Dotty

I'm going back to school in the fall, so naturally I need a new bag to carry my books and pens, right?

This is Simplicity 2600. I used upholstery fabrics from Joann's and should have used a heavy-duty bag zipper. (I bet I'll have to replace the zip before midterms.) Sewing the bag took much longer than my usual bags, but most of that was because I am a space case and because the bag has a million little pieces and is constructed by creating your own quilted fabric (you can also buy pre-quilted fabric, which would make this go together much quicker), which takes ages.

I changed the pattern a little bit, omitting a few miles of the recommended bias tape that was supposed to cover every single seam.

Overall, I love the bag. It fits my laptop perfectly, with plenty of extra space for all the extra junk I carry everywhere. In fact, I have it with me right now as I type in a seriously overly air-conditioned coffee shops. Should have tossed in a sweater!

Bag lady

Ever since I've been sewing, I have been churning out handbags in an effort to create the absolutely perfect bag.

Appropriately enough, this one, which I love enough to have made it twice, comes from the book The Perfect Bag, which I borrowed from the library. I love this bag because it's big enough to hold a paperback and is designed so it's easy to use several different fabrics.

For this version, which I slapped together over two evenings, I used a couple of small pieces of quilting cottons given to me by my boss (OK, his wife) last Christmas, along with a stripe from my stash and a giant pink button, also from my stash. My favorite feature of this version is the pleated pocked, where I stash my cell phone.

Pickled

Although this summer's drought conditions and blistering temperatures have wreaked havoc on our garden and yard (and our bodies!), somehow the cucumbers don't seem to mind.

Even though I've learned a ton from this summer's canning class (offered through MU Extension), I'm still learning. One batch became positively dangerous--they were bubbling like crazy when I opened a jar, and although my brother-in-law claimed they tasted OK I was terrified I had poisoned us all. Especially when I read in the canning book I should dispose of bubbly pickles somewhere neither humans nor animals could possibly eat them.

Luckily, I have plenty of cukes for more practice batches. These dudes are going to make it, I think. The recipe is this one, for refrigerator dill pickles from the excellent canning blog Food in Jars.

Happy birthday, Dad!

My family got together this weekend to celebrate my dad's birthday. I've gotten out of the habit of buying him gifts since he lives in a giant house absolutely crammed with stuff and has the money to buy what he wants. Instead, I bake him something he loves--in this case, his favorite cake.

I felt a little guilty about not making it from scratch, but homemade angel food cake requires an obscene amount of egg whites (a dozen!). I went with a mix but assuaged my guilt by making an incredibly complicated, fluffy and delicious frosting from scratch.

Party foul: The sprinkles were beautiful but added a degree of crunch that angel food cake really does not need.

File under "easy"

  

This might be the fastest, easiest craft project I ever did. 

I started with an old, ugly file holder.

Then I used glue, two sheets of scrapbooking paper and a lot of tape to make it cute.

 Now I don't cringe every time I look at it.

Sew simple

This spring when I switched out my heavy winter curtains for the summer ones, the summer versions looked too tired to hang up. Without thinking, I made a trip to Target, where I spent way too much money on curtains that were way too blah.

After hanging them up I realized that not only were they ugly, but I was going to have to hem them. Thinking about sewing reminded me of the tubs of fabric I inherited this winter from my sister-in-law.

D'oh!

In my defense, my usual stash tends towards the small pieces of crazy prints, so I assumed I didn't have anything that would work for curtains. But to my happy surprise, I came up with plenty of suitably plain fabric plus interesting scraps to jazz them up.

Now I just need to find time to return the very expensive rejects to Target!

Bookish

Of all my crafting skills, bookmaking is one of the most useful. I made this coptic-bound book from scrap paper collected at my office job in Georgia (the country), along with embroidery thread and a cardboard box from a package of rodent food. When I asked my host mom to save it for me, I think she believed (or hoped!) she heard me wrong.

Once she saw the book, she got it. Sort of.