Dollie Who?

Finished this little one up last weekend.  Pattern is Dollie by Swoon Patterns (and it's free...BONUS!!).

She's a real quick sew and really cute!  Plan to do some sewing this weekend.  Just not sure how much or what.  Had a very long week at work, so really more in recovery mode this weekend than anything else!  Happy Friday!

New adventure...

Sew I stitched with leather for the first time over the holiday weekend.  I had picked up leather and some tools at Tandy Leather on Friday, and then finally did something with it on Monday.  I was so nervous that I was going to cut something incorrectly and ruin a piece, but I managed to get everything cut out with no major mishaps.

I used the Bonnie Bucket Bag from Swoon Patterns with a few modifications (no bottom strip, no outside zipper pocket).  I doubled up the interfacing on the cotton fabric so that it had a little more body and on more equal with the structure of the leather side (the other side of the bag is the same as this, half leather, half cotton).  Because I was working with white fabric for a bag, I did Scotch Guard all of the cotton before piecing the bag together.  I did interface the leather using the lowest heat setting possible and a pressing cloth.  I had a minor issue getting the rivets set on the strap, didn't account for using larger rivets, so they might be a little crooked on one side.  The top stitching down the center on the other side is also a bit skewed, but nothing that would prevent me from using the bag.  I did quite a bit of reading about sewing with leather the past few weeks, so I felt comfortable doing what I was doing.  With the purse strap, I cut two pieces and stitched them together.  To help stabilize the strap and minimize stretch over time, I put a piece of twill tape in between the two straps and anchored it with some FabriTac. 


So there you go...my first bag made with leather.  Now I just have to work up the courage for another, slightly  more complicated bag.  But first...some glitter vinyl is calling my name!

Finally a finish

Wow!  I actually finished a quilt over the weekend!  (and a bag too, but we'll get to that in another post). 


This quilt has been in progress (actually abandoned for a good while) for several months, it is for a family member of a co-worker.  They lost their fur baby and wanted the dog's pajamas turned into a quilt (the dog apparently preferred them to a blankie).  There was not a large amount of fabric to work with, so I added some soft solids in green, cream and brown that matched (all from my stash).  Here was the quilt top Sunday afternoon:

and then by Monday afternoon it had been washed and dried and was ready for pics:

and now this is off to it's final home!  and it's my first official quilty finish of the year!