I found this great Alexander Henry print after reading Last Minute Patchwork Gifts (which is fantastic) and falling for the whole cloth quilt that’s in the book. I finally got around to putting the quilt sandwich together at the last craft night (yee haw! red wine and sharp scissors!).  The back turned out pretty good–if I do say so myself.

everything wasn’t so wrinkly when I put it together I swear. It’s been folded up in my bag waiting for me to attempt the hand quilting. Anyone have any advice?  The baby isn’t even born yet (no, mom, I’m not pregnant) so I’m way ahead of schedule. For once. And if the olympics keep sucking me in and making me stay up waaay past bedtime, then it’ll be done it no time.

Now that I have an etsy shop I find myself at the post office more than ever. Along with all the packages I have to carry I have a stroller to push and a toddler’s hand to hold.  The packages are always weird sizes and never seem to fit in a paper bag, so I came up this handy dandy post office bag. It’s just a long piece of fabric with some handles and pockets, but it works like a charm. The pockets are sized to fit a long envelope and there is one on each side. I put my receipts, my stamps, and my custom forms in the pockets so they don’t get lost in the bottom of my purse or the diaper bag (which they usually do).  I figured since there are so many etsy sellers there must be a lot of you who have this package transport problem (kids or no kids) and so I wrote a simple tutorial for this super easy bag. It shouldn’t take more than a couple hours from start to finish. And if you make one drop me a line so I can see!

post office bag tutorial

materials

• 1 1/2 yards heavy duty fabric (I used some home dec fabric I had on hand, but canvas, denim, corduroy, or even twill would work)
• a little more than 1/2 yard interfacing (somewhat stiff)

• thread to match

directions

CUT:

1. two 18″ X 40″ pieces of fabric
2. one 18″ X 40″ pieces of interfacing
3. four 3″ X 18″ pieces of fabric for the handles
4. two 7″ X 12″ pieces of fabric for the pockets

SEW:

1. fuse or sew the interfacing to the wrong side of one of the large pieces (this will be the lining)
2. with wrong sides facing sew each of the two handles together
3. turn out and press
4. find the middle of one of the handles and fold the long sides in to meet and pin
5. continue the fold 4″ out from the middle on either side and pin
6. do this to the other handle and press both
7. your handles should have a 8″ folded part in the middle and the ends will still lie flat
8. sew concentric rectangles on the folded area to anchor it down
9. stop to admire your work
10. take the two pocket pieces and fold the short sides in 1/4″ and press and 1/4″ again and press
11. do the same on the top and bottom
12. sew the across the top of both the pockets
13. pin the pockets 5″ inches from each short side of the outside piece.
14. sew the pocket on and reinforce the top two corners (with an X or a triangle)
15. pin the handles to end of the lining, right sides facing (you should see the fold line)
16. place the outside piece on top of the lining right sides facing (pocket should be down) and sew all
17. around with a 1/2″ seam, leaving an opening for turning out
18. trim the seams, turn out and press
19. topstitch all around
20. create a bottom by stitching large concentric rectangles equidistant from both the handles
21. that’s it! you’re done! off to the post office…

To see any of these pictures in more detail, please go to my flickr site. If there are any problems with this tutorial, please tell me . It turns out it’s much harder to explain how to make this bag than it is to actually make it!

I’m having a hard time getting back into the swing of things after vacation.  It doesn’t help that my basement studio, which I thought (as I froze my fingers off sewing in december) would be heaven in the summertime, is stuffy and airless. Not pleasant one bit.  So most evenings I’ve been reading in the air conditioned bliss of my bedroom.  I did manage to sew up these two cuffed pants for two brothers. When my good friend had her second baby I started making a baby quilt just because that’s what you do when a baby is born, right? Well, after cutting and piecing some and loosing faith in my design, I realized this mama doesn’t need another baby blanket. Because once a baby is born everybody makes one, so you end up with 10 and then you go and have another baby and another 10 blankets show up on your doorstep.  So I thought I would make some pants for her boys instead. She gave me some sweet japanese prints for the cuffs (you can see them better here and here). I’ve never really been drawn to cutey cute fabrics, but the japanese somehow make cute things a little sophisticated–well with fabric anyway. The fit on both is way off, but we’ll just say they’re for growing in to.  The little ones are big but fine. I used a shorts pattern for the bigger size and just lengthened it and now they are super wide leg and a little girly.  I’ll see how they fit and maybe take them in (wow this is thrilling. are you still reading? congratulations).

I’m a little low on inspiration these days, but you my dear readers are full of it (ha!). So leave me a link to a blog, a photo, an article that has made you turn off the computer and work (or play).

thanks!

This is what all those little things on my desk became–a toy bag for little people. It’s up in the shop along with another toy bag (puzzles) and there are more on their way.  This week was making stuff for the shop week and though I’m pretty excited about this new design, not much more than that got done.  I only ventured down in my studio about half of the evenings I was supposed to–I’m a crappy boss to myself I guess.  But there are somethings cut out for the shop that I really want to finish (city skirts and county skirts too!), so I’m just going to keep at it next week. After that we’ll be off to the middle of nowhere on vacation. A whole week! without the internet! I’m guessing there will be cable in the cabin so that kind of evens out the time suck factor. There will also be an enormous lake so I’m not expecting to get much done, but that is the point of vacation anyway isn’t it?

on my desk. wednesday.