Gingercake

The Studio at Contempo Owl Bag Sewing Class

A couple weeks ago, my friend Amy Frank asked me if she could use the Lola Owl Sewing Pattern for a class she is teaching at the Studio at Contempo in Boalsburg PA (near State College).  I said yes (of course!) and please send me some pictures.  I have heard from past customers that girls this age love to sew up Lola and I wanted to see some proof!

I wish I could have been there to take this class too!  I bet these girls had a blast sewing up their bags.  You can almost hear all the giggling and chatter as they choose their fabrics and work on the sewing machine.

For more information about the classes, visit the facebook page of the Studio here.  Amy is teaching several classes and having a wonderful time sharing her love of sewing with kids and adults.

These girls (and their owls) are totally adorable!  Thanks Amy and great job girls!

 

More About the Pom Pom Owl Purses

This weekend I am doing the Handmade Arcade again.  This will be my 4th time doing the show!  Before you think I am total nut doing a craft show only a few weeks after having a baby, I made all my stuff back in Septmeber and I am happily resisting the urge to sew a single other item before the show.  It feels so wierd to have a show in only 2 days and not doing any last minute stressy sewing.  When I say wierd, I mean it feels really great!

This time I made all my owl bags with pom poms for the show.  Remember this cute bag?  I worked out how to make it easier by tacking the pom poms on with steam a seam light.  This was great and made the process much faster.  You have to cut the steam a seam into sections to get around the curve.  Once the poms poms are attached, then you sew the 2 sides together and DO NOT trim your seams down.  The last time I trimmed my seams and ended up with several poms poms falling off and it's pretty tedious sewing those little suckers back on by hand.  

Also,  Vanessa let me preview her brilliant new photography ebook a couple of weeks ago.  I really recommend it to help you take photos of your sewn creations.  She talks quite a bit about staging and photo editing.  These tips are simple and useful!  To show some of the "behind the scenes" I took a picture of my staging to share with you...

I use the hooks for the towels in the bathroom.  The backdrop is the coat closet by my front door.  I open my front door to get better light (even though it was 27 degrees outside!).  This is my best location to get a wider shot of my creations even though the natural light is only mediocre. The first photo I lightened up in PSE and second I just did in my iphoto.  I had to really work on all those shadows!

Vanessa is giving away a copy of her ebook for sew mama sew giveaway day so head over to her blog and leave a comment for a chance to win!

 

 

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Lola Owl with pom poms

My sweet neice Avery just had her 7th birthday.  I have been wanting to make her an owl bag since she loves to accessorize.  I bought a bunch of pom poms from Pick your Plum a few weeks ago.  This was my first time working with poms poms!

I used vintage modern fabric by Bonnie & Camille and a pink duck cloth for the body.  I found the pom poms a little more challenging than I thought they would be but worth the extra effort since they add such a cute frame for the owl.

Rocking the Owls

YaaHOoo!  I finally finished the update of the Lola Owl Pattern.  Email me for the coupon if you already purchased the original pattern and I will give you the coupon code for 75% off.  

I actually have had it done for several days but I wanted to finish up these bags to make a really cute photo shoot.  The girls left in a hurry this morning so I didn't get them in my photos!!   I finally settled on this old shutter as a nice back drop...

 
 
These bags are fast!  In fact, faster than the pillow since you don't have to stuff with the batting or blind stitch the opening closed.

I admit that I love them.  They are fun to make and are such a nice size for a child.  The girls both went for this one below.  Yikes!  It is SO bright but fun too.   

But this one is my favorite with the Amy Butler and the Osnaburg.  I am pretty sure I got this combo from Amy's shop a while back.

I wish Anne was still in preschool since it would have been perfect to carry her little preschool folder!  

    

The strap is 30" and fits well over the shoulder of an adult or across the body of a child.  A D-ring would work great too so that the person wearing it could adjust the strap to fit them perfectly.  

Well there you go!  FINALLY.  after many requests!  The bag version is now part of the pattern.  Whew!  I have also changed my policy about selling the owls to allowing sales of finished products at crafts shows and church sales but not online.  I use photos of the owls to promote my shop and for branding so online sales would conflict with my efforts.   

