Under the Sea Crossbody bag

I've had this sweet little double zip crossbody bag on my drawing board for a year now. Guys...a year. Procrastination much? I don't know if I can quite call it that or just that this pattern has stumped me and I just needed to set it aside and let it simmer.

Sometimes, I know exactly what I want to say but it's hard to put into words which is what I have found while I've been writing this pattern with one particular step.

Now I need your help. Would you be willing to give it a go? I'd like to send this in PDF form to a few testers and see if my words make sense enough that you can recreate this bag.

Quite frankly, the double zipper is awesome. The lower part is perfect to slide your cell phone into. The center pocket is the remainder size of the bag and fits a little notebook perfectly. And I always have a nice little notebook and pen set I carry around.

I am a total OFFICE SUPPLY junkie. If you ever want to know what to get me for my birthday - it would be something like THIS. No joke. (and no, this is not an affiliate link) I love office supplies. So I do in fact carry THESE (I have 2 sets. One for my use. One I let the Sprout use on the road.) and a notebook all the time. I often give notebooks as gifts and pens. Everyone in my office knows of my sincere love of office supplies and knows I hoard all the good pens. It makes me happy. Serious as a heart attack happy. I'm not sure what that all really has to do with this bag but my birthday is in exactly 20 days, cough, cough. Just saying....

If you're interested in testing this bag, leave me a comment below and I'll be in touch. Thanks gang!

fabrics: courtesy of Mo Bodell from her Full Moon Lagoon line that I adore

: : ring pincustion tutorial : :

I shared a fun tutorial this week over on We All Sew - the Bernina USA blog.  Go check it out!  Share it on Pinterest!  Make some for your sewing friends for the holidays!  Wear one to a party - they are too cute!

Find the RING PINCUSHION TUTORIAL here!

: : bolero refashion : :

I think this may be my new favorite thing for Sprout and I'm pretty sure I need to make one Mommy size.   Let me show you how easy it is to make a bolero jacket with ruffles!

ONLY CUT YOUR SLEEVE LENGTH, OVERALL SWEATER LENGTH, AND SIDE SEAMS. DO NOT CUT ALONG THE SHOULDERS - I just realized the dotted lines run up the outer edge and shoulders - duh!  Don't cut there or along the v-neck! Leave the v-neck intact for now.

So, there it is.  My bolero refashion with ruffles.  It seriously was super easy!  Go forth and thrift, refashion and sew!

{mystery sew along}

I love Halloween.  I love Fall.  I love Halloween and Harvest parties and decorations and games and mysteries!  SO, I thought it would be fun to start the first day of Fall here stateside with a fun sew along mystery.  Each day, I will give you a few of the steps but I'm not going to tell you what we are making.  You'll probably figure it out pretty quick BUT it will be a lot of fun to just go along and see what you end up with.  I promise you will love it!  And use it a lot.  And want to make many.

Ready?  OK, TODAY, we are gathering some supplies.

You will need 18 quantity of 4 1/2" squares.  Use up your quilting cottons and add to it some fun pieces for texture.  I used some wool from an old sweater and also corduroy.  You will need some twine.  And poly fiber stuffing.  And of course, all your usual gear, sewing machine and notions, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Once you have your materials gathered, sew 3 of your squares together in a row using 1/4" seams.  You will sew these together until you have a total of 6 groups of 3 squares each.

Come back tomorrow and see what comes next!