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.

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.

Erin is responsible for most of my daughter’s summer wardrobe, this year and last.  Her tutorials are easy to follow and super adaptable. I made a bigger size of the Twirly skirt this year, but it seams my daughter didn’t grow that much so I guess it will fit next year too.  Though I’m sure I’ll want to make another one when next summer comes around. I’ve got some more summer clothes for her in the works, but not much planned for my son. Are there any good, stylish tutorials or patterns for boys out there, beside the ubiquitous “easy pants?”

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve been asked to make the pattern for my kiddy messenger bags available for purchase. I would love to do this, but worry about copyright and pattern bootlegging (ha!). Do any of you sell PDF patterns? And if so do you have any advice on the subject?

I wish I could say I just whipped this up, but it actually was kind of a pain with my pregnancy brain. It’s from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross which I was lucky enough to get at the library–the wait for it now is a year, I think, and for good reason it’s an awesome pattern book. I tried to make a kimono like this from Martha Stewart when my kids were infants and I could not for the life of me figure out the directions. I think the pieces are still cut out somewhere waiting for me to get a clue. These directions had a little mistake in them and the more I looked at them the more confused I got.  Finally I gave up and then of course I figured it out: all it needed was a tie on the inside (the directions make it so all the ties go on the outside).

And voila! The fabric is a really lightweight denim or chambray maybe–is chambray just a really lightweight denim? And it’s this lovely gray/black/navy bluey color. I got tons of it at a mill end shop and I love the way it drapes and wrinkles a little like linen.  It’s supposed to be gender neutral, but I think it looks a little on the boy side, so I may just whip another up because I could whip it up this time.  I made the bias tape  (another reason this project took longer than it should have) and while I was at it I made more to finish the dress I started last year.  Well at least it still fits her.  Just.

I was going to make a dress that looked just like this, but then my muddled pregnancy brain got in the way and I cut the fabric on the selvedge instead of the fold. Then after picking out another lovely piece of fabric I did it again. Amazingly I didn’t just go upstairs and eat chocolate, but instead picked out fabric that I had yards and yards of so I could continue to screw up and still get a dress out of it.  And ta da! I cut on the fold (yay!) and used the elastic thread that’s been sitting in my drawer for over a year. I used Erin’s sunny dress tutorial, but stopped after 5 rows of shirring because I liked the baby doll shape of the dress. I never did like the straps that tie (even though I know they are super useful) so I made thicker straps instead. Then high on my one success, I made my son matching shorts. They are a little longer than shorts–board shorts? short pants? long shorts? everyone has a different name for them. I think they are just cute as hell.

oh and thanks for all your comments on the last post. I guess I’ve never read the comments on apartment therapy before. I didn’t know they liked to get down and dirty. I wasn’t hurt at all–everyone’s entitled to their opinions–but I think I may put a disclaimer on my blog about using my photos (to be fair, AT did credit me, they just didn’t get the facts straight) or maybe even have an edited version appear in RSS readers. How do you protect your work?