As for what I am in the process of working on? I’ve got a menswear blouse in the makings, a copycat skirt and an ear buds holder on the cutting board. I will pause work long enough to get the camera and put it to work in a bit!
Remember the Anthropology bathrobe I was copying a couple of weeks ago? Well, it is finished and being put to good use.
TaDa!

I just love it! I found the perfect ribbon for the tie and backed it in one of the fabrics to give it more body. I am also loving Amy Butler‘s Soul Blossoms series in this Bliss palette. It’s just a tad bit heavier than most quilting fabrics. Two layers of the softest, snuggliest fabric, with no filler was perfect. It matches last years Christmas pajamas, too. Bonus!
Enough sitting around, petting myself, there are scraps to be used. Sew Serendipity Bags by Kat Whitt has been calling my name since Christmas.
Now I have scraps of some of my favorite fabrics to put to use in a more public way.
I love to make bags and purses and it’s time for a new spring one. I chose to start with the book cover bag, the Ruffled Hobo. I then set about cutting strips to sew back together then cut that piece of fabric into bias strips, to ruffle, for the bag exterior.

I bought the Acufeed ruffler foot for my Janome for this project. And have put it to use. Look at all the lint built up on it, and my machine, already. That is a complicated gadget with not one good video on how to use it. Several for their regular ruffler but not many for the one that fits the Acufeed system. I should have had the dealer help me with in when I bought it. It would have saved so more time, in the long run and needles, too…
I wish I had had this little puppy when my girls were small and I made them all kinds of frilly clothes. Once you get the hang of it, it is scary fast at ruffling or pleating your fabric. No more double rows of basting to pull and gather into ruffles like Mrs. Summitt taught us in Jr. High Home Ec. This bag has so many ruffles that if you had to pull threads for gathering them all you’d probably want to zigzag over a cord, to pull, instead of just pulling the threads. Otherwise you can cut yourself while pulling and pulling and pulling those sharp little threads. Right across your pinky finger. Soft, tender, bloody skin… Remember that your own saliva cleans blood off fabric. Just so you know.
All in all it was a pretty easy bag to put together and it is huge. It will not only coordinate with most of my closet, it could hold a large part of it, too.
Hey, have you seen the current (March/April) Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting magazine? The quilt I made and gifted over Christmas is one of the features this month. Not my personal quilt, mind you, but a pattern, for free!
Just another example of being ahead of the game though….
It’s the Brigitte Heitland Zen Chic White Labyrinth. Check it out.
And check out what everyone else is working on over at Freshly Pieced.
