Bend the Rules

I’ve recently found my love for sewing again. First, you have to understand that I love fabric. I have a fabric stash that almost rivals my yarn stash. However, I don’t sew nearly as much as I knit. This is for a few reasons; a) sewing isn’t portable unless you are hand sewing, b) I don’t have an area set up where my machine can stay out, c) my machine is slowly dying.

The thing I’m not mentioning is there are also several projects that didn’t turn out so well. They all seem to center around Anthony too! first I tried to make a pair of pajama pants without any butt or crotch space (I couldn’t be cramping my man!) then I made another pair, but accidentally made a children’s medium instead of adult medium. Then I made a robe that ended up way to large.

I ended up fixing the pants, and the robe is waiting patiently for the day I feel confident enough to pick it up again. That day should be soon, because Bend-the-Rules Sewing has changed my sewing mentality. I checked out from the library around Halloween, promptly devoured every word on each page as much as possible and quickly schemed ways to make several of the projects.

In one weekend I made the coasters, a lined zip pouch and the pleated bag. I’ve been using the bag as my purse ever since and the zip pouch now holds all of my knitting accessories. This book quickly went on my holiday gift list. Plus if you want to see some super cute photos of other projects, check out the flickr group.
While I don’t have pictures of any of the projects I just listed, I do have something to show you.

This is the simple tote and is about to become my new lunch bag. (I know, the one in the book has apples too, but I loved the original so much!)

I’m so happy with how all of these projects has turned out, and it’s inspired me to actually start thinking about arranging my studio so my machine can be out and I can teach violin. However, the end process will involve painting and much furniture moving, so it probably won’t be for another few weeks.

The inside of the bag has a little pocket. Now all I need is a matching napkin to take along!

On a totally different note, I forgot to tell you that I did catch up on all the blogs! Bloglines has been officially decreased to zero posts! Now that reading blogs is much more manageable, I will be trying to comment more often on posts. Before, reading 13, 16, or 20 posts on one blog was so overwhelming that I could think of anything worthwhile to say. I feel really good about this, and have a small sense of being on top of the world. (Is that weird?)

Also, I just did a huge update of my shop. I did get some dyeing done over the break, so I’ve now updated with some of my stuff. As I’ve said before, dyeing during the school year is sporadic at best, but I am going to try to continue as regularly as possible.