This UFO is finally "F" - Fig Tree Bon Voyage Pattern Review Garment Bag

I'm on a roll folks! And I'm going to run with it. If I've learned anything in life so far, it's how strong and powerful momentum can be. I've had this unfinished project on my sewing table....wait for it...since November. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift! I do realize in the grand scheme of sewing lives, that's not even "long", but it's been taking up valuable space and taunting me...so finish it, I did.

The garment bag is for my mother in law. Every time she comes to visit us for the weekend (yes, weekend) she brings bags, and bags and BAGS of stuff. I decided that she needed something personal to carry it all in. After much digging, the Fig Tree Bon Voyage bag looked to be exactly what I was trying to find for her.


After reading the pattern, and realizing my own limitations as a quilter, I decided to go ahead and buy pre-quilted fabric. I know, I know...I can hear the gasping and choking and see the chest clutching from here. But really folks...I'm a sewer first, and a quilter, like, 10th. My quilting skills are still very mediocre at best and I wanted to be able to focus on the construction of the bag. Besides, this print is SO my mother in law. I know she'll love it. (AND, it took me over 4 1/2 months as it was!).

Here's my finished product:


A few things to note about the pattern before I start. I didn't use a contrasting gusset fabric, as they did in the photo. Nor did I add on the optional pocket. I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out the placement of the pocket, and how it would work without your things all falling out, and I made the executive decision to just not add it. (Again, it took me over 4 1/2 months as it was!)

What I liked about the pattern the most, was the labeled pieces diagram at the beginning, which were also color coded. Had it not been for these, I would have struggled even more than I did. The steps were laid out well, and the overall directions were written very clearly.

What I didn't like about the pattern was the lack of detail around how you got the two gusset sides to come together at the top. I couldn't for the life of me envision it while I was putting it together, and there was no graphic or diagram in the pattern. I ended up trying a few different ways before I got it work out the way I think it was intended. Now that it's done, it looks great, and actually is pretty straightforward, but...alas...as is often the case, I overthought it.

Another thing I really love about the pattern is this:


All of the interior seams are bound and it gives the bag a really lovely, "finished" feel.

I also did add a little zipper pull, beacuse there wasn't any mention of one, and the only zipper I could find that was long enough was brass and isn't as smooth as I'd like. The long pull makes it much easier to slide it up and down to open the bag.


One photo on the back of the pattern shows the bag folded in half using the loop, and I really liked that feature. Especially if you have to travel on a plane or somplace that you are super limited in hanging space. You could fold the garments in half, and the bag looks fantastic, and I think, given it's structure, will hold the clothes nicely.






All in all I'm happy with the final product. Please, under no circumstances ask to see what the inside looks like, or for detail shots. This is most definately a "prototype" version.

I would say this pattern is for an intermediate sewer, at least. It's certainly not a beginner pattern. But the end result is polished and chic looking. If I had actually chosen the fabric and quilted it myself it would make a downright gorgeous bag.

My Once and Someday Former Life

I've been having a lot of trouble balancing things lately. My life is really full. I have a full time "day" job, two kids, a husband, friends, family, and then...I have my dream. My dream of turning my love of fabric and creating things, into a career. My latest big step forward is taking a class in Illustrator and Photoshop so I can feel confident in getting my design ideas into reality. But that adds to the "really full life" thing. It's a lot of work. And going back to homework every week is ROUGH. But it is oh-so-worthwhile. I love the class, and it's only until mid-May.

My bigger news, is that I have...ready??? Bought a plane ticket. I am GOING to Quilt Market. That's right. I AM GOING. I have roommate to stay with (I KNOW...how cool is THAT?) And it's not just any roommate. It's Bari, as in Bari J. Fabric and now pattern designer Bari. I KNOW. I also already have my pass to get in. Is your heart pounding like mine yet???

So I thought I would give you a glimpse into my day to day life as it is now. Because as I see it, it's only a matter of time, and it will be different. Here goes...

I drive to work every day, after waiting with the kids at the bus stop. I live outside of Hartford, CT. Small as cities go. I park my car, and this is what I see.



I try to park on the roof of the garage every day I can. Just so that when I come out of work, I can breathe real (non-re-circulated) air. And look around. It's spring time, so for now...it's pretty nice.



I work for Prudential. The Rock. Mother Pru. You know who that is. Enough said. I live in the insurance capital of the world. Pretty much everyone works for an insurance company in some capacity. Overall, as much as I beef, it's a great company to work for, and I love my co-workers. (Especially the crafty ones!) So, I go into my building, and head up to the cube farm.

I'm the Treasurer for Pru's Bank. So it's a geek fest every day. Accountants, actuaries, and finance types everywhere. Part of me loves it. The challenge, the number-ness of it. But I've done it what feels like forever. And in my heart of hearts, I know I will be fulfilled in a whole new way when I'm creating for a living. When I sit down to work (or dream) this is what I see. The edge of my cube, my sweet little owl from WBR (with it's italian translation, because I want to learn to speak Italian, but that's a whole different post!), and the wide, blue yonder.



