puppets

Butterick pattern 4209

I made these puppets for one of my grandsons.  They were so much fun to make!  Since I'm a kids' librarian, I love puppets and I use puppets all the time in my story times.  I'll never grow up because life is so much fun with kids (especially grandkids).

A few more tote bags I've made in the past

Past Projects while waiting for sewing machine repair!

front                                                                              

I made this small purse from a piece of fabric in my stash. It is denim with embroidered details and a few sequins. It's a nice size to take to a conference or shopping or anywhere that I don't feel like carrying a regular size purse. I put 2 pleats in the bottom and elastic on the top of opening. This way it's not a flat purse and I can actually carry quite a bit in it.....wallet, keys, cell phone, sunglasses. It has two pockets inside for cell phone and whatever. I even put a pocket on the back where I can slip notes to myself, tickets, etc. For safety, the strap is long enough to cross over my shoulder to opposite side. If I don't want to carry it on my shoulder, I tie a loose knot in the strap to make the strap shorter to carry by hand and it still looks cute.

I really like the fabric and I have a lot left. I don't know what I originally bought it for but I like what I did with it. Back to the stash bin goes the extra!

 
 
 
 
                                                                                                                   

                                                   

Oh no!

I had to take my new machine in for repair.  I tried to use the buttonhole function for the first time and it doesn't work!  I'll probably be without it for at least a week and a half.  Will I survive? 

Finished!

I finished the cowgirl/western backpack!  I made a couple small changes to the Chloe pattern.  First, as I mentioned in a previous post, the bag was too small so I added another piece above the strips.  Secondly, the pattern called for gathering the top of the bag and sewing to a band.  But, I thought it might work better with a drawstring so it can be opened wide to put things in or find things more easily.  I enjoyed making the backpack and I will probably make another one someday. 

side/front view

view under flap

                                                                                          back of bag

Backpack

I am working on a quilted backpack.  The free pattern can be found at http://www.pbtex.com/PBTex_CHLObakpak.pdf .  It is called the Chloe Quilted Backpack from P&B Textiles.  I really like the sample bag but I decided to use a different color theme.  I chose reds and blues that resemble a cowboy/western theme.  After sewing the strips together, I thought it was going to be a little too small so I added an extra rectangular piece above the strips.  The quilting is plain straight line machine quilting on a diagonal.  After the quilting, I don't know if I really like quilting.  It seems to me so boring to sew numerous straight lines over and over.  Maybe if I had tried some freestyle quilting I would've enjoyed it more.  Even though I have done a lot of sewing throughout the years, I have only done one quilting project and that was an easy log cabin pillow.  I hope to finish this project in the next couple of days and I hope I'm not disappointed.