Pleated Beauty Bag

My mom made me a new bag using the pattern from Amy Karol's book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing. It's very cute, no? She used very fine wale corduroy for the body and a paisley cotton for the lining inside the bag and the pleats. Hence the name, Pleated Beauty Bag. Here's a closer look at the pleated part:

And here's the "beauty" part:

I really like that paisley lining. A lot. The icing on the cake is this wallet she made to go with the bag:


She is the best mom EVER.

Artsy Clutch

I made this little bag from the Bend The Rules sewing book by Amy Karol (aka The Angry Chicken), but forgot to post it here. I was fooling around on Flickr and forgot about it. I am probably the last person on earth to use Flickr to organize photos. I seem to be good about organizing other things, but not photos. Up until a few months ago I had almost 3 years worth of Ronan's baby pictures sitting around in piles and shoved into boxes and drawers. I hear some people even make scrapbooks with their kids' photos, with cute paper cutouts and stamps and scalloped scissors...clearly that's not going to happen, but the least I could do is be a good mom and stick them in a photo album.

But I digress. So - this little clutch. It's too cute. The fabric is vintage from ebay. You probably can't tell from the picture, but the lining has tiny little ducks on it. How cute is that? The button is from my mom's stash of vintage buttons. I love going through that jar. Sorting the buttons and playing with them is endlessly fascinating. Yup...I am easily entertained.

Now I want to take this pattern a step further--by making a bigger one and using it for a laptop sleeve. I wonder if a single button would be enough to keep it closed?

Bounty of bags

My mom recently went on a sewing spree and made a whole bunch of bags for people - my grandma, aunts, cousins, and sister-in-law were all recipients of new bags. I hope everybody likes their bags. I doubt we will see much of my mom's sewing for a while, because, hello, it's gardening season, people. She is up to her eyebrows in mulch and bedding plants and seeds. She disappears into the garden sometime around dawn, and doesn't come back in the house until it's dark, and only then because the mosquitoes chase her in. She has the greenest thumb I have ever seen, with the possible exception of my grandfather (her dad). Her yard is quite large, with many flowerbeds and a very large vegetable garden and even a little potting shed.

Anyway, back to the bags. Want to see them??



















More bags to come...including one for me, yay!