Free Yarn

Last Saturday, I stopped by Yarns By Design for a trunk show they were having for a few days. I needed some new circular needles and picked up some lovely hat yarn:





I plan on making a hat with the above yarn, but that's not the point of this post. The point of this post was I spun a wheel and won a door prize of 9 balls of blue bamboo yarn! There was even free patterns for a shawl and hand warmers. This was particularly exciting because I never win anything.

Tons of Fun

I have become obsessed with DYI blogs of all kinds. So, I have decided to link them here in case anyone stumbles across this blog. Check the out!


Design Sponge
Everybody Loves Sandwiches
How About Orange
IKEA Hacker
Jars of Cute
Not Martha

A Finished Project

After six hours, much frustration, and the help of my mother, my first sewing project is completed!









The pattern came from the book Sew Everything Workshop and while it was listed as an easy project, I think that perhaps I should have started with a place mat first. Oh well! My next sewing idea is to make some little zippered purses I talked about in the previous post, though I think I might wait a day or two to attempt them.

One of these days, I will make that hat post.

Now For Something Different...

A week or so ago, I picked up a book on sewing at Half-Priced Books. Needless to say, this was right up my ally. I have since picked up a few other books and after leafing through them, I decided I was going to make a simple tote-style purse. There was a quick trip to Joann Fabrics and I found some fabric:





The fabric on the right is going to be the outside/shoulder strap and the one on the left will be the lining, perhaps a front pocket as well. While the pattern didn't call for interfacing, I bought some just to make the bag a little bit stronger.

I also dug the sewing machine out of the closet. I think I'll wait for my mother to explain it to me:





In addition to the fabric for the purse, I also picked up some more fabric and zippers to make little cosmetic bags/change purses/pencil holders/etc. Joann's sells these fabric samples that are marketed to quilters, but they were the perfect size (18" x 22") for my small projects. Plus, they were on sale for 96 cents, so I stocked up just a bit:







Mom's going to help me get started. After all, she did sew her own wedding dress.