oh fransson

A Happy Accident

 

After months of keeping my thread in a plastic thread storage box and my bobbins in a separate bobbin storage box, I finally became completely fed up.  I was keeping both boxes, stacked, on my sewing machine table so, inevitably, the motion of the machine would cause the boxes to creep across the table and eventually fall to the ground.  Of course, neither lid was secure, so falling on the ground meant thread and bobbin spewed everywhere.  The other problem was that bobbins and thread were never together, which really frustrated me.

I had seen these cone racks at JoAnn earlier in the week and I figured I could use the longer spindle to keep thread and bobbin in the same place.  But of course I didn't measure and of course once I got them home, I found that the spindles were way too thick for the bobbin spools. 

Luckily, it all worked out for the best.  Because the cone racks are made to accommodate larger spools of thread, there's quite a bit of space between the spindles.  I just got out my tiniest drill bit and some picture hanging nails and placed a nail between each spindle, so the bobbins can hang next to the corresponding thread, like this . . .

 

. . . which is actually quite a bit more orderly than having the bobbin and thread on the same spindles would have been!  I've only sewed one project since completing the thread rack on Friday, but it seems to be working really well so far. 

Zippers: The Hip New Thing

I'm using this week's sewing spree in part to overcome my fear of zippers.  At this point (after 12 zip wristlets and 10 little zip bags) I think I can safely say that I'm now confident sewing zippers!

Here are some of the little zippies I made . . .

Amy Butler prints:

Tattoo and Tiger Stripe:

Funky Monkey:

Garden Gnome:

Sushi:

and Cupcakes:

Yay for zip bags!

Zippers and Birds and Quilted Satin

So, I know I've mentioned before how I am mildly obsessed with order.  (Amusing, actually, considering the current state of my workroom.)  I decided this week that I'd gather all of my bird fabrics and make a variation on the same project (zip wristlets) from each.  Surprisingly, I have 11 different bird fabrics.  I used nine, as follows:

Joel Dewberry Aviary (in both orange/brown and kiwi/pink)

Alexander Henry Birdseed (in both yellow/green and pink/red)

Kaufman Hot Couturier (in both mahogany and navy)

Moda Blossom (in both chocolate and kiwi)

Alexander Henry Tsukiyo Owl

I ended up using satin or dupioni silk for contrast strips on the front of each bag and for the entire back.  I machine quilted the back panels, like this:

and this:

And now I have a stack of similarly-themed wristlets for the shop!

 

Uber Mod

I had to restrain myself from putting some kind of embellishment on the outside of this bag, but the result is totally worth it.  I've had the houndstooth suiting for months, but just hadn't found a use for it yet.  I bought the yellow button at the same time as the houndstooth, thinking that I would find some bright yellow satin to use as lining.  Unfortunately, bright yellow satin proved impossible to find, so I had to go with cotton for the lining.

The bag has a simple rounded shape, which I love.  I think, and perhaps I'm wrong, that it looks very, very mod -- like some hip woman in the 1960's should have it.

I love this little pocket on the front!  It's just a small pocket -- about the size for cash or cards.  Fortunately, I had an elastic in the right color to match the lining and the button.

The strap lining really would have looked nice in satin, but I suppose the cotton is less likely to snag.  At any rate, the yellow looks super with the black and white.

Finally, it has a slip pocket inside make with Alexander Henry's Birdseed fabric (no I haven't run out yet!).

Vintage Kimono Bag

I love this bag!  It was inspired by a vintage kimono piece I bought on e-bay a few years ago, the scarf pattern from Denyse Schmidt Quilts, and my enduring love for red, pink and Maneki Neko.

The front is pieced from brown wool suiting and pieces of the kimono.  I had originally intended to piece it so that the kimono pattern continued uninterrupted across the front (if you look closely, you can see that the pattern on the three pieces on each side does "line up") but I ended up having to adjust to hide a stain on the kimono fabric. 

This was clearly not a high class kimono.  It's synthetic material, but the pattern and colors are just gorgeous.  It looks so great with the brown wool!

The back has a slip pocket -- about the size for a magazine and, of course, I couldn't resist putting a felt Maneki Neko on the back.  I used the same pattern I made for this bag, but did the embroidery on my machine and kept it much more simple.

The strap is what I consider to be the perfect length for this size bag.  It's long enough to hang comfortably under your arm -- even with a coat -- but not so long that it swings around.

The inside is silky pink satin with a slip pocket made from the kimono fabric.

I seriously considered keeping this bag for myself but, since I already have a Maneki Neko bag (and another vintage kimono piece) I decided to put it in the shop.

Viva Frida!

