Erin's Christmas Gift

So here is a gift for my sister.  She was my "test dummy" (lucky her!)

It's a good thing it worked out! This was a 31 bag I had ordered for her earlier, but I didn't have them embroider anything on it. I thought I'd give it a go... And it worked!! 

This gave me some extra courage try try other projects people asked me to do. :)  I think it turned out really nice.  I hope she liked it!

Painting party for Maggie

In opening my Etsy shop, I had a fanatstic turn out with fantastic friends that volunteered to help! We knocked out 7 paintings that night :)

 

Kacee and Morgan were so helpful.  Jenn showed up towards the end for entertaining comic relief.  We painted for several hours, but it was a blast with friends. 

We got the 6 orders from the first day I was open finished, and 1 extra and ready to go. :) So if you're interested, but didn't want to overwhelm me with orders, feel free to place yours.  You can either order on esty, or if you're local and don't want me to ship it, you can just contact me to order. :)

 

Let's bring Maggie home. If you missed my first post about all of this, check it out! 

Etsy has begun

So I have started my next adventure.  It is a little intimidating, but I am excited about it too!  I have opened an Etsy account after many of you have encouraged me to give it a go.

My shop name is HazzardousHousewife and right now I only have 1 listing.  I am excited to see where God takes this.  My listing is actually to benefit an (soon not to be) orphan, Maggie.  Maggie is a young toddler currently in China with a severe heart condition.  Her parents are in the (long and difficult) process of bringing her home and getting her the medical care she needs.

You can read about Maggie's adoption, and the calling of her parents at these blogs:

4uruthie and ThinkingThoughts


Both the adoption and medical expenses for Maggie will be expensive.  God laid it on my heart this past week to do what I can about it.  I have posted this painting on Etsy with the few others I have done similar in hopes of helping out.  I am asking $20 for the painting and for every painting sold, I will donate $15 towards Maggie's adoption (and then medical bills once they have her).  The other 5 dollars is simply to cover the cost of the materials and Etsy fees.

Please hear my heart on this: none of this is for me.  I deserve no recognition for this.  If you want a hero... look at Jesus.  If you want to see His hands and feet... look at this family.  I am doing a tiny portion.  I am just trying my best to do what I was told to do by my loving Heavenly Father.  I don't need praise because of that.   I do need your prayers that I haven't gotten in over my head. I figure that I can at least make my mom and sister buy one if no one is interested in a painting. I am slightly nervous that I might get 16 orders at once.  I am scared of people having expectations that I cannot meet.  What if the quality of my painting isn't good enough?  I do, however, know that my God is faithful.  He knows about my silly fears, and He cares.  He also knows about Maggie's needs and His timing is perfect.

If you have read this far in my post, please take the time to read through the blogs above to see what a unique and special thing this is.  Include this family in your prayers and if you feel lead, order a painting.  If you would rather order a painting through me instead of ordering online, that is perfectly fine as well.  Also, if you have any suggestions for me to add or change, PLEASE let me know. :)

Natalie bib set

My sister-in-law requested a Bib set earlier in the fall, and I'm just now getting around to posting it.  She sent me a picture of the baby's nursery and asked me to possibly match it.  

This is the fabric I found and the pattern I made:

I really like the colors and pattern combination for this project.

All Done:

Stryker's bib set

Friends of Bryan and mine from college are having a little one early next year.  I wasn't able to go to the shower, but I made these for him.  Sending our love and prayers for baby Stryker. :)

Reversible bag tutorial

Here is a tutorial for a bag that I made for my best friend at work.  I hope she liked it!  It is a reversible bag with a pocket on the outside and inside. I found the pattern on Pinterest (surprise!). The actual blog I had pinned took me to this site for directions and the pattern.

I started with a yard of each fabric.  I was hoping to get 2 bags of of the 2 yards (a yard of each) but it wasn't quite enough for two... but too much for 1.  I would say 3/4 a yard of each would be enough for 1 bag (or 1 1/2 yds for 2).  I also used the duck type fabric so that I wouldn't have to use any interfacing.  You could add that if you want (who wants even more steps...)

Fold the fabric so you get two seems (see below).

I laid my pattern out  Idea of the bag from pinterest here; but she got that pattern here.  I got the pattern from here and added a little bit of length to the handles.  I wish that I would have added about 2 inches more.  

It should look like this before you cut with the edge of the fabric on your seems.

Start cutting out your bag. 

I marked each one of the darts to make it easier later.

When you're done, you should have 2 sides of the bag that look like this:  

This is the time to make any pockets or add any embellishments.  I wanted a pocket on the inside and outside of the bag.  The fabric cut from the center of the handles worked perfect for my pockets.

I pressed the seam down for the size that I wanted.

I wanted a pocket of each pattern.  After pressing the top seam down, I stitched across, following the pressed seam. 

I cut the excess off. 

I then folded the sides inward and pressed. 

Now, taking the pocket, I placed it in the center of one of the sides of the purse. 

Starting at the top, I back stitched to secure the thread and then carefully sewed around the pocket. Again, back stitching when I was finished. I repeated for the other pattern too. 

Now, on to the darts.  

I pinched the two pins together and sewed along that line. I did two darts on the bottom of each piece. (8 total). 

When you flip the dart, it should look like this:

With the right sides together, stitch from where my finger is to the same place on the other side. 

When finished, I pressed the seems on the side open, but couldn't get to the bottom of the bag. 

Now, repeat for the other pattern of the bag.  When finished with the 2 separate bags, put one bag inside the other with the right sides together (inside bag looks right, the outside bag looks wrong). 

You want to sew along the separate handles like shown below.  You should be sewing the handles to the opposite fabric pattern.  Stop when you get about an inch and 1/2 from the top.  On the first side, sew like below. 

On the second side, sew all but 1 edge side (see the pins?)  This will make it easier to flip

Now, don't be stupid like me... stop and clip along the curve part like below before flipping the bag.  I forgot this step and had to turn it back inside out... trim and flip again. 

Now it's time to flip.  You should start to see your bag taking shape.  

The tops of your handles should look like this.  Sew the handle tops right side together (making sure you sew the right ones together) and press open.  Pin and press the sides in so that when you top stitch, it's easy to fit together.

Next, press the handle that was not sew together so that the top stitch will cover and close it.  Top stitch all sides of the handles.  

Ta-da!  All done!! :)