Sea & Sail Focused Clam Shell Mitts

 My Etsy shop release of new products this week focused on sea and sail clam shell shaped oven mitts. I intend to have these available at my next in person craft event that will be held at the Community Center of the Birch Bay Village. 

For a few years now, I have been making a number of clam shell shaped oven mitts in different sizes and different fabric choices. They all have a magnet sewn inside so that it will stick to the side of the microwave, the oven, the fridge, the BBQ grill, whatever has steel in it. The magnet helps to hold pot lids and even canning jar lids! 

With living at Birch Bay part of the year, it was suggested that I offer a selection of beach/sea/sail themed fabrics. I already had one in my shop (a Maryland blue crab), but now offer a few more choices - including Orca whales. 

My other new fabric choices:

• a red, white and blue fabric which has sailboats, motorboats, shells, anchors and lighthouses
  
  
  
• a batik turquoise fabric with anchors and ship steering wheels
  
  
  
• an ocean blue fabric with colorful sailboats 
  
  
  
• a whimsical fabric with colorful fish, octopus, squid and dolphin
  
  
  

Check out my Etsy shop to see more photos of these products.  And feel free to suggest a few other beach/ocean/sea themed items to add to this collection. 

eReaders - feedback please...

In reviewing my Etsy stats, the most viewed item(s) in my shop right now are the eReader covers. But, there are very few sales from the views.

I know part of the challenge is that there are different sizes of the devices. I offer three sizes now:

• 8 inch by 5 inch eReader (just recently added the Nook Color size for readers that are up to a half inch thick)
• 7.5 inch by 5 inch eReader (so, fits the original Kindle)
• 6.5 inch by 5 inch eReader (fits the original Nook)  

All of these have a pocket for the cable/cord.

While not meant for the eReader, I do have some customers who have used the Junior Legal Pad Holder to slip their Kindle Paperweight into one of the pockets.

Is the issue primarily that I have not covered the size of a particular device? Looking at a comparison list, I do not currently offer something for the larger Kindle Fire, for example.


If you were in the market for an eReader cover, what features do you want to see?

Snappy Bag Options - coin pouch, sunglasses case, eyeglasses case

Over the past few months, I have been exploring "snappy bags" In part this has been part of my trying to find the "just right" eyeglasses/sunglasses case.

For the wrap around sunglasses, I have been happy with a variation of this pattern by SewFantastic (http://sew-fantastic.blogspot.com/2010/06/tutorial-summer-sunglasses-case.html), but it is really big. You may want to read a customer review of these on my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/margretamadeit

While the Tulip pattern from CloBird is pretty fun ( http://clobird.com/shop/patterns/tulip-zipper-case/ ), it takes too much time and materials to sell them regularly.

I then found the snappy bag for eyeglasses (and other variants exist in different shapes) that is here: http://justanotherhangup.blogspot.com/2013/07/snappy-bag-sunglass-case-tutorial.html . I made them, sort of like them, but really do not like having exposed seams. Zigzagging the edge is not as good as enclosing it. I know. I know. You may think that is a minor detail. I am obsessive compulsive enough that, for me, it IS a big deal.

Back to doing research on Pinterest, I found that Sew Can She has a coin purse/pouch with the snap closure AND is fully lined (https://www.sewcanshe.com/blog/2013/4/6/the-snappy-coin-pouch-free-tutorial-from-sewcanshe) Just a little bit of hand sewing is needed to close up the opening - which is normal. I like the pattern - both the traditional version and the one that is pleated (which looks like a coffee cup). I made these for some friends.

So, since I think I understand the structure and approach. I am hoping to experiment and make my own version. Stay tuned!

Junior Legal Pad Portfolios / Covers

I know there are people who have completely abandoned paper. I am not one of them. Paper is still the choice for writing down the grocery list, just in case the partner goes to the store before I do. Or because the kiddo discovered he was now out of his favorite cereal. Paper also gets used when I am part of an on-line conference and I need a way to take notes while the video is going (no, I do not generally have 2 monitors or 2 computers going at the same time).

Seeing paper around in their standard issue format is boring. I like having better covers for the paper. So, I am always on the lookout for different ways to sew covers. In the past, I used the pattern that was part of Quilting Arts Gifts 2009/2010 (see http://oohprettycolors.blogspot.com/2011/11/time-to-sew-and-craft.html ). The pattern is pretty quick to make. My dislike of the pattern is that I have a hard time visualizing what my final product will look like as she has some parts that end up upside down. 

I tend to pin ideas and my latest try out of one of those was to make the cover available from the Cottage Mama (https://thecottagemama.com/2011/06/fabric-portfolio-and-notepad-holder/). I like that I can easily see what I am going to get for a final product. When I think I understand an item and I plan to offer it in my Etsy shop or at craft venues, I'll make a number of them at the same time and work assembly line style.

