Building a Better Bag

Back at the end of May, I got a new bag for the Disney World trip upcoming in October. (Is it time to panic, yet? How about now?) I settled on a very steampunk-ish looking bag I found on Etsy.

I felt everything I would want to carry on a trip to a park would fit inside the bag. I loved the look and how a Dungeons and Dragons pin a friend sent me fit wonderfully on the cross-body strap.

I took the bag to the June Highland Festival I attended and, quickly, it became obvious this was NOT a bag which would be useful for Disney. I lost 2 of the 3 bottles on the front. I thought they were in their straps tightly. They weren't. I couldn't get a bottle of water in the bag, along with the phone charger. There are other things which need to be in the bag while I roam. I was rather disappointed.

So, I started looking around for another bag, a bigger bag. I'm inclined to think Disney has a listening device in my house because, at the end of June, they had a sale and, viola, there was a bigger bag.

Well, of course I'd buy one with the Cheshire cat on it.

How could I resist this? It's "leather", although I think it's the imitation kind. It's deep with interior pockets.

The pocket on the right doesn't close while the pocket on the left zips shut. Anything I might want to carry should easily fit in this bag. The only issue is that the straps are not cross-body. They are short enough to make the bag sit right under the armpit, but long enough that I could access the bag reasonably quickly. But, I really wanted cross-body functionality. My RA can make my shoulder muscles tense and even paring down what I need/want to carry, was going to mean the bag would weigh on my shoulders by the end of the day. The ability to keep my hands and arms free would make the vacation better. What to do?

A trip to JoAnn Fabrics provided a solution. The inside is lined with a heavy silk material. I bought a length of pink canvas trim. It's an inch wide. I got a little more than I needed because, at the time, I didn't have the bag to measure. Once I figured out the proper length for the bag to hang where I wanted it to, I pinned the edges to the liner and cut the trim.

Then, I hand stitched the trim to the liner.

The trim is attached at the liner side seams. I could feel the fabric of the seams and tried to stitch the trim into that seam for added support. It was the perfect day to sit on the deck and stitch. When finished this is the result.

I'll be able to sling this across my body, keeping my hands and arms free, but having access to the bag. The handles are kind of stiff and I'm going to have an issue with them popping out of the bag at first. But I think, with use, and being anchored by things inside the purse, they will stay down when I want to use this cross-body. Plus, the trim goes neatly into the bag if I don't want to mess with it.

I moved the D&D pin to this strap and added a couple more.

I'll be able to add more pins to the strap, although I'm not a pin collector as such. My friend, Liz, sent me a link to all the exclusive souvenirs offered during the Food and Wine Festival and the Halloween party. There are pins. I will need to get pins for the strap.

After Disney, I can see this being a shopping tote for me. I'm going to keep the steampunk bag and try to find replacement bottles for the front. In some situations, the steampunk bag will be nice. It just doesn't work as I thought it would, for the Disney vacation.

Beverage:  Coca-Cola

Deb

Sewing

I'm "blaming" my friend, Meredith Carney, for a spur-of-the moment purchase at the beginning of the month. In case you don't know, the movie "Despicable Me 3" is now in movie theaters. The minions are back and with them, product tie-ins, of course. She was shopping at Wal*Mart, a place I won't go, and sent me photos of some minion clothing. "Hmmmm," thinks I. "Is there minion fabric?" Well duh.

JoAnn Fabrics might have just a few choices. There are also some prints available online only, but I need to see the fabric to decide what print to get and then, what to make of said print.

Yes, yes. I know what's going through your head. We will not talk about the boxes of fabric in the closet. We will agree to just nod in that general direction. Look! Minions! I did not have to go to JoAnn Fabrics for anything. I went because of minions and Meredith showing me clothing at Wal*Mart. What's the aphorism? "I can resist anything except temptation"?

I came home with these.

The Disney World trip is less than 100 days away now. I was going to do something crazy and make capes for all the guild members, and family members, attending the event. But, about April, I realized I'd bitten off way more than I could chew so I abandoned that before I spent $$$ on fabric I won't get fashioned into things. But I could get a shirt done before October.

I opted to buy a new pattern. I usually don't buy Vogue patterns because they assume you are more than an intermediate sewer, but I like this one and it's fairly simple. I'm going to make the shirt at the lower right corner. It's two fabrics. I will make a mostly yellow with a white block and then a mostly white with a yellow block. The shirt has a 9 inch zipper in the front to facilitate putting it on. It's stitched in the "invisible zipper" style, something I haven't done in a very long time. We'll see. Since this is a strictly humorous shirt, I don't, necessarily, care if it's visible or invisible. The zipper is not the point of the shirt.

