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.

I haven’t managed to post about Steve’s wine making attempt this fall. Someday I’ll try to get him to sit down and help me type up a post about the process. He inherited his Italian grandfather’s grape press and it has been in our garden gazebo serving as an interesting conversation piece for a few years now. This year everything came together where he had the time, the motivation and the resources to make his own wine in the tradition of his Grandpa Vito.

A couple weekends ago it went from cask to bottle and last Saturday I helped him print up labels. Last night was our annual neighborhood Christmas Walk/Party. I made Holiday Tea Towels and used them to wrap bottles of wine to give as hostess gifts.

After the jump I’ll show you what I made for my Mom and my mother-in-law….

DON’T PEAK MOM!

 
  
This blue apron is for my Mom.
  
This one is for my mother-in-law.

Both are made with fabrics from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain line. I just love them and may have to make myself Minerva one after the holidays. She was very excited to model these for me but was very disappointed when I took them off and told her they weren’t for her. I think the old gal deserves a pretty new apron for the new year.

I put together kits of my eco-tote shopping bag a while ago. I’ve had them here in the store and I have sold a few. But I finally got my act together and photographed them and listed them in my etsy store.
 
A couple weeks ago one of my online friends sent me a link to a rag quilt with the suggestion that these would make great holiday projects. Of course I ran right out to the front room, grabbed some bolts and started cutting and sewing!
 
This is my first one made with squares of all the different holiday flannels I have. It is so soft and cuddly! But then I looked at all the coordinating smooth cottons I have and had to make another.
 

This one is made with the Jennifer Paganelli “Bell Bottoms” line. I added batting to this one too but I don’t like it so I won’t suggest that to anyone else. Maybe a layer of plain flannel sandwiched between the regular cotton would be nice. Flannel would add a little body and warmth without making it stiff like the Thermolam did on this one.
Today I added my first kit for these to my etsy shop: Rag Quilt Kit
Tomorrow I hope to have time to put together a kit out of the Bell Bottom fabric and get that listed too. Of course if you are local and would like a kit you can always stop in the store and pick out your own fabric combination.

Happy Sewing!

Today she brought in the fabric and the wooden frame her carpenter built for her and we tackled it together. We did some math, measuring and digging around in the basement for a few little supplies until we completed this awesome awning!
 
And we had a lot of fun doing it too. She has very little sewing experience but she was perfectly capable of “following the scalloped line” and sewed the little edging perfectly on the first try. Then we had to get “Girl Scout creative” with our staple gun with a too short cord and no working extension cord and a little more garbage picking to put it all together.

All in all a very satisfying project and now Cammie can tell all the visitors to her basement Ice Cream Parlor that “I made that!” and be deservedly proud of her achievement.

She came into the store with me today and on our way we stopped at Joann’s (yes, even I still shop there on occassion!) for materials. We found this metallic stretchy fabric that looked like magical tree bark or something. I added three colors (black,brown and tan) shimmery tulle and some dark olive green cotton knit and we had the makings of a Woodland Fairy costume.

Going by her vision and sketch plus a few ideas of my own this is what we came up with today. The gathered tulle and petals didn’t have enough give to fit over her head so I had to come up with a way to close up an open back. I refuse to put zippers in Halloween costumes so I decided to make loops and lace up the back of the bodice with black satin ribbon. This left the problem of the “hospital gown effect” in the back of the skirt. I solved that by making one more green petal and hand sewing it to one side of the skirt and putting a hook and eye closure on the other side. She also plans to wear a pair of black stretch velvet gymnastic shorts under it on Halloween.

It was a lot of fun working together on this project and coming up with an original design. This will probably be the last Halloween costume I’ll get to make for one of my girls so I had to go out with a bang!

Today was totally dead here in the store (too nice outside for shopping I’m guessing) so I had time to get creative. I had it in my mind this week to look for a pattern to make fabric pumpkins. I did a quick Google search the other day but didn’t find anything that I really liked. So today I played around until I came up with one of my own.

I don’t have time now to write up all the directions and make a proper tutorial but I will try to get to it asap next week.

Have a great weekend!
 

Yesterday afternoon we had a fabulously fun Birdie Sling Class. It was a special class because it was also a birthday party. Happy Birthday Betsy!!!! (Nice bonus when my students bring treats and make me lunch!)

My favorite part is always seeing what fabric combinations everyone chooses and how they all turn out. The final reveal when the lining gets turned right side out is so exciting.

The finished bags were all so cute I may just have to make another one for myself!

Materials for One Towel

1/2 yd. hemmed cotton toweling

1/2 yd. cotton fabric (enough for 3 finished towels) or a fabric remnant at least 18 x 14 inches

coordinating all-purpose thread

Step One:

Cut two (2) 7″x18″ strips from the cotton print fabric.

Step Two:

 
 
Place toweling and fabric right sides together (RST) matching raw edges. The print fabric should be approximately 1 inch wider on each end.
Sew RST using 1/2″ seam allowance.

Step Three:

 
Press seam allowance toward print fabric.
Press 1/2″ along unfinished edge of print fabric.
 
Fold print fabric RST matching folded edge to seam.
Pin short ends.

Step Four:

Sew short ends using edge of toweling as seam guide.
 
Trim seam allowances and corners to reduce bulk.
Turn right side out and press.

Step Five:

 
Carefully topstitch 1/4″ from seam line from the right side being sure to keep underside flat and straight.
Press and trim threads.

This has brought me to today’s Quickie Tutorial:
The Reversible Ribbon Belt

Materials:
1 1/2 yds. each of two coordinating 2″ woven ribbons. (You may need less if you need a shorter belt!)
One set of 2″ D-rings.
Coordinating All Purpose Thread

(All the pictures below can be made bigger by clicking on them.)
Place ribbons right sides together and sew across one short end.

Slide D-rings onto ribbons. Fold ribbons, wrong sides together with the D-rings at the seam.

Using a zipper foot on your machine, sew close to D-rings across ribbons.

Topstitch down long sides of ribbons, pivoting at the corners of short end.

You’re done!