Finished Charlie Tote

 I popped into the Workroom yesterday for a break from school and spotted this fantastic fabric from the David Textiles Victoria & Albert Museum line. We're seeing Brian's family tonight to celebrate his mom's birthday, and both his parents are big on wine...

 So I thought I'd whip up a birthday tote bag! I used the free Charlie pattern from BurdaStyle, and made a second bag for the other side out of some vintage poly/cotton blend I picked up at the thrift store. It's a cute blue/green floral print, and I'm sure you'll be seeing it again since I have about 7 yards of it. This bias tape is also thrifted. Hurrah! Here's a peek at both sides:

If you want to make your own reversible Charlie bag, just cut the bag body piece twice each from two different fabrics. Sew up the side and bottom seams, and join the handle tops on both bags. You can either sew the two bags most of the way around with the right sides facing, then turn the bag right side out and stitch up the leftover hole, or you can do what I did. I put one bag inside the other, wrong sides facing, then machine basted the top seams together. I then trimmed the seam allowances away, and sized the edges for double fold bias tape. I stitched the tape together to make three loops, pinned it on, then sewed it. I used almost a whole package of 2.75m for the edges, with about 1.5" to spare. I left out the pocket to fold the bag up into.

I think it's a pretty good basic tote pattern, and I'm definitely going to make some more for gifts out of all the IKEA upholstery fabric I have in my stash. I hope she likes it!

Giveaways!

There's only one week left to enter to win both the Winter 2010 and Spring 2011 issues of Interweave.

At the same time, Grosgrain has a great giveaway for Shabby Apple swimsuit. You can check out the Shabby Apple Amalfi Coast Swimsuit Giveaway for details.

Any other giveaways floating around you'd like to share? It's always so much fun :)

Cutest. Summer. Dress. EVER.

Is version B, if you were wondering. But how cute are all of these? The scalloped hems on the dresses, the romperness of the romper... The pattern also has A, B, C and D cup pieces included, a huge plus for me. Glad I scooped this one up during the quarterly massive sale at Butterick, McCall's and Vogue (it's on until the end of today!). Not that I needed more sewing patterns or plans.

Or fabric to turn into said patterns.

Okay, I am officially cut off until at least six garments are made. Also because I am out of clothes, and full of supplies.

The lovely rayon challis above brings me to another thought. I mentioned to a professional designer/seamstress friend of mine that I love rayon fabrics. A lot. She's not so much into them.

I wash my rayon garments like any other delicate fabric, on gentle in the machine, hang or lay flat to dry. I know this supposedly is terrible for the fibres, but I've never really had any trouble with it except for one dress disintegrating at the armpits after the 100th wear or so. I'm not convinced that had anything to do with washing, and not the 100+ hard wearings (I am tough on clothes).

What do you think, dear readers? Do you wear or sew with rayon? Why or why not?

Wait, haven't I read this already?

Apparently I bought the last two issues of Interweave twice? If that's not a sign I should just subscribe, I don't know what is. I'm choosing to blame stress induced selective memory loss. But my strange purchasing habits could be your gain with another giveaway!

Just leave a comment on this post by Friday, April 8th at noon and you're entered to win both magazines.

In other news, I've decided I am going to tackle the bathing suit project starting in early May. I have no idea how I'm going to do this, so I guess it's research time! I like research time far more than is actually healthy. I have some construction details more or less worked out. I'll get a sketch of what I have in mind posted in the next couple of days. What I need to look into are different kinds of sport materials, and getting my serger back in good order.

Under two weeks left of my undergrad, then it's Sewing Bonanza 2011.

My New Favourite Thing EVER

Thanks to Karyn from Make Something, I discovered the V&A Museum's Patchwork Pattern Maker. It may be the coolest thing ever and allowed me to turn this:

Into this:

And it came with an instruction sheet including how many pieces of each colour you need to make up whatever quilt you decide on. It's all kinds of addictive, so be forewarned.

It was maybe not the best thing to stumble across this close to the end of school.

Do I like a challenge?

Maybe? I don't own a bathing suit. There are a few reasons for this, one being that I am extremely top heavy so finding anything that comes near fitting is kind of impossible. So I'm considering sewing my own, and maybe using the BurdaStyle pattern Allison as a start. I really like the vintage vibe and the double bust support straps. I'd have to play around with it a lot though. I'm thinking of adding a band under the bust and connecting it to the back tie for more support and using some kind of extra sport stretch fabric to line the cups. I really don't want to put bra cups the suit. Not so good when wet. Also adding some ruching down the sides for less super-revealingness.

I feel like this is one of those projects that would really make owning a serger worth it.

Any other bigger ladies tried sewing a bathing suit before? I would love some tips on this one.

And the Winner is...

#2! Thanks, random.org and everyone who entered.

Amber, can you e-mail me your mailing address and I will ship off your magazine (and some other niftyness).

If you didn't win, don't worry. There will be lots of other giveaways coming up!