Pattern Review - and a Giveaway!!!

The lovely Trish Preston from Two Peas in a Pod Designs gave me the opportunity to review one of her adorable patterns. Her patterns are so darling and I love her designs, but had never tried one. I jumped on board with this one and was very excited to give it a try.

I got to choose my pattern, and honestly, I had some hesitation. I was going to play it safe and choose a pattern that did NOT involve zippers in any way, shape, or form. But in the end I chose a pattern that included not one, but TWO zippers!

This is the pattern that I chose. Cute huh?!

I was pleasantly surprised when I got the pattern in the mail. When I opened it up, it was full of full-color photos of her step-by-step process. It was like an online tutorial, but in paper form. Also included were full sized templates.

My original plan was to make this case using my beloved chicken fabric (I love it!!!). But once I trimmed the front pocket piece down and went to unzip the zipper halfway, it stuck a bit and I pulled too hard, so this happened:

I really wasn't thinking when I put the zipper in, and the instructions don't tell you to, but I highly recommend just doing a little straight stitch at both ends of the zipper so this doesn't happen to you! The ends of zipper are frayed (as you can see in the above photo) because I attempted - in vain - to save it by putting the zipper pull back on. I didn't work so I scrapped this project and started over.

In the end, this is the adorable bag that I ended up with. All the kids love it and they have each requested one of their own. I love this pattern and it makes such a cute bag. And the awesome thing is that it gives you instructions and templates for 3 different sizes.

I do have one small complaint about this pattern. Despite Trish and I e-mailing multiple times back and forth, I never was able to figure out the order I was supposed to layer my fabrics to get the linings and backing fabrics in the correct places. In the pattern, Trish used the same fabrics for the inner lining, and the front zipper pocket lining. I suppose if I had done that, I wouldn't have had this problem. But with the photos in her pattern, I couldn't tell which one was supposed to be the inner linings, and the lining for the front pocket. I kept feeling like I was missing a step somewhere, even though I wasn't. I still ended up with a super cute zip bag though, and when I make it again, I will just use the same fabrics for all the linings and the backing.

The white fabric was supposed to be my inside lining, and the backing fabric shown in the bottom photo was supposed to be the lining for the zipper pocket shown in the top photo.

Overall I am pleased with the finished product and I will definitely be using the pattern again to make a few more!

Now for the giveaway part!!! Trish has kindly offered to give one reader a surprise 2-pack of her patterns. Isn't that great?! She has so many wonderful designs, and one lucky person will win 2.

As much as I would love you to follow my blog, I'm not going to make that a condition for you to win (but you should still totally do it anyway, hehe.) All you have to do is visit Trish's website HERE then come back to this post and leave a comment telling me which of her patterns you would love to win. That's it! The winner will be chosen via random number generator on Wednesday, July 29th.

Good luck!



It Worked!!!

I don't know what I did, but the problem I had with my photos seems to have miraculously fixed itself. I'm pretty excited to be able to write a post today after my little hiatus from the internet.

Before I moved, my summer was pretty lazy and relaxed. Now that we live near family again, I am finding that summer is no longer as relaxing as it once was. Every weekend has been filled with parties, guests, and BBQ's. Not that I am complaining. It has been great. But it hasn't left much time for me to keep up with everything else! I have spent most of my free time sewing in order to keep up with the farmers market. Wanna see?!?! Yes, I thought you might.

Here's my Washi Tape Kindle Fire sleeve. And I just heard this fabric line has been retired! I love it so much and I'm so glad I was able to get some recently. I'll definitely be using it selectively until it's gone.

And a Nook Tablet sleeve. I made this one for a custom order, but my customer never came to get it. From now on I think I'll be asking for at least a partial payment in advance.

I have been loving making these key fobs! I rarely throw scraps away and I have been able to really start using up some of them!

I've been making a ton of zipper bags too.

And some super cute cross body bags!

Lots and lots of market bags

And a couple of pretty awesome pincushions =)

In between all of this sewing we have been camping, boating, and having birthday parties. I also worked on a secret project reviewing a pattern for Two Peas in a Pod Designs and I'll be having a giveaway in a couple of weeks! Yay!!!



Attempting To Write a Post...

I had every intention of finally sitting down to write a LONG overdue blog post today. I also had every intention of listing all of the items I have recently taken pictures of. I plugged my media card into my computer, resized and edited all my photos, and BAM! They are all missing now. Don't know where they went, but I hope I can figure it out. Otherwise I'm off to buy a new media card and retake about 75 photos *sigh* If anyone has experienced this issue, please let me know if/how you were able to fix it!!!