The other thing from Britex, and a small review

I didn't want to clutter up yesterday's warm fuzzy post with more of my loot, so I'm making a separate post today.  And because my second purchase from Britex was even smaller than my first, I'm including a little review as well.

Near the end of our trip, I had to go to the post office to mail home some books Hubby had acquired.  I didn't mind, since Britex was right on the way  . . .

I found myself in the remnants sections again, but still unable to really focus - until I spotted a box of leather scraps!  I think I kind of annoyed the saleslady with my extremely thorough method of sorting through the box, but hey - I ended up with some very nice pieces of leather!

These scraps are pretty small:  the largest is about 6" x 14".  But they are very supple, and I really liked the colors and finishes.  I figured I could use them for something:  contrast pieces, making piping, or even tiny zippered pouches. 

I wasn't able to capture it on "film" but the taupe skin has a very subtle pearlescent finish.  The green and blue are embossed with a faux snakeskin print.  I've got two pieces of the blue, four of the green and one of the taupe.  The whole lot cost me $15 plus tax.

You guys know that I've made several framed leather clutch purses, and for a long time I've been wanting to start making other kinds of leather bags as well.  But I knew I needed to learn a few things first, to avoid wasting a lot of costly leather. 

Well, luckily for me (and anyone else who bought it!) a new Craftsy class came out this spring called "Making Leather Bags."  The instructor is Don Morin, whom some of you may know from his blog Bagn'-telle.  For quite a few years, Don has generously shared - for free! - a wealth of knowledge and detailed instruction for making bags on his blog.  When I heard the rumor in early spring that he was making a Craftsy class, I knew that I'd be buying it as soon as it was released.

And not only did I buy it, I watched the whole class!  (I'm embarrassed to admit that although I've enrolled in over 20 classes on Craftsy, I've only finished about six of them.) Sadly, I finished it up about a week before leaving for SF, so much of what I learned is no longer fresh in my brain.  But the beauty of the Craftsy class is that I can read over my notes and watch the class again!

If you have any interest in sewing leather bags, I really recommend this course.  Don is a great teacher.  He's organized and helps you think through the order in which you should construct your bag, giving plenty of nifty tips along the way.  I came to the class with a couple specific skills I wanted to learn:  how to keep the leather from stretching while sewing, how to install a zipper in a leather bag, and how to recess that zipper.  All these questions were answered for me, plus I got a whole lot more information answering questions I would never have known to ask.

The "class project" is a large leather tote bag with a zipped top, exterior pocket, interior zippered pocket and rouleau handles.  Honestly, it's not the kind of bag that's useful to me in my life - I keep trying to go smaller rather than larger!  But by following along with the construction of this bag, I was able to imagine how I'd use those skills in other bags that do work for my lifestyle.  My goal over the summer is to make up some bags similar in size and shape to the large wristlets available from Coach - this is a really practical size for me.  I may even try my hand at combining fabric and leather in some designs!

Have any of you already taken this class or signed up?  Or if not, are you thinking about it?

More knits. Surprised?

These are a couple more repeats of patterns I've made before.  But they're so darned good, and practical, and easy to wear . . .

Another Dolman-Sleeved Top - seriously, if you sew and you haven't downloaded this pattern yet, RUN to your printer and do it now!  This is another soft, stripey cotton from Girl Charlee, same as my orange one only in blue.

And another Foldover Waist Skirt, from the Sewing with Knits class on Craftsy.  The fabric on this one is somewhat more stable than the first one I made!

Of course, no FO post is complete without a collage or two:

Please note how the stripes match at the shoulder!  *pats own back*

And just for kicks, since it's also called a "yoga skirt" - not that I would ever actually do yoga in a skirt - here's me trying to beat the camera timer and get into Trikonasana on a slippery wooden floor!

Didn't quite make it!

Tricot-mania

I just can't seem to get enough of sewing with knits these days.  On Thursday, I sewed not one, not two, but three knit garments:  another Kimono Dress, a Dolman-Sleeve Tee and a Foldover Waist Skirt.  This morning I made a second Dolman-Sleeve Tee, and I'm hoping to knock out another this afternoon, plus maybe another skirt.  What is going on here?!

