Ridge Show Wrap-up

Most of the goods....

My friend Renee and her two adorable kids.

Yours truly...

The Ridge show is a wrap! I love the set-up of this show... it's small enough that people take their time and browse, chat with you about your work, browse some more and come back and maybe buy something. I met a lot of nice people and got lots of leads for fabric and selling opportunities. Some of my 'regulars' came to see me, which is always quite an honor, and I made some new friends, too. I also love the space I have at this show... I can set up my little boutique and it's cozy and inviting. I like planning my display almost as much as I like making the bags. All in all, a great experience.

My friend Rene and her husband Jim.

My pal Ed Murphy.

My fellow yogi Julie (far right) and her fun friends.

My co-workers Loren, Melissa and Cherese.

Ridge Show Sneak Peek

I haven't had a chance to post these to my 'available bags' link, but here are some of the bags that'll be coming with me to the Ridge Show next weekend. There are even more, I just haven't had time to get pictures of them all.

Your ipad never looked cuter!

Wish I had an ipad, just so I could put it in one of these cute bags! Here's my latest product...

The floral one is a really heavy upholstery fabric that'll cuddle your ipad snugly. And I added a little quilting padding to the orange one for extra coziness. It has a little vintage image on the front for fun. Both have a foldover flap with velcro closure. I can't claim that they'll officially protect your ipad from all danger.... but I can promise they'll make it look pretty darn cute.

Getting ready for the Ridge

I'm busy getting ready for the Ridge Show, coming up in 2 weeks... hope to see you there for some great holiday shopping!

It's Friday, November 19, 6-9pm and Saturday, November 20, 10am-5pm at the Pleasant Ridge Community Center.

Plush Purple Hobo

Truly, truly one of a kind

This one won't even get close to being replicated... cuz it was kind of a pain to make. But I don't mind the way it turned out. I got a bunch of cool jersey material at my last fabric grab, so I wanted to experiment with it a little bit.... One thing lead to another, and this is what I ended up with. Mixed it with some corduroy, which I love working with, and a complementary print inside. I think it's cute! But just not practical to make for the amount of time it took.

NEW!

I posted several new bags on my 'available bags' page. Click here to see them all.

Funky Cool for Fall

I like the colors and weight of this one... seems perfect for strolling a fall art fair and would go great with one of those military jackets that I'm seeing everywhere. Yeah, like I'm some fashion stylist or something. haha. Anyway, I made this starting with the mustard colored men's jean jacket from a few posts ago. Then added a few scraps for the pockets on the front, and some soft pale rose corduroy on the inside, from a pair of pants. Long, over the shoulder strap for hands-free art browsing - see, it's perfect!

Hot off the machine

Here are a couple new ones...
Heavy brown floral rounded purse; and small gold tote. The gold one is sort of a sister bag to one I made previously with a similar fabric (now owned by Nicole). But as usual, it's still one of a kind. with different color scheme, accent fabric and different proportions. Remember, no patterns here!

All this for 7 bucks!

Hit the neighborhood garage sales yesterday and got some cool stuff..... heavy men's jean jacket (XL means LOTS of fabric); girls puffy red vest; Hello Kitty pajama pants; a big coffee mug for Matt since he keeps stealing mine; and two necklaces. Fabric stuff goes into the washing machine, mug into the dishwasher and the pendant necklace got a new cord and I wore it to a party last night! FUN!!!

I've been adding to my fabric collection lately with some stuff that has great potential.... but the way I operate, I'll catch a glimpse of a certain fabric in my stash and all of a sudden I'm cutting away and then OOPS, I realize I should have taken a picture to show what the fabric was before it started to become one of my bags. So, here are some 'before' pix... I don't have any immediate plans for any of it, but you never know when the inspiration will hit and then it'll be too late.

• Blue coat - heavy canvas-like material, with cool embroidered flowers
• Cute red coat from my coworker cleaning out her closet before she moves (thanks, Cherese!)
• Green velvety dress that I bought from a resale shop. I added the brown at the bottom because it was too short... still have yet to wear it but I think it'd make a really cute bag!
• Men's heavy canvas like gold jean jacket - sweet score from a garage sale (see garage sale post)
• Red girls down vest - garage sale; I saw the puffy down squares and invisioned an ipad case or something like that.

Research... yeah, that's it.

I finally figured it all out - the reason why I still feel the need to keep buying purses, when I can actually make them.... it's all in the name of research! Yeah, that's what I'll call it anyway! I get lots of ideas and inspiration from the bags and purses I see everywhere... it's only natural that I'd want to have some of them, right? So here are some of my recent acquisitions for my 'studies' in pursemaking. All but the two on the right are from garage sales, bought for a couple bucks here and there; the ivory purse in front is from Catching Fireflies in Berkley, MI (one of my favorite local stores); the orange one is from a cute little shop - part new/part resale - in Caseville, MI called Jade's Closet.

Napkins for Denise

Hmmmm, never really thought of using my stuff to create napkins, but this was a special request from my friend Denise in Pittsburgh, who was looking for an alternative to the throw-away style (good green thinking, Denise). I was surprised to find so many options within my stash.

A new style

Berkley Art Bash, 2010

It was HOT, HOT, HOT yesterday but it didn't stop the people from coming to the Berkley Art Bash. It was great to see some friends, family and returning customers, as well as meet some new people. All in all, a great day. Thanks for coming! From top to bottom: my booth; some of my favorite customers Del and Nicole; one of my new favorite bags; my coworkers who came to see me; and my assistant, Finnegan.

Here's what I've been up to.....

These are the latest... all of which can be seen at the Berkley Art Bash on Saturday, June 12. Click here for more info.

Goodbye, cute jacket... Hello, cute purse!

Yes, this was a really cute jacket (originally from Ann Taylor Loft). But it never fit quite right so I'd try it on and try it on, but never wore it over the course of the two years it was in my closet. I finally gave up, cut the poor thing up and it became my newest purse. I started and finished in one sitting this morning, kind of mad-scientist style once I got the idea. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner!

Fun with Fobs... or... Aren't these FOBulous?

This project was a lot of fun because I got to work with a lot of different materials and got quicker results than working on one bag. I made a bunch of "key fobs". I guess that's what they're called anyway - not quite sure what fob means. But they're great for keeping track of your keys in your purse or wherever. I made myself one and I love it. I'll have a bunch of these at the Berkley Bash..... check 'em out... some plain, some with attached fabric flowers, and even a giant one with a pocket.

Coming up: Berkley Art Bash, June 12

Saturday, June 12
10am-6pm
12 Mile Rd.
Downtown Berkley, MI

New patchwork bags

Cutie for a cutie

This one is for our 3-year-old niece's birthday next weekend... she loves pink and orange and Dora the Explorer. I think this might be one of my favorites so far.

New stash, new bag

My friend Stephanie recently invited me along on a fabric free-for-all... her friend from the design studio where they both worked was cleaning out her supply of scraps. She had bags and bags of stuff, and I left with a ton of great pieces that I have LOTS of projects planned for. This is the first bag to come from my new stash.

Possibly for Pat

This one was made with a special customer in mind... we'll see if she likes it.

New for the New Year!

Here's what's comin' out of my shop since the beginning of the new year.