A Summer Batch of Market Bags

It was market bag mania here yesterday - and I managed to plant the veggie garden too! I've 15 bags made (2 blue and green models not shown here) and I'm really hoping they'll last the summer, but that's probably wishful thinking! They are for sale at the Birdhouse Cafe and are doing really well up there. Morgan is so enthusiastic about them, if I'm ever feeling like I need a boost I should just go hang out with her! It's a lovely spot and they have a great locally made toy kitchen and play area too.

Kids Clothes Challenge, Day 5

Another pair of shorts from Happy Homemade, shorts "L". This time I skipped the faux fly since they're pretty busy with stripes, I didn't think it would be missed... The real reason is that I haven't managed to make that #@!#? fly without a seam ripper yet and I've done it twice! This time the pockets are lined with gears - just as good as frogs, if not better, for our little guy!

Kids Clothes Week Challenge, Day 4

Here is the shirt - look familiar? The fabric is the same as found on page 117 of Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing (a fantastic book, haven't made that shirt but have made the everything tote and, hmm... is that all? Add that too my list. I know I've drafted the pj pants in 2 sizes and the girl's sun dress in 2 sizes...oh, the cheque book, but I think cdn. cheque books are different than us. check books!). So the shirt was fairly straight forward although remind me to check the pattern instructions next time for the order of operations so I don't have to set in small sleeves! The easier way would have been to put the sleeve on the front/back piece at the shoulder and then sew up the side seam and sleeve seam, then hem the sleeve. I did snaps instead of buttons and I really like the grandfather shirt collar style! Everything I'm making this week is boys size 4, if you are wondering.
Check the Kids Clothes Week Challenge Flickr pool to see what everyone is up to.

Day 3 - The REAL Day 3

So I got a bit ahead of myself and started this sewing challenge a week early! Luckily that happened since I haven't done anymore sewing since last week's, (correction, haven't sewn any KIDS clothing...) "day 3"! AND I blew it, over did it, as usual, and spent more than 1 hour on Day 3, probably spent 3 hours! I managed to finish some really cute shorts from the Happy Homemade pattern book in a train engineer's overalls stripe fabric but my model was not cooperating, as you can see! The shorts are the same pattern as the Pirate Pants. I haven't managed to start the shirt yet, not sure why... Coming soon though! I've also cut out another striped pair of shorts, same pattern, that look like fun too. So, after jumping out of the gate, last week, I'm not making any promises for the rest of this week!

Day 2

Kids Clothes Week, Day One

I'm hoping to sew one hour a day for a week for Finn as part of Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge (see button on right side)! Often my projects mean ideas for Finn's wardrobe get sidelined so hopefully this Challenge will help! Hour 1 was drafting the pattern for Boy's Shirt q in my Happy Homemade Vol. 2, Kids book! It's a short sleeve dress shirt with grandfather collar. Wish me luck!

Evening Sun at Trunk Show Set Up

Top No. 21

Finally some photos. I was putting off ironing these, otherwise I would have posted them sooner, since I finished them weeks and weeks ago (not!). My favourite pattern these days. Since L has been wearing hers around town and getting so many compliments, I thought I would make a few for the Trunk Show. Size 11 or thereabout, they fit L, who is smaller than me, and they fit me too, so hopefully they'll fit a few other folks.

Seriously Folks

How can I possibly sell this cutie? I think I should post a tutorial on how to build these snap coin purses as they are tedious and there don't seem to be many tutorials out there on them. U-Handblog has a tutorial that I loosely follow. Click on the photo to go to my flickr for pictures of the others so far. There's a paint-by-number one that I also love...

Make your own envelopes

There are a lot of envelope templates out there, some you can even buy - now why would you do that when you can just copy any old envelope on your own? Here is a brief tutorial on how I copied my favourite envelope size. It's 6.5" by 9.5" and it's a good size for mailing photos or fat quarters (more later).

You will need:
pencil, scissors, ruler, double sided tape.
an envelope that you want to copy.
a piece of scrapbook paper.

1. Carefully open the envelope to be copied along all the glued edges until it is a flat piece of paper.
2. Trace the envelope on the back side of the scrapbook paper. My envelope was slightly wider than the scrapbook paper so I took an inch off the front panel width and a half inch off each back flap. This was done by first tracing one side, then shifting the template over an inch and tracing the other side. The finished envelop is now 5.5" by 9.5".
3. Cut along lines and fold all flaps - use a scoring tool if you have one or just fold flap over your ruler and press with finger.
4. Place double sided sticky tape along long side edge, peel and seal. Place another piece of tape along bottom flap, peel and seal. Place a third piece on the top flap, don't peel and seal until your ready to use it!
That's it - so each and so pretty to receive in the mail don't you think?

These envelopes are filled with fat quarters to send to my Sew Mama Sew fat quarter swap partners. I will also receive 4 fat quarters in the mail shortly - can't wait!