Skirt Fixation Fabric Swap Challenge - Linen Edition

I was asked by the lovely ladies over at Skirt Fixation to participate in their very interesting challenge - a fabric swap!  A very cool idea so I signed up for the linen edition.

I'm a big lover of linen - it's all natural, very strong, and easy to wear.  I got my swap fabric from Jenn at A Jennuine Life.  I don't know if she looked at my blog/sewing stuff before she sent the fabric, but she chose a color palette that I absolutely love!

The print is a linen/cotton blend from Westminster by Amy Butler in her Hapi line.  I love the boldness!  The solids were a beautiful complement.

The fabric screamed "make me a bag...", so I did!

I used a child's bag pattern from Ruby Jean's Closet - the Ready Set Go Overnighter.  It's a perfect size for kid-size stuff, and for the kid to actually carry it herself.

A very cute bag, yes?!!  I made a couple of teeny changes as I made the pattern - I changed the handles a bit - I actually had some black ultra-suede lying around in my stash - who knew! - so I used that for the bottom accents and the handle holder.  I used black nylon web that I also had lying around in place of the fabric handles.  The pattern also calls for some adorable blows on the straps - and, for the life of me, I couldn't make a decent bow, so I just gave up! 

The other linen pieces met their destiny as a dress for my kid - I used my much-used and much-loved Tinny pattern by Straightgrain.  I think this is the 4th I've made, but sadly my little girl is growing too fast; I had to size up to the size 5.  I'm still in denial.....

I changed up this pattern a bit as well - I added the lighter color pink inset in the bodice, piped with some cotton couture in teal.  I (obviously!) added a contrast bow at the waist.  Instead of gathering the skirt, I made pleats - pleats that will probably last an hour or so in the linen, but I love the look nonetheless.

Thanks to An at Straightgrain, I actually have the ability to insert an invisible zipper and have it be invisible!!

Thanks to Skirt Fixation for asking me to participate - it was really fun!!

A Mother's Day Gift

I always try really hard to get my mother her Mother's Day gift on time.  Mostly, I fail.  I end up sending an email gift card, or something like that.  This year, I was determined to succeed.  I live in California, and my mother lives in Massachusetts, so I knew I had to get something in the mail by Thursday.

I chose the new "Split Personality Reversible Bag" pattern.  Since this was produced by Liesl Gibson from Oliver + S, I knew 100% that it would come together with no problem.  And, I was right!

The bag came together really in four days.  One day shopping for fabric.  The next day cutting out the pattern and figuring out which fabric was A, B, C, etc.  That doesn't sound like it should be tough, but it's really important when putting the bag together to be really organized and don't forget which fabric should go where.  Next night, cut out the fabric and sewed about half.  Wednesday night, completed bag!

My fabrics are heavy linen for the navy blue, and prints from Amy Butler's Lark line.  The stripe is a random cotton from JoAnn's that happened to coordinate perfectly.  My mother had asked for a navy blue bag - hopefully, she didn't mean a plain blue!

I stuck sticky notes on the leftover fabric after cutting to stay organized.  I followed the directions step by step.  Other than one thing that I think may be an errata in the pattern where I ended up sewing the button loop on backwards, there were no issues.  I managed to sew this in the evenings, after work, which is not usually my time to sew.  I made it in between making dinners, pick-ups from pre-school, basketball practice, etc.  I'm happy with the results!

Forgive the less-than-stellar photos, as I had to take pictures at night.  It's much easier to take photos of cute clothing on a toddler than it is to take photos of a bag.  Really.

And, oh yeah - just barely noticeable in the background, an empty bottle of Molson Canadian!  My favorite adult beverage to sew by!