Vintage Zipper Wristlet

Thank God September is over! I have never been so happy to get a month behind me. I am much more relaxed now and I find that relaxation breeds new ideas in my head.
I have been toying with a wristlet design in my head for a while. And after a quick perusal of my fabric stash I finally found the inspiration I was looking for. My Nannie's stash. My Nannie is 84? 85? I'm not sure, but she is as sharp as a tack and I think I get a lot of my creative urges from her. She owned a dress shop in the 70's and 80's and recently bestowed upon me her very extensive stash. As you might suspect, there was a lot of vintage fabric that should really stay in the past, but there where quite a few yards of some really good stuff too. And since the crappy month of September was not as lucrative as I had hoped, I am really starting to dig through it all. I came across this red and green fabric and this brown polka dot fabric that I thought would be perfect for a little wristlet. I added a few pleats to the brown stripe and put it all together with a zipper. I love it. I think I am going to dig a little deeper into Nannie's stash to see what other treasures are in there.

Spotlight: Sandyland Creations

Oh Halloween! How I love you! Especially now that I have small children of my own to dress up as I please. I custom ordered these adorable Peter Pan and Tinkerbell outfits for my twins and they turned out great! They are really well made and sturdy and I think my kids will enjoy them for quite a while as dress up clothes.
Oh sure, I could have made them myself, but I'll be the first to tell you that clothes aren't my thing. And by the time I had bought all the stuff and the patterns and fit them to my children, I would have spent the $40 it took to have someone else make them for me.
So if you are in the market for some cute costumes for your kids for Halloween, I highly recommend Sandyland Creations!

The best laid plans...

Well, just to keep you all updated, the festival that I had been working long and hard for was a complete wash...literally. Saturday was nothing short of a downpour for most of the day. Sunday didn't rain on us but there was rain all around us and that I believe drastically affected the crowds. Add that to the fact that we are in a recession and what you end up with is a whole lot of not much. On the up side I met some great new vendors, learned a lot about tents and their ability to keep you dry ( or not dry in my case), and even met a blog reader! I even got a couple custom orders. So I guess not a complete wash, and I have plenty of stuff for the upcoming Christmas season.
Right now I am concentrating on spending some quality time with my kids who I have been pretty much ignoring for the last 2 weeks before the show, and spending some quality time with my broom and duster who I have also ignored for much longer than 2 weeks. Ta Ta for now! :)

Me and my Pfaff

Have I told you about my sewing machine? No? You are one of the few. It's a running joke in my family about how much I love my machine. My kids will often say ( with help from the hubby) "Daddy loves Mommy, Ella loves Daddy, Jack loves Thomas ( the Train) and Mommy loves Pfaff!"
I do love my machine. It is a Pfaff 260 and has been passed down to me from my mother who got it from her mother who got it as a gift from my grandfather on Nov. 11, 1961. Actually, I have 2 of them. My Mom bought her own sometime ago, but lucky me ended up with both of them. You really don't get more vintage than this machine. It was the top of the line in home sewing when it came out and I can totally understand why. It is a cast iron casing with all metal gears. I think it is actually classed as a semi-industrial machine and has been used for many years in garment factories.Really, the only thing that has ever been done to it is a belt change ( the first of which came just a couple years ago) and a motor cleaning ( done only last year). You could say this machine is one hell of a workhorse. My grandmother sewed nearly all of my mother's and aunt's clothes on this thing and even made herself a beautiful leather coat.
I do have a few fancy stitches. They are totally reminiscent of the 60's style and I love them. It can also do monogramming and embroidery just don't ask me how. The one thing this machine doesn't come with is a computer program to do all the work for you and I really appreciate that.I once took a beginning sewing class and was totally offended when the lady teaching the class audibly scoffed and snickered when I told her that "my machine doesn't have a automatic buttonhole setting, it's a 1961 Pfaff " I did however fell redeemed when I went to a quilting class ( at a different establishment) and a couple of the ladies in there had their vintage portable Singer machines with them.

It was during these classes that I realized that not having all of those fancy buttons and settings has really taught me how a sewing machine works and has made me a better sewer in the end. So for any of you out there who are looking for your first machine or a workhorse to really knock out some sewing, look around for a good old-fashioned Pfaff. After a good oil and clean, she'll run forever.

Shakerag Festival this Weekend

4 shoulder Bags
5 large totes
5 quilted purses
4 handbags
3 pleated bags
8 wine bags
7 lunch totes
6 pillows
10 cuffs
12 zip pouches
6 kids' backpacks
15 Halloween and Christmas Gift bags...
I feel like I'm missing something....oh yeah!
YOU!

Hope to see you out at the craft fair this weekend!!! Booth 136!


P.S. Thanks to Jess, my partner in crime, for the great pics of our booth at the Hatch Market a few months ago! ;)

One week to go....

One week from today is the start of The Shakerag Festival in Peachtree City, only my second craft show. Really, my first busy craft show. The Shakerag Festival is in it's 34th year and always draws a good crowd, so I am really excited.
Therefore, I have really been trying my best to build up some extra inventory and of course everything in the world has happened in the past 3 weeks so now I am really feeling the crunch. So, my poor sewing room has bore the brunt of my creative chaos and I actually had to take an evening and tidy up because anything and everything was getting lost the second I walked through the door.
Some really great perks of that though is that I discovered that the self-induced fabric diet I have been on lately has been paying off since I am pretty much left with only solids and small print fabric ( this means I get to do some major shopping soon! )
I also found all the zippers I have purchased in the past just in time to make pouches and lunch totes.
On the downside, my scrap pile has really gotten out of control. See that trunk under all the fabric? It's full of scraps too. I'm not sure what to do with all of this. And don't say "make a quilt" because I also have 3 quilts in various stages of completion that I haven't been able to work on in months. I'm thinking the big pieces will get organized and all the little stuff will make great beds for the kitties. Maybe they will quit sleeping on my fabric if I make them a bed.
Oh. I also made my own new business cards because I didn't realize I was out until it was too late. I think they aren't too bad for some do-it-yourself cards, but ordering some better ones is definitely in the near future.

So, that's it for now. Maybe my sewing machine has cooled off enough for me to get back to work. I hope to see some of you out at the festival!

I'm all professional and stuff

SO I made my own tags for my bags today. Don't they look good!? They were really easy to do. I thought they would be great for labeling Christmas and birthday gifts or for using to label all of your kids' stuff for school without using a Sharpie.
All I did was get a roll of cotton twill tape ( which I had laying around and I'm not sure where it came from exactly) and some printable Iron-on transfer sheets. ( Go to an office supply place they are much cheaper than JoAnns or Hobby Lobby). Then I designed my tags on Photoshop ( but Word would do fine). I made them to fit onto my labels. Then I copied my logo many times to make rows on the 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. Make sure you space them far enough apart to cut. Flip the image so it is backwards. Print out the sheet on the transfer paper , cut into rows, then iron onto your twill tape. Voila! Tags! I got about 30 out of a sheet.