Dragonfly Handbag for the Handbag Contest

I using another contest to drive me to work on a Christmas present.  I am making The Blossom Handbag by Amy Butler Designs that was on the Sew Mama Sew Blog forever ago.  It's from this book: Amy Butler's Style Stitches: 12 Easy Ways to 26 Wonderful Bags by Amy Butler

This is what the bag should resemble when I am done:

I have this adorable Olive Green fabric with a repeat of gold and red dragonflies on it.  That's the starting point.

Me Made Monday -DH installment

My honey has a new sweater!
The Finlayson Sweater from  Thread Theory Designs.  I'm thrilled with the results.

My biggest kudos go to the instructions and pattern markings for the neckline.  I was so thrilled with how perfectly everything lined up, and how easy it was.

I followed the Finlayson Sewalong and completed the sweater in 1 evening (cutting was complete the day before). 

This is a great project.

Autumn Koan

Suburbia Fall
Trash cans are our tumbleweeds
Dogs wear warm sweaters

Thrift Store Fabric and Findings

Several weeks ago, on one of my Value Village foraging expeditions I passed over a chunk of faux leather.  Hey, I thought as my hand ran over the yellow and brown mass, There's a Dinosaur costume waiting to happen!  And I moved on to some pink ribbing.

Overnight, I kicked myself for balking at the $5.99 price tag, and finally 2 days later I broke down and rushed over on my lunch hour to buy the fabric.  I reasoned that my 10 month old was someday going to be a 3 year old who would want a dinosaur costume.

And, the fabric became a part of my stash.   It was stacked on top of the bin that holds the remnants of my prom dress fabric (26 years ago) and some Nova Scotia tartan that I bought at a garage sale 5 years ago.

My stash in recent years has been augmented by thrift store, garage sale, and kijiji finds. I have been having fun with the penny fabric and making lots of little outfits for my niece.  I am severely limited in my disposable income, and my foraging provides a satisfying shopper's high.

Just a few weeks ago Patternreview.com announced a contest on their site that will run for 4, 1 week sessions.  Each week participants will have a set number of days to produce a project identified at the start of the block of days. I signed up for the challenge and when the first week's project was announced, an A line skirt, I started researching and pinning until I found the right combination of information and felt I could draft a skirt pattern from scratch.

Just before the contest project #1 announcement I spent a day shopping with my best friend, and dragged her to Danier and had her try on a bunch of outfits so I could vicariously experience the fashion I loved.  (Remember, I have a 10 month old).  When she caught her flight back home, a beautiful pair of leather pants in her baggage, I sighed sadly for more than one reason.

So I decided I needed to come up with something special for Project #1 and I was surveying my stash for a winning fabric.  Something unusual.  Something not too conservative. Something....

I wonder a little if the dinosaur skirt was meant to be:

My favorite new word is findings  and I have made it a game lately of buying up bags of buttons and zippers from the wall at Value Village.  I must have bought a bag of zippers from the same lot that the dinosaur fabric came from: there were two exact match zippers in my stash.  One is a perfect 20 cm invisible zipper.

48 hours until the submission "review" is due.  And I have a lovely dinosaur skirt.

Quick and easy curved waistband

Kudos to MellySews for the curved waistband cheat-sheet.  It worked!

• While trying on the garment measured the distance from the top of the unfinished garment to where the top of the waistband would sit - this is the width of the waistband.

• Measured the garment circumference at the waistline 
• Added overlap for the opening
• Divided waistline by 8
• Drew 8 rectangles 1/8 garment circumference wide x width of waistband tall AND
• Added a 1cm allowance on one side of the rectangles (for overlap for taping)

• Measured my waistline
• Subtracted my waist measurement from the garment measurement
• Divided the Variance by 8
• Overlapped the top edge of each rectangle by 1/8 the Variance

• Taped the overlapping rectangles to paper
• Used a Seam Gauge to draw in the seam allowance to draft the final pattern piece

http://makesomething.dritz.com/sewing-product-info/30-days-30-notions-sewing-gauge/#.VFkh8_nF95J

BzzAgent - Doing my Hair Nice and Easy!

I do BzzAgent stuff: I sign up and receive free products to try, and then I tell people about my experiences.  

This month I am testing:

 Clairol^® Nice ‘n Easy hair colour collection

This is my hair with no product - dark blonde / light brown.

I did this. - I don't normally do this.

It turned out like this.

What I learned:

1. You cannot expect to do this and not get some on you face, clothes, hands, towel, tub or baby.
2. You should make sure, AHEAD OF TIME, that the baby can't get into anything you would normally take away from him.
3. Time moves at an exponentially slower pace as you count-down 25 minutes.
4. This is not the time to multi-task, but I was able to sort the clean laundry and get it ready to put it away, and play with the baby.
5. Baby steps are best when adjusting your hair colour.  This was enough - it's a little reddish right now.  I am glad that it fades away.  There is an extended undo.  
6. I might do this again, but I didn't like the tingling on my scalp.
7. I am really glad I did a test spot first - I would have stressed about the tingling scalp if I hadn't made sure I wasn't allergic first.
8. I am SUPER GLAD I am also testing Sawmill Creek Wine (also #GotItFree) - Colouring my hair was a big step for me - but it really was Nice and Easy.