I posted two samples on Etsy yesterday. They are hipsters I made in the process of writing the pattern. You can find them in my Etsy shop. The one on the left is Moda Momo Freebird Twill. The one on the right is a Michael Miller print and it does not have a front zip.

Also! I’m just a few people away from my 300 likes on my FB page! You guys are so awesome. What should we do to celebrate? A Giveaway? Hmmm…. :)

Last Friday I had one of those drop everything and sew moments. I’ve had this idea for a top zip bag in my head for a while and I’ve even drawn up a couple patterns and played with the idea, but for some reason I suddenly needed to either to figure it out or move on. So even though it didn’t work the way I originally planned, with a rounded gusset like this bag, the boxed corners worked fine and the zipper install worked out!

I don’t love the shape. It’s too – something. Too trapezoidy? Too short? Too… something. Anyway that doesn’t matter. I can make it a little taller and bring the zippered top out a little wider so it’s not such a drastic angle. But, the zipper install worked! Yay! And it matches my pink winter jacket that nothing matches. It also holds all of my stuff! I’m very anxious to re-work the shape and turn it into a pattern!

Saturday morning I took the dogs to get haircuts. Our lovely, kind groomer sadly and unexpectedly passed away a few weeks ago. She had groomed Sam and Loki for  years. She had a salon in her home so she would take them both together and let me stay with them. She planned cuddle and treat breaks and talked to them in a silly voices, like you would with your own dogs. She was one of a kind. Her talented son has continued her business and I think he did an amazing job! The dogs liked him and he was super gentle with them and was so patient with Sam and her antics. She never. stops. wiggling. :) I think they look adorable. And with the snow, short hair means no soggy paws!

  

Yes I took pictures of my eggs. Because it’s fun to play with my camera and my lighting is still not right, so I need practice. Why not?

P.S. I just got my hosting bill from December and yikes is it high. We’re getting TONS of traffic. I’m going to be reworking the sidebar to make room for advertisers. Please contact me if you’re interested!

I was going to write a whole long Happy New Year post, but what it comes down to is that 2011 was better than 2010 health-wise for me and  I expect 2012 will be even better. That, along with all of your support, has allowed me the opportunity to do something that I love almost every day. It’s been a long road to get here but I’m really exited to continue the journey. The past few months have given me several moments (or afternoons, or entire days) where I was left completely speechless from all of your kind comments, emails and reviews of my patterns. For 2012 I’m going to be focusing on Dog Under My Desk full time for a while and I’ll see how it goes. That means I should be able to get back to you more quickly, blog more often, tackle my crazy sewing to-do list and be more productive. All I can say is Thank You to my readers, my husband, my family, my friends and my dogs! You have no idea how much you all mean to me. Thank you.

Let’s all raise a glass to 2012. I’m planning to make it a good one!

Our planning/shopping/decorating got compressed into just a few days and then we had family in town for a couple weeks, so it was non-stop chaos for us until yesterday.

I’m so excited to get back to “normal” because I’ve got several blog posts to work on and tons of comments from all of you (thank you!) and my entire inbox to reply to, so I’ll be playing catch up for a few more days and then I can get back into my huge list of sewing projects.

First of all, thanks to your help, I WON the Pink Chalk Handmade with Love 2011 tutorial contest! Wow! I am so happy that you all love the Earbud Pouch Tutorial. The comments are still pouring in on that post so quickly that I can’t even keep up. I can’t wait to do a little fabric shopping at Pink Chalk! I’ve placed several of my last few online fabric orders with Pink Chalk. I just love their selection and I always get my fabric quickly!

The week before Christmas my friend Katie and I finished this quilt for her Grandma, which you can read about over here.

The weekend before Christmas we had “Friendsgiving,” which I highly recommend! We get pulled in 5 different directions with family holiday parties and it’s more stressful than fun most of the time. So we took a day to celebrate our friends and neighbors – no pressure, no stress, no judging – just friends, food and fun. Let me tell you, splitting up the menu and utilizing three kitchens was a great idea. We just kept texting each other with our progress and converged on our house once most of the food was ready. The boys fried a turkey, which was AMAZING! Sorry but no pictures – it didn’t last long enough for pics! Some of the food didn’t turn out, we didn’t have enough chairs and had to run across the street for more, Ken and I had to move couches to the side and put our table in the living room to make room for 12+ people… but we didn’t care! We weren’t trying to impress or avoid or deal, we were just having fun and we can’t wait to do it again!

