Giveaway Friday!

Now is the time to comment on our blog to win your choice of the fabulous bags we have made this week. The only one we are not offering in the giveaway is the pillowcase backpack, because it is made of sentimental fabric. If you link to our blog, let us know in the comment section and we will put your name in twice!

I didn't have the heart to make the bamboo bags without my sewing buddy today, but I made 5 (gulp) Sandi Henderson Peasant Dresses today - one for a customer, one for Lilly, who immediately demanded one exactly like it, two made out of soft knit for nightgowns, and one for July 4th. I just have the shirring left to do tomorrow. I was petrified to try the shirring, but my customer really wanted this one dress, so I tried it....it was easy and fun! I used this great tutorial from Sandi Henderson. I highly recommend her patterns, even for someone new to sewing. Her directions are great, and her patterns are just so stinking cute. The apron knot dress above is an example of her designs.

And by the way, it is exactly...completely....half way til Christmas today. Get cracking!

More Pillowcase Love.........

What do you get when you slice a pillowcase up into wedgies?

THE SWEETEST SKIRT I'VE EVER SEEN!

Oh my goodness.....run, don't walk and see this awesome tutorial Rebecca (not my Rebecca) wrote over at Renaissance. And peruse her blog...I just found it today, and can tell it will be one of my favorite daily reads.

hmmm....it took one pillowcase to make a skirt for that itty bitty girl...wonder how many it would take to make one to fit me (and my 20 week belly)........

Purse Week - Day 5 Bamboo Handled Bag

Tomorrow I'm going to start on this Bamboo Handled Bag from Little Birdie Secrets
What a great website....spend some time browsing on her site...what a creative girl!

I'll be working on it all by my lonesome self tomorrow as my partner is Christmas Crime is going on the Lake Retreat with all her youth group friends. Sniff.

Don't forget to comment for our giveaway! We will draw names from all the comments this week and you'll get a chance to win your favorite purse. If you link to our blog on yours, and let us know, we'll put your name in twice!

We are nearing the end of the week....next week we will be making homemade bath products, so those of you who do not sew can participate.

Blessings, Lesli

Pillowcase Backpack Reveal!

Check out this bit of retro awesomeness, circa 1977. This was made from a pillowcase that was on my bed when I was a kid.

I love the pattern...it was really easy. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish. It's a very strong sturdy bag, because it's folded so that the fabric is doubled. I would love to make some more of these for all my kids, if I could only find some more pillowcases! I have one more blue and white striped pillowcase, and I think I'm going to applique something on it to make a backpack for Samuel...just didn't have time today.

This was a VERY SIMPLE bag...if you are nervous about getting started, this should be the first one you try.

Happy sewing!

Just a little extra pillowcase madness

Want more pillowcase fun? Here are some great patterns to get you started. Pillowcases are great Goodwill or garage sale finds. And even if you don't want to make anything, you can keep your eyes peeled for great vintage pillowcases and send them our way!

Bella Dia shows you how to make a great skirt to really showcase some vintage patterns here.

Betz White shows us how to make a really quick apron at her great blog.

Or, if you need something to wear, she'll show you how to make this cute shirt.

I know I just have to make one of these vintage pillowcase lunchboxes from Oh, Fransson ...SO CUTE!

Sew Butterfly at Cut Out + Keep made this great ruffle apron. I love anything with ruffles on it.

Even more fabulous ideas can be found at Craftzine

....................including boxer shorts, a nightie, little girl's dresses, a catnip quilt,

Who knew you could do so much with a pillowcase. I love free fabric.

Purse Week- Day 4 Pillowcase Backpack

Today we are heading over to Little Birdie Secrets to make some great EASY pillowcase bags. Rebecca has been dying to make these because she thinks they would be great swim bags. She has been riding her bike to swim team, and several times her bag has fallen off her shoulder and caught up in the spokes of her bike. These backpack straps would be much better for staying on the shoulders!

This will be our afternoon project today..........Come on, I KNOW you have an old pillowcase lying around......YOU CAN DO THIS! We picked up a pack of eyelets over at JoAnne's...no special tools needed...everything came right in the package. We are going to borrow some of Dad's nice white rope for the straps, I think, or raid the ribbon box.

