My wallet is falling apart

That means, time for a new one!

This past weekend I was in the process of cutting out my fabric (and Peltex and Interfacing and oh no, I have not cut out those damn bias strips yet) for the Weekender Bag. As I was looking at the amazing fabric I bought for the bag, I decided before I started on such a huge, time consuming project I would make myself a quick wallet out of the same delightful fabric. It was on clearance at Hancock Fabrics for $4 a yard (originally $14), bonus.

I scoured the inter-webs for a pattern to use as a starting point. With a little Google sleuthing, I discovered this gem. I had a hunch I was going to want to make more than one of these, so I even made myself a little pattern to use because I am not very good at measuring things.

I decided to do some stitching on the outside with two different colors of thread. I kind of just went with the flow and stitched how I felt.

The back looks pretty sweet too.

The inside pockets are just fabrics I already had that I figured looked good enough with the outside fabric. The bottom pocket took me a while; figuring out how to fold it correctly did not come easily to me. I thought about it real hard and compared it to the picture and then it made sense.

That was as far as I got today. This weekend: putting in the zipper for a change pocket and hopefully putting the whole thing together. Can't wait.

Wedding Dress Part I

There's not very much I've planned for when it comes to a wedding. I was never one of those girls who dreamed about their wedding day. I never cared about location or flowers or cake. But the one thing I always knew I'd do is make my own wedding dress.

The wedding is in two months. I've been messing with the muslin for the dress for about a month and a half now. I made the muslin and then I fitted and re-fitted. I ordered fabric samples and it took me forever to decide on what to use. I finally settled on some duchess satin (@ $40 a yard, it's the most I've ever spent on fabric), with some dupioni silk for a contrasting sash, both ordered from Thai Silks.

Nevertheless, I've been a little paranoid about starting the real dress. I keep thinking I'm going to majorly mess it up and then I will cry very, very hard. With only two months to go, I decided I need to get over this fear and start cutting the dress out from real fabric. I started with the sash because it's simple and quick. There wasn't much I could do to mess it up, and besides I ordered plenty of fabric to be able to re-cut if I made a major mistake.


Yesterday I unrolled the fabric and pinned the pattern for the sash. I knew as I was cutting out the fabric that it was the most beautiful, luxurious fabric I have ever used. And that was just the dupioni! I can't image what the duchess satin will be like to work with.


I managed to sew the sash in about an hour. This was being super extra careful, and pressing very thoroughly. I had my helper Frankie and the movie Office Space to keep me company while I sewed.


I'm so thrilled with how it came out. One thing I can check off the list. Next up is cutting out the lining and attaching the boning to the lining. I've never worked with boning and I'm a little intimidated but I think it will be fine. The pattern for the dress itself is so simple that I can't imagine messing it up. It took about an hour to make the muslin, so making the dress shouldn't be that difficult either. Of course, duchess satin and french seams will make it a little more time consuming. I've got plenty 'o time.