February 18-21: Patchwork drawstring bag

Since I'm going out of town this weekend I was going to cut major corners on this project and just show pictures of other bags I've got laying around, but the casing instructions on this bag were different than any I've made before, so I decided to give it a try. 

The original is over at Pink Penguin.  The casing pieces are folded in half and then attached to the bag after the outer bag pieces are already sewn together.  It's a pretty easy way to do a casing on a patchwork bag, but I think I like for the drawstring to cinch an inch or do down on the bag instead of right at the top.  I really like this one, though, so I might come around.

I cut 3 inch squares instead of 2.5 and only made three rows instead of four.  I also cut all of the squares without a ruler (!!!) while I was watching television.  Sure, my seams are wonky, and the patches don't line up perfect, but it made cutting go a lot faster, and from cut to complete this bag only took about a half hour. 

This would be a perfect size bag for toting make-up and other girly things on my trip this weekend, but the liquid restrictions are back in full force, so it's quart a sized ZipLoc for me. 

February 11-14: (Heartfelt?) quilt card

Oh, HAI!

The thing about this card is that it was actually finished on time (the site it's originally from, http://www.diynamite.com/, appears to be dead).  My camera battery was dead, so I put in on the charger and came back upstairs to do something (cook? gather laundry? sit on the couch?) for a few minutes while it got a lil' juice.  And then three days passed.  Whatev.

This ended up being a mini-card, because the only cardstock I had were smaller squares and just didn't look right long and skinny.  Plus, this way the double fold hides the threads and I didn't have to cut and glue another piece to the front. 

Since I forgot I even made the card, I missed the 'heartfelt' mark, and obviously no one got it for Valentine's Day.  Luckily, I don't know a lot of picky people so no one will mind getting a heart card on their birthday.

February 8-10: Tea towel apron

I've had My Spare Time in my Google Reader for awhile, and even though I've noticed this tutorial before, I've never tried it.

I've also had this tea towel in my linen closet (since 2006, apparently) but it doesn't get much use because the colors don't fit my kitchen and there is a big stain on the front.  (No, I'm not sure why I kept an unmatching and stained towel, either, but I'm glad I did.)

The hardest part of making this apron was trying to iron the wrinkles out of a 100% linen tea towel that's been wadded up in a closet for I-don't-even-know-how long.  As you can see, I wasn't totally successful, but I wanted to just get sewing already!

I love the end result of this tutorial.  The design of the towel worked perfectly and gave me a great border on the bottom of the apron, and the stain is caught under the rick rack and the fold, so I won't even be embarassed to show this one off.  The only modification I made was that I didn't sew three equal pockets, but made one large and two smaller pockets instead.

I also tried to take my first camera in the mirror shot of myself wearing the apron.  But...no.

February 4-7: Simple pillowcase

This one is a simple pillowcase from Rachael Rabbit.

I made this one for Christmas, so I'll be copping out here and just showing that one.  I'm still not feeling great, I'm tired and I'm in kind of a mood. 

February 1-3: Matryoshka doll pocket pillow

Until the last minute I thought this matryoshka doll pillow by Lauren Brandy was this weekends project.  Luckily, she sews up really fast, so I'm still on schedule!  I think the trickiest part was typing matryoshka right.  (For the record, I typed it matryoski twice in a row.  At least I'm consistent.)

Plus, she's absolutely adorable.  (As is the rest of Lauren's googy-goody handmade blog.  I was totally wowed while I was getting the link above.  She zoomed right into my reader.)  I know there is another tooth pillow later in the calendar, and I know some twins who are at prime tooth-loosing age, so this girl and her fellow pillow fella will be on their way over there pretty soon.