When I was a kid summer camp was the highlight of the summer, right after the County 4H fair. Probably because I lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone else from birth to death and the majority of us were cousins I looked forward to any opportunity to get away and meet new people. For either one of my many trips to camp or maybe when I was in the Performing Arts Troupe that toured the state all summer, my Mom made me a drawstring duffle for my sleeping bag and pillow. Mine was heavy denim and had my name appliqued on the side. It was also huge!

I made this simple duffle for Emma to put her sleeping bag in and to keep it neat and easy to identify. I made it in less than 2 hours with one yard of cotton fabric. It would probably take less time now that I have measurements and am not stopping at every step to take photos!

(It still needs an actual drawstring, seems that no matter how much fabric, notions and other stuff I have here at home I still need to make a trip to the store to finish a project!)

Step one:
Measuring and cutting.
Measure around the rolled up sleeping bag. I added quite a few inches to leave room for extra stuff like a blanket or small pillow or if Emma can’t get it rolled back up as tight at the end of camp. I determined that one yard would be just right.

Cut yard of fabric in half length wise set aside one 36″ x 22″ piece to use for bottom and optional pockets.

Finish raw edges of 22″ sides. I chose to serge mine with a narrow 3-thread overlock stitch. You could also trim with pinking shears or sew a small zigzag stitch.

Step Two: Marking and Sewing
Fold right sides together matching finished edges. Pin
Make small marks in seam allowance 1.5″ and 2″ from top edge. I chose to leave the selvage as my top edge.
Sew seam using a 1/2″ seam allowance from top edge to first mark, secure, cut thread.
Sew remainder of seam from second mark to bottom, securing stitches at mark.

Press seam open.

Step Three: Making Round Bottom.
Here’s where the math part comes in. If you don’t remember your basic algebra the formula to determine the circumference of a circle is: Diameter x 3.14(pi) or for our purposes we’re going to reverse the formula and take the circumference and determine our diameter: Circumference/pi + 1″ for seam allowances.

Because I serge my raw edges I ended up with a 34″ circumference instead of the original 35″ that I had planned. That gave me an approximately 11″ diameter (10.83 to be exact) So I cut a circle with a 12″ diameter.

Fold circle in quarters and mark with small notches.

Fold main body into quarts and mark with notches.

Step Four: Sewing body to bottom

Match notches on body to notches on bottom, pin. Continue matching and pinning the raw edges (right sides together). You may need to make small snips in the raw edge of the body to help ease around the curve to match the bottom.

Sew. Be careful to keep both layers flat under the needle, stopping every few inches with the needle down to straighten fabric and keep raw edges matching.

Finish edge.

Step Five: Make Drawstring casing.

Fold top edge down, wrong sides together 1 1/4″ inches. If you have a raw edge here turn raw edge under 1/4″ then turn down remaining inch. Press and pin.

Sew 1″ from folded edge. I chose to sew from the right side using a 3mm topstitch. You could also stitch from the wrong side 1/8″ from finished edge.

If you made your small opening in the side seam in the right place you should have a small hole right at the top of the bag to thread your drawstring through. I typically use one and a half the circumference of the bag for my drawstring, 1.5 yards in this case. I plan to get a slippery nylon cord and a cord stopper. After my trip to Joann’s I’ll try to remember to take a photo of the finished product and post it here.

I just made mine plain and simple but you could add a pocket to either the inside or outside, if you have an embroidery machine you could add a cute design or your child’s name to the side. If it is going to get a lot of rough and tumble use, like when I took mine on the road for the summer, you may want to make it out of a sturdier fabric like denim, canvas or home dec weight cotton. There are even some really cute new vinyl coated cottons out there that would make it slightly water-resistant.

Happy Summer. Don’t miss your kids too much while they are off on new adventures. I’m going to try not to miss Emma but it won’t be easy.

Since I started working at the Bernina dealership and am surrounded by sewing machines and fabric all day again I’ve been inspired to sew again. I’ve made a few projects at work for store samples but wanted to do something for me. Plus I needed clothes to wear to work.

This simple sundress has a fabulous retro 60’s housewife feel to it that I just love. The bodice is fully lined and it has a zipper on the left underarm seam. The bodice detail of the bust pleats instead of darts and the waist band give a nice fitted look. Plus it has pockets! Who doesn’t want a dress with pockets?!?!