I get these home and feel the desire to sew rising. In order to do that, I had to clear a path to the ironing board and deal with the stuff I had stacked on the ironing board. Then, I've spent the last week clearing off the kitchen table. I'm so bad about just dropping stuff there in the "I'll deal with it later" mode, and there it sits. The urge to just move stuff to another pile was strong, but I resisted and actually cleared off the table, putting things away, dealing with them.

In the process of cleaning, I found the pieces to a lightweight jacket I was going to make last year, to wear to Carole's for my birthday.

(There's the cape pattern I bought. Not sure what I'll do with it now, but you never know when a pattern will come in handy.)

The jacket is not complicated.

I cut out the pattern back in early October of last year.

And then it sat. I got busy and just lost the desire to work on it, even with a self-imposed deadline. When the table was cleared and all the pieces liberated, I felt like I couldn't sew the two shirts without finishing this jacket. I didn't have, handy, thread matching the pink. I have, instead, a dark mauve-ish color which actually works better. One day's worth of sewing and viola.

The next step is to prepare the trim. I'm using a black satin for the trim around the jacket and sleeves. I bought more interfacing for the shirts, which was a good thing because it appears I never cut interfacing for the trim. But I got to thinking. I haven't sewn satin in years and I have concerns about fusing interfacing to satin. Would the iron leave marks as I was fusing? Asking my seamstress friends, they said to use sew-in interfacing because satin will pucker with fusible. Hadn't thought about puckering. The next issue is, do I have enough non-fusible interfacing? I haven't a clue, so I will have to find the box with the interfacing, and, tonight, take a look. At least there is still a sale at JoAnn's so if I need interfacing, it will be on sale. I don't use non-fusible if I can help it, but I know I have a stash, just how much is the question.

So, here we go. Once the interfacing issue is resolved, this will go together very quickly. Then I can work on the minion shirts. Sewing makes me feel good. Finishing projects makes me feel double good. It's win/win. And, my "helper" likes to supervise when I sit in the recliner as I pin seams.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

No Way

In the post below this, I mentioned having to go to JoAnn Fabrics and coming away with more than I expected. That "discretionary", "spontaneous" spending will get your budget in the $$. And yet, some things are very hard to resist.

I had to walk past the Halloween decorations to get to the cutting table. I passed by this aisle and these decorations caught my eye.

There was a whole section of skeletons of you name it. These are mice with an owl at the far right and small human skeletons at the upper right corner.

This one is hard to see because it was black against a dark purplish black background.

It's a cat skeleton in the arched back position. This got to me and I had to leave the area. I guess because I adore my cats and have been owned by a number of cats, it struck me as creepy to see this. Someone else, even a fellow cat lover, might not have such a visceral reaction. The object is black, Deb, it's not real. It's anatomically correct, to be sure, but it needs to be, to be effective as an object. It's okay.

One of the things which bothered me, in hindsight, is there were no dog skeletons. There was a small triceratops skeleton, at $49.99, but no dogs. I guess it's a cats solitary nature which evokes the strange. Plus, they hiss and spit when agitated and that's clearly perfect for Halloween. Here's a great article on how the solitary nature of cats adapted to humans. We didn't domesticate them. They agreed to live with us.

This is not something I would ever have in my possessions, but a cat lover friend does have one. She puts a hat and a bow on it. Halloween is closing in on Christmas for most decorated holiday. I just need to remember not to go down this aisle next year.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Can't Go Alone

I had to go to JoAnn Fabrics in early October for some craft thing. I don't remember why I had them on my errand list. It's dangerous for me to walk in there. It ranks with bookstores as places I shouldn't go unaccompanied because the allure of things other than what I came for is so strong.

Of course I came out with more than I went in.

It was Halloween and so much was on sale. I bought the superhero pattern because I have this great idea, assuming I have the time to pull it off. At least I have the pattern. As I walked through the store, the cat print caught my eye. I had to have it. Yes, yes, I know. I have 6 boxes in the office closet which contain fabric. Couldn't I use those if I wanted to sew? But...but...black cats!

It took awhile to find just the right pattern to utilize the fabric. I've settled on a kimono-style jacket. It will be trimmed with black satin. It should go together fairly quickly.

Step one was to clear off the kitchen table and get the cutting board out of the closet. When I pulled out the board, which is little more than heavy cardboard, I noticed a stinkbug. It was a nice day, so I took the board outside to flick the bug into the yard. I opened up the board and, oh lordy.

