Thursday, April 7, 2011

Box Bag Bonanza!

Remember when cute little box bags were all the rage on the crafting blogs a few years ago? Well, I never forgot and I have spent the past month or so making some. Shows you where I am on my crafting to-do list!

Anyway, these are fun and quick little projects that make nice gifts (unless, of course, all of my friends with Spring birthdays are lying to me to spare my feelings). I used this tutorial as a starting point for mine, and adjusted the dimensions as necessary. Also, I zigzagged the edges between steps 6 and 7 so the edges wouldn't fray inside and get all over your stuff.

The first one I made was for my good friend, crafty partner in crime, and birthday buddy Tiffany. She is a voracious knitter so this one was made with a 12" zipper and 16" of length to make it a good size to hold all of her sock projects.

She's set a goal to knit a pair of socks a month in 2011. Holeee crap. You can see her first three pairs here.



Open it up and it's always spring inside!
The next one is for my friend Jenn, who dosen't knit, but loves pedicures and is an amazing photographer. I made hers a bit smaller - a 9" zipper and 13" in length. A good size for nail polish, make up, or any other odd and ends you might want to keep together.
I added some complementary bias tape to the handle this time. I love bias tape.

The lining of this one is the same fabric, just with a pink background.
Finally, I had to make one for myself. It didn't quite turn out as planned. I kept running into issues with tread tension or interfacing (the extra thick kind did NOT want to play nice) so I had to keep cutting it down. I don't know what the dimensions are at this point, just that it's to small to be a knitting project bag but too big to something else.

Then, in my frustration and my craze to just. get. it. done. I forgot to add the handle. Blargh. Is anyone else cursed this way, or am I the only one that can't seem to make anything nice for myself?

On a positive note, I am completely over my fear of making things with zippers now!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Spring at My House

I spent a happy weekend in the yard planting. It's so nice to see green again. I am slowly working towards a yard full of native plants...one day, I think it would be neat have my yard become a certified wildlife habitat. I did find a dead mouse head in the backyard, but I don't think that counts.

I spent some time Saturday at the nursery with my Grow Green Guide in hand, trying to get a good variety of plants. I came home with an Anacacho Orchid tree (center), verbena, jasmine, a beautiful Coral Drifter rose bush, lavender, and pink salvia. Most of them ended up in our front bed, heavy duty landscaping in the back will have to wait for another season. The tree and the jasmine are back there though, and I really enjoy when the wind blows the jasmine smell my way!

I'm out of the yard and back in the craft room, I'll have more to say about that later.