Amy Butler Beautiful Belle Handbag Sew-Along Week 2

It is week two of the  Amy Butler Beautiful Belle Handbag Sew-Along. When I begun this sew-along, I thought I would have a hard time pacing myself and would have made my bags by now. (I have been busy with some custom orders: a lace jacket and a custom embroidery order.) It took me a few days to narrow down my exterior fabric choices, but when I did, I was able to move to this weeks' task of adding marking and interfacing to pattern pieces. 

My bag fabrics

Amy Butler bags are usually advanced lessons in interfacing and stabilizers. This pattern however, requires only medium-weight interfacing and a little bit of Shape flex to give it its' structure.

Interfaced interior fabrics

Interfacing and stabilizer area along the bottom.

I have decided to use leather for my handles on both bags. There is an awesome thrift store in town that has progressively declining prices on all of their items. On Wednesdays, everything in the store is $.25! This store is the definition of chaos on a Wednesday and when I go, I must go with a plan. No kids, knowledge of what I want, comfortable shoes and a willingness to "throw elbows" if needed ;p. I went in one day with a plan to source leather and boy did luck out! 

Half of my haul! There is some animal print in there!

The other half: with some blue suede and silver leather in there!

I thought this bag was a good candidate for leather handles and I shopped my stash for a good match. For the chevron print fabric, I decided on tan suede from a skirt (sorry no before pic) .

Suede handles

 For the floral print bag, I choose this pink suede jacket.

Pink Suede Jacket

Sleeve removed

I cut the handles on this one longer.

Ready to sew!

I have a heavy duty sewing machine and leather needles. I am confident (hopeful and prayerful) that my machine will be able to take on this task. I have been publicly coveting an industrial sewing machine like the one Hillary at Entropy Always Wins  just bought. Since I am no longer saving for a Chanin Studio week (I longer support this company), an industrial machine is closer on the horizon than I thought!  

I will share how my Singer does on the handles when I begin bag construction.

Happy Sewing,
Bianca

Amy Butler Beautiful Belle Handbag Sew-Along

Sew News is hosting a Sew-Along of the Beautiful Belle Handbag. The complete details of the month long group sew project can be found February/March 2014 copy of the magazine, on their blog and their Flickr page. I have signed up and cannot wait to get started. It is not to late to sign up if you want to join. The schedule for the sew along is manageable and divided over the month.

• Week of February  3 – Fabric Choice, Prep, and Cutting
• Week of February 10 – Marking & Interfacing
• Week of February 17 – Construction & Customizing
• Week of February 24 – Finishing

Here are my initial fabric choices:

Both of these are home dec. Ikea fabrics

 

These two are home dec. fabrics that are perfect for Spring.

 

I am certain I will make at least bag in this textured Chevron home dec. fabric

I also really like these! I may make a second bag from one of these too!

I will nail down my choice by the end week so stay tuned.
 
I enjoy sewing bags. They are functional, don't have fit issues and are opportunities to sew compound elements (snaps, zippers, pockets, linings and more) in one item. It can be a crash course for guided learning or a great refresher if one has been away from sewing for a time.

Before I started writing this blog, I participated in a year long sew-along to make the bags in Amy Butler's Book Style Stitches. Jemellia over on JemJam ran it and did a great job encouraging us along and hosting monthly giveaways. Below are photos of the bags I created over the months.  I would recommend all of the bags for sewing if you like the style. I have gotten the most use from the Cosmo bag as it has been my go-to weekender, or diaper bag when I have day long outings with both kids.

 I apologize for the quality of the photos; I did not plan on blogging them.

The Cosmo Bag in Arabesque by Amy Butler

Bag interior with added key fob and contrast lined pockets.

I added a ruffle to the pocket for added interest. 

 

 

 

Blossom Bag

Blossom Bag interior

The Everyday Wristlet

The Interior is perfect as a Diaper Clutch

Beautiful Balance Checkbook Cover Re-purposed Dress Fabric

 

 

Beautiful Balance Checkbook Cover Re-purposed Dress Fabric

Origami Bags

Perfectly Pleated Clutch

Perfectly Pleated Clutch Interior

Teardrop bag

Teardrop Bag

[Un]Fringed Hobo Bag (I omitted the fringe.) This embroidered fabric is a re-purposed skirt.

 

[Un]Fringed Hobo Bag Interior

I have enjoyed sewing these bags with others and am looking forward to making another Amy Butler bag with a group. I am excited to see the other participants' projects and creative additions. 

Happy Sewing!

Lace Hem Tunic

Recently, I have been doing a lot of sewing for other people. Garment and costume construction, alterations for weddings, and sewing holiday gifts for friends and family. At every opportunity Little Miss, is in my studio sorting buttons and choosing patterns and playing in my fabric. She is eager to learn to use a machine, but until then she wants to know, "What are you going to make for me?" 

I have a long list of sewing for her including a dress for her and her dolls. I needed a quick project to show her some love before I got to sewing more elaborate pieces. I choose to make a tunic using Mccalls 6827.

                     

I like this pattern because it was so fast to whip up and I was able to use scraps from other garments (This fact unfortunately, reinforces my hoarding of scraps!).  Here are pictures of Little Miss in the dress and a pattern review follows.

