Bag Orders, New Fabric, and my first crochet flower

I'm back from New Orleans, and it was a lovely visit! In my spare time, I sewed vintage buttons on "pre" bags. The whipped up bag I made for myself drew some attention from friends and family (thank you SO MUCH!!!) and now I have 7 custom bag orders! This week I'm teaching a class at Austin Community College and have no time to sew until the weekend, poot!

Still, there are exciting things to report. First, my Spoonflower fabric order arrived today, and it came in this lovely package:


Upon unwrapping it, I was dee-lighted to see my own design printed on really nice cotton:


While in New Orleans, my Mom showed me how to crochet a 5 petal flower from Suzann Thompson's book Crochet Bouquet. It has tons of cute flower instructions, but I'm new so I had to start with an easy one. So this is my second flower (the first one was totally wack) after a lot of undoing and redoing.


More later when I'm not being teacher-lady.

A New Bag Design and Working on the Road

In true "Melissa" fashion, when I found this fruit fabric, I decided I must turn it into a bag immediately. So the bag is a rush-job, but very functional and the size and shape is pleasing.

When I saw this bolt of fruit fabric at JoAnn's, I literally said out loud, "HOLD THE PHONE."

I can never, never travel light. But the down time in New Orleans should allow for some felt appliques and embroidery of bag pieces.

Love the fruit! LOVE it.
I just had to ooch this picture in. This did not make it into the travel bag.
There may be more updates this week, so check back!

Etsy Shop News

I promised a grand opening this week, and things are definitely happening in "the studio." I got a bit distracted by designing fabrics, but finally have the summer bags in progress. Because the design is a new one, I wanted to field test them before listing them on etsy. One went out today for a beta test and two more will go out tomorrow. Here are pictures of summer tote bag production and associated goodies:

This is actually a larger prototype, the round up for sale will be a bit shorter, but still wide enough for files or magazines and fully reversible.

The outside of the bag is a bright pink twill - very durable. The inside is a spunky blue cotton. The bags have reinforced handles and extra strong interfacing. There are pockets inside, designed to hold 2 pens and an extra pocket for what-evah!

The most exciting part is the collection of vintage buttons sewn on the front of the bag.

Each bag is one-of-a-kind and the yummy popsicle colors are irrestible. Each bag is deliciously packaged with a bonus of 2 vintage buttons.
Below are swatches of the green and blue bags and their coordinating linings.
Ric-rac, ribbons, and these amazing vintage crystal buttons are also embellishments that will find a new home on each of these fun bags.

All buttons are carefully selected and washed (gently scrubbed) so that they are in the very best sparkly vintage condition and so that they complement the bag.

Spoonflower order and new fabric design

Hooray! I got my invitation for Spoonflower today, and submitted my first "fat quarter" of fabric order of the mixer on white design. I also have a new design - toasters! - that I may submit as well. Here I am in the Spoonflower tag group on Flickr, and here is what my design should look like...
And, here is my latest design...

Fabric Designs

I'm playing around with the possibility of designing my own fabric to use in my projects. Here are a few prototypes:

Shop Grand Opening This Week!

Friends,
Tote bags are in progress right now and will be in the shop this week! I'll post production photos this weekend. The "summer series" will be solid twill in bright colors with extremely delicious lining. Vintage buttons on the outside are the final touch, and I have some gorgeous ones! So stay tuned!

A round logo

Feedback is welcome!