Spring is in my sack

Well, I did as I said I would and tried to make a spring-y bag to brighten my mood. This is a big fat version of the Charming Handbag from Bend the Rules Sewing. I just drew a bigger version of the books pattern instead of enlarging it with a copier. I needed a bag that would be big enough to stick my computer in.

I pieced together some Amy Butler fabric with some pinky corduroy for the outside of the bag and added some of the velvet ribbon that I bought last week. This is a perfect example of what you can do with 1.5 yards of ribbon but not with 1 yard. As I said before, I was accidentally sold the latter, thus my bag only has ribbon on one side. I just make sure to always carry it with the ribbon facing out.

The bag is ok but I would probably recommend against making this style in a large size like this. It's a little too droopy when it has a lot of stuff in it. I made the suggested, small version of this pattern for a Christmas gift and that came out really well. I think it would work better to try a larger bag that was slightly wider but much deeper. Next time!

PS I made button holes in the lining to feed the handle through instead of making a casing. This is what I did before. Someone suggested it in the Bend The Rules Sewing Flickr group. I think it's a great idea.

No Flowers In My Hair

So...I didn't have work this past week, an unexpected break for an unexpected reason that's kind of stinky but not the end of the world. So to look on the bright side of things and take advantage of this little bit of time off I flew up to San Francisco to visit my sister Leigh for a few days. Going someplace by myself I've got two items on my agenda: eating good food and shopping for fabric. Check and check.
First there was yum, yum, yum and yum.
Then I did a little high end shopping here:

Bought myself some bits for a baby quilt I'm planning out for a new baby in the family.

I also bought a whole mess of velvet ribbon. I couldn't resist, they were all so beautiful and I think that they're even more beautiful in a group! The super bum here was that I asked for a yard and a half of each but didn't realize until I got home that the girl only gave me a yard of each. She charged me correctly but a yard just isn't quite enough to be really useful.

I also did a little low-end shopping and brought home an abundance of thrifted zippers and rick-rack, all for less than one yard of that velvet ribbon.

Quite a score. I also had plenty of chances to play with my new camera. Check it out.

At long last

Necessity has pulled me from the non-sewing doldrums. My new computer fits nicely in the "Pleated Beauty" bag that I made. It's quite convenient for toting my laptop to work and back along with the rest of my crap essentials. Unfortunately, as messy as the insides of my purses tend to get I'm afraid the computer may get a bit dusty.

Instead of an entire bag for the laptop I made a little zip-up sleeve that will just slip right into my purse. Initially I planned to make a larger version of this DS case with a few improvements to the method of construction. It worked but I'm still not in love with the pattern.

I do love the finished sleeve however. It's made from some wool suiting with a foundation pieced patchwork panel and Peltex to give it form and a little bit of padding.

I realize that these aren't the most Spring-y fabrics and I feel like I should have some of that cabin-fever that seems to be going around lately. It's very difficult to feel that way in LA. The changes in the weather are so slight and gradual that it feels like no change at all. Instead you just feel a stagnant blah. At least I do. So, sorry not to inspire you with some happy color. Perhaps a new beauty bag is in the cards. Maybe a little yellow could force some sunny feelings out of me.

You Too Can Smell as Good as Me!

Still no crafts. The only thing I've worked on recently is some socks that have turned out to be a mini-craftisaster. Too big. Must be frogged. Bah.
I just wanted to share a little bit of tastiness I bought from my pal Marianne. Along with some super hip video game themed prints and Blythe doll clothes, her Etsy shop now offers a soap-of-the-month club. Each month will have a new, gender-neutral, season appropriate scent. February is the first month and my bar of oatmeal muffin soap was hand delivered the other day. (Sorry, hand delivery is not available in all areas...I work with her husband.)
The soap is great and I think that maybe Harv loves it more than I do. I believe his exact words the first time I used it were "That smells so f***ing good." A glowing endorsement if I ever heard one.

Hello?

