Cutting Plan for Slipcovering Chair

 My very first cutting plan...

This slipcover is for the same friend that had me slipcover this chair....

 She has been patiently waiting on me.  I promised to do this for her and then we opened our Etsy shop and our booth space. 

 Needless to say it's taken me awhile.  She went ahead and bought her fabric (8 yards) back in the winter and it is now discontinued.  Yikes.  So I knew I was going to need to cut all my pieces ahead which are all rolled and labeled

 This is what I had left!  Needless to say I had the  cutting plan in my sketch book and I added all my measurements/number several times to make sure my math was right BEFORE I started cutting....I knew it was going to be close.

 The fabric is gorgeous.  The pale blue with the white and dark grey is very soft...

This is for her new son's nursery

 I usually make a box pleat in the back but since I was trying to stretch the fabric as far as it could go I decided on a zipper.  It sits nicely in the back under the piping...

 My first zipper in a slipcover but it went in pretty easily....

I also decided to go with a waterfall style pleat which I had seen on Shelly's blog.  If you've not visited her blog you should.  Especially if are a fan of slipcovers.  Her work is beautiful And read her story of how she got started...

She has a very successful business sewing slipcovers that she started out of her home when she decided to become a stay at home momma.  She very generously shared photos with me which I highly appreciated!  And she has an instructional e-book available, and I think a second one that is available or will be soon with more advanced skills.

Mother's Necklace

 One of the many versions of the Mother's Necklaces I make...

 I also realized I had to do a separate "action" for watermarking the vertical photos so this was a good time to practice...

 I typically end up using mostly horizontal style photos I think mostly because they fit a little better in the blog postings but it's nice to have a variety of image styles....

 I also discovered how to use my original camera lens to get better photos...

I love the 50mm lens but sometimes I have trouble getting a sharp focus with the jewelry just because it's so small...

Waxed Canvas & Leather Backpack

The final waxed canvas backpack

He is so excited which is nice--

 sometimes he says he'd like us to make something and then he loses interest....

This will be the ultimate durability test of one of our goods.  If it can survive him and kindergarten it can survive anything!

I did a separate post about waxing it here

It seems to be setting up better now that it's been sitting a little longer....

The buckle and leather logo strap keeper are hand stitched.  The rest of it was sewn on my Sailrite machine....

The legs of the mechanic's suit we used had these little tabs with buttons to tighten the leg up around their boot....

I decided to use them instead of adding a drawstring or other closure at the top of the pack.  These make it smaller at the top so it all fits under the flap a little better.

Our first go at the copper rivets...LOVE these.  They just have a really cool look....

 They go through a hole in the leather and have a washer that gets hammered down flush with the leather....

The posts get cut off....

 And the silver setter has a second domed shape to hammer the raw/ cut edge down smoother to hold the washer in place.....

My machine does a great job sewing through some pretty heavy layers.  It's made to sew sails for boats and will go through up to 8 layers of heavy canvas or something crazy like that....

The straps are adjustable with some button studs so we can let it out a bit for the winter coats....

And because it's Doodle's we used our original wood flying "V" stamp on the patch holding the straps on....

I still can't believe he's going to school...part of me is so sad to see him go and part of me is so happy to see him start a new adventure. 

Waxing a Canvas Backpack

We have been talking about making a waxed canvas and leather backpack for awhile and we've also talked about making a backpack for our son who is starting kindergarten this year....

so I started sketching up and idea for what we wanted....

 My husband had this olive drab herringbone fabric  ( a mechanic's suit) that he wanted me to use to make a hat for him.  

But when we started talking about a backpack and doing canvas and leather our son was pretty excited about using it for the backpack.

these are some of the parts and pieces before putting it all together...it was interesting to use the leather in combination with another fabric.

And since we were using the leather we wanted a way to weatherproof the fabric.  We had seen the Otter Wax before in various places and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out.

We did do a small test piece because it does darken the fabric a bit.  But it makes for a nice waterproof seal on the fabric....

The backpack is finished and completely constructed here (I just haven't done photos yet) 

 I used my ironing board which worked good as a nice flat, hard surface to work on.  There are all kinds of videos on their site for how to apply it.  You rub the bar into the fabric, and then can use a hair dryer to help soften it while working it into the fabric with your fingers

  I was able to turn it as I went and work my way around.  The waxing also creates some wrinkles and different coloration on the fabric which I really like.  It has kind of an aged worn look to it.  The waxing directions say to let it cure for at least 24 hours but ours is still feeling a little waxy.  It has been humid here too which probably affects how quickly it sets up....

Photos of the final product to come!

Little Red Wallet

 Second try on the wallet...
See the first one here

Once I sent photos to my customer she decided to go with the red color too instead of the tan.  

 The closure/logo piece works great on this one.  I love the look of the longer skinnier oval but the strap is really difficult to get in and out.  So I made it more circular this time....

 This is her wallet...much better than my first one.  The rollover at the top is a much better fit...

 This is long enough to hold a checkbook as well as a cell phone...

 The bottom of the bag....

I really like the white stitching on the red leather.

I'm dying to try this wallet in the Evening Blue I think it would be really sharp.  Or maybe a teal blue....

And I also learned how to "batch process" my photos with our new watermark...makes me sound very computer competent!!!  
I finally decided to check out a book from the Library so see I still did it the "old school" way!!!

Custom Wallet for Etsy

I posted a few days ago about this bag I made in natural leather for a friend of mine....

While she was shopping at a local store, a lady asked her about it and where she got it.  

After talking with my friend she contacted me through our Etsy shop and sent me a photo of a wallet she liked.  She wanted me to design something similar and this is what I came up with....

 I sketched up some ideas thinking about what should fit in it and how to make it work good and look good...it should really do both.

 After sending her the photos of the sketches to see if it was something she was interested in, I started working out a tagboard pattern....

I cut out all my pieces for another "macaroni prototype" that will be used by me to work out some of the little details....

Then decided to dye the outside section this yummy color....

I mixed the "Sunshine Yellow" and the "Scarlet" in several layers to get this persimmon-y orangey red color.... 

I am still working out some kinks...my little oval with the logo on it needs to be a bit bigger vertically and smaller across...

I'm also trying to decide what to do with the strap so right now it's really long. 

I wanted to be able to create some kind of a wrist strap so you can carry it that way.  Still working that out...

 And I need to add about an inch to the overall length so that I have a bigger rollover at the top and the top flap comes down farther when it's all closed up...

You can see in the photo below how the cards are curving in because there isn't quite enough space there....

The phone actually fits in there really well.  An iPhone would fit even better.  Mine is just a track phone so it's bulkier but it still works great.

 I have about 6 cards in each of the card slots so it holds quite a bit....

 I am excited about this one---

It was really fun to work with the customer, see what she wanted and then work up a design.

 I'll be adjusting the pattern to accommodate all the little size issues and working on a second one for the customer...

Of course after making this one now I have more ideas for variations on this idea.  

And we have a satchel idea sketched up we'd like to try....

Doodlebug has requested a backpack for his big first year of school...so we're thinking about repurposing some WWII green herribone canvas and waxing it ourselves...