I’ve been thinking about making this pillowcase for a long while now (a lot of my posts start like that I know, but it takes me a loooong time from coming up with an idea to actually executing it).  It’s wrong in many ways: the size is off, the pocket is a little too small, there are too many pattern pieces, and for some reason my camera refused to focus on it.  But at least the idea is out of my head finally. I wanted to make a small pillowcase with a patchwork pocket–my scraps box is literally overflowing–and a little friend to go in it. I made it in linen because linen pillowcases are awesome and because little heads seem to sweat a lot more then big ones, but if I sell these, which is the plan, they would be too expensive in linen. So maybe I’ll do some simple embroidered linen ones and do the pocket pillowcases in cotton.  The pillow is about 15″ by 7″ (or something like that). I like to use these little ones for my kids. They fit nicely in a crib and my daughter, who is in a bed, likes to have a big one and a little one. Does anyone else use these? Should I not make little ones and just make the standard size? I need your insight here. Go all out and tell me what you think of this. Good or bad, it’s incredibly helpful.

I am still stuck on a name for the bag in the last post. I’m leaning towards “the finder’s keeper,” which 2 people suggested or the much simpler “the little bag.” I’m going to visit my family for 10 days, so while I’m internetless in the woods I’ll think it over. Thank you for all your suggestions: I think I might start calling my purse my “cache stash” because it’s so awesome.

I’ve been thinking about making another kind of bag for my shop and I came up with this one. It’s a little wonky, but it’s just a prototype so whatever. The bag is a lot smaller than my other ones (here a photo for scale) but I’m thinking it could be even smaller. I embroidered some details on the bag that I really like: a running stitch along the whole strap and a hand sewn buttonhole.

The button I wanted to use didn’t fit in my automatic buttonholer, so I had to do it by hand. I was going to do a hand bound buttonhole, but that just looked too complicated and too fancy for a kid bag, so I just used a blanket stitch to go around the buttonhole. Ta da!

I was thinking the bag could be for all those tiny treasures little ones find walking down the street. But “tiny treasures bag” is a little twee, so I need your help. Leave a comment with a better name for the bag and whoever comes up with the best one wins the bag. Sound good? Go.

seems like the friday thing to do. have a nice weekend!

1. IMG_2696, 2. milk, 3. felt, 4. Mr. Radish, 5. old jersey, 6. boat, 7. log cabin baby blanket (folded), 8. birds for fan, 9. Atari Teenage Rabbit

Obviously, I am still behind with the one quilt project, but after a long afternoon in my studio I think I’m almost caught up! The square above is for Sarah (of the small object fame) and it is my absolute favorite. It’s not so big–probably 8 or 9 inches square–but damn those triangles shrink up when you sew them all together. She said she liked Yoshiko Jinzenji, so I picked one of the quilts from “Simple Quilts” and, well, copied it (hey, anyone know if you can still get this book anywhere?).

This little red and white number is for Amy (aka buraellen). She wanted a bit of woodland embroidery, so I copied this deer pattern from a vintage dishtowel I have. I’ve always like his flower crown. In the original there is whole wreath of flowers around his head, but I thought it looked a little much, so I left them out. This square came together quickly and painlessly.  Quilting (as a whole) looks deceptively easy, but it is very much not easy and I think I need some friendly old ladies to teach me.

This last one was a second attempt and a sad one at that, but the first one, oh you really don’t want to see that one. I was running very low on Chara‘s beautiful orange fabrics that second time out–hence all the sashing. I hope she likes it or if not maybe she’ll let me have a do-over.

And January is on my lap right now, waiting for me to finish the embroidery. It was supposed to be sashiko, but it’s looking a lot like arglye at the moment (dammit).

After my small success with the japanese bag pattern, I thought I’d tackle a more difficult japanese pattern. This pattern is from the summer 2008 edition of Cotton Friend (I got it on etsy here). There was a picture for every step, which made it feel a little like cheating (even though I had to read the steps top to bottom and right to left which was totally disorienting). Why can’t all patterns be made for visual learners like me? The armscyes were a little tricky and I have about 5 messed up necklines cut out, but I figured it out and it fits! There is a matching pattern for mama in the magazine, but this mama is pretty pregnant so I think matching my kid would look extra silly now, but maybe next summer…

A friend of mine started a blog a while back called darts and tarts, documenting her (and her friend’s) mad clothes making skills–like this awesomeness–so go check them out.