I am missing my sewing machine. I've seen very little of it lately. Life has a way of well, getting in the way. I found an adorable dinosaur tutuorial  that I've started on cause I think my little guy needs one! Check out this cutie here http://littleblackteapot.blogspot.com/2011/05/stuffed-dinosaur-with-sewing-pattern.html. I also made my son a sock puppy dog for christmas, also from little black teapot, it turned out so cute but it was waaay too much hand sewing for me!

*Here is where I was going to insert a pic of the sock puppy, but apparently I don't have a pic of him (can you believe it!?). So pic of sock puppy coming soon...

After Christmas

So I've been really busy with family and the holidays. I decided to go all out and give only handmade gifts this year, but, I started on everything way too late! I made it through though, and I really hope everyone liked their gifts.

Here is my baby boy excited about his new owl :)

 This guy is made from fabrics from the Riley Blake collection called 'Alphabet Soup'. I made his eyeballs smaller and I think I may prefer it over the larger eyes I'd been doing. I think I will be doing more of this one to add to my shop.

 Above is a 'Kindle' type ereader sleave that I made for my dad. The outer fabric design is made from printable fabric that you design with your printer and print. I used quotes and images from the book and I think it came out pretty neat! Of course I wouldn't sell something like this because of copyright laws ;)

I may be adding these to my shop soon, not made with the printable fabric sheets but pretty designer fabrics.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

Check out this beautiful treasury list on Etsy :)

Busy, busy!

It's the last minute sprint to finish preparing for the holidays! I'm busy getting all of my handmade gifts for family and friends completed. I'll post some pics after Christmas so I don't spoil any surprises ;) In the meantime check out my shop to pick up your last minute gifts. Make sure you read my shop announcement on the main page before you purchase to make sure your getting the type of shipping you need. I'll be keeping an extra close eye on things this week to make sure I can answer questions quickly and ship items out quickly.

Here is another Mini Wallet listed in my shop, these ship for free with the purchase of another item!

Cheers!

Mini Wallet Snap Pouch Tutorial!!

Okay, here we go, my very first tutorial. I think I'm ready. This little wallet pouch is the perfect size for carrying around your business cards, or it's also perfect for your ID, credit cards and some cash. This project is great for a beginner or occasional sewer. If you've never installed a snap I suggest you practice on some scraps first, using the same materials you will use for your project. If you don't have heavy fusible interfacing, you can use non fusible, or even quilt batting works just fine. Just remember if you use quilt batting that if it's polyester it will melt a little when pressed on the cotton setting, so do not press with the quilt batting until you've sewn and turned your project right side out- you don't want to fuse quilt batting to your iron or your ironing board! If you don't have a cutting mat and rotary cutter, thats also okay but you may find it easier to make a pattern to pin to you fabric in order to cut your pieces with sissors.

Supplies-

Outer fabric- 9 x 5.25 inches

lining fabric- 9 x 5.25 inches

fusible interfacing (heavy)- 9 x 5.25 inches

snap ( & tools to install)

scissors, rotary cutter, cutting mat, ruler

disapearing marker

coodinating thread

Okay, lets get this started!

First select your fabrics.

 Cut outer fabric, lining, and interfacing into 9 x 5.25 inch rectangles

If you want your wallet flap to have a curved edge, sandwich all three peices and fold in half long-ways, then cut a curved corner with your sissors on the end that will be your flap.

Fuse your interfacing to the wrong side of your lining fabric.

Now to pin your layers together. Pin right side of outer fabric to the right side of the lining fabric with the interfacing on the bottom. Pin across the bottom to mark an opening, you'll want to leave an opening for turning it right-side out after you stitch it together. If you curved your corners for the flap, mark/pin your opening on the other end of the fabrics.

 Start stitching at the end of your pin you placed for the opening, finish on the other end of the pin, using a 1/4th inch seam allowance.

 Here is how it looks when your done.

 Trim your corners, then I like to trim along the sides to about 1/8th of an inch. Don't trim where you left your opening.

 Now your ready to turn it right side out!

 Make sure your corners are pushed out nice and neat, a pointy chop-stick is handy for this.

 Now you need to press it and make sure everything is smooth. Press your opening nice and neat and even, you'll top stitch it closed. I do my top stitching about 1/8th of an inch from the edge and set my stitch length longer so the stitching looks nicer. Stitch all the way around.

 Now fold the bottom up about 3 inches and pin in place. Stitch right over the lines where you just top-stitched to secure the bottom of your pouch.

 Now it's time to install the snap. If you've never installed a snap before I suggest you practice first so you don't damage your project.

 Use your ruler to find the center and using your disapearing marker, place a dot where you want the snap to go on the outer flap.

 Now mark under the flap.

 You can purchase snaps with this nifty tool to help you install them, though the heads don't work well with it. There is also a pliar type tool that I may cave and purchase one of these days. Once you get the hang of it installing them is pretty easy, but I still ruin heads on occasion.

 All finished and looks pretty cute! I think I like a curved flap better though. Notice how you can see my dot through the snap head? It will fade away in a couple days, and if you use a solid colored snap you don't have to worry about it.

Pretty easy right? The green one below I curved the corners a bit on the flap. The great thing about this project is that you can play around with the dimentions. If you want a bigger pouch, just increase the size of your rectangles. So there you have it, if you try out this tutorial please leave a comment and/or post a pic and let me know what you think. Let me know if you have any questions.

*Thanks for checking out my tutorial! Don't forget to follow me :D

Psst... there is a tutorial coming... I'm a little nervous, it's my first. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, check out my new bag :)

This pretty purse features a 'mod' looking dots print from the 'So Sophie' collection from Riley Blake.

Oh, and below is what I'm doing for the tutorial, so excited!

I call it a 'Mini Wallet Snap Pouch'. Super easy and I think it's a great project even for beginners and novices. Can't wait to finish getting it put together!

Recent treasury lists curated by me :)