All American Hero Hat

Scroll towards bottom for pattern. But read anything you want before :)

Yes, I realize it's been a very long while since I've posted anything crafty. A very long while... But here in the past few weeks, I've decided that instead of wishing and blogging about projects I want to do, I'm just gonna do 'em. And the results have been rather pleasing.

Since the beginning of Summer, I've made...

A baby gift for a college friend (not posting the pic because she still doesn't have it yet. Nicki, that's what you get for moving to Korea)

A duffel bag for Josiah to take to the beach.  I started to be brave and sneak in Josiah's room while he slept to snatch said duffel bag for a picture, but I opened the door and heard him stir, so I chickened out and ran like someone was chasing me.  So no pic.

A drool mat. That is not used anymore because of baby mobility.  I didn't even get a picture before I put it up, but I made it using a vinyl tablecloth, an egg crate mattress pad, a fleece throw and blanket binding.  All stuff I could get from our local Fred's or I already had.

A dress for one niece, a shirt for her sister, and matching shorts for my Stink Bug

An umbrella cover, because the existing one didn't have much SPF to it.

A Hello Kitty applique pillowcase shirt and Boutique Jeans for my little cousin.

A crocheted football hat for Stink Bug.  It's just like all the ones that you see on Pinterest, Etsy, and elsewhere.

The "All American Hero Hat" for Stink Bug's Halloween costume (Pattern to come later, like in just a few more lines)

A crocheted skinny chevron scarf (Pattern to also come later, like in another post)

Another crocheted chevron scarf in my favorite cream, burgundy and navy color combo. 

And in the works are...

The coat that I first mentioned here about 2 years ago.  This thing is so close I can taste it.  I just have to finish the hem on the lining and reposition a button.

A bag to match the coat.  That is actually done now.  Amazing what two weeks between writing a draft and publishing a post can do.  Too bad I can't make shoes too.

 

Another pile of ID wallets to put in the shop. 4 of 9 are done now.

A "Bowling Bag" inspired by the Vera Bradley bags that everyone seems to be toting nowadays.

And I think I'm maybe gonna make some baby cords out of some of my old pants and some rice warmers that hopefully Stink Bug will hold on to when we go to Dollywood at the end of November. He sure does like his rice sock, but I don't want to carry my grungy old mismatched sock out in public. And maybe a microfleece animal/lovey of some sort. I am NOT willing to cut up my housecoat for the baby, so I've got to find some cheap fabric.  And maybe a baby hoodie sweatshirt.  I say maybe because Josiah really doesn't need it, but it's kind of fun to just see if you can do it :)

So I said that the "All American Hero Hat" pattern was coming later. It's later. I wanted to get it out there in time for Halloween so if you wanted to make one for your little Hero, you can. As you may already know, my brother's name is Sam. When Josiah was born, that made him Uncle Sam. Megan, Sam's girlfriend, found a Halloween costume for a couple that was Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty. And they decided that Josiah needed to be Captain America. She even got him a Captain America T-shirt. So I set to work on the hat. I call it the "All American Hero Hat" because it's not exactly Captain America, and I don't want to infringe upon any copyrights or licensing or such. If you make this hat, I do ask that you don't sell anything you make from the pattern. I usually don't care, but I'm still kind of funny about the licensing stuff. Please make as many as you want for personal use or as gifts, just please don't sell them. Thanks! I didn't pay much attention to guage since I wasn't going to go commercial with this pattern. And this pattern involves switching yarn colors. I didn't include instructions for that, but I'm sure you can find some better tutorials than I could write on the matter.

