I want my Barbie back

Well, apparently, I’m like a small child. A toddler, if you will.

What do I have to do to make myself want to sew again? Pack up all my sewing supplies into boxes and then stack several heavy boxes on top of them. I’m like a kid who ignores and doesn’t want to play with my Barbie until my sister picks it up and starts playing with it. Then, suddenly, I want to play with my Barbie BAD. And NOW. Like, RIGHT NOW.

The day after my fabric was packed up, I suddenly had the urge to start sewing again. Instead of denying myself, I dug out the fabric box, opened it, and rummaged through it to find the fabrics I needed. And then I sewed.

(By the way, I worked to Mandy Moore’s new album called Amanda Leigh, which I think is fabulous.)

My favorite part of this bag is the inside.

I mounted my label to a green patch of fabric in order to give it a little more prominence and make it part of the design.

Or maybe it was because I nicked a tiny little hole in the fabric with my seamripper after I had already sewn the pockets on and didn’t have enough of the pink polka-dot fabric to start over again, so I securely covered the tiny hole with a patch of fabric. Yeah…maybe that’s why. But sometimes small mistakes end up being a blessing, because I love how the label and patch look, and I never would have thought to do this unless I was forced to come up with a creative solution to a stupid little problem.

The two pockets are lined in the hot pink fabric and finished with a decorative strip of ric-rac.

For sale here in The Boutique. Check it out!

PS — Twenty days until we move into our new house!!!!

New market tote

Bonjour my blogging friends! Although I’ve already packed up much of my fabric for our impending move, I was in the mood to sew the other night, and I realized I already had a market tote in pieces, just waiting to be sewn together. So I finished it up and posted it in The Boutique.

It’s my standard market tote design, but I used a thick cotton fabric instead of corduroy, which I think is more suitable for summer.

The applique design on the front of the tote is chocolate brown and white polka dots. The whole bag is lined in a gorgeous red and cream toile, which is yummy enough to eat and makes me want to decorate my entire house in it.

Oh, and a pocket! An internal pocket! I used to struggle with pockets, but now that I’ve figured it all out, I’m going to start including at least one in every bag.

The new bag is for sale here. (Edit: Sold!)

Pica

I have no idea if Nola really has pica (a medical disorder characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive), but I like to say she does, because it explains her constant desire to gnaw on everything — plastic bags, paper, my finger. She’s a chewer, that one.

I recently found out she likes chewing on twigs. Here she is going in for a nice big bite.

She bites off a little piece, chews on it for a minute, and then spits it out. So very….strange.

Have any of you heard of kitty pica? What weird items do your cats chew on?

Inspiration

Wow. More than two months since my last post. Thanks for hanging in there with me, folks. I’ve been a very bad blogger.

One thing I’ve learned about myself over the years is that if I love doing something but go through a spell where I’m not feeling inspired to do it, then I shouldn’t force myself, or I’ll end up not enjoying it anymore.

It’s been like that with sewing lately.  I’m not sure why. I can’t explain it. But I just haven’t had any desire to buy new fabric. Or measure and cut and pin. Or turn on the sewing machine and spend hours sewing away and creating new stuff. I just have to wait it out and get back into it when I feel it’s right.

One thing that I think will help immensely is the fact that Alex and I are moving into a much bigger place at the end of July. Right now, we live in a small one-bedroom apartment in which my “craft room” takes up half the bedroom. Bless my husband’s heart for putting up with me.

However, we’re moving to a three-bedroom house with a living room and a separate den. And by den, I mean The New Official Fat Orange Cat Craft and Sewing Room. My own room! My own space! A place to spread out and decorate however I want and not be in Alex’s way! It’s going to be glorious.

Speaking of glorious… 

The new Tampa Ikea opened up a couple of weeks ago just a few miles from our place. Until last night, we’d put off going there to avoid the insane crowds. But things have calmed down, and we decided to go last night to get ideas and inspiration for our new house.

After walking through almost the entire wonderful, amazing, perfectly decorated showroom, we found the textile section. More importantly, the fabric section.

The fabrics were colorful, graphic, beautiful and high quality. I’m holding off on buying any until we move into the new place, but I’ll probably come back here for some curtain and pillow material. I might even make a duvet cover for the guest room.

If a new house, new craft room, new Ikea and all that yummy fabric doesn’t inspire me, then I don’t know what will.

Honeymoon bag

Hello everyone! It’s been almost a full month since I last posted, but I have a very, very good reason for my absence.

Alex and I got married! 

We had a small, simple ceremony in the courtyard of an historic bed and breakfast in Fernandina Beach, Florida. We got to celebrate our marriage with the people we’re closest to, and we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day.

(Thank you, Megan, for the beautiful photograph above, and for all the amazing photos you took for us that day!) 

A week after the wedding, we went on our honeymoon — a seven-day eastern Caribbean cruise. It was an indescribable trip. I want to go back. Like, now.

During the week between the wedding and the honeymoon, I actually got some sewing done for myself. While shopping for the trip, I found this bag (that I loved) at Old Navy.

I knew I wanted a bag that crossed my body so that I could wear it comfortably while walking around all the little island towns. The one at Old Navy was only $15, but I decided to make one instead. It’s so rare that I make anything for myself, so it was less about saving money than it was about treating myself to a Fat Orange Cat original.

I was tempted to make it super bright but went with more neutral fabrics so that the bag wouldn’t clash with anything I wore on the honeymoon.

And inside, I included two — that’s right, TWO — pockets, which I lined in polka dots (a little secret treat for myself).

This bag got soaking wet while we kayaked, the pockets got filled with sand while we lay on the beach, it got shoved into my suitcase for the trip home, and it held up very nicely. It’s my honeymoon bag!