More bags. And a hot/cold pack.

With all of my items selling, I'm running low on inventory! This is a good problem, although, I'm not sure I can keep up with it. Not to mention, someone stole all the time out of my life. If it was you, please give it back. Maybe the 23 pound bundle that's crawling around my house that refuses to nap is to blame.... nahhhh.

So a few nights ago, I was able to bust out a few bags. Luckily, the Christmas gift bags are a quick make. I tried something new with one of them, too. My mom suggested making these drawstring bags with some extra fabric on top, to have some ruffly business. So I made one drawstring bag the way I'd made them before, and one with a ruffle. The ruffle turned out very well, although the overall shape of the finished bag is a little odd. Kinda wide and short. However, it turns out to be the perfect size for a pair of shoes!

Peekaboo!

I was also able to complete a special project for a friend, Cristine. She asked me if I could make anything other than bags, since she's a self proclaimed bag lady already. I didn't know if I could make anything other than a bag, but what the hay, why not give it a shot! Since my poor friend has constant aches and pains, we concurred on a hot/cold pack. This pattern was found in my fantabulous book, One Yard Wonders. The whole thing was made from just one yard of fabric, with just scraps left over!

The pattern confused me a time or two, and I had to reread several things several times, kinda like those word math problems in school. And I must admit, I attached one of the ties on the wrong way. Then I "saw" it. In my mind. Sometimes it takes a few tries for it to really click in my head. Makes me feel dumb, but I usually get it in the end.

Anyhow, I used this gorgeous black and white floral fabric.

The whole idea with this pack is that you can tie it onto yourself and go about your business without being constrained to the couch or bed or chair or ... floor?

There is an envelope type thingy with two wide ties on the edges. (Your favorite sentence, right there.)

Inside the envelope, you put the actual hot/cold pack.

The hot/cold pack was made by sewing a bag, basically, then sewing eight channels in the bag. Then each channel is filled with rice and (tricky part) sewn shut. The sewing shut wasn't as tricky as I thought it would be, actually. I thought there would be rice everywhere. But alas, there were only a few escapees.

Here I am modeling the creation. Can I just say, it's quite difficult to take a picture of your own back?? Yeah. But I think I might need to make one for myself! It's super comfy. Since the ties are so wide, they don't cut into your stomach or sides. And the rice conforms to the shape of your back. Quite luxurious, really. You know you want one.

And then. There's the crazy bag. So back when I sold all those grocery bags, I was all in a tizzy, cutting fabric at warp speed and all, and I ended up cutting some of the green tree fabric sideways for the front panels, which was not my intention. The side panels I'm not so worried about, but I want the front panels to be the right way up. AND. I had two side panels worth of the brown nature fabric, but not enough to make a whole bag. THEN. I just have a bunch of the zebra print fabric. I thought: Why not just put them all together and make some acid trip bag? (Side note: I don't do acid, Mom.)  And this is what I came up with:

Not nearly as messy as I was hoping for. I actually kinda like it. Gah. To top it off, I sewed it together with hot pink thread. Just to be extra annoying. Not only do I not find it annoying, I think this is one the best bags I've made, workmanship-wise.

Now, something fun for this material...
I'll probably just make another bag. *sigh* I have so many more ideas! I'm a little afraid of branching out...taking that step... I just have to try something ELSE!

Sold!

So maybe I'm not the best at this blogging thing. I'm not very consistent.

Oh well!

I had my first two REAL sales on Etsy! The first was for FIVE grocery bags -- custom order. A lady in New York wanted two of the green tree and three of the brown nature bags to give to her mom for Christmas.

"Sweet!" I thought. "I already have two green tree bags made, I just need to make the three brown bags!"

Then I went to cut the fabric.

There was not enough for three bags. Only two.

"No biggie. I'll just go to JoAnn and pick some more up."

Right.

