Fabric Baskets

 Sewing the squares together

 Attaching the linen bottom

 Attaching the batting

 Sewing up the sides

 Finished! Love the bright lining

 Eye candy

 So addicting I made another one

Things In Progress for the Etsy Store

Projects cut and laid out

Zakka inspired pouch

A pile of pincushions

Pincushions in all their glory

My Wristlet Experiment

So after reading like a hundred tutorials (not really, but it felt like it) I felt I was ready to experiment on making my own. Shout out to Ayumi over at http://ayumills.blogspot.com/ for providing such beautiful pics and instructions. You rock! The easiest part was making the strap. Took me like five minutes to sew it together.

Next came putting the pouch together. I had a moment of confusion when I was sewing the lining to the zipper as Ayumi had instructed, as usually I would make a zipper sandwich and sew the lining and the outer fabric together all in one shot. But who am I to question the awesomeness of Ayumi? So I pressed on.

After some fiddling around to line up the fabrics and make sure the strap was securely fastened to the bag, I finally got the entire thing stitched together.

Now it was time to "birth the bag". Trust me when I say this was the easiest birthing I ever had to do. Thankfully I wised up after making a few pouches and remembered to leave at least a 3-4" opening in the lining to do this magical act.

I then stitched the opening closed and tucked in the lining, making sure to poke the ends out with my trusty scissors. I love those scissors.

And here's the finished product. I'm so proud of myself. So much so that I will be making TONS of these.

InStyling

As I'm prepping for my Spring 2012! line, I decided to pick up a copy of the new InStyle magazine("the magazine choice of designers" so says Rachel Roy) and flip through for inspiration.

Now, this book is almost as thick, and weighs almost as much as a phone book, but so damn worth it. My eyeballs and brain were trying to process all the fabulous colours and things in it but after 20 minutes I had to take a break.
New rule for reading this magazine: Only read four pages every two hours.



Look at how thick this thing is:


Here are a few pages I ripped out and hung on the Inspiration Board:

It's been 2 hours since my last page so I'm off to go delight my senses in some more fashion editorial deliciousness.

Measure Here...Cut Down There

So for the past week or so I've been perfecting my pattern process in order to make the most fabulous purses mankind has ever seen (Read: My mother). But the reality of situation is that sometimes things that work out perfectly in your mind gets all warped when it hits the real world.
But I am pleased to report that after fiddling with the patterns I bought from this wonderful Etsy seller http://www.etsy.com/shop/whilebabynaps , and making a few purses (yet to be unveiled) I got up the courage to make my own pattern.

Here is one of the patterns I bought. It makes a coin purse. So cute!




And here is a peek into my pattern making process. My measuring tape got a workout. Thanks to Dev and Enrique for holding down my mental while I experimented with seam allowances and perfecting the shape for the rounded frame.




Now the true test is cutting out the pattern on fabric, sewing it up and fitting it into the round frame. Eeep!
If all goes well look out for a slew of those coin purses in my upcoming Etsy shop.
I'll keep you guys updated and post pics (good and bad)soon.

Purse of the Week

This week's handbag candy is brought to you by Banana Republic, the store I always say I'm going to shop at but never quite make the effort to go patronize. But this handbag just might be the extra push I need.

Meet the Karlie top-handle leather bag. This bag screams "sophisticated working woman", or in my case "working woman trying to look sophisticated".

The Karlie is 100% leather and designed with a top handle as well as a detachable shoulder strap. It's approximately 15 3/4" tall, and the handle drop is approximately 9"; shoulder strap length is approximately 15". It also comes with a protective dust bag included which in my opinion is a must have for all your bags for the sake of maintaining the bag's appearance and longevity.

Okay. Less talking, more showing. Check it out.





Priced at $220.00 I say it is completely worth it. It comes in cognac, camel(shown)and navy. Go get it girls!

My Fabric Obsession

So in anticipation of making cute coin purses and fabric clutches I went on a fabric shopping spree. And according to my accountant (the ATM receipt from the Chase Bank across the street) this is going to be my last spree for a while.
It's safe to say at this point that I'm officially a fabric junkie. Are there support groups for that?
Anyway, here are some pics of my stash.

One of my purchases came from a seller on Etsy (shout out to fivemonkeyfabrics!), whom I will be making more purchases from.

Here is what I bought:



So damn gorgeous!

Next I bought a collection (read: waaaaaay too many) from Contemporarycloth.com.
Here they are:













Lawd! I am ready to sew!

Stay tuned to see what I'll make with all these goodies. Hopefully they won't suck because that would just be an insult to the fabric...and my debit card.