Step by Step

My god, it's August.

How did that happen?!  We are now officially closer to Christmas and if that's not a depressing thought- think of all those presents to get- this is the first week that it has been mostly under 100+ degrees all summer. It's absolutely crazy to me that I am now excited when the high temperature is only supposed to be 88; I now think that is "cool." Help me, the Midwest is messing with my internal thermometer.

As a direct result of not being able to be outside for any period of time this summer, I've been a busy little sewing bee. I've grown the Etsy store and sold a few more bags. I'm writing patterns for at least two bags and developing a third.  I've been approached about teaching classes on the bags, which I'm totally jazzed about. This summer is highlighting to me the need to formalize some of this "hobby." That's right, I may have to legalize it all with a business license and expense tracking...dun dunnn dunnnnn. Slightly terrified, slightly excited about this development.  Because really, do I have time for that?  I work roughly 60 hours a week between my two jobs now. Bah...that's enough of me and my wallowing.  Onto the new stuff!

The bag above was made for my mother. (I have a first edition made over from scraps from the Valori Wells bags earlier- very rough looking!) She had asked me to make a wallet from a pattern she saw in a store.  Horrible pattern.  I've never made a wallet before that and even I could recognize the errors in the pattern while I was working through it.  Regardless, it is not pictured because it was awful- by my standards.  Someday, I will work up to a wallet better than that one but not now...  So I made her a matching bag to make up for the awfulness of the wallet. She likes it so much, she wants me to sell it.  Go figure.  She thinks it is "too pretty to keep." I give up.

Because I liked the size and shape of the bag for my mom, I tweaked it a bit and started writing it into a pattern.  It has thus been christened the Mezzo Messenger and is available on my Etsy store as well.

And this is the result of this weekend...it's a work in progress. I've been thinking that as much as I love the Primavera bag, it just won't do when the wintery weather comes back around.  And so, I've been working out my own approach to a fully zippered bag. I've done a few through other people's patterns and not been 100% happy with the results.  But a few days of head scratching later...I think this works!

My big frustration with this bag?  The crystal zippers!  Very pretty, I know.  I bought them over four years ago and have been saving them until I knew how to use them correctly. Here's the problem: they work in your hands but the minute you sew them into anything, they freeze.  Literally. They will unzip but not re-zip. I have to nurse the teeth into the zip one by one!  Apparently, they cannot have any resistance or they stop working. Horrible product! Don't buy! Needless to say, this bag won't be for sale on Etsy. I'll haul it around for a month, see what else needs to be improved and get back to you vis a vis it's continued existence.