Gifts and a Resurrected Project

May 21, 2012

Last week Cal finished preschool for the year.  We had performances and picnics.  I love preschool so much.  What's not totally adorable about 3 and 4 year olds singing (it's even adorable when they choose not to sing) the itsy bitsy spider?  Cal has 2 teachers.  His main teacher is my good friend Karen who has received so MANY of my handmade gifts that I decided to give her a gift card instead.  The assistant is new though and she asked Karen to tell me that she wanted something I made- that was really nice since I sometimes wonder if people would just prefer something from the store!

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I bought several half yards of Sandi Henderson's secret garden when it came out in the fall.  I thought it was pretty but when it arrived I found it too girly for my personal tastes.  I kept trying to use it but have ended up just using it as gifts to people I know are more into this look than me.  It's lovely but I can't get excited about it for myself.  I find it a safe and sweet fabric to make teacher gifts though!

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The assistant preschool teacher is very sweet and talks to me a bunch her love of Vera Bradley.  I hoped that she would like this quilted cover on the On the Go Organizer since it is kinda like Vera Bradley– right?  I just made simple loops which was fun and easy.

The interior is more Secret Garden and I used my favorite duck cloth for the pocket to give some extra weight.  This took me less than an hour to make! IMG_1897

I also made my good friend Anna a 3 Layer Clutch for her birthday.  We have been friends since we were 13 and I have neglected her birthday for years since we got out of college and I moved away from Atlanta.  She is not really the Vera type so I went a little more funky on the fabric.

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The fabric is Soul Blossoms from Amy Butler and I used vintage trim and onasburg for the flap.  Hopefully she has gotten her package by today and I am not ruining her surprise here!  

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Back in march I ordered some beautiful Heather Ross fabric to make another more spring themed 3 layer clutch.  I made the clutch but ended up cutting the main outside piece too small.  I felt irrated and abandoned the clutch to work on my Bunny where I used up the rest of that adorable fabric.  After I finished up Anna's clutch, I looked at that abandoned one from March and felt newly inspired to start in with my seam ripper, make a whole new outside piece, rework the interior (since I had cut all that down to try to fix up the shortened outside piece) and finish up the clutch finally.

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Somehow the flap turned out a little short but it worked out nicely since you can see the words on the Snow White fabric.

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Then when you open the flap…

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Pretty and whimsical but not cutesy.  Isn't that what Heather Ross is a genius at creating?   Then the wallet opens to look great too and you can see a bit of the 7 dwarfs.

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I am so glad I took the time to rip out all those seams and replace those pieces!  My next few posts may be about my veggie garden so I wanted to make sure you got your fill of sewing projects with this one!  Hope you are having a wonderful spring and enjoying beautiful weather like we are!

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