Technology Sleeves

I hope you've had a wonderful Christmas! I really love the holidays- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years...it's such a festive and happy time to enjoy cooking, family, and gift-giving.  Gifts were a bit simple this year due to the reduced budget- turns out moving across the country and going down to one salary is hard on the finances! But regardless, we had a lovely holiday.  Made great food and enjoyed several video chats with family across the country.

Christmas Day was a relaxed affair at our house.  Dan set up some of his presents while I devised a technology sleeve to protect my Surface Pro 3 during our travel back to Omaha next week. (As a side note, the Surface Pro 3 is an amazingly wonderful machine for graduate school!  Not sure if I've ever loved a piece of technology this much.  The iPad, though a great entertainment device, is a royal pain for any serious work.) I used left over scraps from a pleather bag I made last year,1/2 yd. of batik, 1/2 yd. satin suit lining, fusible fleece, and a button.  The result was visually pleasing...but practically, something of a failure. You'll notice in the picture that's a iPad sliding into the sleeve.  Yup- made it too small by about 1/2".  Such is my life some days!  In talking about the project with a friend, she insisted that I need to feature this first iteration to prove that I make mistakes in my creations.  To which I say, of course I make mistakes!  Who says I don't?  A perusal of previous entries demonstrates that amply, I think.  Crystal zippers come to mind immediately...

Helpful?

But this has gotten me thinking about the audience for this blog.  I've never really planned who would read this and merely enjoyed having a site to direct interested parties to view in order to see what I make.  But if you're not an experienced sewer to start with, there is little value in viewing my projects that aren't for sale. I can include my "plans" for the works, but again, they will not make much sense to many viewers, I'm guessing.  To be honest, they sometimes don't make sense to me later!  Instead of offering specific plans for each and every object I make, I would instead like to teach a reader how to make their own creations. (Shocking, right?  A teacher wants to teach...)  To that end, look for future posts about specific quilting/ sewing topics that are more of a DIY approach.  I would love to have comments about what you'd like to see though!  Zippers a nightmare for you?  How about those hidden magnets I like so much?  How to use your zipper foot?  What's the difference between the feet on a sewing machine?  How do you complete a handbag with no unfinished seams?  What are the ways of closing a handbag? These are all questions I've set out over time to answer for myself in order to make bags and projects I would actually use.  Perhaps I can help!

Sadly, Dan has to work today, so I've taken up residence in my office/sewing room.  Besides laundry, the day has been dedicated to improving the technology sleeve I messed up yesterday.  With the remainder of the pieces left over from yesterday, I managed to produce a sleeve that actually fit the Surface- thank goodness!  Of course, only at the very end did I realize I don't have an appropriate button to finish it with.  Sigh.  This is what happens when I get in whirlwind.  I guess this gives me an excuse to go out to the craft stores in Philly for the first time!  (See- there's a question in an of itself!  How can you finish a bag and still add a button later?  Who knows if you actually want that answered though- you could be saying, "duh!" to me right now.)  I would love to hear from you!