Four JoAnn's, one Hancock Fabrics, one Beverly's later, lots of online searching and phone calls, and no luck. Apparently, this is a very popular fabric. One fabric cutter lady at JoAnn (I don't remember which one - maybe in Fremont?) told me that a lady had come in earlier that day and bought the whole stinkin' bolt. Grr. Couldn'ta left ONE yard?

But I digress.

My customer was very understanding with the whole ordeal and agreed to two brown bags and three green bags.

Throw into the mix of that fiasco another order for two green tree grocery bags, and you've got one frazzled lady! I had made a custom order listing for the first order, not thinking to take off the original listing, making it look like I had two bags just a-waitin' to be shipped. Since I was short the brown nature fabric and wasn't going to be able to ship the first order until I'd found it, I went ahead and shipped my first two bags to the second order-er. I was still ahead of schedule on the first order's shipment once I finally did get it out.

Anyhow, all in all, I made my first real money on my first real orders from real people that I don't even know!

I took pictures of the finished package, but for some reason, I can't find them. I'll blame Cody. :) For now.

Off to rescue a crying baby!

French seams and such

I must apologize (again, I know) for my last blog. It was very poorly written, boring, and it didn't show how I did anything. I'm making the excuse that it was very late in the evening after I got a very fussy Ava to sleep, finally.

Anyhoo, I'd like to show you what I meant by "french seams" and give the step by step of my Christmas bag making. Of which, I'm still incredibly proud. My birthday books are coming in quite useful!

So here's the play by play:

I started with a hunk of fabric. Obviously.

First thing I did was sew the corners in for the drawstring hole openings.

Then I made dinner and forgot I was taking pictures of the play by play. Heh. Anyhow, the next step was to make the casing. Look at me, using technical terms! I might have called it a tube before my handy dandy sewing books.

Then, I clipped the fabric that was not part of the casing away from...the...casing. I don't know how to describe what I did, that's why I took pictures!

Then, with right sides out, I folded the fabric in half, matching up the casings, and sewed up both sides. Yes. Right side out. That's the whole secret of a french seam.

Then, I turned the whole shebang inside out...

...and sewed right next to the seams that were sewn while it was right side out. So now the side seams look finished inside AND out!

Next came the gussets.

With the bag still inside out, I spread the corner open (how to describe this...), measured in an inch on my nifty cutting mat...

marked a line...

and viola! A gusset! Should I be trimming the excess fabric? I haven't been because that would create some raw edges in the bag, and I don't want that.

Here's what it looks like once you flip it right side out.

Here's a lovely shot of the inside french seam at the casing opening.

Next came the drawstring. I used a safety pin on my b-e-a-youtiful gold ropey stuff, guiding in through the casing.

Bada-bing...

Bada-boom.
Tie 'er in a knot, and it's all finished!

So pretty!

The obligatory candle-lit photos...

So there. I feel much better now. I hope to write better blogs in the future, really documenting my plights.

And HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! I hope you have some quality time with loved ones. :)

Christmas is coming!

I made a trip to JoAnn yesterday, and I spent way too much time there. Therefore, I spent way too much money there. But hopefully the things I got will be purchased before too long! One thing I don't want purchased, though, is this fantastic cutting mat. This has already made a huge difference in my measuring and preciseness. It definitely speeds up the process. I got a small one because they're expensive! Whoa!

I also got this white webbing to make my grocery bags quicker and easier to make. This bag was made for my mom - she wanted longer straps and somewhat different dimensions. This is the best bag I've made yet! Well, until you see what I made next...

A Christmas bag! I saw this fabric and just had to have it. It's so pretty! You might not be able to tell so well from the photo, but some of the snowflakes are gold.

After washing the material, I ironed it and set to work making a reusable drawstring Christmas bag. It's super simple, and very satisfying. I decided to try my hand at a french seam, which closes off all raw edges, and I was successful! I was afraid I would screw it up and have some edges showing, but that didn't happen!  I'm pretty proud of this bag. So proud, I made two!

