makeup bag

 I found the tutorial for this cute little makeup bag at 

flossie teacakes.

It's easy to follow and makes a 5"x71/2" bag with 

nice finish all around. Difficult to make with upholstery

fabric, however, as it gets quite thick in spots.

Below are bits of it in different stages along the way.

I think I'll buy the license for this pattern and 

whip some up for sale on my someday-etsy-shop. :)

tooth fairy pillows are done!

learning to applique

The tooth fairy pillows I'm making require monograms.

I thought I might be able to embroider monograms on my 1950's Singer, 

because the booklet shows lots of monograms (unaccompanied by any 

instruction whatsoever). However, how they ever managed to produce them 

on this particular machine is a complete mystery to me. My attempts were dismal. 

So I moved on to applique, and I'm pretty happy with the results!

For these little guys, which will become patch pockets, I found a scripty

font on my computer and printed it out at the size I wanted. I backed the 

fabric scraps with Pellon Wonder-Under and traced the letter outlines onto 

the fabric using a light board (although a well-lit window would suffice). 

I peeled the back of the Wonder-Under and ironed the letters onto white

muslin which was already backed with iron-on, woven interfacing for 

sturdiness. Then I got to satin stitching the whole thing together. It all

looked a bit choppy, so I took the time to do a small straight stitch 

around all the outside edges to even it up. I'm glad for all the adhesive

interfacings, which kept things sturdy and firmly attached along the way!

piecing together pillows

A friend recently asked me if I'd sew up some 

patchwork tooth fairy pillows for her children.

Along the way, I learned a thing or two about

cutting the correct angles for these little guys to

hold together right (yikes!). I'll post the finished
product once they've become pillows, complete

with pockets, ribbons for hanging, and monograms!

I'm planning to make a line of children's items to

sell at a local consignment shop, and I might 

include this type of tooth fairy pillow in the mix.
Maybe they'll find their way into my theoretical
Etsy shop some day as well!

label making

inset zipper success

 

I just learned how to install an "inset zipper" in a bag lining!

This means that the opening floats in the middle of a piece

of fabric without additional seams around it. The zipper

just discreetly points the way to a little, hidden pocket.

 To get here, I followed Lisa Lam's tutorial. Very helpful

and clear, as is everything she writes on u-handbag.typepad.com.

Thanks, Lisa!

guess what came in the mail today!

You got it! 

Like I said, it's very basic.

But I think it'll make for cute fabric labels.

I'm tempted to go around the house stamping everything
to see what my little logo looks like on each surface....

This stamp-making thing could be addictive.

logo development

 

Hello, friends! Welcome to my new blog!!

As I weather this journey of starting my etsy shop, I thought it would be fun 

(on my friend Julie's recommendation) to include you in the adventure.

This process turns out to be more involved than I anticipated and is also 

complicated by my own fears and perfectionistic tendencies. But here we go!

I have officially named my little (eensy weensy) shop "Seneca Street Studios."

In the interest of getting things moving along, I have been working to develop

a temporary logo. Pictured above are samples I scanned into the computer

to work with. On Monday, I ordered a stamp of the shop name from

RubberStamps.net for making tags and labels. It should come any day now!