The Nellie Toiletry Bag

I hope all of you in the land of 0's and 1's had a great 4th of July. I had a ball. Some of my mother's family came up including my mom and grandma and some cousins and we had a great time. But they are gone now and I am recovering.

During our time together, I gave my grandma a demonstration of my new sewing machine. It was her fault that I got such an expensive machine. She is an avid quilter and I think she likes finally having someone in the family that is as excited about sewing machines as she is. So here I am. After demonstrating the embroidery capabilities of my machine, she said "Okay, make me a bag". What a challenge! But I did it. In a couple of hours, I whipped up this little ditty. I put a handle on it so she could use it as a toiletry bag. I made a boo boo on the lining of it but when you make up something off the top of your head you just don't know what will happen.










Pictures of the family will be uploaded to my flickr page.

The Clutch

I need your help. Below are pictures of a clutch that I made. I like it without a wrist strap but I think I'm going to do another variation with the strap. I need further embellishment on it, although I do quite like it plain. So, any suggestions? I'm open to hear what ideas you all have.

Mom's Messenger Bag

It's done. I did go out this morning and was able to find some thread close in color to the one I had. Couldn't find the exact brand and color but I got close. This bag is a little thicker than the one I made for myself. The canvas I chose was stiffer so it took a little more effort but I've got to say that my finishing skills are getting much better. I still need to iron it one last time to really make it crisp.

Unfortunately, my sewing machine didn't quite make it to the end. I'm not sure what happened but it has revolted and refused to sew properly. Lucky for me I had my new toy waiting in the wings. Craftmonkey, you guessed correctly. I got a Bernina!!! I've been lusting after this for a few months now and decided to step out and go for it. To save money (these things are expensive), I bought one of the floor models. I wanted a new one but the floor model comes with all the same warranties and what not so it's just as good as new. It took me a bit to get used to it but I was determined to get this bag finished tonight. I wanted to finish this project with my old machine so as not to be faced with a leaning curve in the middle of the project, but it worked out well.

I think mom will love the bag. I'm quite happy and impressed with it. I'll be doing all kinds of things now that I've got the new machine so you'll be seeing some of those projects soon. I will be taking the free classes that come with purchasing from Lavender Lime. I also get hundreds of free fat quarters from the store with this purchase so I'll be working on developing small projects that I can use them for.