Some cool projects

So far this year my main focus has been my upcoming two sewing patterns, the Artemis Clutch and Artemis Shoulder Bag. This past month I also had two interesting custom orders. I have also spent several Saturdays working on cordless Roman Shades for my living room. I also managed a couple dresses for my daughter.

The dresses went pretty well. The black is the Bluezette Dress from Love Notions, and the blue is the Shirtzie Dress from Stitch Upon a Time. For each one, I had a yard of custom fabric from Luna Moon Fabrics that I wanted to use. I love how the black dress turned out! For the blue dress, I have some plans to redo it a bit. I gathered the whole yard for the skirt, instead of shaping it and then gathering it, which makes it a bit too full at the top. I am planning on cutting off the skirt and fixing it. I also did the crossover bodice, and it was not an okay neckline at all for my 12 year old. I added a modesty panel but it needs to be fixed too. I’ve now made that pattern twice, once for her, and once for myself, and I don’t plan on making it again with the crossover bodice. I haven’t been happy either time.

One of my custom orders was for a frame purse handbag. I have a return customer who showed me a picture of a leather bag online and asked if I could make it from vinyl. It ended up being such a gorgeous and unique bag! It was a very frustrating sew, mostly because of the interfacing I used that wrinkled my vinyl, and fitting it into the frame. I was ready to never make a bag like this again, but after I showed it on Facebook, there was a lot of interest, so now I’m planning on turning it into a pattern in the future. I drafted it for several smaller frame sizes and tried it out. It’s cute!

Another interesting custom order was a bag made from two military uniforms. My customer had some pictures of ideas, and told me which pockets she wanted for sure. I decided to try to use as much as of the uniform as possibly. I added some webbing to give the straps extra strength and because I thought it fit the style. I really like the final result, and so did my customer! This was also drafted from scratch, but it has similarities to my Sweet Sunday Bag pattern.

My Roman shades were a really big project, that unfortunately is not quite done yet. After I made the first, I decided to change where the dowels were sewn in the second and third. So now my first curtain doesn’t match the others. I simply haven’t had the motivation yet to resew the curtain. I followed a blog article and it was pretty straight forward. Once they are all complete, I’ll have a how-to post with process pictures. For now, here are some pictures of them hanging. We love them! Our room is finally finished, and they do a great job of blocking light and providing privacy at night because I used blackout fabric (from Affordable Home Fabrics online).