Rae Dual Zip Crossbody bag

Wellllll… I seem to be farther behind than I thought I was. Would you believe I made this bag last June?! BUT, the reason I didn’t show you right after I completed it (not procrastination this time) was that it had to remain a secret. Until OCTOBER! It was a pattern test for Linds Handmade Designs, and it was for her first-ever pattern for the Bag of the Month Club, which was pretty exciting! If you’re not familiar with the BOMC, it’s a subscription where there are three (sometimes four) different designers’ patterns released monthly, one at a time. You buy them all at a discounted price, not knowing what they are until the month they’re released to subscribers, and they can only be gotten through the subscription (until they’re released 3 months after their subscription month). Linds was the last designer in that subscription, so her pattern was for the month of October, but it still had to be completed and approved before the subscription started in August. I was excited to be able to test and get to know ahead of time what one of the BOMC patterns was! 

Here’s my tester version of Linds’ Rae Dual Zip Crossbody bag:

The pattern was a bit of a challenge, thus not listed as a beginner pattern. The most challenging part for me was sewing the curves on the outer front and back, because there was some thickness there. But the pattern had lots of tips for getting it right, and it was totally doable.

The fabric I used for the exterior was one of Jess’s barkcloth designs from a few years ago. In my usual fashion, I had to do some fussy cutting and print matching. It nearly blew my mind thinking how to get it just right, but I was successful!

Underneath that flap on the front of the bag is a hidden zipper pocket.

The bag is divided into two compartments, each with its own zipper. It also kind of blows my mind wondering how Linds figured out how to design such a bag, much less write a pattern explaining how to make it! My mind sure doesn’t work like hers does! Ha!

Inside one of the compartments is another zippered pocket. (I remembered to add my label - yay!) The inner seams are bound, but not to be feared… they’re done in a very easy, no-fail way, and they turn out looking great!

This is a very nice size bag, and I love it! 

Here are just a few progress photos I took along the way.

Yep, it was work putting it together, but so worth it!

That subscription is over and the pattern is now released for anyone to buy, so if you’re an experienced sewer or even an adventurous beginner and want to give it a try, you can purchase it here. The pattern includes a very helpful video tutorial, SVG files, and even projector files.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon, because I have some Christmas sewing and another pattern test to show you!

P.S. If you have a little one to buy an Easter gift for, or just want something cute to decorate for Easter with yourself, Courtney has some adorable chicks listed in her Etsy shop now!

Crafting with Courtney - NEWS!

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a “Crafting with Courtney” post! Like ten years?!?! How can that be??? She was just a baby when I started this blog, and now she’s 18 and a high school senior, and that blows my mind!

Even though I haven’t posted about her crafts lately, she’s still been busy. She has been crocheting for several years. I’ve been the lucky recipient of some of the things she’s made, one for each of the last three Christmases. I got this adorable caterpillar first:

The next year I got a sea turtle:

This past Christmas I received a panda:

I love them all! They snuggle together on my bed every day.

The “NEWS” part of this post is that Courtney has opened an Etsy shop to sell her crocheted creations! 

It’s called ByCourtneyCrochets, and you can check it out here. I think her little animals are all so adorable - I’d like one of each! She’s working on more, building up her inventory; now she just needs buyers. They’d make awfully nice gifts, so if you know someone who’d love one (or like me would just like one for yourself), how about grabbing one of these handmade cuties? 

Courtney is a very talented entrepreneur, and I’m so proud of her! Please help spread the word about her little shop! You can also follow her on Instagram - @bycourtneycrochets.

And I am a great procrastinator (okay, you already knew that)! I’m rather behind on posting my latest sewing makes. They’re on Instagram, and I will probably eventually stop blogging and just stick with that, but for now… I’ll keep hangin’ in here and hopefully catch up. Soon. Hopefully. 

Monarch Mini Crossbody Bag #2

 How’s this for a different look to start my post?

So adorable, right?! 💕  This is Waffles, and she belongs to Courtney and her boyfriend. I took that photo on the day they brought her home, because I was lucky enough that they stopped by our place on the way (at my request). She’s just the sweetest little thing! She’s a Cavapoo - a cross between a Cavalier Spaniel and a Poodle. She seems to have gotten more of the cava part and not so much poo, because it appears her hair isn’t going to be very curly. 

Then I got the idea that her “parents” (their word, not mine!🥴) need a dog-walking bag to carry all the necessities. Since I’d made a Monarch Mini Crossbody Bag before (see it here) and enjoyed that, I decided to make another. Courtney chose the fabrics, and here is the completed bag:

I think she made great choices, and I love how it turned out! It can be used as a crossbody bag or, as shown below, the strap can be attached to the triangle rings on the back to be made into a waist bag.

The mesh pocket holds a small water bottle, and the pocket on the other end holds a roll of poop bags that can be fed through to access one at a time.

I happened to have zippers that matched perfectly…

… and even the lining fabric from Jess’s Typography fabric line matched nicely. (And I remembered my label - yay!)

Here’s Miss C and the “baby”, modeling the bag. I wonder if she gets carried more or walks more. Ha! She’s not very heavy to carry. She’d almost fit inside the bag! ☺️

The pattern, by Dog Under My Desk, can be purchased here.

