Not falling off the face of the earth...

...or at least I'm trying not to.

As you can see I've been working really hard to make my "two posts a year" comment a reality LOL! I have actually done quite a bit of sewing this year, though the majority of it was for a school play. I've also had a few side projects for friends that I've worked on, and add to that a full semester of school, plus summer school, taking a course myself, and a teaching contract in a new subject, naturally, and that has left only a little time for me sewing. (Okay, I'll get real and be honest--Game of Thrones and Stranger Things took up a bit of my time this year too.)

I've also taken on a position as Artistic Director with a local improv company that is just starting up (I feel super pretentious saying that, but it is exciting nonetheless).

Although I don't have photos to show you of all my favourite makes from the past, like, year (no, really.), I did manage to take some shots of a project I worked on on the side.

A teacher I worked with last year at the most lovely small community school wanted me to make his son a towel with a hood since he was growing out of his current post-pool garb. After some deliberation, he decided he wanted one too and that they were both to be made up of the Armenian flag (after his ancestry).

His son's was just a simple square with a triangle added for the hood section as per the original. I essentially made a quilt (I even quilted the layers so it wouldn't shift when washed), but without the layer of batting in between. I decided to bind the whole thing in the corresponding colours because it would look nicer:

For his, I did essentially the same thing, but I put the hood from my Cascade Duffle coat on it in the biggest size (he said he wanted a BIG hood, very jedi-esque...my analogy, not his). I just sewed this to the quilt-towel and then bound all the layers together (a bitch to do but looks nice). I also had the forethought this time to put in little thumb tabs (for ultimate superheroing), and a tab at the neck for hanging it up (also a bitch to do...I had to sew this sucker in like five times...ugh):

And that's it for today, folks! Do you take commissions or do you prefer to just sew for fun?

Laterz 2016! + Noodlehead Campfire Messenger Bag

Happy New Year's everyone! I was planning on doing a little indoor shoot today of my new favourite makes to send this gawd-awful year off, but the hubs got really, really sick in the middle of the night last night, so he's in bed eating crackers and here I am.

Luckily, I actually have been sewing up a storm behind the scenes here and so I do have some other things that I could show you. So today, I'd be pleased as punch to show you the Campfire Messenger Bag that I made from Noodlehead.

I was actually commissioned about a month ago to make this bag. I really like the idea of designing and using a fabric bag, but if we knew each other IRL, you would know just how quickly I would get stains all over it.

I picked up the fabric at my local Fabricland. They are a yellow and gray twill, and the other two fabrics are quilting cotton (both Robert Kaufman if I recall correctly). I absolutely love the floral lining fabric. As for the metal hardware, I picked that up in a kit at the Quilting Bee.

I made the purse with all the bells and whistles, only trading out the closures for magnetic snaps. In order to do this I had to add about four extra inches to the front flap.

Although I folded and pressed everything as per directions, my front pleated pouch looks a little lopsided.

I think the inset zipper turned out great but would be even better with a few more under my belt for practice. My top stitching and pressing could be tidied up a bit more here.

I think if I made this again, I would not interface any of the lining pieces. I think it just added a bit too much bulk for my liking and it sort of sits a bit funny at the bottom of the bag as a result. Additionally, one thing that I had a lot of trouble with were the little tabs that attach the metal rectangles to the sides of the bag. For the life of me I can't turn such a small tube that is interfaced. I ended up just sort of doing my own thing there.

For the back compartment, I just used a snap I had on hand.

Overall, I was really pleased with the pattern. This was my first time using a Noodlehead pattern and I was so excited that everything came together exactly as it should that I e-mailed Anna to tell her how happy I was. Everything lined up the way it should! This pattern is Carlee-proof!

I ended up picking up the Petal Pouch and the Envelope Clutch patterns as well and am super excited to dive into those for nice easy sewing pick-me-ups.

All in all, I would chalk this up to a sewing win. Again, it is not really my style because, with shoulder problems I try to keep a small bag so I don't have much weight to carry, but I was more than delighted to whip this bad boy up as I really learned a lot.

Here is hoping that in 2017 the world can become a little (or a lot!) less scary of a place. Happy New Year to you and your loved ones, and many happy stitches for 2017!