Thursday, January 23, 2014

Made Myself... An Anything Organizer (for sewing supplies)

Today starts my new blog series call "Made Myself..." It is going to be all about the things I make for myself. Yeah!

Tomorrow I am heading to Camp Misty Mountain to be all girl scout leader-y for the weekend. The nice thing is that it is an all adults trip and my awesome co-leader Amanda is coming this year. The down side is that it is camping in January. Even though we will be in cabins, with projected lows of 19ish I will be packing lots of tea and sweaters and scarfs and well you get it.

We got to pick what activities we do this weekend. And me being me, I choose all crafts all the time. While packing up all my goodies for all my crafty classes I was like "why don't I have something that holds all this crap?" (If you know me you know that crap is my universal word for everything and I am working on just accepting such things about myself). I travel with this crap for classes and events (like this weekend) way too often to not have something better than a plastic bag or a tote bag with all this floating loose in it.

In answer to the eternal crap question, I made an organizer. I made one a couple of weeks ago as a sample for a class but it is living over at Sheepish right now and I think may end up with a permanent home there.

I started with three fat quarters and an idea.  I pulled out all the stuff I wanted to organize aka carry around.

Scissors, a chop stick, rotary cutter, pins, clothes pins etc.....

I figured out that the longest thing was the chop stick. Essential for turning things inside out and poking corners.

And I figured out that the widest things are my easy hem and button guage.

I did not take a good picture of the process but I laid everything out and drew on my pockets based on what I wanted to put in said pockets.

Then I sewed the top lager of pockets to the bottom layer (gray to red shown here) and then sewed the red layer down to the backing fabric.

I also wanted to have a flap to cover everything and a way for that flap to be held down so I added a loop of elastic and a button. Here is how it looks open.

Here is how it looks with the flap closed. Everything all snug and secure.

Did I mention that I used 3 fat quarters and two layers of interfacing?

I wanted this organizer to be stiff like a notebook. So there is interfacing on the backing and inside some of the pockets.


The outside also has pockets foe things that I might need to access easily and a large pocket on the back to hold a notebook. The closure is velcro.

This weekend will be a test run of actually using it, and I hope it is as handy as I planned for it to be.

Now... what should I make next for myself?

Peace Out Peeps!
C

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Back in the blog again.


Oh you poor sad neglected blog!! 

I posted this picture so you would cut me some slack. Well and maybe so that I will cut myself a little. I could go on and on about all the boring drama I have been dealing with and why I have not been writing in ye old blog. But who wants to read a whiny list?

So lets move on to fun plans! 
- Paint. I have needed / wanted to paint for years and now I have to so lets do this.
- Tile. My 2nd floor bathroom's wood floor also got destroyed so I have to replace it. I am thinking tile. And while I am at it I am replacing the tile a few other places in the house. You know so it looks like we planned it that way. 

January was supposed to be the month of ME. Is it karma telling me I don't deserve time to re-group?  Part of me says yes, but another part of me says crap happens! Put on your big girl pants and deal! So the remaining bit of January and all of February are going to be "The Month of ME!"

I am going to do the projects I want to do. And not just because they might make me some money. Well ok I will make some headbands, but I have not made them in a while and I do want to make them. I am actually going to make some things for myself!! Like I really want a big comfy flannel nightgown. It has been stinking cold and all I want to do is stay home in my jammies. Well why not be cute and comfy?

Any way... I hope you are having a resolute January. And that you are getting some crap done!! 

I plan to be back in action and blogging more fun projects. Lets just hope life quits getting in my way. 

Peace out peeps! 

- C