A Cat (in a Hat!), a Purse, Some Laundry and a Case...

So I have been very busy with Seussical but I have actually gotten some things done. My daughter needed a little purse for school so I whipped one up for her. She was excited that she got to "go shopping" in the sewing room (her words!.

It's just a  little cross body purse (no, it's not wonky; I just didn't take the time to straighten it out before taking the picture). I put a little double pocket inside as well so she could put her ice cream money in it.

I also got brave and washed my Bottled Rainbows quilt. Well, sort of brave. I put 4 Shout Color Catchers in with it. Good thing too.

The one on the left is 'before' while the four on the right are 'after'. I also now have a few blocks that will need some touch up sewing. Oh, and it shrunk....more than I thought it would. So I'm back to working on the Carpenter Square quilt to be my bed quilt. And I will know ahead of time that 90x90 is too close to not fitting after being washed so it will have to be bigger than that. I have a sleigh bed so I need enough drop to cover the mattress on the sides.

Today I whipped up a cover for my Nexus 7. I FINALLY used my Georgia fabric! I started off with the Kindle cover tutorial from the Whipstitch blog (kind of cool since they're sort of an LQS for me...if you live near Atlanta, they're all considered an LQS even if it's an hour away!).

I followed the Whipstitch instructions pretty much with a  few exceptions. Pay no mind to my lovely hand reflection on the Nexus screen.

All 8" dimensions were changed to 9". So your big pieces were 12"x9" and your smaller pieces were 6"x8". I had originally cut this fabric out to make a laptop cover so I had already used some iron on fleece on some of it. I used one of these pieces to cut out ONE of the 12x9 inch pieces. I interfaced the other piece. I followed all construction instructions until I got to the part at the end where you have turned it inside out and are about to sew it closed with a topstitch. Just for the heck of it I closed it up at this point to see how I liked it. I didn't. The top was too soft to me so I decided to add some structure to it. I used some really hard cardboard (an old box Christmas cards came in) to cut out a piece about 1/8 to 1/4" shorter than that height of the left side, and about 3/8" shorter than the width between the left edge and the center. I slipped it inside and topstitched the left edge closed. Then I positioned the cardboard piece as far over to the left as I could get it. I stitched a line (you can see it in the picture) as close to the right edge of the cardboard as possible to keep it from shifting. This left me with about 1/2" in the middle; this makes sure the top cover sits flat on the device and isn't tilted.

This picture shows the pocket. Look close and you can see my ear phones tucked under there. The only thing that worried me about this design versus elastic edges around the device was that I can't reach the on/off switch, or the ear phone jack. But I figured out quickly that is wasn't a big deal to just pull one edge back as needed.

I just love it! Can't wait to get some use out of it!

A Tip for All You Bag Ladies Out There

Before I started quilting I made bags. Because of the costs involved in the hardware associated with bag making, I started looking for alternative ways of finding these jewels....NO, I didn't steal them! I just started taking purses apart!  Most of us have some sort of thrift store or Goodwill in our area. I would hit my local shop and buy purses from the markdown bin with loads of hardware in them. I have also done some demo on my own purses that are worn out.
Well, something new struck me the other day after the kids came home from the last day of school: backpacks! Yup, how many times have I thrown them away because they were so worn out and awful looking, but didn't take them time to check the hardware? This is what I took so far from my kids' book bags this year.

A zipper at least 12 inches long that can be cut down, 4 swivel clips and D rings, 3 slides and a slide release buckle. There are also 2 slides in black from my son's backpack. I haven't tackled his zippers yet. I will say this about recycling hardware: make sure it's worth your time to remove. If there are scratches and dings on it, if you wouldn't won't it in a piece you made, then don't remove it. All of my pieces were in great shape (especially in comparison to the bags!) so I took them all. With zippers, you can usually tell within the first couple of snips with the seam ripper whether or not it will be too dirty to worry with. Plastic holds up to a lot but zippers do get dirty. If it is only mildly dirty, zippers can also be hand washed. If you think re-using the zipper is not your thing, that's fine. But remember that only the center of the zipper is even visible in most crafts anyway so no one is going to know that needles have been through it before. And, yes my zipper's ends need to be trimmed but ends are hidden in most crafts anyway. You will just need to remember to sew the ends together on both ends so the zipper pull will not come off either end while your'e working with it.

It is also important to figure out how involved it will be to remove the hardware. My son's backpack has two zippers I'm still contemplating removing. One would be really great because it's long, but it's also really complicated getting it out.

What other hardware have I removed? O rings and magnetic snaps. Depending on where you get them, magnetic snaps can be very costly. When I purchase them, I usually hit Joann's because they have a brand where I can get 4 for the same price you would normally buy 1 for in other stores. I have not attempted it yet but you may also be able to remove purse feet (though these are more likely to be tarnished and damaged because of the wear and tear) and metal purse frames found on snap change purses.

Happy hardware hunting!