Eat, Pray, Sew

Ever since I first saw Christy Turlington on the cover of Vogue (October 2002) I have wanted to learn yoga. However, being a very awkward and uncoordinated person I was convinced I could never muster the grace these yoga poses required. 8 years later I finally got up the nerve to attend a drop in yoga class, while I wasn't graceful I did manage to do most of the basic poses and best of all...I loved every minute of it! I left the class completely relaxed and content.

Later that day I contemplated the fact that I may have actually found a form of exercise I actually ENJOY. To celebrate I made myself a fancy shmancy yoga bag. I found the pattern on Amy Butler's website (it was free!). For the exterior of the bag I used a pint paisley print fabric. The interior is a burlap print cotton. I changed the pattern in a couple small ways: I didn't put pockets on the exterior and I added a drawstring.

Ruffle a few feathers

The end of the school year is approaching. My full time teaching contract has ended and I am back on call, thus I have some time on my hands. Here I am bored looking for inspiration when I stumble across Jennifer's blog Tattertots and Jello. I loved her burlap ruffle table runner. But not having any burlap at home I decided to take her idea, tweak it and turn it into a pillowcase. Luckily I just happened to have a feather pillow laying around just begging for a pillowcase.

I had a whole bunch of Amy Butler fabric in blue/green tones so I grabbed a few, cut them into 3.5" x 40" strips and created 7 long ruffles. I used 2 fat quarters for the front and back of the pillowcase, attached a zipper and created a pretty funky pillowcase.

The front:

The back:

Did you notice my last 3 posts are all colour coordinated? Ha!

Eco Lunch

For the last couple weeks it has become glaringly obvious that I have the ugliest lunch bag. My lunch bag looks like a suitcase...and yes I have had some snide comments tossed my way at work. For example: 'wow! you must be hungry!' or 'Are you moving in?'. I happened to have some extra fabric left over from the purse I made so I purchased a pattern off of Etsy and low and behold my lunch bag is now to die for!!!

My old lunch bag:

My new lunch bag:

This pattern was ridiculously hard to sew. I actually had to bust out my sewing machine's walking foot for the top stitching. I used oil cloth for the inside and sandwiched between the interior and exterior is insulated batting. As difficult as it was to sew I am pretty pleased with the finished product, it keeps my lunch cold and it is tiny. No more snide comments!

Pretty Perfect Purse

Ok, I finished my Amy Butler purse eons ago but I have been so busy admiring it that I forgot to post some pictures. Amy Butler patterns have, hands down, the easiest and clearest instructions to follow. It took more time to fuse the interfacing and fleece than it did to sew the purse.

I have had so many compliments on this purse it is crazy. Random people will stop me and ask where I bought my purse. I love being able to tell them that I MADE it!