Thank you so much for all the interest in making the pattern into a bag.  I hope to see lots of owl bags out there soon!

In Progress

I am working on the update of the Lola Owl Pattern now.   She is such a popular pattern and it will be fun to add new pictures to this super simple and satisfying project.

I created this title on PSE again!  I used the same techniques that i wrote about here but also took the time to take the owls out of their original pictures by using the magnetic lasso tool.  Sorry if that is too technical sounding but for those of you who have PSE, I hope you will understand!

One of the reasons I am working on this pattern again is due to the popularity of the special order owl bag I made back in April.

I get lots of requests for instruction to make this bag!  I guess it is popular on pinterest or something.  Although it seems simple to just make a lining and add a strap, I realize specific instructions would help to make it more accessible.  So... coming soon!  The Lola Owl Pattern remake with extra instructions to make a cute lola tote bag.

Stylin

UPDATE!  The Lola Pattern now includes instructions to make this bag!  

My almost seven year old pays a lot of attention to what she is wearing and has very specific opinions about how clothes look.  I try to be supportive of her style in my own controlling sort of way.  When she needs new clothes, instead of taking her with me to the store, I shop for a whole bunch of things that I like and bring them home for her to choose what she likes out of MY choices and then I take back the rest.  This is questionable freedom but it is working for both of us right now!

I made this owl purse as a special order from my show a few weeks ago.  The adult wants it for herself but I like how it looks on a child too and with the strap across the body.  I wanted to get some pictures before it goes in the mail today.  Elsie was excited to model before school this morning.  She is also wearing my new scarf which she has claimed as her own.

My tulips are in bloom!  It was her idea to pose by the tulips.

 I made the purse the same way as I did the mini purses back in this post.  I made it a little shorter since it seemed really long when I had it done.  The strap is about 30" long.  I made it by sewing together 2 pieces of 2" x 30" long pieces of cotton.  I used all cotton fusible interfacing on the printed fabric that is on the outside of the strap.  It took me several tries to get this strap on in a good way.  In the end, the simplest way worked best!  I wanted to make sure I kept the shape of the owl, so I just folded the strap under and sewed it on.  Then when I did the final top stitch, I secured the strap again.

She wants a bag like this for herself now of course!  

 I am so happy spring is finally here!  All the april showers we have had here have made everything so green and beautiful.  Email me if you had additional questions about how to make Lola Owl Pattern into a purse & I will try to help out.  Now the pattern is updated to include the bag instructions!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

 

Owl Purses by Necessity & a Pattern Giveaway!

I got a request to make a small version of my Lucky the Elephant and it turned out so cute.  I decided to make smaller versions of the owls for my show in a few weeks.  I set the printer to 65% and it made a really nice size.  I made 6 different owls the regular size and 6 corresponding owls smaller.  I realized that didn't have enough polyfil to do all these owls without having to go back to the store and with all we had going on, I could make it there for a few days.  I wanted to finish those owls!!  I decided to try the small owls as little purses instead.  They turned out so cute!

Anne chose her favorite bag and put her wallet (a gift from my sister from Etsy shop needlings) and a couple of her favorite books in the purse.  It's a really nice size for a little girl.

The fabrics are mostly from Amy's fabric shop.  They are so bright and fun for spring.

I usually mix in my thrift store and sale fabrics too.  The red gingham was a 100% cotton men's shirt from the goodwill & Max owl in the picture below was a Land's End Jumper the girl's never liked.  Sometimes clothing has much better quality than what you buy at the fabric store and for these types of sewing projects, they fit in perfectly! 

