Iluma Arts Market 10 July 2010

This week I just let the days go past without making much effort to make my bags. It's the second week of school and I'm still resenting waking up at 6am. Of course I had little motivation to make many more bags as July MAAD turned out to be "no biz as usual".

Tomorrow I'll be back at Iluma Arts Market from noon to 8pm. It's my last time selling at Iluma and my 32nd time selling anywhere. You would think after 31 times selling at craft markets, I would be used to it. I'm not. I'll be honest. I get very high hopes before I sell. No matter how much I caution myself not to have too high an expectation, I just cannot help myself. When I cannot sell my bags, the crushing defeat feels so overwhelming. Yet I always bounce back.

The last two days, I heard my sewing clock. You've heard of ticking biological clock. Well, I have a ticking sewing clock. I once told my girl I wanted to sew 1000 bags before I die. I thought I had a lot of time to sew these 1000 bags but this week it occurred to me that there may come a day when I stop sewing. I mean, do I see myself sewing when I'm say, 80? Also, somewhere down the road I may not feel as passionate about sewing bags as I am right now. You see where I'm going? If I want to make 1000 bags, it's gotta be NOW.

So now I show you what I managed to squeeze out these last 2 days.

 Remember the Michael Miller's Chinese Kids fabric I used for the granny bag? I had an odd amount of fabric and I shaped a bag based on the leftover fabric. This explains why the bag is so short!

I made this a recessed zipper bag.

Green and white checks for the inside.

As the bag is rather short, I had to create volume by using a fat bottom. I guess-timate the bottom as I was too lazy to make a template and would you believe it? It fitted perfectly. I have super powers.

Made 3 zip pouches. If you're thinking it, you're right. Odd pieces of leftover fabric. That's why my zip pouches have different sizes.

Made this pouch the good old fashioned way. Sewed over the zippers and topstitched the outer and lining together.

For this zip pouch, I did not topstitch the outer fabric. No, I did not forget. I thought it looked interesting without the topstitch.

But I topstitched the lining so it won't get caught in the zipper.

This indigo fabric is perfect for my outline embroidery. I used stem stitch which creates a textured look. I'll bet you when a customer looks at this pouch, she'll run her fingers over the stitches.

For this pouch, I wanted to experiment. I used fabric tab on one end of the zipper only. On the other end of the zipper, I pushed the zipper at a 90 deg angle and sewed over it. In this way, when I sew the side seams, I don't sew over the zippers. The result? The corners turn over beautifully.

These are work in progress. If you're wondering, the one on the right is an elephant.

That's all I have to show you. I hope you enjoyed looking at the things I made this week. I'll see you soon.