Let me show you my new wardrobe, in order of execution.  First up is the dress, in another of the fabrics I got on sale at Girl Charlee.  This fabric is called "Raining Dots."  It's a cotton-modal blend, and is so silky soft.

With this dress, I think I can say I've perfected my technique - it came off without a hitch!  Here's a closer look at the fabric:

Next I used Cindy's new, free top pattern.  I've been wanting to try this out since she first posted it.  I love her blog and I'm always so impressed by the way she just makes stuff - no pattern, just ingenuity! Of course, this is another sale fabric from my Girl Charlee haul - did anyone else stock up in the Labor Day sale like I did?  This fabric is called "Limoncello Floral Burnout" and is sadly no longer in stock.  It's quite thin, but doesn't have a whole lot of stretch.

The design is in pale yellow and cream, on a white burnout background:

I'm kind of a sucker for burnout!

Lastly, I knocked out the Foldover Waist Skirt pattern from the Craftsy class on sewing with knits.  This is a truly quick and cheap project - it only uses a yard of fabric (for the knee length skirt) and has three pieces:  front and back, which are the same, and one waistband piece.  Three seams and you're done!  It looked tiny, but fit perfectly.  The pattern is a-line, so I used the waist measurement to determine my size.  I made this from some very thin, drapey unidentified jersey I got at Vogue.  Because I didn't want to interfere with the amazing drape and swish at the bottom edge, I didn't hem it.  Sadly, I got a little over-zealous in my seam pressing, and stretched it out so much that it hangs on my hips!  But that didn't stop me from wearing it out for coffee with Alicia yesterday, which is why it looks wrinkled now!

 

waistband folded down

waistband unfolded - this is how I wore it

Yesterday I didn't sew a thing, but this morning I got back to it and made Dolman-Sleeved Top #2, in Girl Charlee's Graffiti Stripe Jersey in Tangerine.  I will admit that I spent a fair amount of time arranging my fabric so that the stripes would match, but even so, I was able to make this top in about an hour and fifteen minutes total!  That includes arranging the fabric, cutting out, sewing and ironing!  Upon completion, we headed over to Chinatown to get me the frozen yogurt I've been craving for two weeks.  Here I am in front of Joy Yee Plus, in my new tee shirt, frozen yogurt in hand:

I've got another piece of this fabric in navy and white stripe, which I'm hoping to make up this afternoon.  I'm also a sucker for dolman sleeves, so I really love this pattern!

Nook cover, v.3

Remember when I made this Nook cover for my mom?  We were both excited about it, because we thought it was so pretty.  But it didn't fit!  I hadn't realized there were different sizes of Nooks, so I made it to the dimensions of the first one that came up in my google search.

Mom told me the actual dimensions of her Nook, and I tried it again with the same fabrics.  And again I failed - too small!  I didn't even bother to send the second one when we figured out the Nook wouldn't fit inside.

But I promised, so a week or two ago I purchased this pattern from Craftsy, and this week I headed to the fabric store to get some new fabric to make a fresh start.  And on Thursday afternoon, I made this:

I chose this combination of fabric because my mom's favorite color is blue, and mine is yellow; and we both love flowers.  So I'm hoping she'll feel like she has a little piece of me with her.  I really hope this one fits because I think it's so pretty!

The yellow triangles work like photo corners to hold the reader.  The loop is made from a hair elastic!  And there's a nice big pocket on the left inside to hold papers and such.  Inside the layers is fusible fleece, which I'd never used before but now I love!  It gives the cover very nice padding, and doesn't shift around while you sew because it's fused on.

When I first downloaded the pattern, I felt kind of daunted, because it's 23 pages long.  But a lot of that is pattern pieces, which aren't necessary if you have a rotary cutter and mat.  It took me about as long to cut out all my pieces (fabric, interfacing and fusible fleece) as it did to sew the cover together.  I finished the whole thing in about 2 hours.  But remember - I iron and re-iron, and spend an inordinate amount of time admiring my work as I sew, so you could probably make it faster! 

The instructions were clear, and the pattern can be used for many different sizes of readers, iPads, etc. either in the one-pocket version I made, or with two smaller pockets. 

Despite my slow start, I really enjoyed making this cover!