Triple Zip Pouch #8 and more

I've been scrapbusting again! I wanted to make a gift for a special friend who is retiring as of today. This friend has also been my hairdresser for somewhere around 25 years!! That's a heckuva lot of haircuts (and maybe a few perms back in the day)!! Today was my last one from her, sadly. In fact, I was her very last client.

She has always been interested in Jess's fabrics, so of course a gift made out of some of them was in order. I went to one of my favorite tutorials, the Triple Zip Pouch by Debbie Jeske (you can see some others that I've made here), and I chose Jess's Typography fabrics. So here you have it! Rather a fun combination, right?

It was so fun, in fact, that I decided to add something else... an Earbud Pouch by Erin (Erickson) Gilbey.

Then I thought about the cord wraps that are so quick and easy to make, so I decided to make one of those, too. I couldn't decide whether to make it reversible or not, so I made one of each! Ha!

I rounded the ends on the reversible one so that it wouldn't matter which way it was snapped... there would always be the round end on the outside, where with the other, if you reversed it, you'd end up with a squared-off end on the outside. Nothing terrible, really, but I like the rounded look better.

Then I quit. Here you have the whole set. She loved it. There may have been a few tears involved.

Love ya, Lori! We'll do that lunch someday and catch up on our cat stories again!

Sewing with Courtney - 4-H project

Hold onto your hats, folks... here I am with the second blog post in a week! I know - shocking, right?!

The 4-H Fashion Revue suddenly came around Tuesday night, and now I'm free to post the photos of Courtney's garment construction project! So let's get to it... here she is, cutting out a maxi dress! I even let her use my Martelli rotary cutter, which she definitely favored over the other ones I have (as do I).

She did all the cutting and all the sewing herself. I only gave some guidance, particularly with the pattern instructions.

She made faces at me occasionally as I was taking the requisite project photos. This is the only one I figured I could get away with posting. Ha!

There was some hand sewing in a couple of small spots. She's really good with the ladder stitch, since she's used it on other projects, too.

Probably the trickiest part to sew was the casing for the waist elastic, since it was inside the dress after the side and back seams were sewn. She took lots of care to make sure she didn't get any extra unseen fabric from underneath into her seams.

This is the pattern she used. It was a great one for sewing a first dress.

Here is her version. 

The fabric she'd chosen was a modal rayon, which was nice and flowy.

We had another windy day for our photo shoot, which was a bit frustrating, but I think it actually helped to show the flowiness of the fabric.

I should've had her lift her hair so you could see the drawstring that gathers the top and ties in the back. Oh, well... just imagine a bow under there. :)

She paired it with a white vest for the Fashion Revue, and here she is modeling it. She took top honors for her construction!

Also for the Fashion Revue, she modeled a purchased dress. I think this outfit is just so adorable on her!

Her last outfit was a "recycled" one that she put together. It also got top honors. So cute, huh?

That's it for the Fashion Revue, although she did play piano in between the modeling, but I could barely see her, so I have no photo of that. Courtney has lots of other projects for the County Fair, both for 4-H and open class, but I didn't help with those and don't have any photos. The dress-making kept us busy enough this year. :)

Gadget Guard #4

I bought something for myself a couple weeks ago. I don't use my PC much anymore, instead doing almost everything (except blog posts, which unfortunately I can't do) from my iPad. When it comes to lengthy emails or something requiring a fair amount of typing, I get tired of the ol' two-finger method, and I finally decided to check into getting a keyboard to use with the iPad. I found a nice one on Amazon, battery-operated and with Bluetooth. It didn't cost as much as I expected. Here it is.

I love it, and it works great! I don't use it all the time... just for the lots-of-typing stuff... but when I do, I find it very helpful.

I'd been meaning to make a new Gadget Guard for my iPad anyway, because the only one I have that really fits it is this one, which is useful for around here, but it's not very classy, y'know? So I decided to make one that would fit the iPad and keyboard together, and I used this barkcloth designed by Jess awhile back. By the way, this is the front pocket, after I'd pleated it. Can you see the pleat?

Yes, there's a pleat in there, although it's slightly off-center. It's also somewhat narrower than what the pattern calls for, in order to make the design line up, but that's fine, as the iPad charger is small and doesn't take up much room. It took some thinking about how to get everything to line up right... it kinda twists my brain every time I get to fussy cutting something like that, but it worked! Here's my new Gadget Guard, completed.

I love that the pattern is customizable for any size gadget. See what a nice snug fit it provides?

Since the keyboard is only ¼" thick, the iPad still fits nicely by itself, too. Of course the Gadget Guard is padded with foam (Soft and Stable, in this case) to provide protection.

Here's a closeup of the barkcloth. I just love its texture!

The Gadget Guard pattern is by Dog Under My Desk. As always, I highly recommend Erin's patterns. They are absolutely the BEST! I've tested a lot of them, and I know how much work she puts into them and how she does her best to make sure her customers (even inexperienced sewers) end up with terrific looking bags! Incidentally, she's working on a new pattern for a zip-around wallet that looks pretty fantastic! It'll be ready for testers very soon (this week?) and available for purchase hopefully before the end of the month. Watch for it!

Now just for fun, here's my photography assistant, a.k.a. my bestest photobomber! If you follow my Instagram account (grandma_g415), you've seen plenty of pics and videos of her.

She's 9 weeks old, beautiful, crazy-fun, and I love her to pieces. And she currently lives in the garage... even though I swore I'd never have cats/kittens in the garage again. Ha! Long story. ;)