Cody wanted to get fancy with the camera, so I let him have at it. These pictures are what he ended up with. He even went outside and found some freshly fallen leaves from our front yard. We put one of Ava's stuffed animals in the bag. :)

Well, I must say, I took the last photo. I wanted to show the detail of the gusset (I didn't know what a gusset was a week ago). Isn't it pretty?

I went to JoAnn again today. Heh. I got more drawstring material, this time a gold rope instead of the satiny one I used on this bag. And three more yards of fabric. Different ones, but I have the same plans for them. Christmas bags! They're eco-friendly, as they're reusable, and they make Christmas wrapping super quick and easy. I plan on making some different sizes, too.

Maybe I should try to make something other than bags...

I did it!

Welp! I opened my Etsy shop! I'm excited, scared, happy, scared, hopeful....scared.

Scared that I won't sell anything.

Scared that I'll sell too much and won't be able to keep up with the demand (ha!).

Scared that I need a business license and I don't know how to do that. Do I? Do you have an Etsy shop? Do you have a business license? How do you do that? Is it bad that I already opened my shop without a business license? What about a seller permit?

Ugh. I haven't had heartburn since I was nine months pregnant. And now. NOW I have it, thinking about all of the yucky parts of selling my little craftinesses.

But I'm excited to learn about this new venture, all the ins and outs of it. Happy to maybe make a contribution to the household income. Hopeful to make a significant chunk of change.

Oh! Almost forgot: here's the link!

Bags bags bags!

My apologies for being MIA for a couple of weeks, I've been busy! Cody and I both had birthdays, and then the in-laws from Oooooooooklahoma were staying with us for four days. Ergo, the blog was definitely on the back burner. As a consolation, here's a picture of the world's cutest zebra.

But dudes! Check out the spoils from my birthday!

First of all, I woke up to this:

Good job, my man.

Then I was surprised with a visit to the Oakland Zoo, then dinner at P.F. Chang's while my sister watched Ava. What a lovely day!

All of my gifts were sewing related, woohoo! Check it out:

This ArtBin holds so much! My sister, Erin, got this for me. Mom and Dad got me most of the toys and tools you see in it, including some elastic, velcro, pins, a tape measure, a fabric marker, some tracing paper, and a tracing tool.

Cody got me One Yard Wonders, which, I want to make everything in it. SOOooo many cute things. Erin got me Sewing 101. This book looks like it's going to help me a lot with technical terms and doing things correctly. Heh.

Mom and Dad also got me this cute pincushion from China Town in San Francisco.

Okay, and these Gingher dressmaker's shears and embroidery scissors. I mean, I don't know what planet these things are from, but they cut through fabric and thread like a hot knife through butter. And they're so pretty. And sharp. So sharp, that they come with sheaths! I'm a little bit afraid of them. But I know what I'm grabbing if someone breaks into my house!

So before the in-laws arrived, I was able to crack out a few bags. When I went to JoAnn, I found two other patterns in this crazy weird fabric that's perfect for grocery bags. So of course, I had to buy two yards of each. Plus two more yards of the original pattern. (Sorry Cody.) This fabric, by the way, is called olefin. From what I gathered from Wikipedia, it's a polymer that's used to make wallpaper, rope, and vehicle interiors. You can put it in the washer and line dry it, apparently, but I haven't tried that yet. It's also supposed to be recyclable, bonus!

Anyhow, look how cute this little zebra print tote is! It's currently holding some of Ava's toys, but I also used it to carry my Bible study stuff last week. Perfect!

The next two bags were made for my very first customer! (Thanks monkey mamma!) They're both about twice as wide as my previous grocery bags. I made the handles a bit wider, and on the brown one, I put some velcro tabs on the top corners of the side panels to help tame the extra fabric. Overall, I'm getting pretty good at making these bags, I think. I think I'd like to get some different material for the handles, though. Some flat rope of some sort, maybe. I'm thinking white would work best with all of these patterns, BUT, who wants white handles on a bag to get all grubby? Hm...

