A bag and a new hobby

This is the bag I made using the tutorial I found online for the grocery bag pattern. You basically use a plastic bag as your pattern. I used a pair of DH's pants that had a tear in the tush area too large to patch. I thought he'd like the bag for shopping, but after he scoffed at the idea, I decided to girly the bag up by using a butterfly fabric for the lining, then fussy cutting some butterflies and embroidering a swirly design. I like it. So does DD who has inherited the bag.

As it turned out, the pants legs were not wide enough to use the pattern in full, so it's not really as big as it could be.

More pics:

I plan on making some more of these this month.

Now, I need a new hobby like a need a tall glass of acid, but here it is. I made my first piece of jewelry. Long story short: It's a very simple bracelet made to go with the blue top I made. I want to make some earrings to go with it. I'm hooked, though. I want to make more.

And here is DD making her anklet at the bead store.

Finally, A Finished Project

I finished my Simplicity 4076 top. I LOVED this pattern. It was easy and fast to put together. Plus, it looks nice. I used a soft rayon knit I found at Joann's for $2 a yard. I couldn't believe I found something that wasn't polyester and at such a great price. I made a size 14 in the shoulders and tapered up to a 16 in the hips. I added 1 inch for length because I wanted a longer style, and because of that addition, I add a quarter inch to the bottom width. It fits great and feels nice.

The one mistake I made was not basting the back neck area, as the instructions directed. As you can see in the pic below, I stretched out the neckline, but at least my hair hides it, and I'll be more careful with the next top.

This is the "right" side of the fabric, which I used as the wrong side. It has a bit of glitter in it which, believe it or not, actually detracted from the vibrance of the rich blue color. Fortunately, it doesn't itch at all.

A simple page redux

I reformatted the text in this version of the page I posted last. I can't figure out how to get Photoshop to both right and left justify text, so I did it on my own with spaces and font sizes. I think it looks a lot better than the previous. I'm not sure I like the fuzzy picture border, since the rest of the page is clean-lined. Comments are welcome.

A simple page

This is a digi page I made this afternoon. I wanted something clean, where the focus is on the content, although I am thinking I might want to add an embellishment like a ribbon between the journaling panel and the picture/title panel. Suggestions are welcome.

New Sewing Projects

Finally, school is pretty much over for me, with the exception of some projects here and there. That means I can start thinking about sewing. I haven't been able to do much for months and am looking forward to playing in my sewing area again. So this morning, I cleaned up my sewing area and made a list of some projects I'd like to complete:

• Curtains for the bedroom (Had the fabric for 2 years, time to get on it)
• A couple shirts for me
• Another Ottobre outfit for DD
• Barbie clothes for DD
• A dress for me

The list was longer, but I edited for a reality check.
What's up first? Barbie clothes for DD. She wants to help. I'm not sure what to do with her at this point. She's five and is getting to where she can do some things, but Barbie clothes require some precision. Yesterday, my friend cut out a couple items with DD and they "sewed" one of the pieces with fabric glue. Much to my surprise, it worked quite well. I may just do some gluing myself, and then DD can help with that.




For me, I am going to make one of the following two tops:

Both tops have gotten great reviews on patternreview.com. For the McCall's 5586, I plan to make make view A, the read shirt. I love how they embellished. Fun, but not too over the top. For Simplicity 4076, I plan to make the short sleeved version with the gathered neckline. I'll probably lengthen it a little, since the reviews indicate that it runs short, at least according to current styles.

Birthday Page

This is a page I made for my DD's birthday party. It was very quick and easy to put together. I used paper from 2 Peas and a Photoshop Elements template.

Picnic LO

I whipped out another page. This one was created with nothing but photos and the Two Peas overlay from the fall botanicals kit. Simple and a little more time efficient. I think I'm going to reorganize my layers so that the photos in the upper right hand corner are under the overlay.

Graduation 2008

Here's a layout I did with my pictures from graduation this year. I'm trying to work on making pages that I like but that also have more than two pictures on them. Our school colors are blue and white. It wasn't easy finding a background that I liked that had the right colors.

The photo of the students grouped together melts my heart! Their joy and beauty is indescribable.

I'm thinking that I need to add more of the painted border around the smaller pictures. Comments, anyone?

Back to Digi Scrapping

Here's the first digi page I have done in literally months. I thought digital scrapbooking would take less time than traditional scrapbooking. It takes at least as long to do digital pages. This one shown here is all made from Shappy Princess Sun Porch free downloadable kit. I still have yet to print any of my digital pages. I want to discuss it first with someone who has used a couple different companies. I want to make sure I'm getting my money's worth and that a half inch of my page won't be cropped out. Anyway, this page is simple, yet still took some time. I wanted to do it in blue and white, since it consists of pictures from graduation, but I am cheap and didn't want to buy any more kits right now.

Ottobre outfit

Within the next week, I hope to writing my review for patternreview.com, but here is belated pic of the full Ottobre outfit I made. My daughter insisted that her friend be in the picture with her.