I don't happen to have a pillowcase handy, so I'm going to stitch up my own from some fabric I've got in my stash. Meet you back here later to show you the results of our effort.

Blossie Bag Reveal!

Here is Rebecca's Blossie Bag, using Annamaria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop fabric. Rebecca says she envisions hers as a bible bag. She added a pencil pocket in the lining.

Here is my bag, using some fabric from a table runner I started, and never finished! I think I might have to fill it with some beach type goodies for a birthday gift for a friend.

Both of us benefited from my mom's compulsive ric rac buying in the 70's....she gave us her huge stash when she was here at Christmas, and it's awesome!

These bags were really easy, and the tutorial was great. It is really spot on, with no trouble spots. I thought my bag, which I made first, was a little too tall, so Rebecca shortened hers a little. It would be very easy to make this bag into whatever size you wanted it to be, just by changing the size of the rectangle you start with. The great thing about this bag, is that it can be made mostly from scraps, making it an economical bag to make. The largest piece you need is 18.5x11 for the lining. It required no purchase of any specialty items except for the interfacing. We used some VERY thick stiff fusible interfacing....it almost had the texture of felt. You could use batting in between the layers if you wanted a stiffer bag.

So.....has anyone made anything yet? Is everyone ready for Friday's giveaway? We'll be drawing names from the comment box for your favorite bag!

Purse Week - Day 3 The Blossie Bag

We are staying in Australia for one more day, to make a Blossie Bag with Bloom
Click on the link to see her fabulous tutorial. If you would like to put some pockets in the inside of your bag, she has a great pocket tutorial as well.

This is a great bag with lots of variations. What a great way to use up fabric scraps and odds and ends of trim.

I stayed up last night giving the tutorial a good read, and it looks very easy. I plan on using really stiff thick interfacing on mine so that it stands up nice. This would make a nice Bible bag, I think!

Happy sewing!

Pyramid Purse Reveal!

I'm going to run through the instructions and let you know where I hit a snag. You might want to print out the pattern and add notes to the steps as you go.

Step 2: Make sure you only iron on the fabric NOT the interfacing. Otherwise you will get a very puckery end product. Ask me how I know.

Step 18: The words OPEN THE ZIP are capitalized for a reason.

Step 21: This picture (image 24) did not work for me, and I sewed it completely wrong the first time. Look at the picture I've posted above. The red line represents where you should show. My "nick" label slipped up a little , but sew from one edge of the fabric to about 3/4 of the way across the lining side. Just don't sew across the metal part of the zipper, or else you might break three needles. Ask me how I know.

This is Rebecca's bag, lined with green. She opted not to put a handle on hers, but instead is planning a fancy beaded zipper pull when she can get to Michael's to buy more beads.

This was my first bag....Don't you just love cherries?

Here are our pyramid bags amongst our Egyptian people. They are very comfortable in their new houses.

Seriously, I love the way these turned out. I can't wait to fill the one with fall colors with a bag of candy corn or ginger cookies. They were really easy, once you figured out how to do your first one. I could have churned these out all day! Once I started going on them, I could probably make one in about 20 minutes. Rebecca and I made three in about an hour and a half. They are about 6 1/2 inches high finished.

Come on people, get crafting! Time is a wasting, and it's hot outside. Perfect time to git'er done!

Purse Week - Day 2 Pyramid Purse

Today we are going to hop on over to Australia to borrow a pattern from the lovely Nicole Mallalieu. She has many great patterns and supplies on her site....but today we are going to focus on her Pyramid Purse. This is an adorable lined zippered pouch in the shape of a pyramid. I made one today, just to make sure I could do it.......I have no spatial visualization and usually anything that isn't a very basic shape gives me fits!!! After a few tense moments and some quality time with the seam ripper, I figured it out, and will post some photos of the troublesome spots so that you can easily see what to do. Nicole's tutorial is great on it's own, and most of you will probably be able to follow it with little problem....I just require remedial help with the geometry part. I'm special that way.

Australians are extremely creative and there are some awesome patterns coming from that direction.......using the metric system. Sigh. Makes me wish I paid more attention in school....I was convinced it was just a passing fad. So I will do you the fabulous favor of converting the measurements for those of us using good old inches.

