yet more zipper blobs...er, i mean bags

My sewing machine has seen a decent amount of action in the past half year. It's recently made a pencil skirt from some old jeans and a set of five pillows (two with flanges and two bolsters).



But, of course, its mostly been used for zipper bags. I departed from my curvilinear direction with my current bag. It's bottom is a Cheerios box cut into a rhombus sandwiched between two layers of felt. Its sides open completely to help me find phone when it gets lost. There are two pockets sewn into the top seam that just fit my phone and iPod.




I also made a new purse for my mother. Her black and red felt bag has been pilling for awhile now and driving my father nuts. So, new bag. I've been scared to try to force leather through my very basic sewing machine, but, while at Mood getting pillow fabric with my friend for her apartment, I discovered their section of light weight upholstery ultra-swede. I found a nice light gray and combined it with bright red zippers for a aummery bag. I also, for the first time, messed up while cutting the fabric. One side of the bag turned out much shorter than the other, making the zipper misalign. To fix this, I had to cut a deep curve into the short side of the bag (making the edge longer). And thus my first asymmetrical bag was born. I'm pretty happy with its final shape, and it's given my motivation to come up with a systematic way of producing asymmetric (but equal length) curves. The zippered pockets are an actually planned improvement.




I just made and sent out a gift package to (finally) thank Erik and Marty for, well, being them. Included in the box were these two belt-bags, specially sized to fit small electronics. Just thread a belt through the two slots and you're all set.

audacious

I visited my family for the 4th of July. A couple of friends (who are a couple, and one of whom comes from hometown) were going back so I hitched a ride. While at home, I reconnected with my childhood stuffed animal-lizard, Bodacious. A little backstory here is probably necessary.

The Tale of Bodacious

In first grade, and every grade thereafter, my school ran a D.A.R.E. anti-drug program for a couple months in the fall. This particular year, we had a cute little frog mascot/puppet. The police officer who came in every week would have conversations and do role playing with it. That must have been really embarrassing for him, but we all loved the frog. Then, one day, the program was over and the frog went away. We were heartbroken. So I, in a fit of I-don't-know-what, volunteered my mother to make us a new frog.

My mother, who in addition to being a fine seamstress is also a wonderful person, agreed to make the frog. However, the fabric store did not agree to actually carry patterns of frogs. They did have a pattern for a lizard, so a lizard I was going to get. Along with my childhood babysitter and "adopted" grandmother, my mother sewed and painstakingly assembled my lizard out of stretchy gold lame (my favorite fabric at the time). It took them half an hour to turn each toe.


And thus Bodacious was born. Named for the old fashion Southern slang term and not the word (don't ask me why I knew about this at six, living in Pennsylvania), she was my friend and companion for many years and has mellowed to a faded copper color.



Anyway, during my stay at home I decided to bring Bodacious back to NYC with me. This gave my mother ideas, and, shortly after we all got back from our Florida vacation, she mailed me the original pattern. So, of course, I made a new lizard.

This one's name is Audacious (yes, cheesy, but it goes with the -acious theme). She's constructed from a layer of knit lace over top of raw muslin. I decided to use wooden balls for eyes as one of Bodacious' plastic ones has gotten gouged. Pics below:




And I discovered Find Edges. Finally, a Photoshop filter I don't immediately hate.