Follow the Leader

I follow a few sewing blogs that inspire me and help me to feel like a part of a larger community instead of the Lone Ranger sitting in front of my sewing machine for hours.

One of the blogs I follow is http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/.  Last week she extolled the virtues of just sewing without any thought for deadlines--you know, just for the fun of it.  She made a black lace dress.

My project wasn't so ambitious.  I did a little work this morning and planned to do a little more but then thought, "hey, it's Sunday!"  I hadn't taken time to make any purses lately and have been getting flack about the large size of my bags (I mean the ones I carry not the ones under my eyes!).

This afternoon a more compact version was born.

I

Although, in real life, I think the flap matches better than it looks like in the pictures.   I used some upholstery fabric I found on my way to Nashville last year for the outer purse.  For the flap I used a skirt I got from Goodwill and the lining was leftover material from a skirt I made for my sister.

The insides have the usual zippered pocket on one side and a plain pocket on the other.

Tomorrow it's back to work!  This week it's outdoor cushions and altering a linen jacket for starters.

Road to the Ivied Halls

Today Jack graduated from Emmanuel Episcopal Day School.  Next year he's off to Chase Street Elementary to go to school with big sister Josie.

About a month ago Jack brought a sandwich wrapper to school and while I was waiting for him to finish his lunch his teacher, Ms. Riley, said what a good idea it was and that maybe they could make some as a class project.

An idea was born!  I was off to the fabric store to buy oil cloth and cotton duck.  Using the wrapper we had as a pattern I cut out 32 stop sign shapes; sewed them together; and voila--the wrappers were born.

Two days ago I went to Jack's class armed with the wrappers and crayons ready for the class to give them their special touches. Some drew pictures of their families, one drew an awesome dinosaur, and all were very original.

This is the front and back of the wrapper.

This is the wrapper folded around a sandwich

I had planned to take pictures of the finished wrappers but the kids did them all at different times and when they were done they busied themselves with all sorts of activities in the classroom.

Here are pictures of Jackie and Jack decorating their wrappers.

Now Jack's class can go off to kindergarten and help the earth be a little greener and a little more beautiful with their artwork.