Size: Made to fit my will-be 10 month old who has a large head
Yarn Used: Lily Sugar 'N' Cream, 1 ball each Red, White and Blue
Hook Used: Size I, but I usually use a hook 2 sizes larger to obtain guage on commercial patterns
This is an American termed pattern with standard abbreviations, bpdc = back post double crochet, fpdc = front post double crochet
Hat Base, starting with blue yarn
Round 1: SC 6 in a Magic Ring. Sl st to join to top of first sc. If you don't know how to do a Magic Ring, I made a video here, but please feel free to find something better elsewhere on the net.
Round 2: ch 1, 2 sc in each sc around. Join to top of first sc with sl st (12 sts)
Round 3: ch 1, 2 sc in same sc where joined, 1 sc in next sc, *2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next sc* 5 times. Join to top of first sc with sl st
Round 4: ch 1, 2 sc in same sc where joined, 1 sc in next 2 sc, *2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 2 sc* 5 times. Join to top of first sc with sl st
Round 5: ch 1, 2 sc in same sc where joined, 1 sc in next 3 sc, *2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 3 sc* 5 times. Join to top of first sc with sl st
Round 6: ch 1, 2 sc in same sc where joined, 1 sc in next 4 sc, *2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 4 sc* 5 times. Join to top of first sc with sl st
Round 7: ch 1, 2 sc in same sc where joined, 1 sc in next 5 sc, *2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 5 sc* 5 times. Join to top of first sc with sl st
Round 8: ch 1, 2 sc in same sc where joined, 1 sc in next 6 sc, *2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 6 sc* 5 times. Join to top of first sc with sl st
Round 9: ch 1, 2 sc in same sc where joined, 1 sc in next 7 sc, *2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 7 sc* 5 times. Join to top of first sc with sl st
Round 10: ch 1, 2 sc in same sc where joined, 1 sc in next 8 sc, *2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 8 sc* 5 times. Join to top of first sc with sl st
Round 11: ch 1, 2 sc in same sc where joined, 1 sc in next 9 sc, *2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 9 sc* 5 times. Join to top of first sc with sl st
Round 12-24: ch 1, sc in same where joined, sc in each sc around. Join to top of first sc with sl st. Finish off at end of Round 24.
Round 25: Join white yarn. Ch 2, dc in same sc where joined, dc in next 2 sc. Join red yarn, dc in next 3 sc. *Switch to white yarn, dc in next 3 sc, switch to red yarn, dc in next 3 sc* 11 times (or around depending on whether or not you like to count). Join with sl st to first white dc.
Round 26-27: With white yarn, ch 2, bpdc around same dc where joined and around next 2 dc. Switch to red yarn, fpdc around next 3 dc. *Switch to white yarn, bpdc around next 3 dc. Switch to red yarn, fpdc around next 3 dc* 11 times. Finish off at the end of Round 27. (White yarn should be around white yarn, red yarn around red yarn.)

Wings
Make 2 with white yarn Row 1: ch 10, turn
Row 2: sc in 2nd ch from hook and in next 8 sc, do not ch when turning(9 sts)
Row 3: 5 dc in next sc, skip 1 sc, sl st in next sc, skip 1 sc, 4 dc in next sc, sc in next 4 sc. Finish off.

"Target" applique
Rounds 1-5: Follow instructions for Rounds 1-5 of Hat Base with red yarn
Round 6: Switch to white yarn, sl st in each sc around, finish off.

Star applique
Round 1: sc 5 in magic ring, join with sl st to top of first sc, do not ch
Round 2: *(sc, dc, sc) all in next sc, sl st in next sc* 5 times. Finish off.

Stitch star applique to center of target applique. Stitch target applique to center front of hat (I just guessed at this). Stitch wings to sides of hat using just the first 5 dc cluster. Position them slightly closer to the front than to the back. One will be "wrong side out" but just don't look too close and no one will really notice :) Weave in ends, you may want to use some fabric glue to tack down the yarn ends on the wings since there's no really good place for them to go.

And there you have it! It's not Captain America to a T, but I bet anyone who sees it will recognize it as such. Enjoy! And thanks for stopping by!

Supporting the March of Dimes!

Hey everyone!  This is going to be a short-ish post with a lot of horn blowing advertising.  BUT...it's for a good cause.  I have a friend from church who has an adorable baby named Ruthie.  Ruthie was born at only 24 weeks and spent her first 3.5 months in the NICU.  Ruthieis doing much better now, but sadly, Jay, Gina and Ruthie aren't the first family that has had to go through this and they won't be the last. 

The March of Dimes aims to help more babies be born healthy and full term.  Gina will be walking in and Ruthie stroller riding in a Greenville March of Dimes event in October.  I'm helping her to raise money with this little cutie:

This is the Ruthie Bag.  Made with colors and prints that Ruthie loves.  It's small, but very versatile and sells for $15 in Evan Becky's Gift Shop.  Good news is, that $10 of that will go to Gina's efforts to raise money for her walk.

