The Satchel Bag for Selfish Sewing Week

I love the idea of Selfish Sewing Week. It's a reminder that sometimes we just need to make ourselves a priority and sew something that we get to keep and enjoy!

When sewing for myself, I almost always prefer to sew a bag or purse. For Selfish Sewing Week, I chose to make myself The Satchel Bag from Sewing Patterns by Mrs. H. This was the first pattern from Sewing Patterns by Mrs. H that I had tried, but I have been admiring The Satchel Bag design for some time now. So glad Selfish Sewing Week gave me the nudge I needed to try it!

Clean Slate Shorts for School

School has been in full swing here now for almost two months, and this year, Ella started kindergarten while Connor moved on to middle school. Our public school system requires children to wear standard school attire which amounts to any solid color shirt with a collar plus black, navy, or khaki pants, shorts, skirts, or rompers. While Connor's wardrobe was fully stocked of acceptable items, Ella's closet was really lacking! As you know, I sew most of her clothes, and very few are solid colors!

Well, rather than go out and buy all her school clothes, I decided I would sew as many as I could. We purchased a few knit polo style shirts, and then I made her a khaki and black pair of shorts using the Blank Slate Clean Slate Pants Pattern (affiliate link). These shorts fit the bill perfectly!

Why I Blog...

A couple of weeks ago, Carrie from Right Sides Facing asked if I'd like to participate in a blog hop where I would have to answer some questions regarding why I blog. This particular post topic has been overdue for me for a long time, and I actually have attempted to write about my reasons for blogging for sometime now. Apparently, I unknowingly played a small part in Carrie starting up her own blog (read about it HERE), and now in return, she has encouraged me to open up a little more about why I blog. Thanks, Carrie!

I know I have said a few times in the past that sewing and blogging have changed my life, but I've never gone into great detail on the specifics of "how".  I'll attempt to explain a few of those reasons for you now.

Why do I blog?

Fabric Slippers + Craft Book Month

Come sew along and celebrate Craft Book Month all September with Craft Buds for a chance to win one of several amazing prizes! You know you have them--craft, quilting, or sewing books--just sitting in your sewing room waiting to be used. I'm guilty for sure, and for some reason, my stack of books keeps growing despite my lack of effort to sew from them more often. They are just hard to resist! An entire book full of wonderful patterns and ideas!

Craft Book Month always reminds me to reach for one of those books and finally make something I've bookmarked, and this year, I decided to sew up a pair of fabric house slippers for myself! Ella doesn't get anything this time. Nope! This one's all for me!

And it's sort of funny that the book I used was Little One-Yard Wonders which is actually full of tons of absolutely terrific projects for children! The fabric slippers pattern includes pieces for children as well as adults, and I have been needing wanting a new pair of house slippers for a long time.

Photo from Amazon.com

Sunny Romper + September Showcase Giveaway!

My lovely friends, Ashley and Emily (the sisters behind Frances Suzanne) contacted me a few weeks ago about a twist on their Flip This Pattern series for September called the September Showcase.

Instead of having competitors flip a single pattern, 30+ bloggers will feature 10 up-and-coming Indie pattern designers by sharing items flipped or not flipped from the designers' patterns. To kick-off the modified series, Ashley and Emily themselves wanted to "showcase" me and my sewVery Sunny Pattern! What an honor! More about this and the giveaway later in the post, but first...

Their Flip This Pattern series is one of my favorites--and not just because I won back in February with this flip! To celebrate the launch of their September Showcase and my pattern feature, I decided to share a "flip" of my own Sunny Dress & Top Pattern--the Sunny Romper!

sewVery Simple Cold Pack Tutorial + Giveaway!

You may have read my post from yesterday about my son's bout with Pityriasis Rosea and how we have successfully battled the symptoms of the rash using all natural products from Sodee Naturals. In addition to these products, he has used a cold pack at times to help sooth the most irritated areas of skin caused by the rash.

I've made plenty of rice hot pads using this tutorial that we love to use in the winter or for an aching muscle, but none of those bags is designed to drape over the shoulders/neck or lay across the entire stomach or back where relief is most needed. Since we still have a big bag of field corn from making corn bags for our corn hole game, I decided to whip up a sewVery Simple Cold Pack filled with field corn for my son.

Here's how I made it.