I am seriously running around like a chicken with my head cut off lately!! With three boys in three different activities, various illnesses, M’s surgery last week and getting ready for the holiday break for Thanksgiving I’ve had a lot on my plate. But that seems how I roll as of lately so I am taking a break before I pick up T from the bus stop to say hi. So, Hi!!

I had a lovely lunch date with my youngest at school today.  It’s a big deal to the kiddos to have a parent come eat lunch with them on occasion. A few weeks ago it was Z and today it was T-man.  They get so excited because that means they can eat at a special table and invite a few friends to eat lunch with us. I enjoyed every minute of talking to these cuties. What a loving bunch of little people!

On a totally different tangent, I wanted to show you a pattern I’ve been *trying* to work on.  You will notice it’s in Japanese, but I’m obsessed with Japanese handbag design and magazines so I don’t let the language barriers stop me.  Google Translate and a few great blogs usually help me plug along.  This pattern is from the book you see above. Here is the information if you want to check it out:

Title: (or something close to) Simple easy to make –  cute bag, Author: Yuko Kubodera , Published: NIHON VOGUE 2012/02/25 , ISBN-13: 978-4529050463 .

It is a book I won over at Japanese Sewing Books, one of my favorite blogs. The bags in this book are fairly easy, although if you are new to sewing you may want to have reference materials on hand if you get stuck.  The directions and bag look like this:

Seriously, it’s only one page of directions, measurements and pictures. Everything is in cm, but I’ve made enough foreign bags that cm are growing on me.  The handle of the bag from what I can understand is a sort of rope that is threaded through a folded over piece of fabric on the top of the bag. It is the rope that creates the slouch effect, but  I am not a fan of rope handles. My plan is tow tweak the pattern a bit by adding a 2″ tall piece of linen to the top of the bag and also using that same linen to make a unique handle. So far it’s looking really cool, so I’ll keep you posted!

What I love about Japanese sewing books are the visual directions they give. I most of my magazines each step has its own picture with measurements and directions. They are simply drawn, but it gets the job done effectively.  I will try and post pictures of my version of this bag sometime this weekend so you can see the difference in the top and handle section of the bag. Have a great beginning to your weekend and holiday break everyone! Cindy

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