So go check it out!  You'd be getting a cute bag and helping babies! 

No Awkward, Just Awesome!

I was going to link up to Awkward and Awesome again, but I realized there wasn't anything awkward (at least not that I can remember) that happened to me this week.  I got a lot of stuff done this week.  I think this post is going to turn into a done and to-do post with a few bits of awesomeness at the end.  Here's my list from last week with what I got done crossed off:

~3 black wallets for my Mother-in-Law
~Blue, green and brown wallet for my coworker
~5 Year Old sized Clemson Grayson Leigh hat for a custom order~Alter the peasant dress (which may entail more work than I thought)
~Belt and bag to match peasant dress (I have some nice microsuede polyester for this!)
~While I'm talking about the dress, make a scarf from the scraps (Imagining that it will be really cute with a white long sleeve tee and denim skirt) (See my WIWW post for this week for that idea) and earrings from the selvage
~Make the "fur" lined coat--This has been put on the back burner.  It's not all that important that I get it done.  I have all winter to wear it.
~Make up bags
~Curling iron holders Got one prototype done, it's functional, but I've got some tweaking to do.
~Gift card holders/wallets These are cute!  Got to make lots more for the Christmas season though
~Make a scarf out of an old grimey t-shirt as inspired by The Crafty CPA's T-Shirt Recyling Ideas (this link leads to her blog post which links to a tutorial)--I'll probably do this tonight while watching Storage Wars with Hubs Also in my WIWW post for this week
~Dollywood bag?
~A-line skirt with black, white and pink plaid material

So I have all that to do, plus a few other things:
~Make a tutorial for the selvage earrings.  The more I sew, the more selvages I acquire, and I think that these earrings will be a cute addition to any seamstress's accessory wardrobe
~Remake a train engineer hat for an order.  I knew in the back of my mind that this might happen though.  I made the hat a little too small.
~Redesign my jewelry case idea. 
~Made the executive decision that I'm going to All About Fabrics again tomorrow for some molded plastic zippers and rip-stop nylon--These are for new travel kits
~I'd really like to make a "catalog" of stuff that I make.  This comes after a friend who owns a salon said she might want to carry some of my stuff.  I'd like to have a brochure at least of the things that are in my shop and some color options.  It would be easier than saying, "go to my shop at whatever address" or "here's my business card."  I think this might get me more business than a card.

Ooh, I had almost forgot!  I had considered doing a party like Scentsy and 31 parties for my stuff.  This might take more work than I can handle before the Christmas season, but it's still a dream. 

And the bit of awesomeness that excited me the most this afternoon?  Old Navy has released this season's Performance Fleece!  I want these, especially the Houndstooth one, and they're only $8 this weekend!

Awkward and Awesome

I've been following Natalie at Blonde at Heart for a few months now, I think, and what initially made me fall in love with her blog were her Awkward and Awesome posts that are part of a link party.  (Click on the picture to go to the original link party.)  After reading the awkwardness and awesomeness of her week, I fell in love with Natalie's love for style, friends, her youth group and most importantly, God.  It's so much fun for me to find great God-fearing women who live all the way across the country.  Anyway, I thought it would be fun to link up myself, so here goes:

Awkward...

~Asking a coworker what the password was to one of our machines.  Not so awkward until we both finally realized that it was right above the screen where I entered the password.

~Dropping tube caps several different times all over the floor.

~This here is both awkward and awesome.  Awesome because I made a cute checkbook wallet with an ID window to match my new bag:

Awkward because I miscalculated my seam allowances and top stitching, so that even though it looks cool, nothing, not even the checkbook fits.

Oh well, lesson learned.  I'll just have to make another one. 

~Really Awkward:  Getting accidentally "felt up" by your 21 year old brother while you were playing monkey-in-the-middle with him and his girlfriend...at church!  But it was kind of awesome because Sam got really embarassed.  He got more padding than anything anyway :P

Awesome...

~There were 84 kids at our church's Wednesday night youth service!  I can't wait until I switch jobs so I can be a part of it!

~Date night with Hubs last Saturday night

~Two and possibly three Etsy orders in one week!

~My new bag! 