I put it on and immediately began channeling Lucille Ball, Barbara Billingsley and Betty Draper. I must wear this dress with pearls.

The fabric is from the Moda line Freebird by MoMo (available in my etsy store!) The pattern is Simplicity 2886

Now I am sitting here at my computer and finding inspiration to get some sewing projects started. (Notice I said “started”, I make no promises of finished projects!)

First I found this: Off The Grid Quilt. I found it through Sarah at My Spare Time blog but now I’m getting 404 errors when I try the direct link. She made her version smaller to make it more of a stroller blanket. I really like that idea because I remember when my girls were babies and that smaller size really came in handy. My niece is expecting her second baby girl any time now and I have an abundance of the Tula Pink Hushabye line of fabrics left so I’m inspired to get cutting and piecing again.

While investigating that pattern I came across this: Child’s Activity Bag I think this will be a quick sew that will make a perfect “Big Sister” gift for Kaija Jane.

Both of these tutorial/patterns came from the Moda Bakeshop. The patterns are designed to use the precut fabric bundles Moda sells but are easily adapted to using any fabric. There are pages that give all the measurements for the precuts so using remnants or regular yardage is pretty simple. I’ve added a link in my sidebar to the “Bakeshop” so if you’re looking for inspiration or patterns it is easy to find.

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Heidi update:
Earlier this week I was afraid I’d have to report that we had come to the decision to finally say goodbye. Monday and Tuesday she was really doing bad. She could barely stand and dragged herself outside to potty and had accidents both mornings in the house. But yesterday she rallied. She got her feet back under her and managed to walk with some difficulty. Last night after we went to bed she somehow got herself across the house and into the bedroom with us! She hasn’t left her rug by the front door other than to go outside in weeks so this was a big deal. This morning her eyes are bright and all of her happy personality is back. I attribute some of it to the fact that Steve got home last night. She is really bonded to him and misses him when he travels. Also Sarah and I took Maizey for a walk yesterday and Heidi was beside herself because she couldn’t go with us. Maybe she is trying to prove she can still get around if we give her the chance. Her 10th birthday is Sunday and I plan on treating her like the princess she is. If it’s possible I’m going to get Steve to join us at the dog park and hope that the snow in the forecast really comes.

While I was at the vet today I had a conversation with my vet about our end-of-life plans for Heidi. As difficult as it is to even think about I think it is important to have a plan in place. Because we’re pretty sure she has DM but there is no way to know for sure without doing a necropsy we are planning for that. The University of Missouri is doing a study of many breeds of dogs to try to determine the causes and genetics behind this disease and someday hopefully the information they gather will lead to treatment and maybe a cure. I have decided to participate in this study and have Heidi’s spinal cord sent to them for their studies. I also shared my worries that she will fail when Steve is traveling as he is in his busy season again. I want him with me if at all possible when this happens but if he can’t be I will need help moving her. I was reassured by my vet that if the need arose they could either send a tech to help me transport her or she would make a house call if worse came to worse. Having these difficult conversations and having a plan in place does help put my mind at ease. This is the hardest part of being a pet lover.

First off I picked out a few of my favorites from Lila Tueller’s newest line, Santorini.


(Note that the olive print with the creamy yellow background is backordered)
I lovelovelove these prints! The colors match my kitchen and living room and I’m dying to get my sewing machines out finally to make some pillows out of these.

Next up is the newest from Tula Pink, Hushabye.

(Note there are two other small scale prints available in all the colors, they are listed in my etsy shop.)

This is such a fresh line for babies. My niece is expecting her second baby next spring and I’m excited to make something special for him or her out of fabrics from this line. I just love all the little hidden animals and surprises to be found in the details.

This is probably my favorite of all quilts in my collection. It was a wedding gift to Steve and I 20 years ago from his childhood baby sitter, Tressie Garner. Tressie was a widow with no children of her own when she started watching Steve and his brother Paul back in the late 60s when they moved from Saginaw to the farm in Mayville. By the time we were married in 1989 she was in her 90s but still mentally quick and as spirited as ever. We aren’t sure about the real story behind this quilt. I don’t know if it is something she made or something she bought along the way. We are pretty sure it wasn’t purchased specifically for us and is definitely an antique made with real vintage fabrics. It was most assuredly hand pieced and hand quilted. The details and precision are amazing. I believe the pattern is called Around the World and each piece is only 2 inches square.