Internet, no! It can't have been three weeks since we last talked! Please, give me another chance, let me back into your life!
The sad truth is, I've been doing next to no crafting in 2008. I know! It's a super stink. Life just hasn't been very craft conducive lately. Work has been great, but tiring. We've had lots of family in town, also great but also tiring. And now I'm sick. I spent all of yesterday on the couch. For real. I literally did not do a single thing yesterday but lay on the couch napping, snacking, tv watching and interneting. Today I feel a tid bit better so I ventured out to the farmer's market with Harv to buy some tasty French pastries that I was seriously craving yesterday. Well worth the trip.
Since we last met, my mom came in to visit and go to the Annie Awards with us. I lost, by the way. That was lame. But I'm still quite pleased to have been nominated and I couldn't have lost to anyone more deserving than this guy, our good good friend Eric Towner, so it's okay.
Then I had a birthday, February 13, the day before Valentine's day. It's quite a birthday to have. I think it has a lot more character to it than a lot of other birthdays. I'm pretty certain I share it with this little crafty blogger who I'm sure you're familiar with.
Then Harv's family came for a visit and by Harv's family I mean his entire family, parents, all siblings and all spouses here at the same time. They are nice nice people and we had a great time introducing them to artichokes and living room karaoke. Harv's mom made me a cozy new quilt for my birthday, perfect for sick day snuggling on the couch.
Oh, I know you're so bored by all of this. I'm sorry! I've just missed you, is all. I want to tell you everything! But I won't. Here are some things for you to look at instead.
For my birthday, Harv gave me this:
I know next to nothing about photography but I'm trying to learn. Today I took some pictures around the house. Everyone loves to see pictures of other peoples homes, right? That's what I thought.

We'll start you off easy, with somethings I know you'll like. Such as: fabric, waiting for me to not be sick.

Wonderful Wee's!
Vintage sewing machine.
A big ol' mess.
Cuckoo! This was a Christmas gift from Harv's parents, a memento from our trip to Germany last year.
View from the front of the house through to the back, living room, dining room and kitchen.


Living room is a bit misleading. The couch is where I've been doing all of my living. Living couch seems more accurate.
Bathroom doorknob. Our house was built in the 1920's and I assume these doorknobs are original.
Drippy bathroom faucet. So bad, I know! We need to do some handy man-ing.

2007, The Year in Stuff

Stuff I made, that is. It's only a month into 2008 and really, how can I be expected to have all of 2007 wrapped up the moment it's ended? Why do you think we don't pay taxes until April? You need time to get your shit together! It's just impossible for me to sum it all up when I've been too busy living it.
So here it is, I call it: All the Stuff I Made in 2007.
(You can see full sized pictures of everything above here.)
You may hate me for saying this but I feel like there should be more. I know that some of you may think that's foolish while others of you may scoff at my meager offerings but it's strange to see one aspect of your year all laid out in one place. It feels very different to look at it all in a pile like this than to be living it and making it. It all seems so small when I look at it as a group, with a little distance. I would love to make some sort of graph that compares my crafting accomplishments to the other things that happen in my life and see how the two are intertwined. Maybe that should be an on going project for 2008, a crafting progress report. I keep a spreadsheet on my computer of the number of seconds that I animate each day at work. I really love seeing things represented in numbers like that. Is that too nerdy?
Well anyway, I give a fond farewell to 2007. Happy New Year!

What?

Wait, what's today's date? It is? Huh. Well I guess I blew that one. So my New Years posting mojo kind of petered on me. Don't worry, you won't get gypped out of my 2007 round up. Let's just tie up a couple of loose ends here.
First, a cart. It's from Ikea and I decoupaged pieces of wrapping paper from the Paper Source onto the drawer fronts, top and sides before assembling it.

I was planning on bringing this to work to keep my crap in and wheel from stage to stage but in the end I decided that the decoupage was a little too delicate for studio life. Instead it's staying home and holding different crap in my craft room.
As you can see, Stabone really digs it.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is my very last craft of 2007.

