Making a Frame Bag

A friend of mine saw on Facebook that I've been sewing up a storm and asked if I could sew together a frame bag for his bike.  Sure, why not?!

Google, of course, is a wealth of knowledge and he had already done a lot of research and knew what he wanted.  I had him make a card board cut out of the space where this bag could go.  He actually went about five steps further and indicated exactly where the zippers should go and where the velcro should go.  After a quick meeting I was able to get all the information I needed to make the perfect bag for him.

With the cut out I was able to create pattern pieces on Swedish Tracing Paper.  I then made a sort of muslin of the bag not only to make sure I was competent in assembling this thing, but also to measure how much fabric we needed.

I have to say, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I used a new technique illustrated in a book my mother in law gave me for Christmas to make a darted inner pocket.  This created a pocket with depth so things like a cell phone and keys.

I used Cordura 500 Denier fabric and heavy duty sport zippers.  There is 2" velcro on all sides for him to attach the bag to his bike.  My friend requested three pockets, the small one I mentioned above, a large main pocket and a lower pocket for tools and such.  Some frame bags have a velcro piece to separate these pockets, but he didn't need to have the option of combining the inner pockets.  My friend also requested a nice patch to be attached on either side for a bit of personalization.  I wasn't sure if my little Brother could handle this, in addition to the thick Cordura 500D fabric, but it handled like a dream.  All is takes is the right needle!  (With this knowledge, I just might revive my Haunted Mansion purse!)  We purchased most of the supplies from rockywoods.com.

Wanna see pictures of my masterpiece?!

Look how bravely he faces the snow!

 

Get me from my good side, darling.

Another addition I made to the bag was I lined the side panels and slipped thick pieces of foam between the layers to provide structure to the bag.  I am mighty proud of this bag.  I truly hope it is nice and durable, but time shall tell.  My friend also sent me a picture of the bag uniting with it's life partner:

Yes.  This I am proud of.  My friend has updated me to let me know the bag held all his belongings nicely during a long winter ride.

Yay!!

Cake Patterns Cabarita Top!

I've been eyeballing the Cake Patterns Riff Cabarita top for a while.  I already bought this adorable tonal knit from Girl Charlee just for this shirt.

Buy here!

I'm in love with this fabric.  It's gorgeous.  The color is hard to capture in a photo, so this swatch from Girl Charlee is the most accurate.

Cake's Riff pattern line is a condensed version of a pattern.  Simple instructions, plus the pattern.  Previous experience with knits (even better, experience with Cake Patterns) is recommended.  I wasn't 100% sure that I qualified for the project, but it didn't include any new techniques so I figured I would be okay.

Cake Patterns has an innovative sizing method where you basically trace your own size.  This keeps fitting adjustments to a minimum, which I think is pretty damn cool.  The bodies of women vary so widely, in size and shape and length and dimension, really Steph's patterns are quite genius.  This is exactly why I started sewing.  My body is so uniquely shaped that it can be hard to find off the rack clothes in the styles that I want.  Sewing allows for full customization.  What's not to love?

The only issue I had in making this top was attaching the collar.  Generally you pin right sides together, sew, then the seam gets tucked inside.  However the collar "rolls" and I was a little confused.  I think I did it right in the end, but we'll see how it wears.  Since my fabric is pretty lightweight I did add a lightweight interfacing to the collar.  I also handsewed a few tacks to keep the collar and the seam in the right place.  The collar is understitched to prevent the seam from rolling to the front, but I think the weight of the collar kept pulling it out anyway.

I also realized when I switched to my twin needle that I had been using my universal needle instead of a ballpoint.  Which explains why the stitches are a bit weird.  But, whatever.  It seems to be okay for now.

All in all, I made a top that is freaking adorbs and I love it!  I haven't gotten around to taking a legitimate picture, but I was growing impatient in posting this so here is a photo of me at work.  Here ya go:

I love this color so much that I bought a solid version for Tilly's new Coco pattern!

