A for effort, F for blogging

Man, this blogging is harder to keep up with than I initially feared.  I swear I have been crafting it up, honest.

Like last weekend I made myself a new wristlet.  This pattern is about twice the size of my first.  I would call this one a purse, while the other is more wallet.

I absolutely love the fabric's owl design.  Have it in a few colors so you may see it again...  Also loving the lining choice.  It is cut from one fat quarter.  Had just enough fabric for two inset sipper pockets, 6 card tabs, one bill tab, and the body.  Awesome.

I used to look at fat quarters as never being quite enough meat to work with for my designs.  I was thinking too big.  Then it dawned on me that I could take those fun, inexpensive cuts of fabric and use them as liners.  I am a big fan of colorful lining.  Many bags that use poly lining fabric are just so blah on the inside.  Super cute outside but there isn't much going on inside.  I like it to be functional and fun.  Don't get me wrong, I match my lining when it counts; dresses, skirts, etc.  But say I make a cute monotone blazer, and "Oh, is that my phone in the inside pocket going off?" Open the jacket and blah-blam!  A little sunshine, springtime, color me fun liner.  So, those little cotton gems I avoided for years are now working their way into my regular impulse buying at the fabric and craft shops.  I try to buy two of the same design in case one wont cut it.  And that way, even if I make a bad or wallet with the same outer material, I can change up the liners to make them unique.


I have also been wrestling with my first pattern for purchase.  I have it all drawn and divided up for scanning but the dimensions are a bear.  Last weekend I had that light bulb moment.  Now everything seams to be printing out in the proper dimensions.  Of course when I coverted it from a doc to a PDF it will blow up, but as the wise Wendy pointed out, "That is why we work in a library."  The resource lab techies can come to the rescue.  Ha. Lucky for me I know to ask Google before throwing in the towel completely. So simple. Just save the darned thing as a PDF on my Mac instead of running through a doc converter. Then condense the file when Craftsy says it is too big to upload. Victory! So, though no one is likely to buy it ever, at least I am trying to sell my creations. Next is the Etsy shop for clothing and felt creations. My summer of productivity continues...