Wildly Excited About . . .

: : :Laptop Sleeve: : :

I fell in love with this colorful fabric at Joann's, and knew right away that I wanted to make a laptop sleeve with it. :D So after browsing through hundreds of laptop sleeve patterns online, I decided on Lindsay's tutorial from her blog, The Cottage Home. She has an awesome blog, and so many cute tutorials! I especially loved her laptop sleeve tutorial. :) Excellent instructions and great pictures. I am happy with my laptop sleeve. It slips right into my black and white sling, and will be great for lugging my laptop to school. :)

: : :A Thrifty Find: : :

I found this blazer at Goodwill for $7. It will be perfect for interviewing! Am so excited! :D My outfit with the dress and blazer cost a grand total of $37! Not bad, eh? :)

*I know the pants in the headless pictures don't match, lol . . . was just hoping they would ... got 'em at Goodwill, too, lol

: : :Book Bag: : :

I used Amy Butler's Sunday Sling pattern for this bag. I made the smaller version, which ended up being 18" wide, about 13" tall, and 2.5-3" deep.

The only change I made to the pattern is that I quilted my fabric to batting instead of using fusible interfacing. The pattern instructions get a little confusing in some parts, so you just have to go by the illustrations most of the time.

This bag takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. if you quilt your own fabric . . . however, it is definitely worth it. Quilting the fabric makes the bag look so nice and finished. :)

This bag turns out to be super sturdy, and will make an excellent book bag. I love it! ;)

handles

outside pocket

front pleat

cell phone pocket

I have used this pattern before to make the larger bag--the 23" bag. After having made both sizes, I believe I prefer the smaller bag.

A comparison :) The larger bag would make a great weekend travel bag . . . if you do that sort of thing. Maybe someday I'll take a weekend trip somewhere, and will have a chance to use the larger bag. ;)

Now I'm anxiously waiting for school to start so that I can use my new book bag! ;)

: : :Afternoon Skirt: : :

What's a girl to do when she needs a basic work skirt for her new department store retail job? She spends the afternoon sewing one up, of course. ;)

back--linen gets so wrinkly, lol

inside--zipper

inside hem

hem

 Butterick 5466, view C--a basic skirt pattern. There's not much to say about this pattern other than that it's fast and easy. Cute, too, of course--and a great wardrobe builder. ;)

I made a size 10, and used linen (which I found in the remnant bin at Joann's!). It came together nicely without a single hiccup--took me about 3 hours from start to finish. I made no alterations to the pattern, other than foregoing the belt that view C is pictured with. I like and highly recommend this pattern.

: : :Little Brown Jacket: : :

 

Boleros and little jackets. . . I just love 'em. <3 Okay, now that that's outta the way, on to my review for this cute little jacket.

Pattern Description:  

Cute little jacket, fully lined, and fairly loose fitting

Pattern Sizing:

I made a size 10

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Yup . . . pretty much

Were the instructions easy to follow?

 Super easy

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? 

I love the way the pieces fit together on this jacket . . . very different and fascinating to me ;)

Fabric Used:

--Linen for the fashion fabric 

--Quilter's cotton for the body's lining--it has bags of coffee printed on it! I love coffee...so this lining is officially awesome

--Slippery lining (it's name escapes me ;) ) for the sleeves

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: 

Because I made a size 10 to accommodate my broad shoulders, I ended up taking a slightly larger bust and side seam allowance. I also added a little clasp to keep the jacket from blowing open--it's super windy here. 

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

Haven't decided if I want to sew it again--there are so many cute jacket/bolero/shrug/cardiagan patterns out there! However, I very highly recommend this jacket! As my brother would say, it's sweeeeeeeeet . . . . lol

Conclusion:

Love, love, love this jacket. I can't wait to wear it. 

Quick note about my sleeves--> I wasn't originally going to line the sleeves because I hadn't done that before, and was feeling lazy. However, after nicely finishing the lining on the inside, I realized that I had done a sloppy job with easing in my sleeve caps. So reluctantly (very reluctantly) I unpicked all the serging and seams holding the sleeve caps in order to re-ease the sleeves in. Several hours later, I decided to just go ahead and line the sleeves. I mean, why not, right? So I did . . . and I'm happy about it. The jacket works much better with long sleeved shirts. Plus, I have that happy little feeling that I finally got around to lining the sleeves in something. ;)

lining meets sleeve (this was before I decided to line the sleeves)

pretty little clasp

sleeve hem from the inside

my first sleeve lining! :D

yup, I'm wearing my new hat, too

And there it is . . . a cute little brown jacket. =)

: : :My New Hat: : :

lining

 Three things in the fashion world make me very happy--boleros, scarves, and hats! When I saw Vogue 8405, I knew I had to give this pattern a whirl.

I made view C, size small, in off-white linen. I did not use hair canvas for the interfacing, but just went with heavyweight interfacing. In the end, this hat could probably use a little more stiffness, so next time I'll probably use hair canvas as the pattern envelope suggests. (between you and me...I didn't feel like going out to buy hair canvas ;)

This hat took about 4 hours to make . . . . However, I do have some gripes with this pattern. The instructions were vague and sorta lame in my opinion--you just have to kinda go by what feels right, and rely on the illustrations. Also, maybe it was just me, but on piece 8 of the pattern (the piece that is attached to the crown), it clearly states that the seam where you sew piece 8 together is the center back. In reality, the seam should actually be on the left side--and not the back. This caused me 25 minutes of scratching my head in confusion. I just went ahead and put the seam on the side, and it doesn't seem to have drastically affected anything. As other reviewers on pattern review did not mention this, it was probably an error on my part. I hope I'm making sense. lol

For the brown band, I serged up a 2" strip of chocolate brown linen (instead of ribbon) and just folded it so the serging didn't show. The finished band ended up being a little over an inch wide. What makes this hat fun is that you can change the band anytime with minor effort to get a completely new look.

Anyway, other than some minor confusion about where the center back was on piece 8, this was a pretty easy hat that came together quite nicely. I rather think I'll make it again sometime soon. :)

: : :Computer Bag: : :

My dad found this old computer bag, and gave it to me! My laptop is a 17" monster--thus it never fits in any normally sized backpacks or laptop bags. So. . . it fit in this bag, and that makes me happy!

However, the bag is rather boring looking. Therefore, I decided to embroider something on it. 

before

other side--before

my inspiration

unlimited thread!

drawing the elephant

beginning to stitch the elephant's outline

a little personalization inside the bag :)

all finished!

 

the front of the bag--the bee was my mom's idea :)

 

the back of the bag

And there you have it . . . now the exterior of my new laptop bag is snazzy...sorta.... :)