June 2 and 3, a weekend of inspired hands-on learning in authentic Shaker surroundings - something for all levels. Explore your creativity in workshops including woodworking (with found wood) with Jon Brooks, songwriting and creative exploration with VINX, modern fabric surface design with Merill Comeau, Letterpress with Jim McNabb, as well as classes in timber hewing, quilting, felted wool sculpture, beekeeping, and more. Connect with kindred spirits at communal lunch and Saturday wine reception.  Find your inspiration at Saturday keynote address “Dynamics of Tradition,” by Edward S. Cooke Jr., and VINX in Concert Sunday!  WORKSHOP FEES VARY, so please call for details, 603-783-9077, x230. Or check out the event online: https://www.eventbrite.com/event/3145723945/es1?srnk=1

For non-workshop visitors, we offer a Tour, Shop and Dine option, including an 11:30 tour of Canterbury Shaker Village and 1:00 pm lunch for $36.50.

I've been way off the crafting map for a couple months, thank GOD I've finally got my machine set back up.  My sister and I went fabric scavenging recently and found this amazingly textured vinyl.  I hadn't worked with vinyl before and was worried about how my machine might take it...I can proudly report that vinyl is totally awesome to work with and my regular ol' sewing machine sewed through it just fine.  So anyhoo, here's the bag.  It's currently living in a local boutique on consignment (my first experiment with consignment, we'll see how that goes):




It's about 10 inches long and 5 inches high.  (Sorry the pics are a little fuzzy...)
The inside is lined with interfaced lime green dupioni silk, the pocket is a stretch twill.

Well, after convincing myself I didn't have time for this challenge, my toilet plugs up (too much cat litter, sorry, TMI), and I have to go get a plunger...at THE DOLLAR STORE!!!  Somehow I suddenly had all the time in the world!

So, I spent almost exactly $4...it was $5.07 but I subtracted the price of the plunger

Here are my original materials, a shower curtain liner and a table cloth, both plastic, and let me tell ya, if there's one thing I learned here, it's that you get what you pay for, this is some classic cheap dollar store crap!:



And some mysterious green crinkly plastic twine:



Perhaps the original intent of the manufacturer?  Mmm, delicious:



But here's what I did with it--Prom 1964:







I also made the straps out of the green twine, braided.

I did a combination of sewing and taping to contruct it, and yes, it is wearable, I made it to fit me.  I cut the top based the shape of a shirt I already had and then I free-cut the skirt from memory based on a pattern I used once.  It is a wrap around and just clips in the back with a hook and eye closure.  The top also closes at the top with a hook and eye closure.  The underskirt is just something I had in the closet.

Woohooooo, Craft Challenge!  Now I have time to admire all the other craftiness on this thread...!

-Katy

Two new purses in two days, both based on craftster tutorials:

(See the Jordy Bag, the Rounder Roomy Bag, and the Zipper Pocket tutorials...and thank you to their creators...)

"Pixelated Flower Purse":






"Ghost Flower Bag":

Made this to coordinate with a messenger I already made...apologies for a little photo fuzziness...

Wrapped and sewed the fabric around a shoelace to make the handle 3D...



It doesn't show very well in this photo but the lining is actually silky, and brighter red than my camera will allow...


The mother bag...


I feel so coordinated now  

Okay, here's the tutorial at last, I apologize ahead of time for the fact that my photos are a little fuzzy.  This is for the bag I posted previously that was based on a Japanese bag my coworker showed me.  It is basically a lined zipper pouch with a lapped zipper pocket added on one side, and a "handwarmer" pocket on the other side...here are the pieces you start with:

 
The pieces are grouped together...the top right hand side is the main zipper and bag lining, the lower right side is the handwarmer pocket pieces, and the left side ones are for the lapped zipper pocket(that's just the zipper laying across it!).  Start with the bag lining and main zipper...

The first step is to attach the right side of the fabric to the wrong side of the zipper:



This is how it should look...zipper wrong side up and fabric right side showing.

Then you begin piecing together the pockets.  Handwarmer pocket first.  Take the outside and inside of the outer part of the pocket...face the wrong sides together so the "good" side of the fab. shows out on both sides.  Topstitch along the diagonal edge to attach them to each other.  Then attach this piece to the pocket lining by stitching along the top, within the seam allowance:



Next, work on the lapped zipper pocket.  Cut room for the zipper in the outside piece and the backing for the outside piece--and iron the seams back:



Attach the zipper...you can do this with or without lapping the zipper, just make sure to leave enough fabric for lapping if you go that route....  The outside of the pocket will attach to the front of the zipper and the backing will attach to the back of the zipper.  Sew that zipper on. 


Place this piece on top of the pocket back and sew across the top as with the previous pocket, within the seam allowance, to hold them together.

You now have three pieces:


Iron seams across the tops of the pocket pieces.  Pin the tops of the pocket pieces onto the zipper:


Then fold the pocket pieces back on each other, so that they lay inside out on one side of the zipper, and the lining of the bag lays on the other side:


Sew around the outside of the pocket pieces.  Sew down the sides of the lining also...but DO NOT SEW THE BOTTOM OF THE LINING YET!!! 

Turn it all right side out.  You should have something resembling a purse at this point, with pins going around the top.  Stick the handle in under the pins (I had this handle left from another project, sorry no construction photo!):



Sew around the top!  Ironing or hammering the seam all the way around may help if your machine doesn't want to sew through all those layers (take it from someone who broke a machine by not doing that...) .

Then you gotta pull the lining out and close it.  I like to iron the seams under and just sew along the bottom, as close as I can get it to the edge:



Finished product:

My boyfriend loves death metal...you know, bands with names like Carcass, Nunslaughter, and Deicide?  And he hates cutesy holiday stuff.  Hence the death metal Christmas stocking. 





What can't you do with felt and a bedazzler...I actually don't have a bedazzler, I put all the metal studs in by hand--ouch, I don't recommend it--but if I do it again, I'll be getting the proper tools.  I didn't put a loop in it to hang it, but it would be an easy addition...I sewed the edges, but glued on the white felt parts...

Thanks much, here goes on the more pics tip! :

The construction was pretty much the same as gloriana's tutorial...I lined it with the same fabric as is on the outside...no topstitching because the fabric was nice and sturdy and didn't really need it, and I wanted my lines cleeeeean.  The army green part is twill, the flowered part is stretch cotton.

Tho' mine is without pocket, I am happy with the result...I took care to line it, in honor of my grandmother, a woman obsessed with lining as a sign of quality   And it's sturdy, let's hear it for twill.  I'd never sewed with it before but it was an easy, forgiving fabric to work with...

                       

Now I'm going to go pore back over that messenger with gusset tutuorial by "gloriana"...which rocks...