A Bag for Anna.

Yesterday's project: a bag for my dear friend Anna, six months late.



She'd given me the color scheme in January, I'd apologized and promised it was coming by Valentine's day, and I had been making excuses and looking at the fabric ever since... until yesterday.

I got up, ate my breakfast*, put on a dress and some pearls (I am more productive that way), whipped up a little seltzer-with-vanilla, and got down to business.


I used the same oh fransson pattern I have before... it's easy and effective.


I like it. I may make myself a wallet in the same color scheme.



-Papermoon

*cream cheese on whatever I can find seems to be the summer favorite

some summer dresses in mind...

... from another time!

i was at vogue fabrics the other day, just taking a gander and picking up a pattern i've been wanting.



i couldn't help but get distracted at look at basically EVERYTHING in the store, as usual. i had a painstaking battle with my willpower over a bunch of vintage menswear buttons (my willpower, thankfully, won). i must have touched and admired every piece of venetian lace and let's not even talk about the remnants i managed not to buy.

in any case, the best part, as usual, was looking through all the patterns and catalogs at the fancy things i would never make and don't need. i became extremely fixated on the summer offerings in the butterick's catalog from their 'retro' section. i think i might order some of these!



my new life plan, in which i toss all trends to the wind and embrace my love of high waists and secretary blouses, is really making me feel pretty. not that it's so important to enjoy one's reflection at all times...but it is nice! :)

-papermoon

foiled!

woke up early with serious plans to get myself to the vogue fabrics in evanston, but my view was snow snow and more snow... and regardless of how severe it is, it's just too much for me if i'd be lugging a bunch of fabric/notions around in it.

luckily, i love snow, so it doesn't really put a damper on things. at all.

AND... i made scones. mmm. i love the joy of cooking. and heavy cream.

off to another bag! can't say i'm not looking forward to another day snuggled in front of my machine.

scones and yesterday's bag.

-papermoon

the most satisfying tutorial online.

hi there!

i wanted to share a lovely online tidbit--probably the best sewing tutorial and print out pattern i have ever used, to date. with a gorgeous outcome.

i don't actually include oh fransson! on my list of 40-blogs-i-read-every-day (because i am not a quilter), but it's a really great one. i wanted to make some purses for a few of my cousins as gifts and i decided to give this 'margaret bag' a try because hers looked so pretty. and WOW--she included a pattern, a step by step pdf with pictures, and a materials list. the ocd girl in me was positively giddy.

and... the results of my first one were awesome. it only took 4 hours! (!) the pleats are so pretty and the pockets are so cute inside.

i can't wait to make another one today.

-papermoon

a gift unveiled, to great success.

luckily for my blog's interesting levels, my family celebrated maggie's birthday early this year, for the sake of more people being at home (stragglers from thanksgiving weekend). my presents were quite well received, i am glad to reveal!


perhaps attentive readers will recall my recent comments on hand-sewing? i can now say why. i decided to celebrate maggie's turning eleven with two handmade gifts: a cuddly shawl in the colors of her newly painted bedroom, and an American Girl doll sized fleece.
maggie recently took a liking to a two-toned purple shawl that my aunt/uncle/cousins sent me for christmas a year or two ago, mainly because of how lovely and soft it is. i took it back to chicago this winter, and she was so sad to see it go that i decided i might as well tackle a modification. for her shawl, i chose a two-toned light blue cuddle fur at the vogue fabrics. i initially planned to imitate the fringe on my shawl, which follows the purple color scheme of the rest of the piece, but when i got around to the fringe on maggie's, it was looking fuzzier and linty, so i went back and picked up a bit of regular (no fray!) fleece in the light-almost-neon-lime green that serves as an accent color in her bedroom. this cut very nicely into an attractive fringe, and now the shawl matches her room perfectly.
she loves it and will not even take it off long enough for me to take a picture. she even took it to bed! very flattering for the maker!
however successful this shawl was... my real pride and joy of the moment is the second gift. hours and hours of hand sewing followed my very humorous excursion over to the American Girl Place on michigan ave., where i scoured the whole store to find a jacket-like item of doll clothing to take approximate measurements of. i had a lot of gawking nine-year olds worried. while i not-so-stealthily took down notes and wrapped my tape measure around the arms/neck/body of a 'varsity jacket', i wondered what the little shoppers thought of me. was i stealing? doing a performance check on the company? maybe they thought i was cool enough to work for American Girl (um, i WISH!!!).
i used the same cuddle fur, a utility zipper meant for a wallet, some nice shiny crinkling ribbon i had lying around (looked great for the cuffs and 'reflector' on the back), and i my own two hands! although my machine did come in handy for a few minutes on the sides of the body. this was my first experience in drawing a pattern by myself from start to finish. it wasn't hard, but who knows what would happen if i tackled the true human anatomy? :)




in any case--check out my handiwork. it's being modeled by 'emily'--molly's playmate come over from blitzed britain, if you don't recall your american girl stories. the lovely multicolored scarf lying on top of emily's adopted siblings was handmade by maggie herself. she and i have taken up fingerknitting, and her dolls are reaping the benefits.

now maggie wants me to go into the business of boutique doll wear. who thinks she might have more motives than my employment in mind?...


later...
-papermoon

skirt in the making.

so, this summer i fell in love with african cotton print.

strangely, the patterns remind me some skirts banana republic made when i was in middle school... only mine are in nicer colors, in my opinion.

in any case, i was really pleased with a skirt i made this spring, so i decided to make another one with some cotton i snatched from the remnants section. i am going to head back to vogue fabrics today, as i am spending halloween in evanston, and try to find some nice inspiring ribbon/ric rac/lacey stuff/pretty satiny fabric for the bottom edge. i made a mock up of a ruffle, thinking i might keep everything in the same fabric, but i didn't really like the look of it. so i am going to go find the perfect edge. maybe just some fuschia ribbon?
we'll see.

i just don't like the ruffles. at all.
thank goodness i didn't get hasty and just smack something on there.

the goal is to have it finished by sunday.

i might want to make a slip to wear under it by sunday, too. woo hoo, silk. or some excuse for silk. :) slips are so funny and antiquated, and i don't think i have owned or worn one since approximately fourth grade, when i decided i hated them. now i think they are a pretty great idea. luckily for me, angry chicken just did a post about slips and crazy underwear. mine probably won't be that attractive or colorful, but i'm excited anyway.

off to do some bella research, approach the thought of showering/getting dressed, trot off to evanston, and fabricize, babysit, and eat too much candy.

-papermoon

PS: am i the only person on the planet who wishes it was colder???