Birthday Goodies!

My birthday was on Sunday and I got some sewing goodies from the ladies I work with!

Here's the whole lot:

Everything laid out:
The three different fabrics (we have an inside frog joke):

My cousin is having a baby early next year and she finds out the sex at the end of the month, I'm so excited to make some baby gifts out of these froggy prints!


Mallory ♥

Zippers Are Alright With Me!

So, I've calmed down from the meltdown I had over the pleated bag and I tried the whole zipper thing again. I've decided that I love pleats and zippers separately but together they will never be my friend! So I made this larger version of the coin purse, I guess it's a quasi-cosmetic bag. Here it is:

Note to self: Make a light box! Obviously the whole paper thing isn't working for me. I have no idea why each of these pictures are a different color.

My Work in Progress!

I found a tutorial for a pleated zipper pouch here and decided that I needed to make one, pronto! This one is for a co-worker's birthday. I've been trying to make all of my co-workers something homemade for their birthdays since I got my sewing machine last Christmas, but I digress. I cut out my pieces (which I measured out as 10" x 6") and I interfaced and marked my pleats. Tomorrow is the big sewing day. Since I have a love/hate relationship with zippers I like to do all of my cutting and other preparations before I even think about sewing. Here are some prep-pictures for your viewing pleasure:

I found this purple fabric in the fat quarter section at Hancock Fabrics. The black is a linen-look fabric that I bought at Joann Fabrics.

Book gift card holder!

My co-worker's birthday was the first of June, so myself and my other co-workers went in on a Border's gift card for her. I decided that we needed a fun holder to put it in, and it came to me...A BOOK! a book gift card holder to hold a bookstore gift card! So here it is...

The cover:
Inside with a gift card pocket and a book plate slot:

Showing the 'pages' (sorry it's a tad blurry!):
Ta-Da!!:


I just made it with the cheapo felt sheets and embroidery floss. It ended up with 4 'pages' which is 2 white rectangles folded in the middle. I ended up putting the spine on to hide my shotty stitch work. Overall, I loved it- it was hard to give up, that's been happening a lot lately! =]

Hip/Sling Bag!

So I made a purse last weekend. It was originally meant for my cousin for her birthday but when I finished the style was way more me than her...so I kept it [yes, I'm evil-I know!] So here it is:

Laying flat on the table:

The inside snap and pocket:

Sorry for the not so clear pictures, the polka dots were getting a little trippy when I was taking the pictures!

Oh, and don't worry about my cousin, I made her a cosmetic bag and gave her a gift card-so she's covered!

Vinyl Lined Cosmetic Bag!

So, my little sister is going to be moving to the east coast to live with my older sister for the summer. She's leaving next week and she totally guilted me into making her a cosmetic bag before she goes, as a going-away present. I used the same pattern that I used for my older sister's Easter cosmetic bag. But for this one I used Therm-O-Web iron-on vinyl (I found at Joann's) for the lining so if anything spills it won't ruin the inside. That stuff is pretty much incredible! It's super easy to use! Onward to the pictures!

The finished bag:

The top (This was my first time really sewing with striped fabric and the stripes matched up! Even with the zipper- I was totally stoked!):

Side with zipper pull:

Other side:

Full of all of her junk:

I just realized that I didn't get a picture of the lining itself, I'll get one in the morning and post it so you can see it =]

Countdown Calendar!

I made up this little countdown calendar for my 6 1/2 year old nephew, Ethan. He's had a lot of changes in his life this year and has been having a hard time lately so I made this countdown calendar to mark the days until my mom and dad go up to visit (which also happens to be his last day of school.)

Here's the calendar--he named my mom BB when he was two, we have no idea where he came up with it but it just stuck =] --It is made of two thin pieces of cardboard that are held together by some wrapping paper I had laying around. I added a ribbon to hang it with and some foam star stickers to give it a little extra something.

Here's a close-up of some of the days:
I made the calendar pages in Microsoft Word which, may I add, took FOREVER! The pages are held on with plain brads that I had left from a project I made last year. I put in an activity for Ethan to do every other day to give him something to look forward to.

Here's an example of some of the days:

Write a story about a boy named Joey!

Slide from one end of the kitchen to the other in your socks!

Find 5 things in your house that are your favorite color!

I hope that he likes it, he's really into writing his own stories (now he's into vampire stories, he wants to write like Stephenie Meyer because he knows we love her books--we've inadvertently made him a Twilight fan!!) and drawing so most of the activities center around that. This project could easily be tailored to fit any countdown needs. And kids love the idea of ripping off a page each day and seeing what activity they get to do next!

Cosmetic Baggy DooDad!

So, originally my older sister and myself decided to make each other gifts for Christmas instead of buying anything this last year. I started out knitting her a scarf but soon got bored with it (as I usually do with knitting, it's just not fast enough!!) so I decided to make her a pouch. Well, to make a long story short, I had zipper trouble so I finally got the zipper thing down so I decided to fill the pouch with Easter grass and a couple stamps (she scrapbooks and makes cards) and gave it to her as an Easter gift. Here it is...

The front (I made the button too!):
One side:Other side with a ribbon zipper pull:

The inside (with grass and stamps):

I had leftover material from the purse I made my younger sister for her birthday so I used it to make the pouch. I got the idea and how-to here. I made it bigger than the tute, I think I started out with a 12x9 inch rectangle of fabric. It's a pretty good size for a makeup bag or even a pencil pouch. And, oh yeah, I got the cute stamps at The Dollar Tree, once again proving that you can find just about anything there!

Wee Bunny!

I made a bunny for a co-worker's birthday (she loves bunnies). I used the tutorial from the Wee Wonderfuls site, for the pattern click here.

And for your viewing pleasure, here is the Wee Wonderfuls Bunnies gallery.

Let me tell you, this little booger was hard to sew! My seam ripper is now my arch enemy, I had to rip this apart three times I think. And re-do the ears twice (they're still a little too floppy and they're fraying a little bit, but we'll say it gives him character) And don't even get me started on the bottom! But I think he turned out well and I'm sure he'll be given lots of TLC at his new home. On the plus side I think I did pretty good on embroidering his face which is something I've never had the patience to do...