It is a baby quilt for the little boy that a friend from high school will be having this year. She had a shower on December 30 so I chose a project that I could complete after my Christmas gifts were done but could be finished before the shower with mostly hand work since we would be in Minnesota for the entire time with limited access to a sewing machine.

The idea to hand quilt around large motifs in the fabric came from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. The quilt in the book is very girly with large flowers. I had a hard time finding a fabric that would be suitable for a boy but still cool and not too cutesy. I don't like cutesy. I bought all three fabrics(front, back and binding) from Sew Mama Sew. You can find them here.

So, sorry for the long lag in updating, we've been very busy with work. Season 3 of Moral Orel is going to be incredible. People, this is a great show. You probably don't watch it but you should. The first 15 episodes are available on DVD and I know you have Netflix so you have no excuse. You can also see clips and some full episodes at the Adult Swim website but it's really best watched in sequential order so get to work on that DVD now so you can be ready when season 3 airs! AND! I just check iTunes and all of the episodes are there but not in the right order. There's an episode guide here if you're actually interested.
And if you want to see some more stop-motion goodness, Harv produced some animation for a Soulja Boy video recently. I laid low for much of the production (I was making Christmas gifts) but I did make the costumes for the puppets. I'm pretty clueless about what's happening in the rap world (I assume that you're hip to it though, right?) but apparently Soulja Boy is quite popular with the kids these days. So check that out too. I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure you people don't have nearly enough stop-motion in your lives. It is by far the craftiest type of film making, in my opinion.

Wait! I'm Not Done Yet!

What to do? The Old Year is slipping further and further away and as much as I want to wish you a Happy New Year, I haven't finished talking about 2007 yet! Ack! I love seeing so many "year in review" posts on all of your crafty blogs and I intend to join in on the fun, I just need to share a few more things so that they too can be reviewed. So I believe I've got three more items to share which means ETA of "Liz Harvatine Shows You All of the Stuff She Made in 2007" is Saturday, January 5. That's not so bad!
Today's gift:

Neck warmer for my Mamacita. The pattern is from Knitty. I used some sort of Merino, I'm sorry I don't know what, but it was very soft and squishy. This baby was pretty fast and fun to make and, I think, an elegant alternative to bulky scarves.

Mother and Baby

*Oops, not McCalls, the pattern is Butterick 4944.*

More Christmas gifts...bear with me.
On my last full day of Christmas crafting before returning to work, I was feeling short on time and short on ideas. There are a couple of ladies in my life who needed gifts but I just hadn't come up with the perfect fit for them. The longer I spent brainstorming ideas the shorter my list of possibilities became. There was much pressure to pull the trigger on something, just to get the ball rolling. Yeeps...stressful! But in the midst of gift making panic, I found some calm in an old familiar pattern.

The "mother" is a (I think) McCall's pattern that I first used for a traveling bag last Spring. The "baby" is my own smaller version of the pattern that I had made for a much needed Summer purse.

Didn't someone say that marathon gift-making is not the appropriate time for trying out new patterns? Well I certainly can't say that I adhere to that rule but it sure does feel good to make something familiar. You don't have to keep double checking instructions, you know which steps can be glazed over and you know exactly how it's going to turn out. These two bags just flew through my sewing machine.

A happy Christmas

Alright! We've done it. Christmas is over and it was great. Harv and I are in Minnesota, spending the holidays with his family. So you know what time it is...it's time to share more handmade gifts, now that they have all been given. My sister gave me a hard time because she saw this shopping bag on my blog before receiving it. How about that? She reads my blog! Who knew?
So now that it's safe, here's the full body shot of the sneak peek I gave you earlier.

It's a western shirt for Harv's mom, Dar. Along with being a very crafty lady, Dar is a bit of a cowgirl at heart. The pattern is McCall's (I'm sorry I don't have the number!) and the embroidery patterns are from Sublime Stitching.

AND, guess what Harv got me for Christmas!

A MacBook Pro, and just in the nick of time! My old laptop is crapping out big time. So Merry Christmas to you and Merry Christmas to me too!