A mental and creative challenge is always picking out the variety of fabrics that I want to have go together. I often start with a feature or theme fabric and then build out from there. Building out can happen in picking colors from the theme theme and finding fabrics that I have that match. Then I also want to find a variety of textures or different scale of images. With the Cottage Mama's tutorial, she has five different fabrics going into the final product. So, I was doing a lot of color combinations at one time. I had to take a couple of breaks in between as my mental and intuitive process would get depleted.


As she says, you do not have to do all the pockets the way that she has them. Having less pockets will make the construction go faster and the thought process for picking fabrics happen quicker too.

Her instructions are pretty straight forward. I think that her fabric D directions do not actually match her cutting instructions. Either you can hem the fabric D (which is what I did) so that the pocket is deeper or cut the piece slightly longer (so you can do the fold over and still have depth).

She used fabric covered buttons which has a nice coordinating look. I have a wide selection of old buttons that I have been gifted with over the years and I like finding a button that seems to match.

I am hoping that some people make like these as a Mother's Day gift. Give her flowers that will last a bit longer than the cut ones or even potted plants (I do not have a green thumb). Come find these and other fabric choices in my Etsy store.

Zippered Pouches - So Many Uses

Two years ago, I think, I started making zippered pouches. With my own internal quality standard, I wanted a pouch that did not have raw edges. Erin Gilbey's Neat 'n' Tidy Zipper Pouch tutorial fit my standard.

Many independent pattern designers offer free tutorials to give you a sense of their style of writing and illustrations. Erin's instructions were clear and well documented. I also like that I can easily see how I can make modifications and still stay "true" to the pattern directions and be successful. All of her patterns are well written and she provides quick response time when asking questions. There's also an active Facebook Group for lovers of her patterns.

Erin's basic shape uses two fabrics - scraps really. Who doesn't have scraps? And some batting or flannel or not for the inside. And, as a person who quilts too,  I have batting.

These zipper pouches are great for holding change, keys, various small chargers, store customer cards or other small notions or office supplies. The zipper pouch could easily be a gift bag for a debit card.

If you do not want to make your own, I have some of these in my shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/288279117/zipper-pouch-3-inch-by-5-inch?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Let's Make Dumplings (Bags)

I love to make dumpling bags. Probably through Pinterest, I found a free tutorial about making dumpling bags (see http://keyka.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/08/lets-make-dumplings-free-zip-pouch-tutorial.html). These little zipper pouches open WIDE. They are great for earbuds, match cars, crayons, medicine, whatever. I do not recommend it as a coin purse as they open wide.

As a quilter and fiber artist, I generate a lot of scraps so I am always on the lookout for ideas about using up my scraps. A great use for scraps is in English paper piecing so that I am assembling larger shapes out of the smaller scraps. The particular advantage that I have with English paper piecing is that it is portable. I'll work up some shapes while monitoring the kiddo's homework progress, or attending his practice, or sitting in a meeting. I was recently at a three day conference and on the third day I found I just had to keep my hands occupied to keep my brain alert.

The Paper Pieces company sells lots of different shapes and sizes of computer precision cut paper templates. No need to trace and cut your own shapes out of index cards or newspaper (or the Sears catalogue if you have heard stories about that or done that yourself). I use my paper pieces multiple times before recycling them.

Putting dumplings and paper piecing together, I make two "flowers" and then fill the area around them with a background fabric. Then, remove all the paper, use the pattern shape to cut to the appropriate size and follow Michelle's directions to complete them.

A suggestion or hint for when basting the zipper, do the first side with the zipper unzipped (just easier to handle). Given the fact that there are lots of bias edges, do the second side with the zipper zipped. Too many times, if I do the two sides of the zip separately, I end up being "off" and the pouch doesn't close as neatly as I would like.

Given the labor time in making the English paper pieced dumplings, I give them as gifts, I don't sell them. I do sell the dumpling bags when I have used just one fabric for the outside.

Time for a Change

Over the past few years, I've been doing less quilts and more usable fiber art items. Maybe this is because I do not have more wall space. Maybe it is because being a parent leaves less time for detailed work processes. Maybe I just wanted more quick gratification and my quilts did not fit that equation.

I confess, though, that I can end up spending a number of days working on the fabric choices for one bag - much in the same way that selecting fabrics for a quilt involves. Some of the construction techniques can be just as involved as an inset seam or a detailed applique.

I liked making the Time for a Change purse / diaper bag. But, this was not a quick sewing process. Time for a Change is a pattern from DogUnderMyDesk, a great independent pattern designer. I like the water bottle pockets. I like the zippered pockets. I am not certain I like the way the straps are installed. I added a key minder to bag.

The issue for all fiber work is how to recover the time in the cost of the good. Living where I do, the cost of living is high. I can recover my material costs. I just do not think I can recover my time. So, while I like the pattern, I don't think it will show up in my Etsy shop, unless maybe it is a custom order item.