There are 6 bugs plus a spider egg nest. Ultimately, I flicked a dozen bugs into the back yard. Since fixing the humidifier and fan on the furnace, I've had stink bugs all over the living room. I've sort of come to accept they are in the walls and crevices of the house. I'm always going to find them. The best I can do is flush 'em when I see them. The cats play with them on occasion, but they have learned, very quickly, these things are not for snacks.

I haven't sewn much around these cats, but I remember the previous ones.

Tissue paper patterns were "the cat's meow". You could almost see them salivating about jumping onto the pattern and playing. These kids aren't that interested in the pattern paper. I'm very okay with that.

Usually, I wash a fabric hunk before cutting, to remove any sizing and make the fabric shrink, if it's going to. But I wanted to cut this out right away so I skipped that step. This is so awesome. I just love the pattern of the cats.

I opened the back door to let in the sunshine and the warm October breeze and started cutting. I've said before, if I could get someone to do this step; pin and cut out; I'd probably go through all my fabric in those boxes. It would all be used. I really dislike this stage.

And this is as far as I've gotten. October got really busy and I wound up tabling this project. It sits on top of the sewing box on the kitchen table. It's been surrounded by boxes for recycling and mailing. I'm working on my current cross-stitch project, which I need to post here so you can see that progress. This is typical Sagittarius. Our lives are filled with started projects. When we actually get something done, we are as amazed as our friends and family are. Must clean off kitchen table.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

There Was Only One Done

Only one cross-stitch was completed last year, although I did start another which will be the subject of an upcoming post. The guy who maintains my World of Warcraft guild's web site married his long-time girlfriend on a hot June evening. I started the project in January on DMC's "Stardust" cross-stitch fabric. (To long-time readers, some of these photos will be familiar.)

I love this fabric. Glitter is embedded in the fabric so, with the right pattern, it adds a sparkle.

Over the next few months, I worked one week on the cross-stitch and one week reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. (I'm half-way through, which is going to be the subject of several upcoming posts.)

I knew exactly what I was going to do for them.

They needed a hand-made wedding sampler.

I had the pattern.

In fact, I'd made this pattern before.

I had to rip out the dark circle because I miscounted. Ripping out leaves such a bad taste in your mouth. You feel so inadequate. "I can't count!"

By day 10 of stitching, and, mind you, I don't stitch every day, even when I block off the time, the image was done and it was time to plan the writing.

I was doing really well, because this HAD to be at Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts to be framed, by Mother's Day. That would give them a good month to get it done.

The wedding was at the end of June and, if I didn't like the finished result, there was time to make it right.

This is the unwashed and unframed but finished piece.

Yes, this is the same motto I made for Carole and Larry when they were married in March of 2015. For them, I gave them the washed and blocked, but unframed piece because they were going to be moving and they could then frame it to match their decor. I did their piece on black cloth, with white lettering. They have it framed in cream and, when you come in the front door, it's above the credenza where it's one of the first things you see when you walk in. The frame is almost the same color as the walls so the effect is one of seeing only the sampler and not the frame. It really came out well.

James is a huge Star Wars fan; Jill, not so much. I knew James when he was merely interested in this gal named "Jill". So, I really made the sampler more for him than her, but she's a crafter and I knew she would appreciate the time put into the creation of something unique for them.

I've said it before and I'll reiterate it. Debbie at Jo-Ann Fabrics in Bloomingdale is wonderful. She came up with the idea to double mat the piece.

That's a dark gray with a silver "marble-ize" mat under a black frame. I knew I wanted the black frame but wasn't sure about the other pieces. Here's how it turned out.

I get stuff framed and it looks so good, I almost don't want to give it away.

The pattern has been retired, officially. I tossed it in the recycling container. I'm not making this again for anyone. You can find it on Pinterest. I don't know that my not making it again gives the two pieces any additional value. I don't have a cult following and I don't cross-stitch all the time, as some crafters do. I just decided, for my son-in-law and James, who both love Star Wars, this was the perfect gift to commemorate their marriages.

Working every other week, alternating with reading a book, worked very well. I'm back to doing that with my next cross-stitch piece which does not have a wedding attached to it, which is good because I'm kind of meandering about finishing it.

Beverage: La Croix Berry Seltzer

Deb

Got Me

I'm working on a long-term project. I won't start in earnest until the after-Christmas sales, but we'll say it involves a Halloween costume pattern and fabric. As Halloween patterns are on sale right now PLUS I had coupons, I entered JoAnn Fabrics last Sunday with the blinders on to get one pattern and one pattern only.

Yeah, that didn't go so well.

