Absolutely and shamelessly inspired by this bag:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=186979.msg1958906;topicseen#msg1958906

I needed one of my own.  NEEDED.  Needed.  So actually the night after I saw the original I went nuts, grabbing Target bags and my iron and making this version in, like, two hours.  I loved it, but it was missing something.  It didn't look finished.
I wanted piping, but I couldn't find red vinyl piping anywhere in town, and I didn't know how much I needed so I was hesitant to order any online.  I finally settled on some neato string/yarn trim I got at Hancock for 50 cents a yard (and I needed three yards!)
And still, it needed more!  Lucky for me, I spent three years working at Target, so thusly I HAD more!  Hurray!


So now I give you, it's in final Target-dorky-form, my I Love Target Too Much bag.


The front.


The back, more of the same.


The pocket, which is now much more secure than it was in the original version.  I love this.  I'm so glad we had the older bags with the big list on it (the new bags only have small lists.)



And the dorkery side... I have four different versions of my nametag (my original with the Target pin you got after a year, which they no longer give out... no pins on any badges, they wanted uniformity); a regular nametag; a generic one with my store's number on it; and two that happily proclaimed me as a TRAINER (team trainer!  yay!)  I used the one I had duplicates of (actually, my pin one is in my scrapbook I think.)
I also had the hilarious pharmacy badge that they made us all wear for a month during a pharmacy promotion.  I love it.


I also switched the straps so they didn't cross between the bag.  It only took one shopping trip for me to realize that was stupid and wouldn't work, LOL.

No before pics, because I got home and ripped the shirt up right away to start on this.  Actually, it's been done for a long time (since Spring semester), but only tonight did I sit down with my mom and we figured out how to reline it so it's not as floppy, so only now am I posting pictures. =>  Just in time for the Fall semester!

This started as a black and white striped tank top from Walmart for $7, and four images of that awesome Elvis jailhouse rock fabric.  I still have the blue piece sitting around, waiting for me to do something with it..
We spent most of the day searching all of the fabric stores in town for black and white striped fabric.  None.  On a whim I looked at Walmart for clothing and found the tank top!  Perfect!  I think it was an XXL, so I had lots of fabric to work with...
added a piece of vinyl at the bottom to give it more support/a flat bottom.  It's lined with white cotton and... whatever that stiff lining stuff is.  That stuff, yeah.


The front - I put the pink on the front because I love pink, and also I liked this photo the best.  We used fusing to put the pictures on, and then I handstitched around the black frame to make sure it stayed.  It looks off center here, but the bag is a little tube-y right now because it's fresh off the sewing machine and hasn't been abused into a rectanguler shape yet. =>


The back (slightly blurry).  After we put the picture on and realized the stripe was going to show through... I think that just made it even more awesome.


I used the orange panel inside for a pocket, to fit my planner, pens, and cellphone.  Ignore the chunk of doghair inside. *facepalm*


Elvis bag, being mauled modeled by my dog Auggie (very blurry!)  I used one of those Elvis Lives beltings for the strap.

So I made myself a great bag for school.  I couldn't find the right fabric (how hard is it to find a black & white stripe fabric?  Apparently, very hard.) but I did find a tanktop at Wal-Mart that was perfect.  So I used it as my starting point.

It has a flat bottom because I sewed in a piece of vinyl to give some shape and support.  Since it was a tanktop, I used the natural side seams of the shirt to be center side-seams on the bag.  It is lined with a plain white cotton fabric, and is pretty much in the "tote bag" family as far as construction goes.

I ADORE this bag... but it's super floppy.  Even when there's books in it, it tends to slouch and slide everywhere.  It's really inconvenient (not to mention it's cute, but when it's all flopped over you can't see how cute it is.)  I really really REALLY don't want to have to tear the whole thing apart and start over, so I'm hoping there's another idea for how to make this thing a little more sturdy and less prone to flopping over.

Any ideas, folks? =>  I'm wondering if lining it again with a different kind of fabric might help..?  I think I could get away with just ripping off the inside pocket, reattach the pocket to the new liner, and then re-lining it... but I'm a newbie as far as sewing and fabrics go, so I have no clue!
Thanks for any help in advance!

(Edit: I did read this post a little bit down -> http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=149843.0 <- but wasn't sure if we're asking the same question/if the same answers could apply to me.  It's not a strength issue for me, just a make-the-fabric-stop-falling-over! issue...)

If I were to do it again, I would probably make a few changes... but I think he's pretty darn snazzy.  If scarves could be pals he would be my new best friend.
I call him Chompy.  So original.





Inspired by general video game dork-ery, with "oh!  I can make this TOTALLY AWESOME!" help from this project.

He needs a matching hat buddy.  (Yes, that will probably be next.)

These were knit up for my favourite set of twins in the whole wide world ever... for Christmas.
I'm sure it's nothing new to anybody around here, but as my knitting accomplishments include garter stitch scarves and one ginourmous calorimetry that helped me master switching back and forth between knit and purl stitches, this was really exciting for me to accomplish!  (And it's always amusing to give one to somebody and watch them freak out in excitement once you reveal the pattern...)

First was this one, because I was chatting with some friends about my short attention span with failed attempts and more complicated knitting and said "now I'm pondering skull intarsia."  The immediate response was "ILLUSION SCARF!!" and I was given patterns with which to try.  And so became skull scarf!
For the boy who deserves a million skulls on every article of clothing he owns, and I mean that in the best possible way.  From this pattern.  I suffered some confusion when it came to turning the chart around and working back up, but I managed to try a few things and figure it out all by myself!  So proud!

Next came robot scarf from this pattern.  I changed the pattern just a teensy bit to make it a quicker knit, and axed the "I" in the middle for time and length reasons.


I don't knit tight enough for the image to pop out as easily as it's "supposed to," I guess, but it still works.  Everybody kept commenting "gosh, you can see the picture so much easier on the other side!" *facepalm*
And now that I know the trick to it, there's no stopping me from knitting scarves with swear words puppies hidden in them!