Secret Santa

Man, it's been forever since I posted and almost as long as since I got crafty but I at least got to do Secret Santa this year!  When I was out in SoCal last month for my company's Awards banquet, I convinced folks to do four days of Secret Santa.  My person listed Glee, the Nebraska Huskers, cereal, and Katie Holmes among his interests.

The first day I made a mix CD of Glee songs with a card from Katie Holmes:

The second day I made a simple fleece blanket with a Katie Holmes stand-in:

And also a little note from Katie:

It works!

The third day, I made a drawstring bag with leftover Nebraska fleece fabric.  I put a box of cereal in it and Katie told him he could use the bag as a shoe bag when he travels.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic.

On the final day, I made a dopp kit using this boxy bag tutorial from Skip To My Lou and embellished it with a Nebraska "N" from leftover fleece fabric.

Instead of oilcloth, I used this cute cowboy fabric:

And inside, I put in this requested ice cream scoop.

Felt so good to be crafty again!

Dallas City Satchel

It's been while since I sewed anything, so, inspired by a friend's upcoming visit, I decided to tackle the City Satchel from Sew What! Bags: 18 Pattern-Free Projects by Lexie Barnes:

First of all, I highly recommend this book, especially beginners.  It's user-friendly with lots of diagrams and pictures with projects from "newbie" to "daredevil" levels (though I would say these levels would apply to someone who is very new to sewing).  It covers a lot of basic, fun, and useful bags and organizers.  And I really appreciate the spiral binding--so it lies flat when I'm working with it.

Even though this project was at the "daredevil" level, it was thankfully relatively easy to follow and sew together.  After cutting all the pieces and ironing interfacing to the pieces, I was able to sew it together in about 3 hours, which included an annoying thread tension snafu with the strap.  I had come across this Dallas Cowboys fabric at my local Joann's (which I'm dumbfounded that this is stocked here in South Carolina), which is perfect for my friend who is a lifelong Dallas fan.  Since it was a fairly light cotton, I chose to iron on heavyweight interfacing (Pellon 931TD) to give it a bit more strength and heft.   Since it was the first time I made it, I went with the measurements used in the book.  Since I had bought 2 yards of the fabric blind, I decided to use it all to make the bag (versus the contrast design with two fabrics), including using it for the interior lining.  It may have been a bit of Cowboys overload, but my friend appreciated it:

Regarding my stitching snafu--as I was edge-stitching on the strap, the threads kept getting tangled up.  For what it's worth, the edge-stitching was for decorative purposes rather than functional, but it was still so maddening and I just tried trimming most of the tangled knots away.  I fiddled a little with tension adjustment and I didn't have a problem with the rest of the bag.

I think if I make this bag again, I'd probably use the two contrasting fabrics (especially if I use novelty fabric like this).  And I'd try to use thicker material to begin with rather than iron on interfacing.  And I think I'd make the strap an inch less wide.  But overall, I was pleased with my first run--especially that I kept all the logos right side up on the flap and bag body!

Looking forward to making another one--

Amy Karol's Artsy Clutch

I made the Artsy Clutch from Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing while visiting SoCal, staying with my friend Linda:

I really loved how simple and quick this was to make yet it has a quirky elegance to it:

Nice enough for a gift, right?

I made another one but instead of flannel between the outside and lining as directed I tried fusible fleece.  The fabric pairing didn't quite go, but I wanted to see if the fleece was a better feel:

The flannel definitely had a softer feel, while the fusible fleece had a stiffer feel but held it's shape a bit more firmly.  I couldn't say which one was better because I liked the feel and fall of each in different ways.

Any opinion?

Zippered Pouches

I learned how to sew zippered pouches from Linda, though you can find good tutorial here.

As I'm trying to get better at crafty sewing by doing it a lot, I experimented with various sizes, materials, and patterns:

Some didn't come out quite as I envisioned--the bigger ones I used stiffer craft interfacing but it was a touch too stiff and I think could use some cushioning as well--but I'm doing the work and getting there.

Drawstring bags

My girl plays viola and one of the most annoying things was that her shoulder rest wouldn't fit in the case.  So she was always carrying it separately in her backpack where I'd fear it'd get broken or a part would get lost (as it did on one occasion).

I followed this Kitty Baby Love tutorial and made her a drawstring bag (though I only used one cord instead of two) to hold and tether her shoulder rest to her viola case.  I used some of the leftover cute birdie material she used on her Reverse Applique project.  And ta-da!

The girl likes it as much as I do.  Kind of makes me want to kick myself that I waited this long to do it.  So I kind of went on a bender and made a few of these bags in different sizes--these I did the double cord as in the original tutorial:

Kind of lovely in their simplicity, right?  I figure these could be used to carry snacks in a car, corral some toys for travel, maybe to use as a mini-laundry or shoe bag in carry-on luggage? Any other ideas?