 

Front

Side Lace Inset

Back

 

Pattern Description: CHILDREN'S/GIRLS' TOPS AND LEGGINGS: Pullover tops have sleeve and hemline variations (wrong side may show), and narrow hem. A and B: tie ends. C: pocket. D: side panels. Leggings have elastic waist and stitched hems. Elasticized two-piece sleeves A and knees E:

Pattern Sizing: 2-5, I made a 5. I think I could have gotten away with the 4 easily for a perfect fit.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes

Were the instructions easy to follow? They were very easy.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I liked how quick it was to sew. My daughter loves the lace hemline.

Fabric Used: A grey ponte knit and a cotton lace for the hem inset.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: The sleeves of the 5 were too long for her so I hemmed them deeper than suggested.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I will definitely sew this again. Little Miss has chosen her fabric for the next one. I like the other tops in this pattern and will make the leggings as well.

Conclusion: This was really fast and easy to make. The contrast hem adds a small detail that implies more effort than it took. 

Happy Sewing,

Bianca 

Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme Costume

A friend came to me in distress over her 5-year old daughter's school assignment. She had to choose any character from a Mother Goose nursery rhyme and come to school dressed in that costume. They needed my help and I was happy to oblige. With all of the typical little girl options like Bo Peep, Little Miss Muffet, Jill and Old Mother Hubbard,  I expected to make a pretty dress. I was delightfully wrong. She wanted to be the clock from Hickory Dickory Dock!

My first thought was, let's paint a cardboard box and call it Christmas! Turns out, that would not do because she would wear it all day and would not be able to sit in cardboard. It would need to be fabric, but still maintain the shape of a wooden object. I did not know how to begin, but I was intrigued by figuring it out.

I was doubtful I would find a pattern so I decided to make one. After ruling out cardboard I quickly ran to Kroger and grabbed a few brown paper bags. With my "Little Miss" as a stand in, I got to work.

Trying a template

Pattern pieces cut

After drafting the pattern, I cut the fabric for the body and the accents like the clock face, pendulum and the mouse.

Pendulum

Clock face and body

I added stiffer felt to the back of the clock top to help it stay up.

The costume is made in two parts with a body and a head piece. I stitched most of the costume using my serger. It gives a clean finish to the seams, is faster than my sewing machine and with the differential feed does not warp the felt as it was sewed. When I used my machine to sew the accents, I used a 4mm stitch length. The head piece has a cardboard platform to stay flat and an elastic strap to stabilize it under her chin.

I used purchased numbers for the clock numbers and made a little mouse to run down the clock at 1 o'clock.
 

Here is the delighted darling in her completed costume. She and her mom were delighted with the end result with one exception. I was told that I missed a crucial detail...

The mouse needs a piece of cheese! That is why she ran up the clock in the first place, right? I quickly ran to my studio, made some cheese and was told it was now "perfect". Could I ask for anything more?

Happy Sewing!

New Alabama Chanin Collection! Nude is not a color.

**************Update October 18, 2014***************

The use of "Nude" as a color descriptor at Alabama Chanin has changed. The new color is "Ballet". I am not sure when the change occurred, but I am glad to see that it has happened.

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When I originally  saw the new Alabama Chanin Collection I loved it. This post originally raved about it with photos and praise. I later spent more time looking at the collection and reading the descriptions.
 

                             

                            
                     

The Magdalena Gustav coat is one of the many garments "available and shown here in 'nude'". It is rather disappointing to see such a narrow color description. After a week of supportive Civil Rights Movement and MLK posts in their journal, this racially exclusive description saddens me. It put a pin in my  earlier enthusiasm about the collection. This is not a universally nude color and seeing it described there as such makes me feel like these garments are not meant for me, a person of color.  When that is added to the price, it further draws a line under who these designs are for. Perhaps simply calling it beige, sand, taupe, light toast, might be less insensitive? I wonder how a Caucasian person would feel to see a chocolate brown dress coded as "nude".

I am not one to throw stones and hide. So, I optimistically wrote the company, and hoped that they will make a change to this descriptor. After an insufficient response from a staffer, I sent a follow-up message and finally received a detailed follow-up message from Natalie Chanin herself who acknowledged the inappropriate name, but has no plans to correct it based on the way business works. The specifics of her response were surprisingly dismissive and hurtful. It broke my heart.

Based on her response I wrote a detailed explanation of why I am pulling my support for the company (something she invited me to do). It included references from my graduate education in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and my years as an Equal Employment Opportunity, Sexual Harassment Investigator. It touched on white privilege, institutionalized racism and personal responsibility to change things.  In the end, I decided not to post it. It is unnecessary to intellectualize concepts that should be so basic. My response to it all is to simply say: I will no longer support this company. We have vastly different views on the appropriate response to racial bias and exclusion.  

I am very proud of the work I have done to this point using their patterns and stencils; I have learned much.  I have a hard time however, "loving my thread" and investing extensive time and money in this company moving forward.  I will not direct my hard earned money to a company that devalues my essence. You may not see me, but I see you. Luckily for those of us who enjoy hand-sewing, there are many other patterns, stencils and sources of fabric from which to choose.

Happy (inclusive, sensitive, considerate) Sewing,

Bianca