This is my CFA charter. It took four years of misery, self study, discipline and many, many brain cells to get this. It basically says I'm about as finance-geeky as they come. I am very proud of this. BUT...it has served it's purpose. I'm ready to get a CFA in fabric design.



So...to help myself along, I write things on my white board to look at every day and inspire me. What's there right now is this...



When I shared that on Twitter, Whipstitch had this to say "Burn the boats, Baby". THAT is the kind of awesome inspiration, comraderie and community I thrive on.

So, without further ado...onto my Once and FUTURE life.

Following my Bliss & Making Connections

It's been well over a month since I posted anything. I had told myself that for the new year I wanted to post at least twice a month on my blog. So much for that!

I thought to warm myself up, I'd let you know about two great things that are going on for me now.

The first, is that I'm taking a class in Adobe Creative Suite CS4 online at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. It's an accredited program, so if I decide to keep taking classes and actually get a degree, I could actually use it. Which is good, because the classes are NOT cheap. But, I felt like I needed to learn Illustrator and Photoshop if I want to successfully design fabric, so I signed up. I'm also one of those people who (sadly) is more diligent about something once I've opened my wallet. So spending the money is a motivator to stay on track.



I'm loving the videos and presentation like format of the learning so far. And getting to see all of my classmates work is both inspiring and motivating. Some of them seem so good, already, after only the first week. I may have to step up my practicing time.

In more local news, I had a great Etsy shop owner from Hartford reach out to me and say that she was looking to start an Etsy Team of Hartford artisans...how cool is that? I was actually able to give her some additional names and emails of folks who might be interested. Her name is Katie Tolve and her Etsy shop is cute.n.boot and she makes great pen pal supplies. She also started us all a blog (Team HartBeat), and we have our first get together scheduled in March. Last but not least, she made us a great button (at my suggestion!)



How great is THAT? And irony of all ironies...we actually work in the same BUILDING in our day jobs. I'm hoping to meet her for lunch soon.

So, that's it for now...I'm hoping to post more often. I'm dreaming of going to Quilt Market in May. Even if it means I just get to meet some of the awesome peeps I've met on Twitter. So send all the positive vibes you can. Following your bliss can be a lot of work.

Holiday Sewing & Hazel Pattern Review

Wow, so here it is, Christmas Eve. And not only am I just now finishing my final gift, but I managed to take a bunch of pictures so I can do a review of the pattern. Talk about multi-tasking!

Before I continue, I must say, that Twitter (my name is @restitcherator if you'd like to follow my tweets) is just about my favorite thing in the world these days. After I post pictures or talk about doing one pattern review or test, I get a request to do another one! It's like heaven! I follow quite a few fabric designers, pattern creators, sewing book authors, but also a ton of other crafters and sewistas like me.

My most recent project was from the very talented and wonderfully friendly Trish Preston, of Two Peas in a Pod Designs. She also has an Etsy shop where you can buy this great pattern for a hipster bag.



The pattern comes with multiple variations, pockets, no pockets, smaller, larger, etc. I made the basic version as a purse for my cousin for Christmas. She hates to carry big, heavy purses, so I thought this would be perfect for her. I used Sandi Henderson's new Meadowsweet fabric, which I think is absolutely GORGEOUS. It was everything in me not to keep the bag and get something else for my cousin!




The pattern was very well written, with great "tips" along the way for important notes to remember. One of the things I liked the best, was that there was a blank line between each of the numbered directions. And the font was a decent size. So often I get patterns that have tiny print on a page that's folded up 10 times and I flip back and forth and get myself confused.

Trish's steps were easy to follow, and I am super pleased with the results. What do you think?




I will most definately be making more bags with this pattern. It took me maybe a total of 3 hours including cutting, pressing, and sewing (and even the pictures). And I will be looking at Trish's new patterns when they come out too!

Annual Christmas Trip to Beantown

It's actually become and annual tradition..we started going four years ago when we were just getting to the "serious dating" stage. We take a trip to Boston for some great food in the North End, some Christmas shopping, and a quick little getaway in the chaos that is holiday time.

This year we stayed at The Langham, Boston. It's right in the heart of the financial district. The room was very nice, but no free breakfast. A pretty big drawback in my book! We decided to walk to dinner, although it was pretty windy and cold, and saw this along the way, and I just loved it.



We got to dinner, at Trattoria di Monica on Prince Street in the North End. It came pretty highly recommended, and being the research geek I am, I read tons of online reviews. It was exactly the type of restaurant we love. Small, great atmosphere, romantic (ok, that's my favorite, not Rob's), and amazing food. Very cozy on a cold wintery night.