The only photographic evidence of Friendsgiving. I assure you it was yummy.

Ken and I don’t really do the whole presents under the tree thing, but he did get me something I’ve been begging for – a new chair! And I took advantage of the year-end Bernina sale to get three new feet! I got a 1/4″ piecing foot, an overlock foot and an invisible zipper foot. I have not tried out the zipper foot yet, but I’m looking forward to not needing to improvise with the regular zipper foot!

Then I came across an amazing deal on a solid wood bookshelf from World Market – 50% off plus another 10% off coupon. And it’s not particle board! So I spent the last couple of afternoons refolding my fabric and getting it all onto the shelf where I can see it! This is so much better than tripping over it and making a giant mess whenever I sort through it. I had it stacked in boxes in the corner and it was not helping my productivity one bit. I expect this will help streamline my workflow a lot. I’m super excited about it!

So that quickly turned into re-arranging my room. I’m still not done but I got to a good stopping point. Something still needs to be done about my photo station and I was able to track down a matching 2-shelf bookcase so I need to find a place for that as well. I’m getting used to my desks being flipped around, but I think I like it! I splurged on the teal lamp and ottoman at Target. Love them!

Loki was so happy when I stopped doing scary things like moving furniture and vacuuming and I put his bed back :)

I’m loving how the teal goes with the purple that I already had! And I made room for the drawing supplies my dad gave me. Those are the *best* erasers.

I took a picture of this little bag to practice. I made it a while back while creating this drawstring bag tutorial. I needed a little bag to take to my mom’s with Sam & Loki’s bowls, food and treats. It was perfect – it fit inside my big bag but kept their stuff separate where I could find it quickly. I love finding another use for something!

  

Did you get any fun sewing stuff this year? Or if not, what would you like to treat yourself to?

I told Katie about the “quilt shot” where you only see feet, so she wore matching purple socks! We had a tiny break in the dreary, cloudy morning so we could take some pictures.

I want to make more with Terrain now! I do have 2 charm square packs and purple minky for Sam, but using all purple is even better!

We backed it with the prettiest print.

We were completely out of time so I had to machine sew the binding. I usually hand sew the back side but this time I used the stitch in the ditch sole on my walking foot. I think it turned out pretty good!

The colors are so amazing. She told me her grandma just loved it!

I made these for my friend Melanie and her daughter. The little one is at 85%. I made the strap shorter and just 1″ wide. I LOVE this size. If you need a little hands-free purse to hold your wallet, keys and phone when you go out, that size might be a great option.

Melanie picked out and sent me the blue dot fabric. She liked my sample one in pink for her daughter but I knew it would be too big for her. I’m so glad I got to try out the smaller size!

I had fabric left over so I did what I do – made more stuff. A nice 4×6 notepad holder to go with it…

 

 

 

The first is Pink Chalk’s “Handmade with Love” Tutorial Contest where my earbud pouch tutorial is in some fierce competition with 14 other amazing tutorials. You really need to go check them out for some last minute inspiration! You can only vote once per IP address and voting ends tomorrow (Wednesday)!

The second is Bernina’s Fall Bag Contest where Sammy and I entered this purple treat bag. You need an account with All People Quilt to vote (or you at least need to enter your email address) but if you’ve ever downloaded any of their patterns, you might already have an account. This is one of those vote-every-day-until-you-get-tired-of-people-begging-for-votes contest, which is a format I really don’t care for, but it’s a for a really great prize (A Bernina 330) so please please if you could vote, I would appreciate it. Voting ends December 31st, and you can vote once per day.

I’m trying to win a sewing machine for my brother. Two years ago he and my mom bought me my Bernina 230, back when I was ready to throw my old machine out the window for ruining my projects. They saved my sanity and my Bernina is responsible for pretty much all of what you see on my site today. My brother also got the crafty gene in our family – he bakes and cooks and even makes his own very impressive halloween costumes (A wearable Tetris L piece that won its fair share of campus bar costume contests, a giant pixelated mega-man that inspired this quilt…) and now he wants to sew too! Yay! And it would be amazing to win a machine for him.

