Bumblebee Bag

Wandering around a fabric store, some yellow and some black popped out at me. And red! Yellow, black, and red - I knew I had to make something using those colors. And this is the result:

I've been calling it the bublebee bag since I started planning it. It's got a magnetic clasp and some tubing in the handles to make them a little more sturdy feeling. I thought the handles wouldn't be long enough, but they definitely are!

And the inside has pockets all along one side and then a half-circle pocket (made out of the area I cut out for the handles) that's big enough for cell phone.

I've got similar (but still different) material sewn together for two more bags like it... I'm going to see what people think and then maybe make them and put them on etsy... I'll see how it goes!

And while I was waiting for some of the material to dry, I started working on some Christmas coasters. Yep -Christmas! I made some patchwork that I cut out to make the tops of some. I've got almost 3 set ready to sew! Hopefully I'll work on them more tomorrow!

Halloween!

I'm not hugely into Halloween. When I was really little my mom made me some really cute costumes - a kangaroo, a coke can, a pumpkin...
But this year I decided to make my own costume! And I decided to be a Monster!
Over a year ago, I saw some guy at Universal Studios wearing a monster hoodie and I thought it was pretty awesome! I decided then I wanted one right then and there. I looked online and I saw one place selling them for $100. Well I wasn't going to pay that. So I bought a hoodie at Old Navy for $15 and used material and buttons I had at home to create my own!

There's super cool teeth around the hood and I lined the inside with red - like it's a real mouth! Added some eyes and claws on and it was ready to go.

I also had a skirt that was really long and I shortened it. And I made a tulle thing to go under the skirt to make it kinda poofy. And I bought some awesome tights at wal-mart!

And now I've got a super cool monster hoodie!

Little Suckers!

I started making these awesome little guys last year and they are soooo fun to make! And since it's around Halloween, I figured I would put this pattern up here! Hopefully someone can make a Little Sucker or two for the holiday.

Hopefully you've got some felt around, or it'll just take 2 sheets of felt - one for the body and one for the wings.

They're really fun! Their feet are loops so they can be hung upside down. Or they sit up pretty well if that's how they want to. And they're wings can be opened or closed, all with a tiny button!

And this is a great way to practice a button hole! I know sometimes button holes can seem a little menacing, but they're really not too hard.

If you would like to save this pattern and try it out (You really should! It's fun and easy and super cute!), then you can click here to download the file and print out the directions!

This is the first download I've done, so if it doesn't work, please let me know and I'll try and fix it! Either comment on this post or e-mail me at anoddduckcreates @ gmail.com. Thanks!

getting better...

Oink, oink. yep - I had that ugly old swine flu last week. It totally knocked me down and out. And I'm just barely back into the land of the living. So while the project I'm working on was right on my computer, my mind just wasn't letting me work on it.
But... I'm getting better! So I'm hoping to finish it and have it up at the beginning on next week! I hope!

Coming soon to a blog near you...

Something cool is coming soon...

I'm working on it...

Here's a preview:

What I've been up to...

Here's a few things I've been up to lately:

I helped make a Super-Frog cape! With red eyes... which is a bit creepy-deep, but I'm always open to special requests! The munchkin said today he wants to be Super Frog for Halloween and wear his frog costume (yes - he already has one. Don't you?) and the cape. Of course he is 4 and there's 2 months until Halloween, so there's a high possibility he'll end up as something completely different.

A jewelry travel bag that has a big enough bottom to have bracelets inside. I hadn't even thought about bracelets, but it was easy to make it just a little bigger and the bracelets give it a bit of a base!

An "M" bag for my cousin's daughter! I need to send it on up to Tennessee!

This was a commissioned bag! A lady I know knows the mom of Matt Eller who plays for the University of Illinois (Go Fighting Illini!) and she wanted me to make a bag that she can take to games. This was a fun bag to make and I love the way the embroidery turned out! Since it would be going to football games and everything, there's a zipper closure on top. And the sides are triangular, just to be fun and different. I hadn't planned on it, but there's a washable base inside so that the shape keeps pretty well. I'm giving it to her tomorrow and I hope she loves it!

Then I made a bag for myself! I got the pattern from a blog called U-Handblog.com. I've learned a lot of stuff from her site - my favorite of which is to do zippers in the sides of bags. Her tutorial makes it SO Easy! I saw the pattern for this bag a while ago when she first put it on the site and I liked it, but just couldn't decide to buy it. Then I kept thinking about it. Then I finally just gave in and bought it!

It was a pretty easy pattern to follow. I feel like every step was described perfectly. There wasn't any part where I was really confused. I had already done the zipper in the side of the bag before, so it might have been a little harder if I hadn't done it before. And I used grommets for the first time, which turned out to be pretty easy. And the handles - she had a cool idea which was to put some tubing in the handle. There was a place to order it from her, I guess a special purse kind. But I just went to the pet store and got some tubing that goes in fish tanks!

I knew it would be big (the drawstrings can be untied and it expands out), so I didn't know how often I would get to use it... but this morning as I was looking for something to carry stuff to the Post Office, I was so glad I had the bag!

And I also made two hooded towels (a hippo and a monkey) which are on their way down South to sweet little Sophie (the daughter of a friend of mine from high school)! They're pretty darn cute, and I'll try to get some pictures of them up pretty soon!

Meanwhile - I got 5 really cute fat quarters and I'm going to try and write up a tutorial for my Five Fat Quarter Reversible Bag! I want to take pictures as I go along to try and make it a little easier to understand. So hopefully I'll get that up pretty soon...

I really need to update more...

I really need to update more! I haven't made too much lately... but I did make one thing - a superhero outfit!!! Which brings me to a question I've had lately - why do I not wear a cape ALL the time? It's way more fun than I was thinking it would be.

We had superhero bowling night at the youth group I volunteer with and I decided to go with my own superhero - CraftGirl! I had a shirt with a hole in the front on it, so putting a shield on the front worked perfectly. And stenciling on the scissors worked great! Then I made a cape out of a bed sheet I had bought a long time ago. At the bottom of the cape, I put ric-rac and buttons, just to make it a little more crafty.

Here's a picture - taken on my cell phone so it's a little blurry-ish.

If you haven't worn a cape lately, you really should give it a try!