My second post!

[gillian-sans.livejournal.com]

This may or may not be dial-up friendly. I’m not sure, but by putting it out there I have covered my ass.


I think of myself as more of a dabbler in the crafting arena. A “jack of all trades and master of none” kind of crafter. This very much applies to my sewing. I used to sew occasionally on my Mom’s older-than-I-am machine, but I got a nice spankin’ new one this Christmas. It took me another two months or so to get it out of the box, but since then I have been sewing pretty steadily and I’m ready to show you guys what I have been working on.

So far, I have made about six purses or tote bags out of t-shirts. Only three of them are good enough to brag about.



This is the first purse I made out of a t-shirt. I had made a few purses before, so I kind of knew what I was doing but this was also my first zipper. I made the pattern myself and there’s a guitar pick zipper pull and plenty of pockets on the inside. The belt buckle you see on the strap had to be replaced by two ‘D’ rings. The cheap-o Wal-Mart strap was too thin and the buckle kept falling off. Annoying. And I wish I had made the bottom out of vinyl instead of denim, but this was before I got brave enough to sew vinyl. Now I don’t see how I could make a purse without it.



This was part of my cousin’s 16th birthday present. She loves Napoleon Dynamite and since it was a milestone birthday I wanted to give her something no one else would have. Mission accomplished, I think. This was the second tote bag I made, again from my own pattern. The first one helped me work out a lot of kinks so that this one turned out nice enough to give as a gift. I don’t have any pictures of the inside, but there are tons of pockets for pens and a cell phone and misc. items.



This is my best tote bag yet. It’s a bit roomier than the Napoleon tote but made from the same pattern. The front pocket was a last-minute idea that I totally winged but it turned out great. The straps are, again, that cheap stuff from Wal-Mart but I added the ribbon (it looks like a zipper, how cool!) and it really jazzes up the bag.


And thanks for all the nice things you guys said about my iPod case! Crafty people rule!