I really liked the general shape of the Made by Rae Buttercup Bag (there's a free pattern behind that link), but I liked the depth and the two pleats and straight lines at the top and sides of These Ickady Bags on Etsy, with the one big panel like Sew Spoiled's Ladybug Bags.  So I just piled what I liked from each one and drew up my own pattern for it.  I love it!  PS. if you love it too, I have it for sale in My Etsy Shop.

~Two days off next week that include another date night!

 

~Most awesomest:  Get ready for a long metaphor here...Having God knock your bowl full of milk and Cheerios out of your hands (I love my Cheerios in the morning), having a big cry over the spilled cereal, having several women (some who I know offline, others who I know online) coming to help you clean up the mess, then after those dear women have given you hugs and left, you look down into your bowl and realize it's full of peanut M&M's instead of Cheerios.  My heart is so full right now because of some of the things God is doing for me.  

I encourage anyone reading to at least think about what has been Awkward and Awesome this week.  It's made me not take my self too seriously (which I really didn't do in the first place :D) and it also made me realize that there are so many more awesome things than awkward.  Count your blessings y'all!

Wednesday To-Do Sepetmber 28, 2011

I won't rambe on with a lot of junk here, I don't think.  Today's to-do post is mainly just to keep me up to speed with what I need to-do.  Especially since I have two days off next week!

~3 black wallets for my Mother-in-Law
~Blue, green and brown wallet for my coworker
~5 Year Old sized Clemson Grayson Leigh hat for a custom order
~Alter the peasant dress (which may entail more work than I thought)
~Belt and bag to match peasant dress (I have some nice microsuede polyester for this!)
~While I'm talking about the dress, make a scarf from the scraps (Imagining that it will be really cute with a white long sleeve tee and denim skirt) and earrings from the selvage
~Make the "fur" lined coat--This has been put on the back burner.  It's not all that important that I get it done.  I have all winter to wear it.
~Make up bags
~Curling iron holders
~Gift card holders/wallets
~Make a scarf out of an old grimey t-shirt as inspired by The Crafty CPA's T-Shirt Recyling Ideas (this link leads to her blog post which links to a tutorial)--I'll probably do this tonight while watching Storage Wars with Hubs
~Maybe I'll make a bag to carry around Dollywood.  I don't know.  We'll see since I don't need a bag to carry around Dolllywood.  I already have a good store-bought one.  It's just good marketing to carry around something you made.
~I scored some awesome black and white plaid with a pink stripe at Hancock today.  60% off!  It had a little water damage (the building is old) but I think it will wash out and I want to make a hot little A-line skirt with it.  I have all winter to do this too. 

That looks like a lot.  And I suppose it is.  But it's a lot of little projects.  I think they are acheivable, especially since I got the duffle bag and the dress done and I decided to think about the coat later. 

Oh!  And Hubs and I are going on another date on Tuesday night.  I took advantage of Outback's million steak giveaway, but the catch was you had to use the voucher Monday through Thursday.  But that's what days off are for!

It's gonna be a good two days off!

You Know that Duffel Bag I Keep Talking About...

Well here it is. I finally got the motivation to finish it. Well, I got frustrated at another project and didn't have anywhere else to turn. I actually did want to have it finished before this weekend so I can take it to the beach with me. Hubs and I are going to Cherry Grove with our Sunday School class and found that it's easier to pack separate for little weekend trips like this. So it's finished. And I'm rather proud of it.   

As always, I know the picture is crappy, but it's 1AM, and I don't feel like waking Hubs up so he can take one of me in the cutesy clothes that you know I always wear in the beautiful daylight on our back porch. 

(The above was said because I don't ever wear cutesy clothes, Hubs and I never see each other, and come on, is it ever daylight in SC at 1AM?  I work at a hospital.  I wear scrubs.  Hubs and I really only sleep in the same bed.  I feel like when I start my new job we'll have to have another wedding ceremony because I sometimes I feel like I only see him as much as when we were dating.  That was a long bit to put in parentheses.)

Seriously though, I don't know how so many of you bloggers have such beautiful blogs and pictures.  If I had them, it would make my life a lie.

ANYWAY...

Onto the bag...

