Long n short handles - Quest #3

I never thought I would try a project from a Martha Stewart show. I had heard of Martha Stewart and once tried to watch an episode of her show on TV. It was painful listening to her drone on and on about pastry and other exciting desserts. Being a fan of TV police shows, I kept waiting for a pay-off. Nothing exciting happens on Martha Stewart.

So during my current quest for long and short handles, I was quite um, embarrassed to use her TV tutorial for my next bag. There is a clip of Martha and her guest actually sewing the bag. But it being TV, everything was pre-sewn and the guest glossed over the difficult part of the bag - the handles. Grr! I used the cute template provided but I made the bag really small.

I think I managed to wing the handles pretty well and it's all machine sewn.


The clothes peg gives an idea of the size of the bag.

Long and short handles - Quest #2

I recently got this book bend-the-rules sewing by Amy Karol and one of the projects is surprise, surprise - a long and short handled tote.

One of the differences I noticed about Amy Karol's style is she left the opening for turning the bag right side out in the top of the bag. I've always done it the old-fashioned way through the lining.

She mentioned a website in the book and to my horror/shock/delight she is also Angry Chicken. I had seen stuff made by Angry Chicken before and for some queer reason I thought Angry Chicken was a very angry male farmer. I cannot understand my own thought process.

I made the longer handle really long as I thought it would look really nice.


I used different fabric for front and back.




A nice pink patch pocket for my coins.




Inside out.

Long and short handles - Quest #1

I'm currently fascinated by bag handles - the ones where the length of both handles don't match.I imagine this is how it happened. One brilliant but forgetful bag maker sewed the wrong length of handles onto a bag. Instead of reaching for the seam ripper, she experimented and voila - a new bag is born.

What I love about long and short handles is that no closure is required. By inserting the longer handle through the shorter handle, a natural closure is born. So clever. I wish I had come up with it.


Say Hello to my rocking horse. (I have a rocking horse?!!)

Helen's site offers a Japanese Knot Bag pattern(I guess this is what Japanese calls it) which I shrank in size as I thought large would be cumbersome for such a design.




Okay, here's the part I didn't like. I had to sew the handles together by hand. So raw!


This is what I look like inside out.

Korean Souvenirs 4 - Doll

I bought this beautiful Korean doll on my last day in Korea. I had been searching for days for the perfect doll and was rather disapointed that the one which were better crafted cost a bomb. I finally settled for this cheaper version. This doll is a display doll and should have been left displayed in the plastic container it came in. Unfortunately I took it out to take pictures. That's when I discovered the doll's body and legs were made of styrofoam. Ugh!!!!!

Buying this doll has rekindled my interest in making clothes for dolls. When I was a kid, I only got to play with hand-me-down dolls from my mother's employer. They were usually broken and never came with clothes. I remembered enjoying dressing them up with rags. When my girl was old enough to play with dolls, I started sewing dolls clothing for her Barbie. I think I enjoyed dressing up her dolls more than she did. Frighteningly, my son also enjoyed dressing up the dolls. It turned out to be a passing phase.

Unfortunately I did not document any of the clothing I had made. This is why I created another blog Dressed Up Dolls just for dressing up my girl's dolls. Okay, our dolls.