The HUGE Birthday Bag

Just for the record, I have been working on my big sewing list. I’ve actually made more than just the book tote tutorial in my previous post. Here’s one of my recent finished items:

This bag was for my cousin’s birthday. The pictures don’t really show just how big it is. I’ll have to ask her to take a picture of it. It’s HUGE. I wanted to put my cat in it, but Dickson shook his head and said that she would be displeased…

It’s a Cinch Book Tote Tutorial

This book tote is a slight design update from the Trader Joe’s book tote I made awhile ago. The freely moving handles slightly cinch the bag when filled. These instructions are for the fabric version. I may eventually add notes to make the TJ version, but I’m in no mood to rip out all that heavy duty stitching right now. It’ll be up eventually, promise!

Anyway, enjoy! As always, feel free to ask questions, point out typos, etc. And do share pictures if you make one! PDF download to follow soon. This tutorial is for personal/gifting use only.

Out of the Sewing Rut!

Since I’ve been SUPER lazy with the sewing since I got back from Spring Break, I signed up for the Bend-the-Rules to Sewing swap. I figure a deadline and well defined project would make for a much needed kick in the butt.

The project for this swap was the Pleated Beauty Bag. Here’s the final product:

The exterior is made of some corduroy I got at Joann’s and some unknown pink flowery fabric I got at the quilt shop. The fat quarter I got didn’t have the part of the nap that would tell me what fabric it was. <sigh> Oh well.

Fish is Good, Stress is Bad

It seems like ages since I last blogged. It seems like eons since I sewed anything. But, I have recently spent some time with my grill:

Dickson and I grilled some fish with my little Smokey Joe that I bought for Labor Day. The fish came from Costco–three HUGE rainbow trouts. We ate two, and saved the third one for the next night’s dinner. They were delicious!