I'm so excited to be able to post my non purse/bag/wallet project! ok so admittedly it's not a huuuuuge step out of my comfort zone but it's a step nonetheless;) I had a few coupons and have always wanted to try sewing with Minky (or the JoAnn version Soft & Comfy and Ultra Cuddle in my case) but wanted something simple for my first project. What better than a basic "2 rectangles sewn together" blanky? I made the heart and dog tags one first and just today made the one with the name Colin on it. It's for the 1 yr. old lil boy of a girl I went to HS with and she serves in the Army National Guard so I wanted to say "thank you" for her service. Enjoy!

Heart/tags design bought from embroiderydesigns.c om and Colin was made with a cute dots font from Apex Embroidery.

This is a set I made for a friend who is an oncology nurse as well as proud mother of a soldier. I had picked out numerous breast cancer fabrics and she chose this one:)

This set took approximately 4 weeks of on and off sewing while trying to finish all my holiday sewing list as well as enjoying my husband having some time off from doing the Drill Sergeant thing:)

The wallet was my biggest challenge. I've been trying to use new construction techniques so I can avoid the bulky seams which in turn makes for easier toptitching which I'm sure we've all battles at some point lol! Overall I like the way it turned out but there are still some things I'd do differently:/

Ah well...try, try again right?

Hope you like!

this is a bag I made special for the mother of a trainee in my husband's company. She's undergoing treatments for cancer and since I couldn't find any fabric with the particular awareness ribbon she chose one of the colors of the ribbon for the bag:) I'm loving the way it turned out as I was going from scratch and can't wait to give it to her.

Q though, I'm not too skilled with ribbon so I could use some advice on ways to make the ribbon stay tied. I sewed the ribbon down before tying it so that part I'm not worried about but would like input on how to make sure it stays tied, thanks fellow craftsters!

just a cute little girly pleated ruffle tote that I made for a friend of mine who's going to be moving soon. her and her husband are getting stationed overseas so I wanted her to have a little bag that would be cute for everyday and something that could also function as a carryon. I had seen a girl at the PX where we are stationed who was carrying a bag like this but before I could ask her where she got it she was out the door so I figured I'd take a whack at making it myself

this was my first time with pleated ruffles and I used a fabulous tutorial i found online and unfortunately i didn't bookmark it and can't remember the name of the blog but it was a neat little trick to get nice even pleats.

***found the link!*** http://bandycanyon.blogspot.com/2010/08/ruffle-tutorial.html

anyway, hope you like!

lost the motivation for sewing and am now gaining it back. This was my first project after a 2-3 month break from sewing





has lots of card slots that fit 2-4 cards each, 2 full size pockets, an id flap, magnet closure, and exterior zippered coin pocket

lots of cursing and lots of seam ripping involved since i lost my "touch" but it's comin' back now with a vengeance lol!

Now that I've gained a bit more confidence in bag making and found my favorite interfacing combo I've started doing craft shows and vendor fairs. A woman who had been on vacation in the states from Misawa, Japan where her and her Air Force hubby live and she told me she wanted to order a tote but just said "anything so long as it's basic black and white, i don't need pockets on the inside but if i could get some outside ones".

this is what I came up with. a basic tote with ribbon on the front pockets and a black and white polka dot lining:)

ps: i apologize if "watermarking" images and posting them is against the rules and please delete this post or move it or whatever you have to do. I looked through the "forum rules" about "advertising" but didn't see anything specific to watermarked images without the intent to gain sales. I mark all of my stuff now because I had been posting pics on facebook and another person was taking all my images and posting them on her fb saying she made them and that I copied her designs. :s

again, I apologize if this isn't allowed.

