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!