The different meanings of "baby bag"

I've been incredibly frustrated with having to sling several bags over my shoulder when toting the kid around, so I decided to make a baby bag big enough to carry all of Sophia's baby stuff, my purse, and any journals I care to bring with me. (Never know when the urge to write will strike.) I told Dane I was making a bag and showed him the pattern I was going to use, and the first thing out of his mouth was "You're going to put the baby in that?!" Silly husband doesn't understand.....

The pattern I used can be found here. There are quite a few tutorials I've found online for baby bags, but I thought this one looked like the most fun to make, and I also thought it would be the sturdiest and longest-lasting. (If I'm dedicating a significant portion of my precious time to this project, then damn it, it better last until this kid is 5 frikkin' years old!)

I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to use up the rest of my On A Whim owl print fabric that's been sitting around forever waiting for the PERFECT project. I just bought some coordinating colors from the fabric store to go with it.

After some mistakes in seam allowance, fusible fleece that didn't want to fuse (and that I ended up buying WAY TOO MUCH of), and a lost magnetic closure, I finally finished the bag. It only took me several days of frequently-interrupted work (babies don't understand patience). And I'm immensely proud of the outcome!

Behold!

I love the elastic compartments on the inside!

And if I wanted to, I really COULD fit the baby in it, a fact that concerns Sophia greatly...

I made a few changes to the pattern as I put it together. The original only has one elastic pocket, but I chose to line both inside compartments with the elastic pockets for extra storage space. I also used scraps of the different prints to make the strap, but that came more out of necessity. I didn't quite have enough left of the owl fabric, so I improvised.

Next project on the agenda is a baby book of different colors!

My most important project...

I had a baby!

So, yeah. An entire friggin' year since I've said anything. Among the many things that have happened over these last several months, the thing I'm most proud of is the creation of that cute little thing up there.

Having my daughter has done more for my self-esteem and confidence than all the antidepressants in the world. I grow happier and more capable and self-assured every single day, because there is no way I could ever second-guess or downplay the significance of her, my most treasured possession.

I plan to funnel this incredibly uplifting boost of confidence into my crafting. There is so much stuff I want to make! I also need to do a drastic redesign of the site, something centered around owls as a graphical element. Consider this notification of impending posts to come. I've already got tons of stuff I was working on during my pregnancy that I'm just dying to show you all!

I end with little Sophia practicing her SuperBaby pose.

Of Unknowns and possible Knowns, and Everything Else

Stuff's been busy. So very very busy. I saw my sister in Dallas, took a few tests in school and aced them, Dane had his birthday this last weekend, and yesterday Tanya and I did major deep cleaning of the apartment and dyed my hair. I now have black-reddish hair and it looks awesome.

So because I've been completely unable to do anything crafty or fun the last few.... years... I'm going to catch up on some previous projects I should have posted about long ago.



This is a very crappy photo of an absolutely adorable doll that I made from a pattern made by a girl on Craftster.org. This lovely girl decided one day that she wanted a doll of her very own that she could dress up in lots of clothes. So she drew up a very simple-looking but rather impressive pattern and made the first ever Poppet. Then she shared that lovely pattern with all of Craftster and this large doll was born in my spare room. It was around Halloween, so I gave her green pigtails and a dress with ghosts on it. And a pumpkin.

I had every intention of making more dresses for my Poppet, some for different holidays, some just because, but none of that happened, and I think it may be partially because her head flops around quite strangely, despite the pencil in her neck, and it kindof unnerves me. In any case, on to the other thing.



Having fallen in love with Anne Hesse's beaded doll faces, I was ecstatic when Patti Culea's latest book (Creative Cloth Doll Beading) featured a section on how to make such lovely beaded faces. I immediately got to work, even though usually beading has been a rather scary task to think about... all those little things and they're so tiny and I could accidentally smack the container they're in with my clumsiness and then they would be all over my carpet and I'd need to pick up every single one.....

I don't do well with tiny things, but after starting this face, I found myself loving the minute detail, and the ability to fill in any little bare spot with just a few beads and have them fit so very perfectly. I guess this was the best project for someone who's a perfectionist like me.

I'm still working on the myriad of other projects that remain as yet unfinished, and I would so very much love to have a night to myself tonight to work on such things, but alas, I have laundry, and we've started our Unknowns in Microbiology, which means I get to spend many evenings running tests to see what mysterious organism is living in my test tube.

Catch up and breathe

My goal of finishing is.... well, not finished. This weekend was one of those weekends where you cover your head and hope the ceiling doesn't fall on you because hey, everything else is shitty so it only makes sense that the house will implode all over your face in a shining example of "Eff you! Love, The Universe."

Okay, I'm being dramatic just a tiny bit. But it was still a fairly stressful weekend. Dane went on the beach trip that our group of friends goes on every year. I couldn't go last year because it was scheduled for the very weekend of my wedding shower (which ended up sucking ass anyways because only four people showed up. I was feeling very loved that day).

This year, I was very prepared to go, and at the last minute felt like crap in a flaming bag on someone's porch being stamped emphatically with no concern for staining of the loafers. However, as I understand it, the beach this year was incredibly windy, the zipper on our tent broke, and Dane woke up covered in six inches of sand. They all had to dig out their shoes, and Tanya told me last night that getting sick and not going was the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me. I don't have sand in unexplainable orifices, which is always a plus.

So, here is the finished owl art quilt. Isn't it beautiful?


(Go here for a larger picture.)

I clipped the wings down, since they were a little overpowering when they covered most of the lower body. I used free-motion embroidery to "paint" in the eyes and feet (here's a freaky little picture of demonish owl eyes) and to detail the quilt. There was no batting used in this quilt, just a backing fabric, since I knew the stitching would get rather heavy. I also intended for this piece to be frameable.

Also, below are the scans I promised from the book I made for Tanya's birthday. I very simply decorated several pages of a blank journal with pages from an old Biology book, images of some of Tanya's favorite things, some pictures from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee since Tanya likes those comics as well, watercolor crayons, stamping, and some other random decorating techniques. A bit of monoprinting, some stitching, a bit of white tulle, and a very lovely drawing of a human skull on the cover, and she got her book and loved it. The idea was that she could get inspiration from, and add to, the altered pages, then do some creative exploration of her own on the other blank pages in the book.





So, after such successful projects, I have little squirrels and hedgehogs running around in my head, and I shall have to immortalize them in fabric as well. But, alas, that is another day, or possibly another century.

I'd love to hear what y'all think. I welcome praise, criticism, insults, and small furry mammals in cages (possibly a guinea pig).