Carry Me: Expandable Carry All

An accomplished day... finished a project, started and completed 2 more projects, opened an Etsy shop, took pictures, did laundry, cleaned my craft space, took the dog for a couple of walks and a play date, and now writing a blog post.  Now that is what I call a productive day!  And I still have a few hours left.

As promised here is a very impressive bag (and expensive) from the Carry Me book that I am sewing my way through.  For those new to the blog, I am sewing my way through the book Carry Me: 20 Boutique Bags to Sew; one project a week.  So far, I have finished 8 of the 20 projects.  The projects have ranged in both complication and size, but all have been fun to make.  This particular bag contains 36 sets of snaps!  It certainly is an impressive bag and weighs about 5 pounds!  I don't think that I ever would have been able to finish this bag had I not been gifted a handy dandy set of snap pliers - saved so much time.  As the name of the bag suggests, it expands.  All snapped up its a bag about 4 inches wide and you can unsnap it to an expanded bag of about 8 inches wide.  This was also the first time I made this type of pipe handle - I really like it.  Oh, and LOVE the fabric!

The rosette is also a pattern from the book.  Its kind of cute and I veered slightly from the book instructions and made my own center stems with some beads and wire.  Turned out cute, however think I would start with a longer piece of fabric the next time to make it a bit chunkier. 

So, there you have it, 2 more projects in my attempt to get caught up. 

Oh, and more to come on the shop opening.  Still working on items to add to the shop, but at least it is started.  Wooohooo!

Now onto my last few hours of the day...what more can I accomplish!

Carry Me + Amy Butler

I know, I know its been almost a month since my last post.  Believe me I've missed blogging, but just can't believe how time flies.  Seems like every time I sat down to write a post, something came up that tore me away from writing about my newest project.  Its sad how I feel so busy.  However, not that it makes it any better, I have been keeping up with my Carry Me sewing project (4 more completed projects and 1 more in the making).  So is all forgiven in the blogworld? 

The power of inspiration has made me sit here long enough to finally get a post done for the month of September.  I have been waiting for this day for weeks now and it is finally here!  I'm so excited.  From the time this challenge was posted I instantly became inspired.  The challenge: cut up my Amy Butler fabric!  Find the challenge here.  I have my adored Amy Butler fabric all neatly folded away just waiting for the right project to come along that strangely deserved the warranted attention of Amy Butler.  Well, when a challenge to this degree comes along, I am of course going to seize the opportunity.  So here I am, proudly posting and stating that I finally cut into my Amy Butler stash. 

First off, as you are well aware, I am sewing my way through Carry Me.  So, it was only natural that Miss Amy Butler meet Carry Me.  So here we have it.  A tote adorning Amy Butler.  Now, this tote style is not my usual taste, a bit too crafty looking for me.  However, these fabrics just sang to me when they were fortuitously set next to each other. This tote also recieved a matching project from the book, a book cover. Look at that, 2 projects done from the book!

There you have it, 2 projects completed with some beautiful Amy Butler fabric (plus some other misc fabric).  Now, I have to shoot on over and enter this into the challenge.  If you have a recent Amy Butler project you should certainly head on over and enter into the challenge as well!  Isn't this fun!

Ok, back to sewing and thinking creatively.  Oh and by the way, I owe you 2 more projects from the book to get caught up (still need to get some pictures taken) and I am planning on having a wedding theme for the month of October!  October is a special month for me (two anniversaries!) so what better month to share a bunch of wedding ideas!  I thought it would be fun.