The max style owl was harder to make into the purse since the top opening is smaller but I love the shape of it!  To make these, change your printer setting to 65% and print out your owl pattern.  Follow the pattern instruction, including the flannel lining.  (I did not do a pocket on the back of these smaller owls).  Sew a 10" piece of ribbon loop onto the front.  The loops should be sewn on facing down toward the body.  Then cut out 2 more owl shapes from cotton fabric that will be the lining of your little purse.  Use fusible interfacing on these 2 pieces to give it more shape.  For the lola owl, I used a piece of 3" velcro & for the max, I used only 2".  Sew the velcro on, centered and .75 from the top edge.  Then sew the 2 lining pieces together, right sides facing, but leave the top edge open.  Also, leave a 3" gap along the side or bottom to turn the piece out. 

Do the same to the outside owl pieces.  Sew them together (including the flannel) right sides facing, but leave the top curve open.   Turn the owl inside out and press.  Insert the outside into the lining.  The right side of the lining should be facing the right side of the owl.  Use your hand to really get the outside and the lining to match nicely.  Sew the top edges together with a 3/8" seam.  Trim all your seams down to 1/8".  Turn it right sides out through that hole you left in the lining.  Press (but be careful of the velcro) and sew a line around the top edge.  Finished!  

Let me know if any of that confused you.  It is very basic bag with a lining instructions but I can try to clarify if you want to send me an email with questions.

If you have been reading the blog for a little while, you know I like to giveaway a pattern to a commenter when I find a new use for it!!!  Leave a comment here (with your email in the private section!) and tell me if you want a Max or Lola pattern. I will choose a random winner on Monday, March 28th.  GIVEAWAY CLOSED!! You can still leave a comment if you want though :)

P.S.  I made it to JoAnn today and saw this on clearance for $.95 a 12oz bag.  I bought all 12 bags they had!  I also had a 25% off coupon.  Call your Joann and see if they have it on clearance too.  That is a real bargain friends!  Eco friendly and SO much nicer to work with than polyfil.  

Postcard Promotion

 

This postcard took me 2 days but i did it!  YESSSSSS!  I can do Photoshop (elements)!  

I think it's pretty darn cute too.  I sent my order over to vistaprint for 250 postcards.  I ordered the 100% recycled matte paper finish.  I am so nervous my baby will come back looking bad like this one did!  My husband says it is usually good though and since the cost is such a deal and it's so fast, it's hard not to use them.  These will be the cards I will send out with orders and when I do a show.

I purchased the stationary from PuglyPixel and also used some of her free downloads.  I got the safety pin from fuzzimo and the fonts from 1001freefonts.  That bead chain is so cute!  Watch out blog friends!  This photoshopping is some major fun once you get the hang of it.   I think it works the same side of my brain as sewing and making patterns!  

 

Pushed out of my comfort zone

I recently had a custom order to make 2 owls.  I honestly don't jump all over these since it can be a tedious process choosing fabrics with the customer if she doesn't know exactly what she wants.  BUT, this nice lady emailed her crib bedding & I decided it may be fun since the fabric combo wasn't the typical baby room.  Here is the result~

 The fabric on the wings is the main crib bedding fabric. (I wanted to link to it but I searched Amy Butler and I can't find it anymore.  Is it Heather Bailey instead?)  I honestly thought it was going to translate into one hideous owl but now that I have it done, it is one of my favorite owls of all time!    Could be that I have made like 50 of these babies in pink and lime green, but for some reason this combination speaks to me.  Orange, Brown, Olive, Turquoise, and yellow just happen to be just what i needed to get me feeling creative.

Here is the picture of both~

The turquoise one is good too, but the green is better.  Don't worry, more pink and green owls will be coming back in the future, but it was fun to be pushed out of my comfort zone this time.  Have any of you ever been "pushed" (believe me I happily accepted the order!) to make something you thought would be terrible and turned out being something you loved?     

The Owls are coming in Pink & Green

 Even though I have a new shipment of fabric coming in from sewlovefabrics, I decided to try and make use of what I still have and see if I could come up with some new cute owls to bulk up the shop.  I discovered that I am VERY partial to pink and green.  It must be dating back to my 8 year old self and my very favorite kelly green bathing suit with the hot pink ruffle that went diagonal from my shoulder to my hip.  I spend many hours hopping through the sprinkler in that suit and feeling super beautiful.  These should be stuffed and starting to be listed in the shop on Monday!