I know the Bernina contest is a long shot but it would mean so much to win. The Pink Chalk prizes are really cool as well. So please, if you have time between holiday shopping and baking, vote for me! It would make my day :)

Thank you so much!!!

Many of you have been asking about the iPad in the Two Zip Hipster.

First, to clarify, YES the iPad absolutely fits inside the Two Zip Hipster. If you’re running out to the coffee shop and want to toss your iPad in, it will fit just fine. I have a couple friends who carry iPads in their Hipsters all the time. It’s not specifically designed for the iPad, just a nice bonus that it fits!

iPad 2 w/ feather case + smart cover inside Two Zip Hipster

If you’re going to be carrying the iPad around all the time, then it should probably have a separate pocket, right? If you want to add a pocket for the iPad along one side of the bag in the original size, you’d have to slide it really close to the zip and place the pocket almost all the way to the bottom seam. It might be better to enlarge the bag just a little bit.

There are several ways to do this. I’m just going to try some ideas and share what I find. :) One option would be to make pieces A, B, C, E, F, & H about 1″ taller. You could also enlarge the bag overall. Enlarging the whole bag is what I tried this weekend and liked how it turned out. This is more of a process blog than a tutorial. It didn’t come out perfectly and I’ll discuss some of the changes I’ll make next time.

I printed the pattern pieces (minus pocket) at 110%. It should still print in within the margins on your printer. If it won’t print right, just do the math – multiply the measurement on the pattern piece by 1.1.

Then, I cut the pocket for the iPad 10″ wide by 8.5″ tall. That ended up being loose – so next time I’m trying 9.5″ wide. I cut 1 from main fabric, 1 from lining fabric and 1 from fusible interfacing. I like to add a strip of fusible interfacing on the top of the lining fabric as well.

I sewed the pocket pieces right sides together with a 3/8″ seam allowance, leaving a 5″ gap at the bottom and clipped the corners.

 

I turned the pocket right sides out, turned under the opening and pressed well. I topstitched the top of the pocket (I increase my stitch length to between 3 and 4) about 1/4-3/8″ from the edge.

I centered the pocket and placed it 1.25″ from the bottom. It’s a bit too low. 1.5″ would be better.

I stitched the pocket in place around the sides and bottom. I like to make two lines of stitching, about 1/8″ and 3/16″ from the edge. (I actually went back in later and added another row of stitching closer in after checking the fit.)

Optional – reinforce the top corners of the pocket. I added a square of sew-in interfacing to the back side and zig zagged (from the front side – back side shown.)

Try the iPad for size. See all the extra slack? You won’t have all that if you cut yours at 9.5″ not 10″, but you’ll still have a little bit. I’m still figuring out what to do about it.

Do you think the pocket is tall enough? It could probably be an inch or so taller. You don’t want it so tall that you can’t slide the iPad in, but there is enough clearance from the zip to add another inch. I think I will cut my next pocket 9.5″ tall by 9.5″ wide. Then I’ll stitch 1/8″ from the edges and check it with the iPad, then stitch another line closer in to make it really snug.

Now when you enlarge or reduce a pattern you might find some funny things happen. Because it also enlarges the seam allowance, you might get something like this on the front middle pocket, where the Piece F is a little short. It’s OK. I just trimmed it in Step 6b.

You might also find that the assembled front piece is a tiny bit wider than the back (Piece A). Just center it and trim the sides even with Piece A if necessary. You can use this little bit extra to square it up if you need to.

Before I sewed the inside and outside together I snapped this pic. See how the pocket sits right at the edge of the boxed corner and still has plenty of room at the top before the zip?

Finished! I’m in love with this! This one if going to my friend Katie. I hope she likes it!

And as an unexpected bonus, the iPad fits perfectly in the front pocket! So that may be an even better option! You could just make the bag bigger but skip the iPad pocket on the inside. At least you would have more room for the rest of your stuff! And if you need the iPad to be zipped up, it would totally fit inside while still in a sleeve.

