Bridesmaid Commission

A few months ago, one of my best friend's (C.D.) initiated a conversation between myself and her sister (K.D.), who will be married this coming fall. K.D. had admired a pair of earrings that I had made for C.D. a few years back as a Christmas present and as luck would have it, the earrings perfectly match the dark raspberry pink of her bridesmaids dresses. So... she commissioned six pairs of the earrings for her bridal party! It was a wonderful commission for me but unfortunately I've had one illness after another this spring and didn't have a chance to complete them as quickly as I would have liked. Typically I like to complete commissions within days or weeks depending on the complexity, but this one was initiated shortly after Christmas of this year and I've only just finished them! Good thing the wedding isn't until September!

Oh Jamaica

One last look at my trip to Jamaica. Here's a little video I took on the trip so you can see the beauty of Jamaica with the music and calming sound of the sea in the background...

Jamaica, No Problem

I've got a lot of work to do tonight, but I felt the need to share a few pics with all of you who have been hounding me about the trip. For those not in the know, the BF and I spent last week in Jamaica. We had THE most amazing trip. No worries, no problems, at least once we arrived :) Here's a quick glimpse, I'll post more later!

Black and White for me!

Those of you who know me have probably figured out that I like to wear mostly black and white (it's just so darned easy and looks good with my skin tone!), so you won't be surprised to learn that I had been hoarding a piece of black and white fabric for over a year now with the intention of making myself a great new bag.


Unfortunately I couldn't figure out what kind of bag I wanted to make with the fabulous swirling dyed fabric and so it sat, sadly in one of my bags of stashed fabric and waited, until yesterday! Yesterday, while I was out spending all my money at Target, I saw this bag and instantly fell in love! I love the print, of course, anything geometric with grey and/or orange will catch my eye lately, but it was the handles that blew me away. I love how they have the slightest curve and are doubled up at the top for extra stability for gripping or shoulder riding. So I studied the purse for a few minutes and thought the inevitable "I can do that!" And voila!



My version does not have the structured three panel look that the original had, nor did the handles come out quite the same. I made some alterations so that I could make it double sided with another gorgeous black and white print that I picked up at Joann's (a brocaded fabric at that, so it add some stability to the bag from its thickness). But I kept the shape of the handles and doubled over the hands (although mine are doubled over throughout, not just at the top, necessitated by the double sided bag). I adore it!

Mardi Gras in Mobile

I've been spending a lot of my time this week celebrating Mardi Gras! Mobile, AL was the first city to do a big Mardi Gras (not New Orleans!) Mobile's version of Mardi Gras is much more family friendly than the hoopla slightly west of here in NOLA, but still a very big deal. There are parades every night for the two weeks leading up to the big day (and sometimes two!) and of course there is plenty of drinking and king cake and moon pies and revelry! Thought I would take this blog to show some pics of the parade for all of you and maybe convince some of you to come celebrate with me next year!

Birdie Birthday Cake

As promised, here's a snapshot of the lovely cake that Nikki made for my belated birthday party last weekend! Isn't it gorgeous?! I absolutely love the cherry blossom look with icing and marzipan blossoms :) The cake was a three layer cake, brownie bottom, chocolate mousse, and chocolate cake, to die for! Half of the cake was sent home with the birthday girl and I hate to admit it but I didn't share much and it's gone! Good thing I'm back at the gym this week! Thanks Nikki! No, really THANKS!

Easy Pocket Wallet Tutorial

OK, here we go! I had a request from a reader to produce a tutorial for the Easy Pocket Wallet that I posted about last month. I've never made a tutorial but I use them a lot, so I'm pretty familiar. You may doubt that after reading through this one, but I have used lots of them, I swear! Hopefully, this little tutorial will be as easy to figure out as the wallets are to make, really a cinch!

The first thing you need are 4 pieces of fabric measuring 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" in a fun print. Also, I like to iron my fabric before working with it, but I did not include this step in the pictures.


Put two of the pieces of fabric right sides together as seen in the photo. Do the same with the other two pieces of fabric.


Using a 1/4" seam allowance sew around 3 sides of one pair of fabric (below left). I like to also turn the corners on the fourth side to guide me in a later step, but this is unnecessary. The other pair of fabric pieces will eventually be the top of the wallet and so needs a diagonal (below right). I just eyeball what looks good on one of the shorter sides but for your convenience I have measured this one out. You can see the pencil marks on the photo below. The diagonal begins at 1 1/4" from the left and ends 1 1/4" down from the top right corner.



At this point you want to trim any excess fabric from the diagonal and trim the corners (see below right).


Now turn both pieces inside-out. Use a blunt pointed object to push out the corners, I like bamboo knitting needles from this (see above left).

Once your pieces are turned right-sides out, turn in the open ends and pin them closed.


Stitch around each side of the pieces with a 1/8" seam allowance. For my sewing foot, this is measured as the inside of the right hand guide, see pic below.


Now you should have two pieces like the ones below with even top stitching all the way around them.


Place the top piece (the one with the diagonal) on top of the bottom piece and stitch 3 sides together (left, bottom, and right in picture above) using the same 1/8" seam allowance as the previous step. You will be stitching over your top stitching. Trim any fly-away threads and you're done!