Here are some horrible photos of awesome zip bags!  A while ago, I bought Alexander Henry's Viva Frida Fabric on a whim.  I made this wristlet, which ended up being purchased by my friend Adria.  Since then, I've had several other people ask me to make more Frida bags.  Sooooo here's a start.

There's a zip wristlet:

A large zippy:

I covered that button with a monkey I cut out of the Frida's Garden fabric!

And a gusseted makeup bag:

All of them have quilted backs like this:

These went together surprisingly easily.  (I have to admit I had a fear of zippers and spent hours last weekend trying to perfect inserting them.)  Now I can't wait to make more!

Last Bag of the Day

Back when I made these bags, I had also made patchwork strips out of Joel Dewberry's Aviary fabric.  After weeks and weeks, I finally made them in to a bag!

This one has very pretty deep orange satin lining.

This picture didn't turn out as well as it could have.  I put a beanbag in it to weight down the bag and you can totally see the outline!  Oh well.  I'm happy with the bag.  Like the earlier ones, it has canvas and fusible fleece interfacing, which makes it really sturdy and able to hold its shape. 

At one point, I had a yard and a half of the Aviary birds fabric in brown and orange.  I still have quite a bit of the fabric but, since the birds are set kind of far apart from one another (and since I've cut most of the birds out!) most of what I have left is just branches.  I'm going to have to figure out what to do with just the branches.

More Birdseed

A few months ago, I bought two yards of this Alexander Henry Birdseed fabric with the intention of making a skirt.  I didn't end up making the skirt, but I've made what feels like a million other projects with it.  It goes really well with Moda's Building Blocks series and also with the gray wool I've used on this bag.

The design is based on a really great bag I had years ago that was stolen.  That bag was plain gray wool, but that wouldn't have been much fun to recreate.  So, of course, I've made it 500% busier and added some patchwork.   It's a very simple bag with a front pocket and cross-body strap.

I also can't seem to get enough of yo-yo brooches with covered buttons, so I've added one of those.  I used a bird looking in the opposite direction of the bird in the center of the block.

Here's a view of the top, which shows the front pocket and the magnetic closure.

I love the strap, and wish it had been easier to get a good picture of it.  The strap lining is made with  a long patchy strip that matches the block on the front pocket.

And then, on the back, I made a felt applique to match the design on the Birdseed fabric.   Because I already have another bag made in this same fabric combo, this one is now off to my Etsy Shop! 

Cute Little Bags

In taking pictures of my wristlets, I found I liked the look of them open, with the band around the middle, as well as, if not better than, when the bags were folded over and closed.  So, I used some wristlet cutouts and reconfigured them to make a few little handbags.

There's Sushi:

Mod Girls:

and Cupcakes:

They're all lined in satin, with interior pockets and button/loop closures at the top.  I made the handles out of what would have been the wristlet straps.  I'm afraid they may be a little too cutesy for some people's taste, but I put them in my Etsy Shop and we'll see what happens.

Jenny's Baby Shower: Game and Favors

Jenny's Baby Shower was on Sunday.  Above are the prizes for our one game, "Celebrity Baby Name Challenge."  We the organizers were dead set against any game that would have people a) measuring Jenny's belly, b) creating a spectacle of her ostensible inability to feed/clothe/diaper a fake baby, or c) playing any kind of BINGO, so we settled on Celebrity Baby Name Challenge.   (As an aside,  Bluebell Madonna?!?!  Geri Halliwell, are you kidding us with that?)

These little bags are made following Amy Karol's Artsy Clutch pattern.  The exterior is Moda Blossom and the interiors are dupioni silk.  The bags are filled with chocolate candies.

Here are the favors.  (Thank you, Amy, for the picture!)  They're also wrapped in Moda Blossom fabric.  The jar of peanuts was part of our scoring system for the game.  Jenny has been referring to her baby as "peanut," so we used peanuts to keep track of points.  The favors are votive candles and holders, onto which I etched a little bird and vine.

Glass etching is actually pretty easy.  I did it for the first time a couple of years ago, when I got married.  I needed something to indicate table numbers but hated the idea of having those paper cards sticking up, so I etched the table numbers onto the centerpiece vases.  All you do is put a piece of contact paper onto your glass and cut the design out with an x-acto knife.

I used this stuff for the etching.  It smells horrible, but washes away easily with water.  You just slather it on like this:

And then, once you rinse and peel off the masking, they look like this:

I wasn't as happy with these as I might have been, because, once the candle were in there, you couldn't actually see the etching very well.  If I ever do this again, I'm going to need to get darker candles.

In the end, I think everyone had an okay time.  The food Tasha and Amy made was WONDERFUL, and Jenny got lots of nice gifts.

We did a little craft project at the shower that I'll post about later.  (It's basically a little baby quilt that we made as a group, and which I now need to sew together.)