Coming down the home stretch & keeping busy

T-minus one week until the movers will have our house boxed up into a monster moving van driving down to Florida!! I am beyond excited, but my nerves are shot. My mind goes through many mental lists wondering if there is anything I have forgotten to do. Thankfully, with the house sold all those complications are out of the way and now I fret over getting the kids and their school transcripts, physicals, etc. ready to go. If you’ve moved with a gaggle of kids, you feel my pain.

I have been keeping my mind and body busy with things other than moving. I head into my studio often and find myself working on small projects. If I have ideas for larger bags I find myself getting out my sketchpad and jotting them down. I just can’t jump into a larger bag project right now…..but boy do I have some great ideas in my sketchbook!

I may have mentioned a time or two that I love foreign handbag design and patterns. I have found myself the owner of two Japanese design books (handbags of course!) and will pour over them in the carpool line. Too bad I can’t read a lick of it. If you are an experienced sewist, you can find your way through the well detailed diagrams, but sometimes even that is difficult.

See the picture above? I found this on one of many foreign sites I read daily. With the help of Google Translate, I was able to get accurate measurement and give this little coin pouch a try.  The pictures make it look larger, but boy is this sucker small. Maybe 4 inches tall completed. TINY! It was actually not too difficult to make and when I doubled the measurements and made it again it looked much better. The bigger pouch could easily be used for make-up, money, receipts, etc. I will play around with this pattern some more and see what happens.

If you have some time to check out this website I encourage you to do so SEWLOVER. You will need Google Translate to surf around, but if you are a die-hard crafter you will thoroughly enjoy yourself.  The skill and talent of these crafters blow me away. And their willingness to share them on the www is even better!  I am always searching for new techniques or crafty things to learn, so this site fits the bill.  Enjoy!