WIP Quilted Patchwork Weekender Bag

A couple weeks ago, I came across a quilted patchwork Weekender Bag by Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! 

I fell in love with it the minute I saw it and knew that I needed to finally take the plunge and make the notorious Weekender Bag by Amy Butler. This bag is kinda the Holy Grail of bags and definitely has a reputation for being hard to get along with due to all of the layers of peltex, interfacing, cording, etc that are involved when making it. 

I have always loved the look of this bag, but the reputation and horror stories had me pretty much sworn off making it, but when I saw Elizabeth's bag and the method that she used to make it by quilting as you go onto cotton duck cloth, I had a change of heart. 

Apparently I am not the only one either- from what I have heard of Sewing Summit and seen on a few blogs, it looks like Elizabeth sparked a quilted weekender craze and there is now a quilted weekender bandwagon! Check out these fabulous bags by  Laura and Amber!

Two weeks ago, I raided my scrap stash and even dug into a few fabric piles that I had been saving for a rainy day and came up with my color palette- red, aqua, and yellow. 

It hasn't been a fast process by any means, I just add a little each night and am finally finished creating my patchwork panels so now I am ready to start assembling my bag now...Duh, duh, duh... I am hoping to make it out in one piece! Wish me luck!

Here is a sneak peak of what the the main and pocket panel are looking like together! I am excited to see it finished! 

I plan to finish it over the weekend since I am headed to Nashville next week. This is the perfect bag to take along on my trip! :) 

Stay tuned for more pictures to come soon once I finish it!

Ahoy Matey Quilt

With me having little girls, it's pretty rare to see me sewing for a little boy... but one of my friends just had her very first baby boy last week and I couldn't resist making the new little guy a quilt.

I can't even tell you how much I love this Ahoy Matey fabric by Michael Miller . When I saw that it had a panel and that it was so darling, I knew that I wanted to try making a quilt using a panel. Usually I am not a huge fan of panel quilts, but this one may have changed my mind. 

To make it, I used one panel (which is the main part of the quilt with the ship and waves on it), and then I used the Navy Stay the Course fabric for the side sashing, and Dumb Dot in Clementine for the prairie points, Clementine Ship Shape for the binding, and then Quarter Dot in Midnight for the backing. 

I have been wanting to try doing prairie points on a quilt and I felt like this was the perfect quilt for it. I found an awesome tutorial for continuous prairie points on Sew Take a Hike. It was such an easy tutorial to follow! Love how they turned out!

As soon as I saw the panel for this quilt, I knew that I wanted to hand stitch along the outlines of everything. I love the way it looks around the waves, clouds, and boat. Once I washed it and dried it, oh my goodness!! I was in love... it was a tad bit hard to part with this lovely quilt. ha ha

But lucky me... I happened to buy two panels and have just enough leftover fabric to make myself this exact quilt- should a little bundle of blue pop up into my future.... And if not, I am sure I can find a loving home for such a darling little quilt- don't ya think? :) 

Happy Sailing!

xoxo, Ashley

Work In Progress Finished... well... almost!

Remember the WIP {work in progress} that I shared with you guys FOREVER ago?? I finally finished it. Well kinda- I have just a tiny bit more hand quilting to do on two blocks, but it has been bound and in use for the past month on my littlest's toddler bed (which is why it is so narrow and long). I am not sure why I can't make myself sit down and finish it. It would take all of 30 minutes or so, but you know how things go... other projects take priority and things get put on the back burner. So alas, this little gem has been a bit abandoned but perhaps an afternoon during nap time will be enough to get her finished...

But until that happens, I thought I would show her off to you guys. 

What do you think? It was my very first time paper piecing and my first time making dresdens and I kinda loved it. It was definitely the most time consuming and labor intensive quilt I have ever made, but I still really enjoyed it. I was inspired by Kerri's vintage nursery quilt and decided to add in the dresdens to make my quilt a little different.

Almost all of the fabrics I used were japanese import goodies (most from Lecien's Old new 30's line) that I found in Kerri's shop. She has the cutest fabric and I loved picking and choosing out fabrics in soft pinks, aquas, and a tiny bits of yellow for this quilt. It almost a bit monochromatic to my eyes since I stuck with just a few shades of colors, which isn't normally my style, but I love the way it is totally matchy matchy and shabby chic looking. 

For the center of my paper pieced blocks, I used prints from the Sweet Life fabric I picked out. Since it is a Japanese import, some of the sayings on the fabric is so funny and isn't always grammatically correct- for instance, there is a block that says "I'm now cleaning a living" and "Let me give you hand".

I think the saying on this block had to be my very favorite- "You look spruce. Are you going on a date today?" ha ha My family says it all the time now and it makes me laugh every time!

I started machine quilting the quilt initially and had machine quilted around the edged of each block, but I decided to hand quilt the rest of the quilt instead of finishing it on the machine... which added to the time and labor intensiveness, but I love the look of it and think it adds to the vintage look and feel of the quilt. I used a pale pink DMC pearl cotton 8 thread for the hand quilted part.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you are all having a fabulous week! 