In other news, I registered on Etsy. I haven't posted a listing yet, though. There are still a few things I need to figure out. Like how to rotate the picture of the item. And what picture to put as my banner. And how elaborate a description of me I want on there. Things like that. But hopefully I'll have some thing listed in the next week or two. I need to make some more things, too, so I don't have just one thing in my store. Right? Or can I have just one thing in my store? I dunno.

Reusable grocery bag

I don't know about the rules where you live, but here in San Jose, if you don't bring your own bags to the store, you have to pay for a paper bag. Plastic isn't even an option anymore (yay!). So, to save roughly 10 cents per bag, we use our trusty old Trader Joe's bags. (We haven't even shopped there in years...) And our Kaiser bags. And REI bag. And NOW, our homemade bag. What whaaaaaat. Yeah, I made a bag, and, I gotta say, it's stinkin' cute. And I'm really proud of it. (Just wait, next week the bottom's gonna bust out and I'll be crying over broken eggs.)

When I saw the material at the store, I knew I had to get it and make a grocery bag out of it. I'm pretty sure that's what it's made for. I don't even know what it's made out of. It seems a little like a paper/plastic composite. Kinda all weathery. And cute!

So I can't take all of the credit on the design, but I didn't necessarily follow a pattern. I gathered ideas from here - which, her idea of recycling plastic bags is awesome! And I must admit, her bags end up being way cuter than mine.

To get the size bag I wanted, I traced good ol' faithful. I cut the front and back long so that I'd have an overlap on the bottom, making the bag double strong.

I'm really glad I looked at DanaMadeIt before I started sewing, because I honestly didn't even think about attaching the handles to the bag first. I would have been trying to sew them on after the bag was all assembled. Crisis averted!

So first, I made the handles. Since they were so long, I had a hard time keeping the seam straight and keeping the fabric from buckling. I sewed them inside out, then turned them right side out - that took all of Monday night's episode of Revolution. It would have been handy to have had one of those nifty tube turning gizmos. But alas, I used my now sore fingers and a pair of tweezers. Yeah. I'm resourceful like that.

Next, I sewed down the top edges of the bag. I tacked down both sides before pulling the long haul and risking my seam going all wonky. I folded down twice, too, so that you wouldn't be able to see any raw edges.

Attaching the handles was actually easier than I thought it would be, and I was quite impressed with my abilities. This sewing thing is coming a little more naturally. The fabric doesn't get away from me as easily, as I've learned what pace I can handle.

I even reinforced them with "X"s! I think that's the part I'm most proud of. I mean, it's almost, like, a real bag.

Then I sewed the front/bottom/back together, which, now that I think of it, could have been one big piece. HOWEVER, I wanted that double reinforced bottom. So there. I kind of double sewed everything to make the bag super strong, so there are two lines on every seam. I think it also makes it look nicer.

Next came the side panels. I sewed them on face to face with the front of the bag, likeh zo:

Then attached the side panels to the bottom and back panel. This was probably the trickiest part of the project, since, by this point, there is so much material you're dealing with, and it's all attached, and it's everywhere, and it's in the wrong place, and and and. I ended up crumpling a bunch of the fabric up to get it out of the way a time or two. Or three. After all was sewn together, I flipped it right side out.

And this, my friends, is the finished product!

Like I said, I'm pretty astonished with the outcome, and I'm very proud to say that I created something as quality as this. I kind of feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway when he makes fire for the first time. I even USED this bag today, toting my books and candy corn to Bible Study (which hardly anybody ate - come on, ladies! I'm trying to get RID of it! :D)

Please note, this is not meant to be a tutorial, but if you'd like to try what I did, feel free. You might be more successful than me!

Next, I might try to hem up the crib's bed skirt, as it's too long now that we've lowered the mattress. Or I might make a smaller bag like this one, since this is more grocery sized, and I think I'd like a more tote sized one too. I was also thinking of making some coffee cup cozy thingamabobbers.

Choices, choices!