The cat print was on the end of a row of splashy Halloween fabric. The way this particular store is laid out, you're going to see brightly colored, distinctive fabrics when you walk in. In the store where I take my stuff to be framed, I would not have seen this, but I wasn't going all the way up there for a pattern, when I knew my local JoAnn's would have it.

I resisted for about 10 minutes. I actually had to pull up the costume pattern and look at it, to make sure it will do what I need to have done. And then I started paging through the Simplicity book, looking at shirts. I have an ancient camp shirt pattern which I've used for a wide variety of shirts, but I had no idea how much material it took and there was nothing like it in any of the books. There was one shirt I liked mainly because of the location of the pockets. But the variation I really wanted, long torso and elbow-length sleeves, did not have a fabric amount on the back. I'm no good at estimating the amount of fabric needed. Here was this kimono-themed jacket. It's not lined and it's reasonably simple to assemble. There was a variation for contrasting trim. I liked the look of the pattern.

Now, Pam was not around to talk me out of this purchase. I was running errands on this date; groceries, Target, JoAnn, cat food. Probably, both the pattern and the fabric will be around at the end of December, but I could make this and have it for my trip to Virginia at the end of November. I'm going to do the contrasting trim in black satin. I almost bought blanket edging, instead of the satin, but I wasn't sure how it would work around the neck. The pattern piece is curved to accommodate the neck line. Blanket satin is not.

So, I am testament to the power of putting eye-catching items on the end of a row. The gal helping me liked this material as much as I did. I could see this as a vest with a quilted lining, since you can buy quilted fabric now. Add a gold shirt and a bow tie, topping the look off with a top hat and a cane, and you have a Halloween costume. I'd probably wear the vest year-round.

I need to make room on the table in the living room to cut this out and get it made. We won't talk about the boxes of fabric in the closet.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Last Shirt

I cut out and started stitching the last of the three shirts for BlizzCon.

It's hard to believe that it's T-23 days and counting. I'm starting to think of the clothes I want to bring along and are they clean, particularly the shirts. As I don't do wash but once a week now, I have to actually plan for things instead of just what happens to be next in the closet.

I had purchased all the fabric on the bolt, when I was at JoAnn's. This was to give me a cushion, in case I screwed something up. As it turns out, I needed the cushion just to cut the pattern. Not exactly sure how I miscalculated, but I wound up needing all of the length. I do have a chunk near the end which wasn't big enough for anything. I just set it aside in the scrap box. Some day...

It was intriguing to see how the cardboard bolts are fashioned now.

After determining that I'd take the whole thing, the gal at JoAnn's simply rolled the fabric back on the bolt and gave me the whole thing. I unrolled the rest of the fabric and discovered the bolt is just folded cardboard. I remember when this was a fairly sturdy rectangle. Maybe that's still true for some fabrics, but, for this one, it wasn't. This is, actually, easier to add to the recycling bin.

Now that I'm on the third shirt, it's going together rather quickly. The hard part is the collar and front facing. Once that is done, it's a piece of cake to finish. BlizzCon, here we come.

Beverage:  English Breakfast Tea

Deb

Want a Little Star Wars?

I missed the point, I think, of Force Friday on September 4th. It seems a lot of Star Wars merchandise was released to the public. Other than obtaining for gifts, the whole hype of the day was lost on me. I did have to go back to JoAnn to pick up some supplies for the shirts and what I saw interests me. Look at the fabric.

The above and below is cotton material.

If you'd like something else, they had fleece in all sorts of prints.

Camelot Fabrics, whose link to their blog you can find to the right, is the designer of all of this.

In my mind's eye, as I perused the bolts, I could see pjs and robes and curtains and quilts and shirts, lots and lots of shirts.

No, I did not come home with a bunch of fabric. I have way more than I can use at any given time, but the sheer amount of Star Wars-themed fabric set my heart aflutter with possibilities. I'm sensing there will be a lot of Star Wars clothing coming at Christmas.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Pieces

One shirt is cut.

I'm going to be doing some special stitching on the pockets and then I had a brilliant idea but that required a trip to JoAnn. This will be so cool when it's done, at least, in my mind's eye, I think it will look cool.

Beverage:  Dunkin' Donuts tea

Deb

The Next Project

Having finished Carole's butterfly cross-stitch and left it with her to decide how she wants to frame it, it's time to look ahead to the next project. I'm going to a convention in November; BlizzCon 2015; in Anaheim, California. It's a celebration of all the games Blizzard Entertainment does, but it's kind of akin to mecca for those of us who play World of Warcraft. It's everyone's hope they can go to BlizzCon. I skrimped and saved and, thanks to a friend with impossibly good luck, I got a ticket to go.