Kitchen Makeover (Or How Not to DIY Chalk Paint)

 **We interrupt your regularly scheduled sewing blog post to bring you a post about a DIY project!**

Hubs and I bought our house last May, and I've HATED the color of our kitchen ever since we moved in.  We also have not been huge fans of the 80s Oak cabinets, but remodeling a kitchen is a HUGE expense.  So we decided to paint!  First, here is a before picture.

ACK! I hate that stupid blue.

(and yes, our christmas tree was still up thankyouverymuch.)

I've had paint chips up on the cabinets basically since the day we moved in.  So I revisited those colors, did some googling, and found all new colors.  We knew we wanted a wine color somewhere, and we had agreed we liked black cabinets.  Do you know how hard it is to find the right wine color?!?!?!  Then so many shades of black ... it's insane!  We (I) finally narrowed it down to these two gorgeous colors:

Benjamin Moore Crushed Velvet (in Satin) and Toucan Black (in flat).  I chose Toucan Black because it is a more complex black with purple tones.  It's gorgeous.  I saw Crushed Velvet and fell in love instantly.  The two together create magic.  It only took a couple days to make the final decision to go with these, then we dove right into the project.

Even before we moved into the house I had been looking at Chalk Paint for the cabinets.  Chalk paint sticks to anything with no prep or sanding, and (is supposed) to have a really unique to touch finish.  So I sent Hubs to the store to pick up Plaster of Paris so we could mix up our own chalk paint. I gave him a tutorial from the blogosphere and he did all the mixing and most of the painting. 

Enter #craftfail.  Now, I can't completely say that it was a fail because we actually love the final result.  But we're not entirely sure that the Plaster of Paris actually did anything.  Since we started with a flat finish paint, it was hard to tell if we also had the chalk paint effect.  I've never seen chalk paint in person I had no base to go off of.  What we did know was that we would paint the whole day, then find all the Plaster of Paris sitting at the bottom of the bucket.  Hubs had used some of this gritty paint before we realized what had happened, and he ended up having to sand those pieces down because it was like we had painted rocks on our cabinets.  Yuck.

So, I think our cabinets are not really chalk painted.  But we both love the flat, matte finish.  I had googled up and down how to seal or finish the chalk paint, and we all know that chalk paint is typically finished with soft wax.  But apparently waxing is not only a pain in the ass (especially on an entire set of kitchen cabinets), but it also can change the finish.  On top of that, it's not super durable for kitchen use and has to be re-waxed kind of frequently.  We are low maintenance type people, so that didn't sound very appealing to me.  It's important that we can wipe off the cabinets because Hubs SOME of us tend to make a mess in the kitchen when they we cook.

Enter problem #2.  We liked the flat finish and polyurethane usually comes in various levels of shiny, completely canceling out our lovely (and intentional) finish.

Enter solution!

I googled matte poly and found that there ARE flat finish varnishes, but almost no reviews on them.  

Enter reckless Sylvie!

As you should know by now, my method is part tutorial following, part just go with it.  I found Varathane has a polyurethane in Matte, with a special "soft touch" finish.

So, I dove in and bought the stuff and we slathered every inch of our kitchen cabinets in it.

**The heavens open and angels sing**

Guys.  My kitchen looks amazeballs.  Wanna see?

Yeah!  Tell me that's not sexy!


We also took off all the yucky brassy handles and grabbed some trusty old Rustoleum Paint+Primer spray paint along with a cardboard box and took those bitches outside.

We used the Dark Steel color and I think they look pretty freaking awesome.

 

whatever, I was too lazy to take a picture of my own can.

We also decided to paint our kitchen step stool in it, which is currently drying so there is no picture yet.


Huge props to Hubs for doing SUCH an AMAZING job!  It's incredible what a little paint can do to completely transform a kitchen on a limited budget.


To sum it all up, if you've been considering painting your kitchen cabinets, DOOOO IIIIIIIT!  You will never look back!

I'm a Spoolette!

During my internet "research" I've discovered a special elite social club for only the best of the best sewists from around the world.  Just kidding, I just asked and they let me in!

The Spoolettes was created by a few bloggers for sewists to come together, be friends, support each other, and all in all be awesome together.

I am so happy to be a Spoolette and would love to know if anyone out there is a Spoolette too!  Are you in my area?  We could totally do a meetup!