The sawtooth binding edge is meticulous.

I used to use this as a quilt on our bed and also on the guest room bed. I also used it as a wall quilt above our bed briefly at our vacation house. Now I try to keep it in storage so the delicate fabrics and colors don’t fade and wear and more. But it is too pretty to keep hidden away so I pull it out every winter to bring some much needed color and freshness to our long bleak winters here in the midwest. It is the one thing in my house that none of the animals are EVER allowed on! (But I do have a picture in my wedding album of our old cat Penelope resting on it and my wedding dress at my Mom’s while we were on our honeymoon.)

Since I haven’t been doing much sewing or other fresh crafting lately I decided to take this opportunity to share some of my oldies but goodies. I was going to call it, “Flashback Friday” or “Time Warp Tuesday” or “Way Back Wednesday.” But it is Monday and I couldn’t come up with any clever alliteration for today so I’m just calling it what it is.

When Sarah was ready to move out of the fantasy that she actually ever slept in her crib and give a big girl bed a try I made her this quilt. I guess I thought if I made her something really special and made a big deal out of it she’d actually SLEEP IN HER OWN BED! (ha!) I just loved all of these vintage 30’s style fabrics and had collected a few of them. When it was time to make the quilt I added more in the purples and teals to go with the color scheme I was working with at the time.

I pieced the squares in a fairly random pattern trying to avoid any weird color blocks or repeated patterns. The batting is an organic cotton (hard to find way back then but well worth it). I then spent months hand-quilting the thing. The first and last time I hand quilted anything. Not my thing. At the time I was still sewing everything on my old Singer and it just didn’t have the cajones to handle a large quilt.

I don’t specifically recall if the quilt worked magic and kept Sarah in bed all night. (It must have worked a little because Emma came along about a year later.) When we moved to this house I used it as a color palette for their shared room with a Noah’s Ark theme. Now it just lives in a big wicker chest in the guest room with other quilts (that I will share soon) and gets pulled out for sleep overs.

It has a few marker stains from the nights when Sarah would stay up to all hours drawing and doodling. When it first happened I was upset that she had “ruined” it. But as time has gone on I now cherish those stains as much as the quilt itself. They bring back a memory of a special time and activity she really loved.

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So readers, do you have a special handmade item from your childhood? Did you make your child (or grandchild, niece, nephew, godchild, etc.) something special that brings back memories of their childhood?

Whenever I get like this the first thing to go is regular blog posting it seems. Maybe if I just focused on putting a few coherent thoughts together on a regular basis the rest would fall into place? Wishful thinking I’m afraid.

One reason for my discombobulation is because so much is up in the air in regards to the store. I thought I had made a decision a few months ago to close and go back to plan A and work from home on building up an online business. I even told my landlady that I would not be renewing my lease and started moving toward that end. This also meant that I came to terms with this decision and wrapped my head around it and accepted it. Once that was done I started to look forward to the change and started mentally shifting gears.

You know what happened next? Things started to pick up at the store. I’ve done more business at the store in the past four weeks than I did in the entire 4th quarter of 2008. People are interested in and signing up for classes. New customers are coming in because someone told them about me or they had driven buy countless time and finally decided to stop. The old adage that it takes at least a year for people to just know you are there is very true. I just wish it hadn’t had to be this year!

This leaves me wondering if I’m jumping ship too soon. Or am I making the right decision and I just need to find a way to make myself and my products available locally somewhere else on a shorter term basis? (i.e. the flea market, open houses at my home, etc.) Could I if I really tried find a business partner (to take over teaching?) or a small business loan to help take up the slack? Am I giving up before I give it my 100% effort?

One thing I have learned is that indecision and second guessing is an awful way to do business. So this has left me feeling confused and out of sorts. I’m trying to follow my gut and my gut tells me that now is not the time for me to continue to risk it in this business climate. Because I am so uncertain and I don’t have a solid plan to move forward with the brick and mortar store I’m going to continue to move toward closing up shop.

Well, golly gee! I didn’t intend this post to be yet another page-long wank about the store and its future! The row of little pictures above illustrate some of the other little things that have been going on. I have other stuff but I’m so unfocused I can’t even manage to take pictures! (Get it, unfocused!)