I'm going with Faience and Lethia, from my guild. We got a fantastic deal on a hotel room and, while I'm out there, I'll be going to Disneyland. It's just down the street from the convention center so why should I not go? I need to buy airfare and pay for tickets to Disneyland as well as my portion of the hotel. I'm considering a used ipad so I can update my blog and the guild web site with photos. Doing all that on a smartphone drives me nuts so I only check email.

When I decided I could afford a BlizzCon ticket and Lethia decided she could to, I promised, if we got tickets, the three of us, I'd make custom shirts for the convention. On August 1st, Pam and I went to JoAnn Fabrics, to make this plan a reality. I love having her along. We looked through all the patterns. I knew what I wanted but we needed to find the exact pattern. I told her my vision and we dived into the fabric stacks to find the perfect fabric. I need to have her along. So...many...wonderful...fabrics...oh look! "No, that's not what you came here for," she'd say. She is, of course, right. I have boxes and boxes of fabric in the office closet not being used for anything. I need to be reminded of that. I shouldn't say not being used for anything. The girls love to climb on top of the stack and sit there. It's like a hidey hole to them.

Along the way to the perfect fabric, I stumbled upon these gems.

That's a silver metallic in between kelly green stripes. It was quite distinctive but as the basis for a shirt, not so much.

It comes in black and red. As I was looking through the patterns, I chanced upon what I think is a "Game of Thrones" inspired dress that was made with the black version of this. I did seriously consider making us vests, since that would be kind of WOW character like. In the game, your character can wear leather clothing. As appealing as this was, it wasn't what I wanted.

No no and no, but it so reminded me of the curtains in the porch/dining room of the farmhouse where I grew up. The nostalgia washed over me and I thought about my mother making those curtains. They hung in the porch until we moved to town. I know I have some of them in a box somewhere, the fabric useful for quilt pieces.

By now, I'm sure you're detecting a theme here. I stumbled across this.

I just...I have no idea how I would work with this even if it was even remotely attractive. I know retro is in. This certainly bears some resemblance to 1960's fashion and in light seafoam green no less.

Finally, I found it.

It's an Indonesian batik-inspired print. It looks gorgeous in sunlight. I want us to be distinctive but a tee shirt just wasn't going to cut it. I think this will work up beautifully and it's cotton, so it will wash and dry nicely. I came home all excited and then got sick.

I looked at the material sitting on the table and felt so badly that I had no energy. I spent all this money and made this promise. Now that I'm feeling better, my goal has been to clear off the living room table so I can start sewing. I could just move everything there to another space, but that kind of defeats the purpose of cleaning. Baby steps. Baby steps.

Watch this space. I'm excited to execute my idea.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Framed

Remember the minion poster I had all my guild members sign who attended the meet-up last month?

I finally framed it and put it on the wall. First step was deciding exactly where I wanted it. I have a poster from the "Who Framed Mr. Burns" The Simpsons' episode. It was in TV Guide, back when that was still an extremely popular magazine. A friend kept the poster and gave it to me. It hangs in the hallway in the house above a plaque reading, "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup." I had considered moving The Simpsons poster to a different wall and putting the minion one in its place. But this is bigger than The Simpsons one and would require a readjustment of the plaque and new holes and an eventual repainting and I didn't want to mess with that.

Then, as I was leaving for work one day, I remembered how I wanted to repaint the back entry.

My kitchen has been yellow since Carole was little. The apples were added a year after the kitchen was painted. I thought one of my goals would be to repaint this space a lighter, brighter yellow, a more Minion yellow. The door frame and the back of the back door would be painted yellow. The ceiling would be painted yellow and I'd paint over the apples and put strategic minions around the space. And the old, very old, cork board, which is really just a catch all for paper junk, would go. Tell me that's inviting. I double-dip dare you. It just looks junky and I never use anything stored on the board. Time to give it away.

So Pam and I found a frame at JoAnn Fabric that I felt would work. It more than worked. Look at the space now.

What a difference a piece of art makes. I almost don't need to repaint the walls as the color complements the poster. I still think I'd like a coat of a lighter yellow just because it would give the space a fresh feeling to it. But there is not the feeling that painting HAS to be done now, you know. I can still paint through October and leave the door open so the space can breathe, if I get better and have my energy back. The cork board went to a local Veteran's group that takes donations. Someone will be happy with it.

Now, whenever I leave the house via the back door, I smile. I will stop and read the names of guild members on the poster. It makes me happy and that's what spaces in your house should do, make you happy.

Beverage:  Water

Deb