Happy Sewing! 

xoxo, Ashley

The Mini Messenger

I know... I know... I have been a blogger M.I.A. for the past few weeks- but with good reason. Over the past month we have had 3 fun visitors come into town to spend a week each. It has been so fun! 

Our first special visitor was my little sis Heidi. We had such a great time together! She had been wanting me to teach her to sew something for over a year now, but we had never gotten around to it until this visit... And to our surprise this gal is a natural!

(exterior of bag Lark Sateen- Treasure Box in Charcoal by Amy Butler, interior of bag Vintage Modern  Sky Houndstooth by Moda, Mini Pom-Pom Trim in Aqua)

When deciding on a project to have be her very "first sewing project" we were back and forth between making a blanket, a skirt, or a bag... We ended up deciding to make a bag since she was in desperate need of a new one. 

We headed off to my favorite fabric shop and although it was a tough decision to decide on only one fabric with a shop full of awesome fabrics, she fell in love with this darling  print by Amy Butler. I knew that I had some matching fabric and trim at home to go with it so we headed home and got started. 

It was a lot of fun because we both worked together to come up with the pattern for the bag. Essentially it is the same as the Little Birdie told me Messenger bag so you could definitely follow that tutorial but just modify the measurements to make this bag. We wanted the bag to be tall and skinny instead of a wide bag so the width and height measurement flip flopped and we ended up making it approx. 12x15 inches.

She honestly sewed the whole bag except I put the zipper pocket in for her  (with the help of this awesome tutorial) and helped her a bit with the mini pom pom trim (tricky stuff to sew on! ha ha) but other than that- this was her deal... She was a total natural! She sewed a straight line immediately- something I had to practice! I was so impressed!! It was so fun helping her and seeing someone else enjoy sewing as much as I do. 

While at the fabric shop we found this cute Vallori Wells Little Wallet Pattern- so she used it to make this cute matching wallet to use inside her bag. I loved the pattern. It was so user friendly and would be the perfect beginner project for anyone- even kids. I can't wait to make one for myself and I think it is perfect for a little gift for someone.

Love spending time with my sister! We laughed more than I have laughed in a year. I am so glad to call her "my little sis". 

Watch out "Sewing World"- there is another awesome sew-er on the loose! ;)

Kitschy Kids Apron

I love when I see something and it totally inspires me... It makes creating so much more enjoyable when I feel freshly inspired. Lots of things inspire me- pretty projects on pinterest, amazing bloggers, fabric, etc- but one of the things that inspires me the very most, are my kids. I love thinking up projects to make for them. Things that I know will make them smile. They are even starting to come up with projects on their own. It's so fun to hear the things they think "mommy should make them" and it is so fun for me to be able to actually make some of the things they come up with... According to my daughter- next on the list is a stuffed purple dolphin! ha ha If anyone knows of a cute purple dolphin tutorial out there- please share! I would be so grateful! :)

This apron project was a combination of inspiration for my daughter and also inspiration from fabric. I had been wanting to make an apron for a while but, had been putting it off. When I was in my local fabric shop, I came upon this darling Happy Home fabric by Robert Kaufman, and I knew instantly that it was the perfect fabric for a little apron. I could envision it perfectly- right down to the little rolling pin as a waistband.

I used the Home Sweet Home Fiesta print to make the apron bib  and also used it for the rolling pin on the waistband and the utensils on the pocket. I used the Happy Home Pitchers print for the apron skirt and the ties around the neck and waist. The yellow dot for the ruffle  on the bottom edge is from Joanns.

I think her favorite thing about the apron is the pocket. She loves being able to put her special treasures in there while she "cooks".

 I didn't use a pattern for the apron. I started by cutting the "home sweet home" motif from the fabric for the bib and took some measurements of where I wanted the skirt of the apron to fall on her leg and just went from there. It was really simple to make and came together just how I envisioned it would when I bought the fabric. I backed the entire thing with the yellow polkadot fabric incase she wanted it to be reversible... but let's be honest- who in the world would want to hide this darling kitschy kitchen fabric on the front??

To date- this is my favorite project I have ever made. Not sure if it is because I was inspired by so many things while making it, if it is the way it turned out, or if it is watching her while she is playing in it- possible a combination of all three? :) 

I can't wait to make a twin version for my mini kitchen helper... thinking I may do one minus the bib and neck ties... Stay tuned!

Floppy Bow Tutorial

Our family just did family pictures and I made this floppy bow headband for an accessory. It was so easy to put together- and I just used things I had laying around the house...

All you will need is a headband (mine is a 25 cent plastic headband leftover from a birthday party that I found in the clearance bin at party city), fabric (any scrap will do- it needs to be 6x8 inches),  ribbon (I used grosgrain), and a hot glue gun.

Here is how I made it:

Step 1: Cut two 1 inch pieces of ribbon, and hot glue them to the ends of the headband to hide the ends. (in my picture you will notice that I only did one end at first, but it would be a lot easier to do both at the beginning.)

Step 2: Now you are ready to start wrapping the ribbon around the headband. I would wrap it a couple times and then put a dot of glue and continue till you get to the end of the headband. 

Step 3: Cut a 6x8 inch piece of fabric.

