to close or not to close comments: that is the question

Dear readers,

How many of you are bloggers? If you own a blog, whether you write occasionally or frequently, you are, for better or worse, a blogger.

My question to my blogger/readers
• do you close the comments of old posts?
• do you not allow comments for some posts?

Some of you are probably wondering why you would need to close/not allow comments. And I'm sure a few of you are thinking: you can do that!?

Okay, here's a true story. You might know I love to enter in giveaways, especially where fabric is involved. Scissors, metal tins and needles too catch my eye. I subscribe to blogs and forums which inform me where the giveaways are and I would do the hop and do the necessary to get my name in. On one such hop, I must have gone off-course because after submitting my comment, I checked to see when I should expect the results to be announced. To my horror, I had entered for a giveaway that had long ended. OMG. I was so embarrassed. And it was one of those annoying blogs like mine which moderated the comments so I could not take back the comment. Instead of just quietly going away, I wrote another comment to sheepishly inform the blog owner that I had realised my mistake and to ignore my entry. Then I rambled on and on about how embarrassed I was.

Of course right after I had submitted the second comment, I wanted to take it back.

It felt so lame. Why oh why? There's a Chinese saying,

yi qu bu hui tou
Once gone, there's no turning back

Okay, I dunno if this is the right saying. I'm not exactly the best person to learn Chinese sayings from. But you get it. There was no turning back. I know it's not a real tragedy. But the thought of the blog owner laughing her head off was just too much to bear.

Maybe something like this can only happen to me. But just to be sure, "as a public service", I closed the comments to my giveaways that had ended.

Some bloggers do write posts which attract a lot of comments and at some point they may have moved on from the event which triggered the comments. One way to stop getting any further comments on that post would be to close the comments.

And since there are a couple of you who probably want to know how to close comments, I've taken a few pics so you'll have an idea. This works for Blogger posts as well as pages.





In Edit Posts/Edit Pages, click on Post Options.
You will see 3 options:
• Allow
• Don't allow, show existing
• Don't allow, hide existing

If you totally don't want any comments, you will select "Don't allow, hide existing".



See where the arrow is pointed at? No comments icon.

To close comments to giveaways or certain old posts, click on "don't allow, show existing".



If anyone tries to leave a comment, she will get a message that new comments have been disabled.

Some of sharp-eyed readers might have noticed I referred to Pages. If you've never heard of Pages, they operate like posts except they are static. They do not get pushed to the subscriber's wall when first published.

I treat Pages differently from posts. My posts are chronological and I don't amend them once they are published. Yes, yi qu bu hui tou. If there are amendments, I will append the necessary and date it. For pages, I modify the information to reflect the current state. That way it's cleaner. And that's why I disable the comments to my pages. Seems more appropriate.

And that's all from your blogging "techie".

Projects By Jane's Hall Of Fame

Dear friends,

One of the fun part about creating tutorials and ePattern is seeing what folks who use them produce.

Over the years, I've had invitations from my readers to go check out their creations at their blogs. Some simply send me photos via email or post it in my Flickr Group. I felt like a proud mama.

(Yes, this is secretly another chance to plug my ePattern!)


Anyhoo, when my ePattern went on sale recently, I was more than curious to see the results. I really, really wanted to see what "my babies" would look like. Much to my delight, Aesoon who had bought my ePattern published her pouches on BurdaStyle. I asked for her permission to publish them here and she said Yes. Thank you, Aesoon.

Here they are:

She used fabric remnants but look at the effort that went into mixing and matching.

Her choice of beads is really fantastic!

I don't know about you but when I look at this image, I could almost hear Julie Andrews singing:

The hills are alive with the sound of music...

See you soon.

Oh Amy!

Of all the bags in Amy Butler's Style Stitches book, I dreaded making June's Teardrop Bag most.

It's aptly called Teardrop Bag because tears were shed when I made the bag. So what exactly was I dreading? Take a good look at the hip area. Yep, Miss Piggy's ears.

Ah, here's a closer look. I'm not kidding. The ears have to be attached to the hip of the bag.

Does the leaf fabric look familiar? It's another Ikea fabric. It's a popular fabric. In fact, if you go to Etsy, chances are there is at least one bag, usually a large one made in this fabric.

So how hard was this bag? It's nowhere near as hard as The Cosmo Bag, that's for sure. The Cosmo Bag turned out to be such a great bag. I love it to death. I use it all the time. Originally I had thought it was too big but I carry a lot of junk in my bag so the size is perfect for someone like me. Let's see. I need my emergency medication kit, an umbrella, paper towel, keys, giant wallet, thick jacket (in case it's very cold), thin scarf(in case it's not that cold) and a book.

I've made plenty of pleated bags. Pleated bags aren't hard. I was so confident I could finish it in one night.

I was so wrong.

I had been stung by Amy Butler's bags before so this time I read thru' before I started. There are 2 sizes and I chose Large. Haha. Large turned out to be not so large. I also noticed that the template for the handles was rather narrow in width. I told myself I would widen the handle.

See? I felt pretty confident because I did my homework.

Cutting the pattern pieces was easy. The handle took a little longer. When cutting long pieces of fabric, I like to do it on the floor. There I was kneeled down going snip, snip, snip. After I was done, I almost screamed. Noooooooooo! I had forgotten to widen the handle!

Still not a tragedy. I could make it work. A narrow handle is still doable. Just harder to turn right side out. Those of you who chose Small. I feel for you. It must have killed you to turn the handle right side out.

Everything went smoothly from then on. Until I had to attach Miss Piggy's ears to the hip of the bag. I don't know how other sewers did it. For me, I forced it. I don't know how else to do it. I pleaded with Miss Piggy. I begged. I cried. No can do. So I just hammered it on. Worked like a charm. I was sooo relieved until I remembered I had to attach the other ear.

You understand while all these sewing and struggling was going on, me hubs was sitting next to me and I was grumbling to him. Grumble, grumble. Unlike most of the time when he faked interest, this time he actually gave an opinion. He wondered if I had problems sewing Miss Piggy's ears because my sewing skills were not up to the level required?

What?!

How is that possible? I ask. I mean, if my expert sewing skills get any better, I would LEVITATE.

Did I make anyone laugh? Yes, I did. And no, I've not reached expert level. Yet. Right now, I'm at Level Awesome. But I'll get to expert level when I complete my 1,000 Projects Before I Die.

Anyhoo, back to the story. By the time I was done, I was so frazzled I decided nothing and I mean nothing could soothe me except a Cookies n Cream cone ice-cream. So Amy, that extra bit of fat round my hips is on you.

After that, all I had left was the lining and the lining is usually the easy part. Let me repeat that. The lining is usually the easy part.

It was not. The pocket got in the way. I tried to fit the pocket to the lining and the pocket just wouldn't fit. I squeezed and did a mock-up and showed it to me hubs and he said, it looks weird. Finally, I gave up and went to bed full of self-pity listening to "If I die young" by The Band Parry. Yes, that full of self-pity.

This morning after the kids had left for school, I decided to tackle the pocket once again. Then I had a clever idea. I googled for other sewer's blog post on this bag to see if they had the same issue. Guess what? There is an error in the instructions and the correction was given here. Which explained why the pocket did not fit.

I only had an hour to sew this morning so I decided I would just use the pleated lining as a template for the pocket. My best decision to date.

Because the pocket was large, I simply sewed a little square to anchor the pocket to the lining somewhere at the top centre.

Is this worth the effort?

Check out the ears.

There is no way all my stuff could fit into this little bag. Oh, I just peeked at July's bag and it looks like a piece of cake.

This sew-along is hosted by Bree from My Crafty Crap.