Divya’s bag, WIP

Originally uploaded by bornfamous.

Almost done with Divya’s fancy evening bag. It’s 7"x3"x1 1/2", lined with fuschia satin and has a zippered pocket inside. I just need to add the beautiful cording I found for the wrist strap, and figure out some kind of closure. I was planning on a magnetic snap but the fabric store didn’t have them. [Update: I found one at another store, phew!] Now I’m thinking about making a knotted ball-type button out of the leftover cord and an elastic loop to pull over it. It would go right where that little red-headed pin is fastening it now.

But I’m worried that the fuschia lining is too garish, contrasted with the black. What do you think?

This is a muslin prototype of a small, 7″ x 3″ evening bag I’m making for my friend Divya. I inserted a sheet of cardboard and then rolled it for the tubular shape. But because Divya wants a wrist strap on it, I had to figure out a way to keep stuff from falling out.

The only problem is that there’s a hole on either side where the triangular gusset folds inward when the bag is closed. When it’s hanging on Divya’s wrist, her lipstick or other small items could fall out. So I changed the triangular shape of the gusset to a U shape — and it solved the problem! I’ll take photos as I make the actual bag and post a tutorial for anyone who’s interested.

Project Gutenberg is one of those high-minded efforts that makes me think there is hope for the Internet after all. In case you haven’t heard of it yet, here’s how Wikipedia describes Project Gutenberg:

…a volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute cultural works via book scanning. Founded in 1971, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The project tries to make these as free as possible, in long-lasting, open formats that can be used on almost any computer.

Not only that, but anyone can download virtually any of the project’s thousands of public domain books, and use them any way they like — including reformatting, republishing and selling them. How cool is that?

With that in mind, I give you Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving, by Grace Christie. It’s free! Thanks to Sharonb for the tip.

God, I love free stuff.

Every month around this time for the past eight months, I try [and fail] to move this damn blog and several others to a new host. It’s all about saving money [I got the new host for $22 for the first year and the old one costs $25 per month] but I get so frustrated that I throw up my hands when another bill comes in for 25 bucks. If I can’t figure this out come April, I’ll be paying that much plus another $10 a month for the new host — because, of course, I’ve already got blogs on the new host that I dread having to move to the old one. What a mess.

I was about ready to give up again last night. The problem was that I couldn’t move my entries and comments from one WordPress blog on the old host to another one on the new host. This, despite numerous attempts by myself and other, more technically oriented folks to transfer the mySQL database, which is SUPPOSED to be all that’s necessary. Then I noticed that WP has a new update that allows exporting and importing entries and comments with a simple XML file. So I tried it without much hope — and it worked!

Which deserves a new design, don’t you think? Oh, yeah. It does.

Other things are going to be changing around here, too. I’m starting a little home craft business, making bags at the moment and later perhaps, toys and baby things. I’ve been having so. much. fun. buying fabric [it's the new crack!], zippers, charms for zipper pulls, and just sewing up a storm. I have about a dozen cute little zippered pouches made, and now I’m gearing up to start working on larger bags.

Sew exciting!

Look what I made! This 5″ tall Steiner doll is for my 2yo great-grandson Elijah, who looks just a little like this, with the help of soozs’ tutorial. The bed is made with ultra-soft flannel and lined with felt to give it body. I hope Elijah wants to take this cute little doll to bed with him at night!

I’m thinking about making more softies out of natural and organic materials, and trying to sell them. I think there’s definitely a market for it.

This isn’t actually my first handmade toy. I made a bunch of dinosaurs and sold them at a craft fair when Robby was a baby. There was one left, a pre-Barney purple brontosaurus that Robby still talks about. I wonder if there are any other young adults out there who have fond memories of playing with their plushie dinos–made by me! Wish I still had the patterns.

More crafty goodness: I have signed up for the Take a stitch Tuesday Challenge by Sharonb, who is an amazing embroiderer and teacher. Back in college, I got totally hooked on embroidery and applique, but making a living got in the way. Now I’m back to it and loving it. The TaST challenge is to take just one stitch per week and work as many variations as you can think of, then post the results every Tuesday. It’s a great way to develop not only stitching skills, but an eye for design. I’m really looking forward to Jan. 2, when it begins. This challenge will go on for a year, and Sharonb wants as many people as possible taking part, so if this sounds like fun to you, why not join in?

I’ve been using this purse, made out of the leg of a pair of Robby’s old jeans, as a sampler to learn embroidery. [See it unadorned here.] But the bright yellow threads contrasted with purple on the blue denim background seemed just a tad bit too colorful for me to actually wear. I’m one of those people who wears black most of the time, in the self-delusion that it makes me invisible. The thought of wearing this purse in public made me feel a little embarrassed — until I realized that it’s expressing who I am. I never use my clothes as a form of expression — except to say, “Don’t look at me!”

Talk about epiphanies.

So I’m going to wear my hippie purse proudly, and when someone remarks on it I’m going to say, “Yep, this is me. I’m just a hippie at heart.”

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