Tag Archives: napkitten

Friday Create Along

Well it’s sort of half a Create Along really since I have no reveal. This week I’m just announcing the next project. In honour of having NapKitten Patterns here as a sponsor this month I’d like to take this opportunity to tackle another one of her patterns.

I’m going to attempt this Cute Hamburger. Previously I’ve made the wallet (in my first Create Along!) and the iPhone sleeve, here’s my version.

I love the fabrics she uses and the whole Japanese inspired design of her patterns. Hope you’ll join me!

So I have a new wallet . . . .

and I’m going to use this thing until it falls to pieces in my hands! My goodness this was a crazy sewing project! Who’s idea was this!?!

Ok so I have to tell you I did have a great time sewing my wallet. I learned some new things, I found it ridiculously finicky at times and I don’t know if I’ll be making another one anytime soon but I’m really happy with the finished product.

It started with some fabric debating, at this point I actually thought I might make someone one for a gift as well. I decided on the fun fabric and set aside the more grown up one for later, yeah right. Now I have a few work in progress pics and my wallet is done so I’m a superstar as far as all that’s concerned. Where I totally suck is that I missed the chance to take some good photos of it today, my son’s birthday & party are tomorrow, and I was ridiculously busy today. Add to that the fact I took my class to the zoo all day yesterday and had a ‘Daddy was out’ night last night and I’m totally exhausted. Here’s a little flash ridden peek at what I did and I’ll post lovely pics ASAP.

I deviated from the pattern, as I usually do at some point, and added a magnetic snap and cute little button. I’m happy with it and it’s super adorable but boy was it challenging!! I’d love to see/hear about your experience with this pattern.

Here’s my next proposition and good news, it’s free! It’s a fun little coin purse tutorial, however I plan on using it as a wee portable sewing kit since I do a lot of crafting on the go. It’s the creation of the wonderful and inspiring Rashida Coleman-Hale

I think it will be a nice quick project and another bonus point is you can use up some of your scraps. So get sewing and I think over the weekend I’ll get a Flickr group up and running for this creative party I’m starting to run. I’ll also post much better pictures of my wallet. I promise.

Come sewalong!

Alright I hear you all on the awesome wallet and I too am dying to make it . . . but it seems such an ambitious first project. Dare we try it? I mean 27 pockets!?

I’m thinking of posting sewalong items on Fridays. So I’m here to announce what I’ll be working on this week and I’ll be back Friday to do a reveal. If I happen to be bad and have an incomplete project I’ll just write about it anyway!

So that said I’m going to cheat a bit and share something I’ve already tackled recently and then propose the next item. I’ll also have to work on a cute little button, and a Flickr group I suppose . . . oh so many things to do.

Ok so I loved this fun clutch from I Think Sew. I also own this, this and this so I’m sure those will pop up in this challenge. There are also a bunch of free patterns, I think you get once you sign up, it’s been a while.

I had this great nautical fabric with little blue anchors and red hearts that I was dying to sew into something.

This pattern was great and easy to use. I’m not a pleat expert and it did a good job of explaining how to fold and lay them and I’m happy with the results. It offers options to have a wrist strap or handles which is neat too. I love the finished look with the top panel and then the pleates bottom underneath. It also comes with the patterns for a large and small clutch.

I had one surprise this with pattern, which I suppose would have been avoided if I had stopped to really, really think about it. I made the small clutch because I didn’t want what looked like a giant bag in the photo. But, turns out the ‘small’ is also gigantic! I made it with a wrist strap and there’s no way you could ever walk around with this dangling from your wrist it’s nearly the length of my entire thigh! It would make a great large makeup case, or for your brushes and hair things while travelling.

Since I love the fabric I plan on turning it back wrong side out and sewing around a tad smaller to try to scale it down.

So onto my first *real* selection in this fun sewalong game. Let’s be crazy and go for the wallet. Available here in NapKitten’s store (I made another purchase just going to get the right links)

Some tips before you start: she recommends ‘duck canvas’ to make the wallet sturdy and heavy. At my local fabric store the sales lady suggested just some denim. She said she had tried to make a wallet before and it gets really thick once you’re sewing all the layers together. Since this one is all held with bias tape she suggested a strong needle because we’ll be sewing through so many layers. I picked up some remnant/end of bolt denim for super cheap.
I’ve never made bias tape so this will be new for me. There’s also A LOT of cutting involved in this pattern. There is no pattern as all the shapes are rectangles so she just tells you the sizes. She also suggests you cut as you go so as not to get confused by all the pieces. I would say this pattern, just from glancing at it, seems to be for someone pretty familiar with sewing or comfortable taking on a challenge.

Ok, I hope someone joins me! Let me know in the comments if you are.