Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Royal Gloating Post

Not even I can spare the self-indulgence to post for an entire week about just two gift projects, so I've decided to condence Royal Gloating Week into exactly one post. See, I'm learning and growing and maturing and whatnot. Please save your "ABOUT BEEEEEP TIME" exclamations for your personal time. On with the show and tell!

My sister-in-law spent a good portion of our visit to the "Crack For Obsessives" Container Store hunting for a new, roomier makeup bag. She'd had one forever and it wasn't cutting it anymore. She walked away empty-handed, and I had a brilliant, totally-unrelated idea: I should make her a makeup bag for Christmas. I know, inspiration is such a mysterious thing. Two weeks later I found myself staring at some fabric and my own, diehard makeup of two years and puzzling over how to craft my pattern. I pulled it off and the first makeup was born:


The exterior fabric is a home-decor scrap I got at a pillow-designer's yard sale for $3 per pound of fabric scraps ("sweet shopping dreams are made of these"). The zipper is one I bought for another project and commandeered because I was on a roll.


Bag interior including lining pockets, modeled again off my own bag. Bag dimensions are 10" wide by 6" high by 3" deep. The four interior pockets range from 3" to 5" wide.


I used the pattern to create a second one which appears on the right for my younger sister-in-law, who I'm told uses it for iPod accessories. I also added yo-yos because I think they're the cutest things ever and I wanted to see if they were as cute in real life as in this pretty tutorial. They are.

The gifts are apparently much-loved by their new owners. I'm very happy with the results myself. If anyone cares, I can post a tutorial, but I'm guessing most of you prefer the Target method of makeup bag procurement. To each his/her own.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am ridiculously jealous of your creative talent. All I make are rubber-stamped cards. Have you tried listing anything on Etsy? Because seriously, you should. Did you grow up knowing how to sew, or did you teach yourself? I am quite bad at it myself and wonder if there is any hope for me, beings as how I am getting up there in age.... ;)

Megan (Churro!)

Anonymous said...

Ooooo...Too cute!

Anonymous said...

All I can do is gnash my teeth, only wishing I had half your sewing talent. Those are so adorable.

Anonymous said...

hey! sweet-action bags! I wonder who one of the lucky girls was... oh right... that would be ME!!! THANKS!!!

E.A.P said...

While your flattery is appreciated, it's not strictly deserved. The sewing itself was easy, with even the minimal tools I have - ancient Singer sewing machine, scissors, ruler, pins, fabric, interfacing. The difficult part was creating the pattern and assembling it, especially because the construction method of my inspiration was impossible to replicate.

I'm fortunate that my mom taught me to sew when I was 12. I'm a fifth-generation seamstress on her side. I made plenty of projects with her help so I learned well.

As to selling on Etsy, I guess I could make up three or four bags and see what happens, but it would take time and dedication I seem to lack, although it could make me some scratch. I get a full-time job and suddenly I have no desperate need to make extra money. I wish I'd thought of that during college! I brought my sewing machine the last two years, though I never sewed anything at all. Meh, woulda coulda you know the rest.

P.S. What I said about the flattery? Please disregard. Flatter at will!

Anonymous said...

i luv em! thanks!

-K- said...

Precious!!!! You really should sell more.