Fifth Time's the Charm

I needed a bag to hold everything we needed to go play at the water park a week or so ago. I was unable to find anything that met my needs, so I thought I would make a bag. I knew I could make something simple that would be large enough to hold the items, but then I found a pattern that fit what I needed AND had a zipper AND had a lot of pockets. Zippers are always a plus. I picked up all of the materials, went home and spent the night working on the bag so that it would be ready to go the next day. *Note to self: just because you are awake and can't sleep does NOT mean that you can function well enough to try a new type of pattern. Also, don't try to complete an entire bag the night before you want to use it.

The first time through I somehow managed to sew the zipper inside the bag. I mean completely inside the bag-- in between the lining and the outside fabric. I unpicked, sewed the bag together again, only to find that I had the zipper piece sewn in upside down. I grabbed my trusty seam ripper again, then set to work sewing the bag for a third time. I didn't understand the instructions of the pattern because it was not working out properly and I couldn't figure out what to do with the ends of the zipper piece. I tried sewing them in, but that was obviously not the answer. Frustrated, I gave up at this point. The next morning, I ran to Target as fast as I could before we left for the water slides and found this bag:

I wish I could say that I saved a ton of money on the bag that I made, but the materials were the same price as this bag that I purchased at Target. It doesn't have nearly as many pockets as the pattern bag, though. With a finished model, my bag pattern now made sense. I knew what to do with the zipper piece. So, now that my bag pattern made sense, I started unpicking again last night. I sewed the bag together again. It was one of those perfect times when the stars are aligned and you run out of bobbin thread right as you finish your last seam. I was so pleased. Then I looked at the bag. I lined up seams of the lining and seams of the bag, but the lining seams were its center and the bag seams were its corners. The handles and the bag were skiwampus. I unpicked, yet again, and on the 5th time I finally managed to get the bag right.

The correct way to handle the zipper piece:

Beautiful pockets on the sides, ready to hold water bottles:

Two pockets on the front of the bag. They're pretty big, so I'm not sure yet what will go in them.

I didn't take any pictures of the inside pockets. I did a bit of adapting to meet my needs here. I ALWAYS need to have pens in my bags, so I made some narrow pockets that will house pens and/or pencils. The lining also features some larger pockets, so that it has a total of 8 pockets.

Here is the final bag:

May it see years of service and may I come to love it after all of the seam-ripping pain it caused me.

This makes 1 WIP finished for my month of no spending on crafting supplies. I also used some leftover fabric to make some bean bags. I have plans for those for another time.

Twist Collective

One of my favorite blogs to read is a knitting blog, Alaskan Purl. I love Allison Haas' writing style and her designs. One of her designs is featured in the Fall 2011 Twist Collective. So, I thought I would swing over and check out the patterns. I have this problem with knitting patterns-- the problem being that I fall in love with them and I have to have the pattern. My knitting skills are usually not up to snuff to actually make the product (though I hope to remedy that in the near future), so the patterns sit and collect and my pile grows ever larger. I am in love with so many patterns from Twist Collective! Here are just a few of my favorites.

If only they weren't sold separately for $6 or $7 per pattern. I would be more than happy to pay a book price to have a collection of the patterns, but how do I choose to buy them separately? How do I afford to buy them all separately? With the promise of fall and winter on the way, I am itching to get some needles out and attempt to finish some sort of cold weather project. This in no way helps my problem and these beautiful patterns are taunting me.

Pink Swim Robe

I made a swim robe for Lena. I went back to Walmart for beach towels and discovered the price was 3 times what I paid when I bought Zack's! I couldn't believe they had raised the price that much in just a few weeks. I made a trip to JoAnn's to look at terry cloth, finding that they had some cute patterns but it was only terry cloth on one side. Does that make sense to anyone else? I ended up picking up some regular bath towels at Target. It's nice and soft. I'm pretty sure I want one for me. Just a nice, soft, plushy robe.

Sarah and I made a quick and easy craft yesterday, but I'm not posting pictures because I am going to make a few as Christmas gifts and I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Update

on the matter of my Pottery Barn Knock Off Mirror, it was too hot when I put on the last coat of lacquer finish and it crackled. Now I have to sand it all down and begin the painting over. Again. I may just wait until the fall for some consistent temperatures, even though I really want to have this project finished before moving into a new house.

on the matter of the Kaleidoscope QAL, I started sewing my blocks together. I ran into problems and I knew I was going to run into problems because I didn't have enough float on my piecing to make the blocks fit together nicely. Still, I crossed my fingers and plugged away anyhow. Now I must unpick and/or decide if I should start over or if there is anything salvageable from the wreckage.

I did, however, finish crocheting this bag:

It's actually huge. I didn't read the pattern to notice that it was going to be 44 inches circumference at its largest point. It was a stash buster project, so it worked out just fine. I wish I had placed the stripe a bit higher, but I was deviating from the pattern (which had no stripe) on that point. I have no idea what to use it for. I suppose toting swimming items seems the most likely.

Sponge Bombs

Yet another item that has been making an appearance just about everywhere in blog land-- Sponge Bombs. These took me about 10 minutes to make and the kids are loving them. They're inexpensive, too. I originally found them by Whipperberry but featured on A Little Tipsy.

Lena wasn't sure that she wanted to be throwing them at Zack or have them thrown at her. The kids were tried to find the bombs that had the same color combinations to make matches and they had fun splashing them in the pool. Until Rich joined in the fun and showed the kids how the throwing was done. After that, it's been a completely fun game of water bomb tag.

These were definitely worth making! They are less time than filling up water balloons and I didn't have to get wet like when I fill up the balloons. Not to mention they don't have the scare factor of a popping balloon for little kids, such as Phoebe. She can carry them around and have fun, too.