Bag Ladies
So cool to see that my tutorial has inspired a bunch of sewing around the bloglands.
Check out these cute Eco-Totes:
Traci at Amazing Mae
Tanya at La Familia Rivera
They are making these for end-of-the-year Teacher gifts. What a great idea! Why didn’t I think of that?
My niece Mylene also made one along with a friend of hers.
I’ve read where some people are confused about Step 4. It is getting late today but tomorrow I will try to clarify that step a little better here and on the download.
Giving Birth to your Muse
I’ve seen a lot of posts in the craft blogs recently about how to craft using your children’s drawings and I wanted to share something I made a number of years ago.
This little art doll is now hanging behind the counter at the store. She is as much a mascot for My Eclectic Mess as Minerva (the dressmakers’ dummy). She hangs above the original artwork that inspired her.
Mini-Me went through a phase when she was about 5 or 6 of drawing these very detailed girls. I saved my favorites and eventually made this doll from this one.
I didn’t write up a tutorial at the time because I wasn’t a blogger (did blogs even exist back then? We’re talking old-school website at the time!) But I can give you a general idea of how I did this.
I traced the basic body parts with mylar and a sharpie to make a pattern. There are three basic parts: the hair, the head/face, and the body. I also did the lower arms/hands separately to make turning them right side out easier.
Then I traced each part onto a doubled piece of muslin. The traced line became my stitching line and using a small stitch length, I stitched around each piece. I did not leave a hole in the seam for turning, rather after sewing and triming very close to the stitching line, I carefully separated the layers and cut a small hole in the back of each piece for turning.
The hair piece was done differently so it would remain flat. I layered two pieces of muslin over a piece of batting and stitched, leaving an opening and then turned it right side out. Then I machine quilted the “hair” lines.
After turning and stuffing each piece I applied a generous coating of gesso and let it dry.
The clothes were painted on with acrylic paint. The face was drawn, following the look of the original as much as possible with colored pencil to imitate the crayon lines in the original. I made earrings using macramed embroidery floss and pony beads.
After everything was dry I hand sewed all the parts together and attached a small ring on the back to hang her by.
Having really creative children is a joy. I’m continuously inspired by both of my daughters. It is easy to feel at times as a mother that our children are inhibiting our creative process. We’ve all known that moment at one time or another where the creative spirit has hit us hard and we’re up to are eyeballs in a new and exciting project and WHAM! we realize it is time to run pick someone up from school or drop someone else off at practice. Or maybe read an article or blog post that gets our creative juice flowing right before the baby wakes from his nap and the moment is lost. It happens to everyone and we soon realize that it is just the way it is sometimes.
But other times our children serve as our muse and provide us with the impetus and inspiration needed to move us up and out of our creative ruts. Their freedom and inhibition is a powerful creative tool that we can all learn from. Give yourself permission to play, alone or with your children and you may be amazed at what you can make!
Tomorrow I will share a project Little E and I started Saturday at the store. It started off as “my project” and when she added her energy to it, it really took off. She has started coming to the store with me on Saturdays and it has become a time for us to create together and brainstorm new ideas for classes and projects we can offer for parties and teen clubs. Having her there with me that one day a week has helped me step away from the “business” side of the store for at least one day and tap into my creative energies again.
Filed under Free Patterns/Tutorials, The Business, Uncategorized, sewing | Comment (0)Not just any ol’ bag.
Yesterday I spent too much time worrying and stressing myself out. I was going through a “transition” stage regarding the store. Anyone who has given birth or been with someone while they were in labor knows that the transition stage is the hardest part. That is where the soon-to-be mother starts screaming, swearing, kicking the dr. in the face and generally makes an ass of herself. (I’m basing this on my personal no-epidural, natural childbirth experiences, your mileage may vary.)
I had fallen into the trap of getting myself all wrapped up in all the little things, especially the things I couldn’t control anyway. By 9a.m. I had myself convinced that I should just have a Going Out of Business sale next month instead of a Grand Opening. Then I talked with my always encouraging sister for an hour. She is going through similar labor pains with her growing business so we could commiserate and bounce ideas off each other. Then I talked with Mr. Mess and he also calmed me down and pointed out the rational alternatives and solutions (he’s good at being rational when I’m decidedly not!) By noon I was spent. I did a lot of mundane computer data entry work and cruised the web for ideas.
By the time I got home I was on an even keel again. I woke up this morning determined to get to work doing all the things I could control. I reminded myself of why I started this venture in the first place. To have a place where I could share my love of all things creative with others. I came into the store today with one purpose in mind, to MAKE STUFF! When I get my sign installed, my advertising done, and the word gets out that I’m here, I’ll be too busy most days to do my own thing. I still need a lot of store samples and I need to finalize procedures and projects for the classes.
I was just saying in my last post that I wanted to make some reusable shopping bags. While looking for more inspiration I found this tutorial at Etsylabs on fusing plastic bags to make “fabric”. I was suitably inspired!
There will definitely be a “Recycled Plastic Bag” class added to the store curriculum soon. These are fun, cool, unique, and really easy; all the things I love about a good project. Not to mention, the materials are practically free and it is good for the environment. BONUS!
Then while doing some more “inspiration hunting” I came across this tutorial: Fabric Lunch Sack. Of course I had to tweak the design a little and (in my opinion) make it better. I didn’t like the four layers of lining and outside fabric sewn together on the side seams and I knew I could do a neater job of finishing off the handle edges. My version is fully reversible too.
This bag takes a half yard of each fabric (outside and lining) and about an hour of sewing time. To make them even “greener” you could use an old sheet or a couple old cotton dress shirts for the fabric. Otherwise, it is a great project for using up some of that fabric stash we all have hiding away.
ETA:
I just spent more time putting together and typing up a pattern for this bag than it took me to make it yesterday! Here is a link to the pdf of the pattern. ecobag pattern download!