Cross My Body Bag

I guess I’d better quit procrastinating on finishing this post (I uploaded the photos over a week ago), since I already have another project completed. I definitely enjoy the sewing more than I do fighting with Blogger and writing about it. Ha.

This is the Cross My Body Bag from the pattern by ChrisW Designs. It’s the first pattern of hers that I’ve sewn, and it was great; well-written and easy to follow.

The pattern called for quilting the exterior fabric to foam. Now, any of you who know me know I’m not a quilter. I’ve quilted a few pieces before, but mainly as parts of a bag. I really didn’t want to do just straight-line designs, and I know I’d make a mess of free motion quilting, so after thinking a bit and remembering my Catch All Caddy, I decided I could quilt on the designs that were already on the fabric. BUT, the question was would I go nuts doing all that on the fabric I’d chosen from Jess’s barkcloth collection.

So I started with just a gusset piece, which wasn’t very big. It went okay, so then I did the other one. Before I knew it, I’d done all the pieces and found it not to be that bad a job. It went faster as I got a sort of rhythm to it. I was quite pleased with how the quilting looked.

Here’s a nice view with the light showing off the quilting:

I wanted a sturdier fabric for the bottom of the bag, so I chose a solid canvas. I couldn’t figure out how to easily transfer the same design as the rest of the bag, so I just made up my own design. I appreciated the curved rulers I’d bought awhile back in creating this design.

For most of the sewing I used my old Kenmore machine, but the Sailrite LSZ-1 did all the topstitching, beautifully, as always.

The main reason I chose this pattern was that it had a recessed zipper at the top that was closed at both ends. If you’re familiar with recessed zippers, they usually have an open space at either end of the zipper, and if your bag happened to tip over, things could spill out. So I wanted to learn how this new technique was done.

It really wasn’t hard to do, and I like the security it gives the bag. Because of the thicker fabrics I used (lining is waterproof canvas), I wasn’t able to topstitch all the way around the ends at the top edge of the bag, so I stitched as far as I could and then added a couple of rivets at each end. That worked out well.

Here are a few more progress photos. There’s a zipper pocket inside.

Here’s a bit of a view of the backside of the quilting, plus the padded phone pocket that’s on the exterior back:

The interior and exterior were sewn together and then turned through a pocket.

A lot of sewers like to staple a lot of their more challenging seams together to hold them until sewn. I haven’t really liked doing this and prefer to baste them by machine, but these thick ends made it too hard to do without the fabric slipping, so I gave up and stapled them, which helped a ton. Of course then the staples had to be removed after sewing the seam.

In one of my sewing groups, this stapler puller was recommended. It’s one slick little tool, and I love it! It works like a charm, and it’s also magnetized so the staples stay right there instead of flying all over. I got mine from Amazon. It of course works with paper and everything else you might put staples into.

Here are a few more photos (tap on pic to enlarge). There’s a hidden zipper pocket on the front of the bag behind that accent piece, and there’s the padded phone slip pocket that I previously mentioned on the back.

It’s a nice size that will hold a lot of stuff.

The one thing I notice about this type of zipper opening is that it limits your access to the bag, where the other type of recessed zippers allows for a much wider opening. Just something to keep in mind if you consider making this bag… so it’s easy access vs security.

Like I said, I have another project completed. I just need to get a modeling photo before can post. So I’ll be back… sometime.

Just the Ticket Luggage Tags #2

Over eight(!) years ago, I wrote this post about some Just the Ticket Luggage Tags I’d sewn from the pattern by Uniquely Michelle. I had occasion to make some more recently, so here they are.

I started out by making that center one out of waterproof canvas, thinking it’d be nice if the tags were waterproof in case of being out in the rain. However, that fabric was a little too thick which made turning them right side out extremely hard, so I knew I didn’t want to make four more of those! I then remembered some laminated cotton fabrics I was given by a friend who was cleaning out her stash, so I decided to try one of those, and that worked much better. The remaining four are made from those fabrics, making them still pretty waterproof.

I once again used the printable PDF file Jess made for the ID cards, and it is still available here.

I enjoyed making these, and I may have done a bit of print matching… because that’s how I roll.

These were still a little more challenging to turn than quilting cotton would’ve been, but still doable.

So these pieces…

… became these:

They ended up going with Courtney and her mom (as chaperone) on a school Culture Club trip to Europe in June… Italy, Greece, and a cruise to the Greek Isles! Here is one of the many pics she sent.

Yeah… where have the years gone?! She’s officially a senior now! She’s still a kitty-lover, though, and she said cats were plentiful over there.

What a great traveling experience they had!

In going back to the post about the first luggage tags I made and reading through the comments, I realized I forgot two things. First, I forgot to add my little label to these new ones. It’s not the first time I’ve forgotten that! Ha! The second thing is that I totally forgot about the request for a couple of luggage tags. That was a long time ago, but if you see this, Kristin, and still want them, I’d be happy to make them. Just contact me.

Now I’m about to get back to a sewing project I’ve already put on hold twice, once for the luggage tags and once for a pattern test that for now has to remain a secret… until October!! I sure wish I could show you now, because it turned out very cool, and I love it. But I’m sure there will be several other projects in the meantime that I will be able to show you.