1/2 Apron Pattern) apron with white piping. It has pleats, a towel loop and of course piping was required!

PS - As usual, the Amy Butler pattern sewed up perfectly. I love her patterns because there isn't a raw edge left when the project is done.

Dresden Plate Bag

A while ago I stumbled across this tutorial for a Dresden plate bag. Dresden plate is a quilt pattern that forms a circle, or plate. I wanted to make the purse, but it was too small. I was able to craft a larger Dresden plate template and then just winged the pattern for the bag. It is wider at the base, with pleats added for shape. The Dresden plate is made from some of my favorite scraps, and I added a little bit of decorative embroidery for kicks. The bag itself is made from stretch denim. (The stretch is not optimal, but hey...it was in my stash :) The lining is an awesome print I got on fabric.com (Michael Miller I think).

Cosmo Bag

This is the finished Cosmo Bag and unfortunately, the pictures do not do it justice. I was having technical difficulties which I suspect are from user error not equipment malfunction :) Anyway, the bag was easy to sew up and is huge. The yoga mat is in there for scale because it's hard to tell the size just on the pictures alone. I've made enough Amy Butler bags now to know how to change the interfacing to my specifications so this bag is lined more heavily than is actually called for on the original pattern. I would definitely make this bag again and will be using it for weekend trips, yoga or the grocery store.

P.S. I forgot to mention that this is yet another bag from Amy Butler's book "Style Stitches." I am certainly getting my moneys worth out of that book :)

Post-Christmas Burnout

After Christmas was over I pretty much just creatively flatlined. Nothing was inspiring me and then the new year started with a surprising series of intense events so nothing was getting sewn, pasted, painted, etched or printed! Slowly but surely though, the itch to work with fabric is coming back. Unsurprisingly, Amy Butler's Cosmo bag from "Style Stitches" is what brought me back :) I've been wanting to make this bag for a while now because it's about the size of a kitchen sink which is perfect for all my yoga stuff or beach stuff or groceries, etc. Right now, it's a work in progress but soon I'll be back to post the finished project!

Half Apron

Rachel made this awesome apron for me for Christmas! The pattern is Amy Butler, and the fabric is AWESOME!! The turquoise trim makes it even that much more fantastic. (Can you tell I really like it?) I have gotten to the point where I have relegated some of my 'old' aprons to the garage, because my apron collection is pretty, uh, robust.

Bad Pictures of Aunt Marla's Awesome Apron

I once again brought out an Amy Butler pattern from her book "In Stitches" which I have used on several other occasions (here and here). It is a pleated half apron and this Robert Kaufman print is one of my favorites!

Amy Butler - Blossom Bag #2

As soon as Amy Butler's new book "In Stitches" came out I bought it and sewed myself a Blossom bag and matching pleated coin purse (see here). I loved how it turned out so much that I made this one for my mom for Christmas. It may seem strange that I am posting it 2 months in advance BUT since I can't keep secrets and my mom wanted to see it early, here it is! For some reason this material was a bit cantankerous and I snapped 3 needles in the process but it turned out alright in the end :)

P.S. Have you ever had a project where no matter how many times you ripped out a row of stitches you just couldn't get it straight? Attaching the outside flap was a nightmare on this particular project for some reason and despite trying and trying again (and almost breaking my sewing machine a couple of times) I just could not get it under control. I guess the idiosyncracies are what make it unique :)

Amy Butler - Blossom Bag and Pleated Coin Purse

Have I mentioned before that I love Amy Butler? I just bought her new book, "Style Stitches" and it is awesome. I've been saving this houndstooth fabric for a long time just waiting for the right project and the Blossom bag and matching coin purse was the natural choice :) This is a semi-soft bag with lots of room and even comes complete with a zipper pocket and a magnetic closure. For the lining I used a vintage .70 cent pillowcase I found at the Salvation A. that has funky flowers on it in bright colors.

As with all Butler patterns, there was a laborious amount of cutting, fusing, needle breaking and hand stitching but since I've come to expect that, it doesn't bother me anymore especially knowing that the finished product reflects the amount of time that went into it. I must say that I love, LOVE, L O V E how this bag turned out and the coin purse with the vintage daisy brooch is just an added bonus. There are a few minor cosmetic imperfections that I'm going to call "individualistic nuances" but I can live with them :)

It's Easy Being Green

This is an easy purse pattern that I redrafted from an Amy Butler clutch from the book, "In Stitches." It has a magnetic snap and the outside, strap and flap are made from random Marimekko scraps in my collection (the purse matches the passport sleeve that I made a couple of months ago). I enjoyed making this purse because it doesn't require any interfacing. The entire project is stabilized with Warm and Natural batting which is fantastic to work with. Also, as a side bonus, the whole thing cost me about $3!

The Successful Failure Bag

The Sophia Bag was a nightmare. The pattern and directions are clear and easy enough and in theory this could be a really wonderful bag. However, I had technical difficulties with the interfacing. I used a quilting weight fabric which requires 3 layers of fusible interfacing. That should've been my clue to NOT use quilting weight fabric. Anyway, that many layers caused a lot of issues and despite my best efforts and some name calling, I just could not get everything to fuse properly which I found out after the bag was mostly sewn together when the interfacing started to bubble and peel off of the fabric...very frustrating after hours of cutting and carefully pressing! Obviously, the bag looked terrible so I decided to redesign with what salvageable materials were left. The end result is a simple tote that is the perfect size for my

purposes and I feel vindicated because precious materials did not go to waste.I say that this project is a successful failure not only because I was able to remake the Sophia into something useable, but also because I successfully installed the zipper into the original project. This is a HUGE feat for me since I have major zipper anxiety! I just decided to grit my teeth and confront the little devil and I did it :)

Amy Butler - The Sophia Carry All

My sewing slump is officially over. After a few days of reflection and mental regrouping, I've come back from the project dark side. To start off my crafting rejuvenation, I decided to once again embark on a lengthy Amy Butler project - The Sophia bag. This purse is actually what made me want to sew in the first place. I happened upon Butler's website one day and feasted my eyes on this bag. That was about a year ago and since then I've sewn at least five other Butler patterns including the infamous Weekender Bag. This purse is going together MUCH easier than the Weekender and is so fun to make! I have to say that Amy Butler patterns are like my kryptonite. I get weak in the knees and go into creativity overload when I see one but I suppose there are worse vices than sewing projects :) Anyway, I will post a picture of the bag as soon as it's finished which (after I procure more interfacing) shouldn't take long!

Another Apron

As soon as I got back from Austin, I sewed this flashy little number. I had found the funky banana fabric in Fredricksburg, TX in an old school 5 & Dime store. As soon as I saw it I knew it needed to be made into this apron! It's an Amy Butler pattern from the book "In Stitches".