From L to R:
#1 My new phone. I’ve been wanting to drop my old service with Sprint and move my account to T-mobile with the girls but my contract didn’t expire until May. Monday I was at the mall with the girls and I stopped to look at the T-mobile kiosk while Emma shopped in Claires. (I’ll do almost anything to avoid going into that store!) I was then very professionally sold a new phone! Turns out Sprint was forced to offer customers the option to leave without an early termination fee and the time period to take advantage of it was coming to an end this month. I had been wanting either a Blackberry or G1 so I could access the internet when away from home or the store. I ended up with the G1. Very similar to the iPhone but it has a slide out full keyboard. I have an iTouch and was familiar with the interface and I prefer the real keyboard. I’m still learning all the nifty new things this baby can do but so far I give it high marks.

#2 New fabric! Lila Tueller’s Soiree came in last week. I only have six prints from this one because I wasn’t sure judging from the paper samples I had to choose from if I was going to like it. I may have to order more! It is so bright and pretty and just screams SUMMER! It really brightened up the store when I put it out.

I also have Wonderland from MoMo coming soon. I ordered a large selection of this one because I think it is just incredible. I love the whimsy and fun use of colors and pattern.

#3 Sale fabric! Because I have ordered some new collections and I’m planning on moving everything to my house in a few month, I need to trim the selections down. I’ve put a lot of great fabric on clearance sale. Holiday and seasonal prints are as low as $4.99/yard. Popular designers like Jennifer Paganelli, Joel Dewberry, Tina Givens, and April Cornell are marked down to $6.99/yard.

#4 Last month my neighbors had a bad case of Abominable Icicles. I sat here and watched them throw tennis balls and anything else at hand toward the roof trying to knock them down. Finally one day a chunk fell and broke the awning roof off from over their backdoor. They then decided to play a little “ice hockey” and got rid of them for good! I was happy that I didn’t have to witness an attempt at the Darwin Awards first hand that day.

#5 Clowns are scary. This little fellow was in a bag of plastic clown/doll heads my mother gave me when I was home over the holidays. I still haven’t come up with anything to do with them other than frighten small children and taunt the cats. Maybe I’ll make a hydra version of Dollipede.

Now I remember why I don’t blog more often. This post has taken me almost all day to get done and it doesn’t have great pictures or anything. Time for me to take more ginko biloba and caffeine!

I’m closing the brick & mortar store in April and moving everything online. I’m in the process of uploading everything to a stand alone store that will be linked to this blog and this domain name. I’ve been pretty successful on etsy this past six months as a supply seller so I will probably keep that going for the time being.

I also have a second etsy shop where I used to try to sell my photography. But that never took off and it was too time consuming to promote and keep up to date for very little pay off. I am thinking of turning that shop into a shop for my handmade items. I’ve tried in the past to sell my handbags and a few other things at etsy and had moderate success.

I have a lot of fabric that isn’t really popular and needs to move one way or the other and I was thinking of using it to make stuff to sell. I thought if I focused on one or two things I could streamline production and promote easier. I just need to decide what those things will be. I’ve found that the etsy handbag market is really saturated and competitive so I think I’m not going to go back into that arena again.

I am debating between: aprons, pajama/lounge pants and skirts. What do you all think? The other possibility would be to market to knitters and make sock bags, accessory zip bags, and larger totes.

Anyway, when it gets like this on a Saturday, I try to get productive. I’ve been doing so much computer work this week that I can’t stand it anymore so I decided to sew instead. (It’s only 11a.m. right now so I have a lot more time to find stuff to do!)

 
This beauty has been draped across the back of the pink comfy chair in the corner almost since I opened. Years ago I was really into fancy embroidery, silk ribbons and beads. This was an experiment in crazy quilting and embellishment. Today I decided to finish it up into something useful. I squared it up and put a back on it and now it is a pillow cover. The finished size is about 15×15 and I don’t have a 14 inch square pillow form handy so I can’t test how it looks completely finished. I don’t know what I’ll do with it. There is a lot of detailed handwork on it so I have no idea what to charge if I were to try to sell it. I guess I’ll just keep it around to further illustrate that I have a lot of talents that really aren’t very practical but sure are pretty!
      
Now I think I may go dig out those children’s choir robes and see if I can get them finished up.