Even though it was tiny, Rob managed to snap a few pics, and caught me smiling at the amazing choices. At least this time I wasn't tweeting, or updating my Facebook page, which is what he usually catches me doing.



After dinner we stopped at Mike's Bakery, on Hanover Street, which was actually rockin' at 10:30. There were literally throngs of people going in and out. Some sitting with coffee, some taking boxes of sweet deliciousness home. That I did manage to tweet about.



I got a decaf cappucino, and about 8 different chocolate treats. Giant peanut butter cups, giant chocolate dipped pretzel rods with toffee crumbs on top, coconut clusters...oh lord. All of them were amazing, and we actually have a few left.

When we got back to the hotel, the concierge actually managed the truly rare and elusive photo of Rob AND Rebecca. These don't happen often, so I was glad it came out as well as it did.



The next morning we went to Sowa Holiday Market, which is a fantastic show featuring 80 amazing artists and craftspeople. I tell myself that I'm there to buy gifts and then manage to come home with presents for myself! My favorite artist was there, James Polisky. He designed my logo.



He has an amazing perspective. He manages to show the darker side of people, kids, animals, you name it, with what to me feels like a beautiful, funny overlay. For some reason, his work just speaks to me.

As we were eating lunch on Newbury Street, I was looking out the window and saw all kinds of people in Santa hats run by one block up. As luck would have it 5 minutes later, the Speedo Santa Run went right past us. I had never heard of it, but I guess it's to raise money for a few local charities. Needless to say Rob got TONS of pictures, but just to give you a flavor...these people were CRAZY.





As always, it was a wonderful, memorable trip. We will most definately be going back next Christmastime.

Pattern Test for Patty - Flora & Fauna Blossom Pillow

Once again, thanks to Twitter, I was given the fantastic opportunity to test a new pattern for fabric/pattern designer Patty Young.



Patty launched a new set of patterns this week, and I was asked to test one of the decorative pillows from her "Pillow Trio" pattern. This time around Patty sent me her new Flora & Fauna fabric, and a suggested layout for the fabrics.



The fun part is that my finished test pillow gets to be in the actual pattern once it's printed, and Rob's great photos of the pillow get photo credit in the finished pattern too!

Overall, the pattern was super simple to complete. Something a new sewer could make with ease, and get some super immediate gratification. All of the pillows are a finished 18", so they really look fantastic and stand out on a chair or bed.

Super Duper Tote with a Zipper (& pattern review)

Unfortunately, more than one of the projects I've worked on the most lately have been TOP secret. So I am very happy to be able to share this one.

It came as a special request from Rob's cousin. She asked me if I could make a tote bag with a zipper. She said she was looking for something that she could carry snacks and drinks around in, but that could pass for a handbag. My two kids are ALWAYS asking "what do you have to eat?" and oddly enough, there's usually something rumbling around in my purse. But I love the challenge of custom requests, so I started hunting.

I asked my fellow Tweeps for suggestions on a pattern to use. I figured that I at least needed a place to start. Melanie, (owner of Above All Fabric) who has now pretty much become my "go to" fabric/sewing resource suggested this book:




It looked like it had exactly what I needed so I ordered it right away. I decided on the tote from the back that has pink and purple stripes and black buttons, but I knew that I was going to choose a single fabric so I thought it would be pretty straightforward.

Well, pretty straightforward. I am a huge grosgrain ribbon fanatic. So I try to put it on just about as many things I make as possible without it looking silly. After two other fabric choices which ended up getting cut and then re-folded and re-stashed (that's a whole 'nother story!) I found this Joel Dewberry Tiles fabric and knew it was the right choice. I have the most awesome huge amount of siler/grey ribbon in a few different sizes, so I dug in.

The pattern was pretty clear, and well written, but as with many other patterns, it was really important to read through the whole thing a few times and have all of the pieces they told you to cut, ready. I tried to skip right to the directions, without being properly prepped and it didn't make any sense at all. Once I got into the meat of the pattern, it was easy to follow.

I will say that because the fabric was home dec weight, by the time it had a front, back, lining, and padding, it was pretty thick. I broke not one, but TWO needles going around the outside edge to finish it.

But finish it I did and I love the end result. I worked very hard to line up the sides,

and outside of the zipper...


and the inside is lined with some pretty plain, tonal cream color paisley fabric. It does, however, have a pocket made from my precious stash of Pussy Willow fabric from BariJ's Full Bloom line. These birds just make me HAPPY, so I fit them in where ever I can.



I am totally thrilled with the finished product


although it is much more than the quick bag I thought I was going to throw together. I realize with my horrid photographic skills the grey grosgrain actually looks like reflective tape! But I promise it's not.

Now I just hope Jessica likes it!

Next up, I"m going to do a little show and tell about my day of Serger School on Thursday. It was fantastic...