Step 4: Fold it right sides together so it is 3x8 inches. Sew around the edge but leave an opening to turn it right side out.

Step 5: Turn it right side out, tuck the opening (raw edges exposed) in and press flat. You can stitch this part closed if you would like, or just leave it like I did. My opening was small enough and it was centered exactly where I glued it to the headband so I didn't bother to stitch it closed.

Step 6: Fold your sewn fabric piece like an accordion. You can make as many folds as you would like. Then I put a dot of glue on the headband where I wanted the bow to be and stuck the accordion-ed (is that even a word? ha ha) bow to the dot of glue to hold it in place for the next steps.

Step 7: Cut a piece of fabric for the middle of the bow that holds the bow to the headband. You could even use leftover ribbon if you wanted to tie in another color or look. I cut a strip of fabric that was approx. 1 1/2 inches by 4 inches. (you don't need it to be that long, I just wanted enough to hold onto to get a grip to pull it tight. I trimmed off about 3 of the 4 inches- so just cut this part to your liking.) I pressed the fabric into thirds to create my strip to wrap.

Step 8: Turn the headband over so the bottom part is facing up. Place a dot of glue on the headband underneath the center of the bow. Put the strip on the dot of glue and secure it.

Step 9: Wrap the strip all the way around the top of the bow and back to the underneath. Cut the strip with enough excess that you will be able to fold the raw edge in before gluing it down. Tuck that raw edge in and glue. 

That is it... One Floppy Bow headband- ready for pictures, a day at the park, or wherever a floppy bow and it's owner may wish to go.

Enjoy!!

P.S. You could make this bow in any size... I made one about half the size and glued it to an alligator clip for my baby girl... It turned out darling too. :)

Sewing Storage Ideas

As some of you know, I have very limited space where I live so I don't have a craft room. Up until a couple weeks ago I had all of my sewing supplies/ fabric stored in about 3 different closets/places. It was driving me nuts! I could never find what I was looking for and hated digging through piles and piles of fabric trying to find the right one. 

I got thinking and looking on Pinterest for ideas of how to store sewing supplies and decided to buy a book shelf and display/store my stuff on it. I think sewing supplies are so fun and pretty to display.

I just got an inexpensive white bookshelf from Target that cost me $109. I put about $50 into jars, storage boxes, and knick knacks so my total was under $175. Not to shabby for a cute place to display and catalog my sewing supplies. 

I even dressed up my shelf with some wrapping paper behind the shelves to give it a little subtle pizazz. It is light turquoise and white stripped- you can kinda see it in a couple of the pictures. 

I have the shelf in my bedroom (thank goodness for a loving hubby that lets me do whatever I want with the decor of our room/house). I love waking up each morning and looking at the supplies that I have to work with, and for some reason just seeing my supplies displayed in a pretty way inspires me.

One of the ideas that I decided to implement on my bookshelf was this genius idea by Maggie of Smashed Peas and Carrots to make your own fabric bolts. I used comic book storage boards like she did to wrap my fabric around like a mini fabric bolt. LOVE IT! I think my mini bolts look so darling all lined up like a little rainbow. Plus- having my fabric stored this way I am able to access it so easy and I can "go shopping" in my stash before having to head out to a fabric store for fabric whereas before I was always guessing what I had and didn't have due to my laziness and not wanting to dig through boxes of fabric. 

The next idea of stage came while browsing the isles of Target... I came upon these darling little Ball mason jars. I knew they would be perfect for storing the vintage buttons and thread that I inherited from my grandma.

I picked up some larger Ball Mason Jars at Joanns to store some of my trims like pom poms and rick rack.

Next I headed to one of my favorite stores: Homegoods in search of glass jars with lids to store my pearl cotton balls and other threads. 

One of the fun splurges that I found was at World Market. I fell in love with this darling Stacking Doll Cookie Jar and just had to buy it. I love her! And the fact that she only cost me $12.99 made me love her more. I hid my pairs of scissors and rotary cutters inside here. 

My husbands sweet Grandma Jean gave these vintage stacking dolls to my daughters a couple years ago and I have just never had the perfect place to display them until now. I love them. Love that they were hers, love that they are from my husbands birthplace- Germany (no he isn't German- he's an army brat- minus the brat part:) and I love looking at them everyday.

Another thing I love about the bookshelf idea is that I can line up my sewing books and patterns for easy access too.

(can't wait to sew using these vintage patterns I got from my grandma's sewing stash- man... can you imagine being able to buy sewing patterns for 35 cents these days??)

For storage of my fat quarters and smaller cuts of fabric that wouldn't fit on it's own fabric bolt, I folded them up and stacked them on the shelf. Love how pretty they look- plus they are so easy to access as well.

I am loving being organized!! But I am loving even more being able to SEE my supplies displayed everyday. It is my new favorite place in my house. I find myself just standing in front of my shelf daydreaming of projects... I know... I am weird! ha ha

Stay tuned for next week... I am going to share my Master Bedroom Makeover. I went from bland neutral colors to bold and colorful... I think I have just about every color you see on this shelf incorporated into my room somewhere!! It is so fun and cheery... I can't wait to show you all! :)

Have a great week!

xoxo, Ashley