So a friend convinced me to rent a booth at a craft fair in a couple months and this is one of the bag designs I came up with. I'll pretty much be sewing constantly until the craft fair to have enough "stock". This was my first time ever doing anything with ribbon and while my bow tying skills aren't exactly up to snuff, I don't think I did too bad for a first timer lol!




first pic is a full shot of the bag. the 2nd pic is one of the slip pockets on the side. it's perfect for my Moto Droid 3 with a little wiggle room but still keeping it snug, has reinforced straps, magnetic snap and 3 pockets on the inside as well as 2 slip pockets on the outside made to resemble pockets from the ACU top.

There's a few kinks i'm working out ie. i think i'd have more success with the drop in method vs the pull through method i used on this particular bag. I think it's help me line everything up and make the seams a bit more even.

hope you guys like!

I custom made this what I call "Memory Keeper" bag for a fellow army wife and good friend. Those who are in the military or affiliated with it know how attached we get to "certain" uniforms for sentimental reasons. She wanted to keep the memories of her husband's service without piling up more boxes of old uniforms and she asked me to make a bag. It's made with 1 acu top that her husband was wearing when he returned from his 3rd tour in Iraq, 1 bdu top that he wore during basic training, and 1 dcu top that he wore during his first deployment. It's got 2 pockets (1 bdu and 1 dcu) and a magnet closure as well as unit patches from their 11 years in the army. The straps were made out of surplus fabric from a friend of mine who owns a chain of military supply stores and the plain black is just a walmart solid black cotton exactly like JoAnn country classics fabric. So its a nice mix of old/"new"

I apologize if this belongs in the "Reconstructed Projects" section and please feel free to move if necessary:p

I also apologize for the fuzzy pics, my nikon battery is charging so im stuck using my phone:s

 
 
 

The last pic is the back of the bag but when I took this pic the bag wasn't done so don't mind the little tufts of fleece peeking out:)

So I posted pics a while back of a set I made for a friend. Well she had told me that another Drill Sergeant's wife from our company was interested. I got in touch with her and she was very specific about what she wanted and she picked out the fabrics. She wanted a roomy, sturdy but flexible travel bag using as many pieces from her husband's ACU top as possible. She wanted 3 pockets on one side interior for keys, wallet, and phone. The other small pocket on the other side is for some little Pampered Chef Catalogs and it has a velcro flap closure to keep them from coming out if the bag tips over.

hope you like!


also, I'm still trying to figure out which interfacing combos work best for which bags and I have a question for you veteran bag makers. as you can see in the pic that shows the exterior side pocket and part of the front, in the seam you can see the white threads being "stretched". How do i keep these from being visible the next time? I used pellon heavywt sew in, sew'd (sp?) using a 1/2in SA and then trimmed the pellon to 1/8inch. I used stitch length 3 and i think i had the tension set at 4.

any help would be much appreciated. thanks in advance!! and happy crafting:)

ps: this was my first time ever sewing a zipper closure like this so I'm pretty stoked:) it's not perfect but I did the best I could:s

my brother's ex girlfriend and I are facebook friends and she had seen my posts about acu stuff that i've made for other army wives and she contacted me about making a men's wallet as a birthday gift for her father using NWU fabric since he was in the navy for many years and she just got out of the navy not long ago but her husband is still in. I told her i'd love to since i had never done a men's wallet. She told me that her dad's favorite color is orange and she also wanted me to incorporate one of her name patches. This is what I came up with.

I got the general measurements from a tutorial someone linked on a post I had done on here looking for men's wallet tutorials. After making it almost exactly like the tutorial called for (except added more card slots), i decided to redo with a few changes. I made it smaller, added another row of card slots, and created some lines of functional yet decorative stitches to make the slots a bit more sturdy and snug. in the first wallet the cards would literally fall out without even shaking the wallet. In the pic I still have to topstitch the opening at the top and have been debating whether i'm going to topstitch the entire wallet or not. I kinda like how it looks without it.

The first tutorial also called for a 1/4 inch seam allowance and to leave a 2.5 inch opening in one short end for turning. I used the same measurements but used a 1/2 inch allowance and left a 3.5 inch opening in the top for turning to make it a a bit easier. .

hope you like!