 P.S. I got some basic photo lights today because my other setup was not bright enough to take pictures at night with no daylight at all. The last 3 pics are with the new lights. They are brighter but I still need to work on the white balance and colors a bit to warm up the photos. It’s a work in progress!

I am finally DONE sewing earbud pouches! (Tutorial here) I had to take my machine in for service this morning (it’s way past due) but in the mean time, I’m going to finish taking pictures of these individually and get them up on Etsy. The pink ones are already listed. If you see something you like don’t wait, because I won’t be making many more of these before Christmas and it’s possible I might not have any more of that fabric left (feel free to ask!). I have a couple to finish once I get my machine back, but I’m ready to move on to my next project(s)!

Since these have an exposed seam right at the zipper opening, they are zigzagged and fray blocked. Instead of just backstitching I pulled the threads through and tied them off and buried them. That, plus trimming out all that batting, is what took forever. They turned out so awesome! I hope you like them and I should have all of them up there by the end of the night!

On a side note – my BERNINA is in very good hands over at Sew Generously in St. Charles, IL. If you live anywhere near me (far west Chicago burbs), please go check out their new website and Like them on Facebook. I would not trust my machine anywhere else. They are fantastic!

UPDATE: They are up! Circle Zip Earbud Pouches on Etsy

I'm cutting out circles as fast as I can! They will go up on Etsy as they are finished.

Welcome new readers! I’ve had a bunch of new people stop by and comment, find my Facebook page and add items to the Flickr! group this week! Many of you are coming over from Ucreate, Pinterest and Sew, Mama, Sew! I’m so happy you found me! You can find all of my tutorials HERE and my patterns HERE.

Pattern Sale!

Since we are getting into the holiday sewing season, I have dropped the prices on my patterns here in my Pattern Shop. No coupon codes required! (I dropped the prices on Etsy too, but remember with Etsy you have to wait for me to manually enter your order – my Pattern Shop sends your download link automatically!) If you think my tutorials have a lot of photos, my patterns are even more detailed. Please go check them out! I highly recommend the Notepads pattern for gifts! The small size uses just a single fat quarter of fabric and a small piece of Peltex and there is no hand sewing! You can make several in an afternoon!

What’s coming up?

I want to give an update on what I’m expecting to post by the end of the year. I realize there is no way this will all get done, so if you have any opinions about what you would like to see FIRST, please let me know and I’ll direct my energy appropriately!

Tutorials/Patterns (Tutorials vs. Patterns depends on the complexity of the pattern pieces and instructions)
Loki bandana for his birthday (Nov 22 – He’s going to be 7. Unbelievable.)
Zippered leash bags similar to the earbud pouch tutorial, but rectangular/square and no raw edges!
Zippered, quilted dog bed
Doggie doorbells
Crayon Pouch
Kindle/iPad/MacBook Air zippered sleeves *This one already has high priority!*
Small “Not a wristlet” zippered purse like this one
Camera bag of some sort for my Nikon w/ the lens (I’m tired of carrying my HUGE bag when I just need the camera, not extra lenses)
Pattern for this zippered bag, in some form (maybe a bit smaller?)
A mini messenger type walk-the-dog/run-to-the-store bag
A walk-the-dog belt type bag? Maybe? No?
What else are you looking for? Someone mentioned “small gift-type items” in the comments. Like what? Any cold-weather ideas?

For the Blog
More on the Two Zip Hipster
–I’m attempting one at 85% for a little girl
–iPad pocket modifications, 110% of original size (The iPad fits at 100%, but to fit a pocket for it on the side and not let it sink down to the bottom requires the larger size. It only adds an inch overall. My friend Katie just got an iPad so I’m going to make one for her.)
–Ideas for the front pocket – embroidery, applique, flipped fabric
Adding a zip to the fleece dog bed
Quilts – I have the Hoodie Paris fabric for a quilt for my cousin, and Freebird charm square for me and Terrain charm squares for Sam. Hopefully Sam’s can be a tutorial because I have a really cute idea for it!
I really need to make coats/hoodies/t-shirts for the dogs. Not sure if this can be a full tutorial with all the size variations out there, but I can show you how I made them like the harness tutorial.