My Grand Idea was to put D rings on the top so you can hook various other matching bags to it with carabiners, clasps, whatever.  I always run out of room in the main part of my bag.  Therefore I am forced to put makeup and other things in Hubs's bag.  Not any more!  I also have plans to make a few other small bags to hook around the outside.

There's a nice little pleated pocket on both ends so I can cram any last minute things in there.

And it zips up with a molded plastic zipper.

Here's a better look at that makeup bag.  I might have to start selling these in my shop.  It's fully interfaced with fusible fleece like the duffel bag.  That should help to keep your makeup a little cooler in a hot car.  It's also lined with PUL so if anything leaks, I can just wipe it out.

The Grand Plan was to sell these Duffel Bag sets in my shop, but since it was a rather pain-in-the-butt to make, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.  Unless someone messages me and says they're willing to pay a butt load of money for it, in which case, I might oblige.  The makeup bag is definitely a keeper for the shop though.

Now...on to the beach so I can test this baby out! 

Linking up here!

I'm Being Featured!

Hey everyone!  Today I'm being featured over at Ask Away!  Ellen does a little feature every Monday called "What's in My Bag" and this week she's got what's actually in my bag posted!  Hop on over to her blog to check it out.  Check the rest of her blog out too because she has great product reviews, giveaways an advice posts too!

What's in Evan Becky Bryant's Bag

Late Night Genius

Today, I am very tired.  Very...tired...  Ok, so there are probably more of you out there more tired than me, but my tail is dragging today.  I will be going to bed early tonight.  But I have good reason for it.  The reason I didn't go to bed until 4 AM this morning is because I was making this:

This is my flap top, clasp closure zebra zipper bag.  Excuse the crappy pictures on my sewing room floor.  I have been dreaming about this thing for the last 3 weeks and I finally just had to do it.  The design has shifted in all different directions.  The little extra elements have come and gone.  And yesterday evening at work, I finally drew it out and wrote out the steps and came up with what I wanted.  I'm just so excited, despite my level of tiredness, because it came out how I had dreamed!  In my eyes it's just gorgeous!  I know I'm blowing my own horn here, but this doesn't happen to me much!

I put a little flat zipper pocket on the back using this tutorial from Creating My Way to Success.  The zipper around the bottom isn't functional, for trim only, and I bent the heck out of a sewing machine needle on it.  Learned to do that part by turning the wheel by hand.  It's amazing what uses you can find for zippers when you have a whole hoard of them.  The strap is double interfaced with fusible fleece to give it some structure and padding.  This comes in handy when I throw my Daddy's copy of John Steinbeck's East of Eden in there.   

I took a picture of the inside, but I just noticed that my camera decided to focus in on my arm instead of the bag, and it looks quite crappy.  I'll redo that one for later.  But the inside is lined in white cotton, so I can find stuff in there.  The only closure to it is the clasp closure on the front, there's no zipper under the flap, but that's so I can just chunk stuff in there. 

This bag was a great learning experience, as well as a great new product for my Etsy shop!  And on top of all of this, I have something cute to carry around!

Tuesday To Do, August 16, 2011

It's that time again when I lay out what all I have to do.  I don't have much interesting going on in the way of anything else, and I don't have any pictures, so this post will probably be boring, but that will be ok.

First of all, what I got done recently:
~Took up the skirts that I made for my nieces over the summer
~Gave one of the graduation gift wallets to Morgan (finally) and because of this...
~Made 3 more wallets (with two more on the way) for her friends :)
~Started the Carolina (USC) purses for my nieces
         *My sister-in-law somehow came into possession of about 21 handbag straps that are ribbon wrapped around cotton webbing and gave them to me!  So in return, I'm making the girls purses with them.
~Made another wallet last night for an Etsy sale
~Got my fabric for my dress and a market bag prewashed/preshrunk

I've been fairly productive

Now To Do:
~Finish Carolina bags
~Buy more key rings, somehow I've gone through over 20 of those things.
~Make a market bag
~Make a jewelry case
~Make my dress
~Make my jacket
~Make my hat
~Finish the dreaded duffel bag
~Due this week sometime--Make the Zebra Zipper Bag--I'd like to have this done before Saturday since I'm going to be featured in a "What's in Your Bag" post by Ellen over at Ask Away, and I think it would be nice if I used my own design.

