Quick and Easy Project

In our New Year's quest to finished unfinished projects and use already purchased supplies (# 13, #17, & #19), we have found the fastest sewing project yet! Kerry found this easy kid's tote bag on Martha Stewart's wonderful website. I decided to give it a try.

Because I can never follow directions completely, I made a few changes to her well-put directions. First, I felt that the bag might be a bit small for my kids, the model shown was about 4 or 5 years old. I added 1/2 inch to the width and 3 inches to the length. If you do this, don't forget to add several inches to the cording as well.

Her directions call for a water proof nylon to line the bag, not having any nylon in my sewing stash, I decided to use an inexpensive cotton for the lining as well as the out side of the bag. This is where you can use the fun and funky prints found on the discount racks of your local craft and fabric stores. I enjoyed mixing the prints and colors.

The cording I used was a very inepensive cotton cording found in the ribbon section of my Hobby Lobby. I found 2 of the fabrics I used on their clearance racks for $2 per yard. (Nevermind that I vowed not to buy more until I used what I have. I couldn't resist-- you won't tell, will you?) On the third bag, I used ribbon loops at the bottom of the bag to anchor the straps. This is another way to encorporate more detail and color in the design. On an adult bag of a similar style it would be easy to encorporate more mature fabric patterns and a colored cording for the straps.

From start to finish, I think that each bag took about 30 minutes or less. The time and money invested is not bad for a quick and easy project. And the kids love their new totes!

The tour that never ends...

...and on your left you will find our food and drink station. Today we have some lovely hazelnut coffee and some delicious pumpkin chocolate chunk bread. Help yourself to some coffee or tea, and take a look around.

During our evening events we offer wine and dessert. In addition to the wine glasses on this shelf, we have placed various art pieces that we have each made, as well as some folk art and scrabble tile messages. Click the photo to take a closer look

As you make your way around our studio you will find a plethora of beautiful materials. We have worked hard to sort, categorize and organize the many items we use for our various projects. As much as we have boxed and labeled, it is hard to keep everything at hands reach and aesthetically pleasing. Many our our supplies are kept on this shelf.

We came up with a solution to hide all the mess. We call it the magic curtain. Now you see it... now you don't! We close the curtain when we have guests so the chaos isn't too distracting.

Our big supply table has been a challenge. Our solution has been a dozen or so of the media storage boxes you can find at Michael's Craft Stores. They are perfect for sorting and storing all sorts of items. We have one for rubber stamps, on for ink pads, one for chip board letters, one for costume jewelry pieces, one for children's game pieces, and the list goes on and on and on....

If you read this blog or this one or this one or have seen all the things we have in our studio, you would never guess that our space is really pretty small, only 15 x 20. No, really, it is. We use every inch of it!

One of the best parts of the studio is the wonderful, warm feeling you get when you walk in the door. We hope you feel it too. If you haven't stopped by, you really should sometime. We'd love to show you around!