Little Snap Pouch.

Just a small update here on a little snap pouch I made. It's super simple, and you can find the instructions by clicking here. I used sew on snaps instead of ones you have to set, so I sewed a little button on the front to hide the stitches. As to why it's been so long, here are my lame excuses: I have been somewhat busy with projects that pay the bills. For now sewing is purely a hobby, but I do some other things that people actually pay for and they come before the fun stuff. The other lame excuse is that I am super lazy. I tend to go through hobby phases or cycles and sewing just sort of dropped off the radar. but last night I just had to make something, and here it is. Hopefully later this week I will come back with something else, maybe even a video. Stay tuned.

Dotee Doll Fever!

Here's another little project I whipped up over the weekend, It's a Dotee Doll, which is, if you are unfamiliar, a little.. simple.. doll thing. I don't know, but they are cute as hell! You can google them to find out more about them. Anywho, I guess people usually name them and stuff, so this is Maple, a tree sprite. She is named after someone's character I used to role play with online. Geekitude. So yeah, here she is. About 3 inches tall without the hanger or tail, made from fabric, thread, ribbon, beads, and a touch of colored pencil on her face. I can't really post a tutorial because I just winged it, but I'm sure there are eleventy billion online.

Gidyup Buttercup!

Yesterday, I made a buttercup bag, and this video to go along with it.



The bag itself wasn't that hard to make, there are a few minor mistakes on it such as the seam holding down the pleats is viable beneath the band along the top, and the band itself is wrinkled in one spot, but it came out a lot better than I thought it was going to. Here are the photos at the end of the movie for a better look:







As you can see, after I finished recording I added some decorative buttons to the band of the purse. I remembered my sewing machine had the ability to sew on buttons and I thought I'd give it a try. It took over an HOUR to sew on all three buttons. I'm about 90% sure it was my fault, but NOTHING would go right as I tried to do this. I popped out the manual and thought I was following it to a T, but the threads ont he underside kept making huge loops and catching, and there is NO way to tell this until it either catches or by waiting till you are done sewing on the button. I must have blown a mile of thread trying to get it to work, and every time it did I have NO idea what I did to make it work. I just kept adjusting and re-threading again and again, and through some sort of ancient faerie magic, it would accidentally work.

Now, I know what you are thinking, "After the first one was such a pain in the ass, why didn't you just hand sew the rest? It takes like, 3 seconds." Well I thought of that. And the answer is: it was a challenge. haven't you ever started doing something that was supposed to be very simple, but it was giving you such a hard time you just HAD to finish it? There was no way I was letting that machine win. It was sewing me some buttons, if it was the last thing it ever did.

Tea Time!

Hey guys! WOW it is cold out there. I think winter has finally kicked in, now all we have to do is wait for the snow. I used to live in Ohio where it snows just about every winter, in huge amounts. You could go a month plus without ever seeing the ground. Here, on Oklahoma it snows a little bit, but what really hits them hard is Ice storms. Overnight, the sky coats the land with a sheet of ice meant to spell everyone's doom, yet somehow they make it through. Nothing is safe from this deadly encasement of frozen H2O, not the streets, the sidewalks, trees or cars.. we've had to spend an afternoon chipping away at the ice on the Ion just to be able to get the door open and see out of the windows. Yes, brutal ice storms are not enough to keep the Rugged Oklahoman indoors, no-sirree. But I'll tell you what is. Friggin' Snow.

Like I said before, Oklahoma doesn't actually get much *snow,* or at least it didn't used to, so I hear. However, every year since I moved here, it has just Avalanched snow at least once per winter, sending the entire state into emergency lock-down quarantine doom until scientists can wrack their brains to figure out what this really, really cold wet stuff is outside that somehow isn't a 5 foot thick layer of solid ice. Cities literally shut down for just a few inches of snow (no joke, it snowed about 4 inches a few years ago and businesses were closing, no one dared to go out). The sand machines (Really guys, sand?) were working full tilt to try to make the roads passable, while in Ohio the SALT trucks were actually melting the snow and ploughing the way. There are hardly any snowploughs here; they never used to need them so as soon as a few flakes fall, car accidents go up 100,000% and no one has a single clue what to do. It's actually kind of amusing.


Anyway, enough of that. Look what I did!



I know, right? it's a tea wallet! I had no idea what that was either, until I got to the bottom of the little tutorial and it all made sense to me too. Here, let me give you a hint:



I KNOW right?? What a great idea! You can take your little teabags with you to work or wherever and they are all together in an adorable little pack. I think I know some people who are getting these for Christmas. The last is a picture of it empty. it looks a bit more wobbly than it is, I actually made this a few days ago and left the tea bags in it, and they wrinkled the fabric a bit. Anyway, I'm super proud of it. Maybe I'll make one for a giveaway? Hmm?

Not Dead

Still here guys, totally not dead, I swear. The problem is I am pretty bad at filler posts and I haven't sewn anything else! Aside from my SUPER SECRET PROJECT! Which I need to edit the video of an post. You got me there.

With a limited income it's hard to get the materials to sew things I'd really like to try. I recently sold a table to someone who WASN'T a murderer on craigslist.com and got a few extra bucks which I am going to spend on supplies to make a few more of those t-shirt bags, experimenting with the style a bit. I *REALLY* like them and if I can get any good at them I think I'd like to try selling them, especially if I can work out this whole screen printing thing and actually create the design on the bags myself.