Zipper: pattern calls for a 10cm zipper. At Joanne's there was a 12cm and a 15cm (6inch)

I went with the 6 inch zipper.

Fabric: If you use the 6 inch zipper, you want to cut your fabric, lining, and interfacing in rectangles that are 12.5 x 7 inches. This worked perfectly with the 6 inch zipper.

This little purse would look so cute stuffed with nail polish and goodies, or some homemade candy.

Cost: Fabric 2.00

Zipper 1.49

Total: 3.49

Stay tuned to see our fabric choices and finished products!

Thanks Karen for the great idea. Don't forget to read the comments. sometimes people add the greatests twists on the bags! I loved the idea of making them out of screen fabric to make bug houses for little boys!

Buttercup Bag Reveal!!!

These are the fabrics we chose for our first bag. It only took two fat quarters. A fat quarter is piece of fabric that is 22 x 18 inches. They can usually be purchased for anywhere from 99 cents to 3.00 depending on your fabric. JoAnnes regularly puts them on sale for 99 cents. My favorite quilting shop http://www.georgiasewingandquilting.net/ has a wonderful back room that usually has a big basket of very high quality quilting fabric fat quarters for 99 cents.

Here is mom's bag made from some Sandy Henderson Farmer's Market fabric. Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, and made a fabric flower. I have attached a link for the tutorial below.

Here is Becca's bag. She decided to make a yo-yo for her embellishment. Here is a good tutorial at http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/photos/how_to_make_a_yoyo/index.html Heather Bailey's website on how to make one. They are quite easy, and fun to use to make flowers, headbands, and other goodies.

Here is a blurry photo of Becca's yo-yo. Perhaps when our blog is big and popular, we will have advertisers who will pay us enough money to buy ourselves a really fancy camera. Til then, we are blurry.

Here is a close up of my flower, made from the tutorial at Sew-ritzy-titzy. This was amazingly easy, and addicting to make. We used a fabric covered button in the middle. I attached it to the purse with a safety pin, making it removable if desired.

One handy tip: When I went looking for magnetic closure snaps at JoAnne's I first headed over to where the snaps are located. They had them for (gulp) 4.99 for ONE teensy snap. I then remembered that they had a purse parts section over in the crafts. I checked over there, and they had them for 3 closures for 1.99, which was way more in my price range.

Total cost per bag: 2.75

Time to make: 2 hours

We think these are a great gift....I'd especially love to make some up in Christmas fabric with a red flower.

Purse Week: Day 1 The Buttercup Bag

The most creative and talented Rae Hoekstra designed this bag, and generously posted her free pattern on her blog at www.madebyrae.blogspot.com We love it, and are going to spend this sultry afternoon making a couple. Care to join us? It only requires two fat quarters of fabric, a small scrap of heavyweight interfacing, a magnetic snap, and two buttons. Easy peasy, right? Meet us back here with your fabric! And bring me a diet Coke.

It's just too stinking hot.

When it is 100 degrees in the shade in the deep South, late June is a fabulous time to start fantasizing about Christmas. Being 5 months pregnant makes it seem even hotter, and given that the newest member of our family will join us shortly before the Christmas holiday, Rebecca and I decided to blog about our Christmas preparations. Our goal is to fill this blog with great creative ideas and tutorials, and hopefully inspire you to get moving toward a season filled with fun, family and friends, great gift ideas and lots of good food.

Each week we will have a different focus. We will be working on gifts, decorations, cards, service projects, meal planning, homeschooling ideas, devotions, and anything else that strikes our fancy. We are also going to be hosting some giveaways on a regular basis, so check in on us often!

So, because this blog is the brainchild of my daughter Rebecca, we are going to start off with some ideas for gifts that teenage girls would enjoy. We brainstormed and made quite a long list of ideas to keep us crafting through the heat!

This week we have christened "Purse Week".....................now that fabric purses seem to be all the rage, it's a great thing to make for a girl. It would even be better if you made one and stuffed it with gift cards, but I digress. If you receive one from us, it will be empty. Sorry. Babies are expensive. Maybe next year.