The sad thing is that most of this will not get done before next week.  I'm working the weekend again and a 12 hr shift on Sunday.  Good news is that I will have 3 days off next week, and hopefully I will get a lot accomplished.  I've been drawing designs and thinking really hard about things, but until I can get behind my machine with my fabric, none of that does any good. 

What's on your To Do List?

Zipper Flower Tutorial

So as you may remember from my last post, this past weekend I bought 2 pounds of zippers for $4.  When zippers are that cheap, you can afford to play with them.  So I had bought some metal ones, and decided to make this.  And now, out of the generousness of my heart, I am going to share the tutorial with you! 

 

Zipper flower by me, bag by Vera Bradley

Materials needed:

~1-20-ish inch long metal zipper, shorter if you want a smaller flower, longer if you want a larger flower 

~Low temp* hot glue gun.
~Scissors

~Fabric scrap big enough to cover the back of your flower in the same color as your flower.  I used broadcloth because it's what I had handy.  Felt, cotton, canvas, or other fabrics are fine. 

~Pin back, barrette, headband, or anything else you want to glue it to (not completely necessary)

*I highly recommend the low temp since you will be holding some pieces together and I got glue on my fingers more than once. 

To start, cut the ends off of your zipper and unzip it to take the pull off so all you are left with half a zipper like so.  You'll acutally have two half zippers.

You might not want to use your fabric shears for this.

Fold over one end of your zipper about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch and glue in place  

 Now start wrapping the zipper around this center, glueing in place along the way. 

Now we'll look at how to make a little loop without a big hole.  Find where you want the center of the loop to be and put a small dot of glue there

Then mash together and hold in place until the glue sets.  If you don't hold it in place, you'll end up with glue showing, and trust me, it is noticeable.  When it's dry, it should look like this:

 Now glue that down as you're wrapping.  Just keep wrapping however you see fit.  You can double back too if you like.  But wait.  Uh oh.  Looks like we're running out of zipper.  That's ok.  We can fix that.

Just glue the end of the zipper down somewhere on the back.  Like this.

Then start the other half of the zipper by glueing it to the back.  No one will ever be able to tell the difference.

So I'm done with my flower here.  It's got some loops and a couple of double backs.  It's mostly symmetrical (which I like, but you don't have to do it that way).  I've got a little piece of zipper left that I just don't want to use.

I'll just glue that little stinker down and trim off the ends.

 Well dang.  Now I have some holes.  The big ones like this I'll just glue down a little better.

The little ones like this will need a little something something extra.

That's where the matching fabric scraps come in.  Cover the back of your flower in a few strips of glue and then stick it down to the fabric.  If your fabric is thin, like mine, make sure you don't accidentally glue it to your work surface.

 Now just trim off the excess fabric on the back, but be careful not to cut your flower. 

The trimming doesn't have to be perfect as long as you aren't going to display that side of your art.  Just functional.

There!  The little hole isn't so noticeable.

I decided that I wanted mine to be a pin, since I was going to pin it to my old black Vera bag.  So I just glued a pin back to it.  This is the part where you can glue it to whatever you like, or nothing at all.  Just your preference.

Now just pull off all the little hot glue cobwebs and there you have it!  Something cute to put on a bag, or sweater, or t-shirt, or hairband, or...whatever!  The possibilities are endless!   

I would LOVE to see some of your interpretations of this little flower.  If you make one, upload a picture to my Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/evanbeckyfanpics/ so we can all see!

Thursday To-Do July 28, 2011

It has been one wild ride of a week.  After my blog post last Tuesday, I was contacted by Four Green Fields Gallery in Summerville, SC through Etsy.  From looking at their website, I would just love to go in here, and probably will make Hubs stop there next time we're on our way to Charleston.  They try their best to use South Carolina artists.   

After email conversations back and forth with them, and a phone conversation on Saturday morning, I'm going to be doing a wholesale order of 12 wallets for them!  I'm super excited about doing the order, but as always, I've been spinning my wheels because of my work schedule.  I first had to wait on my snaps to come in, now I'm waiting on some zippers, but even if I had these things, I'd still be just sitting on them.  I've got the rest of today (til 10:30 PM), tomorrow and then two 12 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday, then I'm free for Monday and Tuesday!  That's when I'll get the wallets made and hopefully mailed out by Wednesday.  If not, they'll get out by Friday. 

The lovely ladies at Four Green Fields also asked if I could make roll up market bags and jewlery cases.  They said they've seen these products around and would like to carry them, so I'll be working up an example of each too in the near future.  I had to buy some clasps and D-rings for these. 

Buying all these supplies finally got to me though.  I decided that I had reached the point where I would pay for all of my supplies with money that I've made from my shop.  Tuesday, I spent half of what was in my Paypal account on supplies.  Luckily when this wholesale order comes through, it will be more than replenished, but I keep thinking of things that I think I need.  Until then, I'm just gonna have to wait. 

I did start using Wave Accounting online to help manage my expenses, and I think this will be a good thing.  It makes graphs and charts for me (things I know Excel can do, but I don't want to make it do it).  I like graphs and charts.  I hope that the fun doesn't wear off too quickly. 

So my To-Do List looks like this:
~Finish Zinnia Head Band for Adrina--Due Tomorrow

~Finish Brown and Pink Grayson Leigh Hat for Kim--Due Tomorrow

~Do wholesale order of wallets--Due Tuesday

~Make examples of Roll Up Market Bag and Jewelry Case--Due Friday (this is tentative, just so I'll get it done)

~Take up the Girls' skirts--Due ASAP

~Get my hair highlighted by one of my best friends--Friday @ 5:30 PM :)

~Maybe take Hubs out on a date Friday after highlights

~Finish the duffel bag that has become a major hurdle in my life.  I just don't want to finish it for some reason.--Due September 15

~Make my jacket for the mountain trip in October--Due October 27--As an aside, I bought this pattern to make a canvas jacket with a flannel lining.  I'm using black canvas to make a jacket like the yellow one on the bottom.  I've never sewed with a pattern before.  This could be interesting.

~Make a matching hat for the jacket--Due October 27

~Make the plaid peasant dress using a fabric very similar to this that I've been dreaming of--Due October 27

And there is, of course, finishing the organization of my studio.  It's coming along rather well.  I'm still not entirely proud of the outcome, but Hubs seems to like it.  I guess it looks good for my usual state of craft-fairy-threw-up-in-here-ness.  I'll get pics and post some helpful tips on organizing stuff on a budget in small spaces that may need to move.

I guess the good news is that my To-Do list is cycling pretty well.  There are only a couple of things lingering there that I need to finish.  But it's just tough when you don't have a "real" deadline.  The duffel bag, for example, doesn't have to get done.  It's for my own personal use.  I'm gonna finish that thing or die.  Whichever comes firt.

Buy Nothing Summer Fail

Yep, that's right, I gave into temptation.  But I did go a solid two weeks without buying ANYTHING.  And I do feel that my purchase was justified.  First of all I got a few things that I reallly and truly needed.

I was running low on the fusible interfacing and it was on sale.  I only had one snap left.  I thought I was about out of key rings, turns out I had a whole 'nother pack, but I got 20 of these for the price of 6 elsewhere...it was a good buy.  And the fat quarters were to make sure I could relist a wallet in these colors.

Now on to the Fail...

In my defense, I had a custom request for a black and yellow wallet.  I just already had some black and yellow fabric that I could have used, but I liked this much better.  And the grey and pink and pear fabric were on clearance for a dollar a yard.  A DOLLAR!  And I had to get matching fat quarters to line wallets and bags with.  And zippers.  But that's all I bought!  So I suppose I'm doing good.  Plus Hubs told me that I didn't buy them, that they are a present from him.  (That really makes no sense since all of our money goes into one bank account.) 

And I found the Etsy shop of all Etsy shops.  Well, Jenilyn showed it to me.  Zipit has wholesale zippers for a quarter of what I can buy them in the fabric store.  And that's calculating shipping in.  I'm gonna be buying a sampler pack like seen here --> 8 inch Zipper Sampler then I can decide which colors I need more of.

Zippers fall under the category of things that I may run out of that I need.  They don't count in the Buy Nothing Summer.

So, yes, I did fail, but not much.  I'm hoping my newest purchases can keep my happy for a while.  If not, I'll just go get my toes painted at the nail salon.  I may just do that anyway.