Project Professional Tote

I just finished my Professional Tote by Creative Thimble. I read a review of this on Pattern Review and had to have it! So I got the pattern and started making it.




You can read more about it on my review for Pattern Review here and on my website, CamoFish.

My goal in making this was to make a bag that I could take with me when I go into San Francisco and have everything I need in it- so I didn't have to carry my laptop bag and my purse- and pull my dog in his rolling carrier. So this will fit either of my laptops and everything I need/want for the day (I think) and has a travel strap so I can slip it over the handles of Toby's rolling carrier. I have not yet tried it but I will on Thurs and will post an update then on how it went.


Close up of my dragonflies.

I embellished the front with some dragonfly beads I had in two different sizes. I am very pleased with the way it came out. I am also VERY proud that this tote was made from 100% properly aged stash fabric and I only purchased notions for it (zippers, thread, etc.)

Sewing Room Organization: The Plan 2008

So where have I been and why have I not been posting? Well last week - last Saturday to be exact, I decided to start organizing my sewing/craft room. Well it was a mess. No, really. In fact a friend of mine, who had not even seen it had a great description of it. He said most estate sales he has been to, if there was a women who was crafty or sewed, the "sewing room" looked like the aftermath of a mudslide made of fabric, yarn and other crafty tools and supplies. Well that about covered it! I laughed because he has never even been to my house!

I DID take a 'before' picture but I won't post it until I get the 'after' pictures. I almost don't want to at all! But I am SURE that there are a lot of ladies that have the same problem- and I want to inspire you to clean up too! So I decided to post my plan here for now.

Phase 1: Remove the 'pile' of fabric into our bedroom. Go through the closet and consolidate all craft and art supplies. Sort and conquer is my basic plan here. Unfortunately my room, though I call it my Sewing Room, is used for traditional art, card making, jewelry making,spinning and MANY other crafts! So I need to be able to organize lots of different things and be able to access them when I need them. to make it even more challenging- there are tools I use for many things, like my glue guns and dremel tool.

Sort fabric into cardboard file boxes.
Move all sewing books to hall bookcase. (no real sorting yet- just sewing books together, etc)

Phase 2: Go through my patterns and get rid of some! I have way too many. LOL! Make sure the ones I want to keep are in my database and in my book I use for looking at them when planning what I want to make.

Phase 3: Go through the fabric boxes, cut swatches for my swatch book

Phase 4: Go through the bookcase and organize the books and patterns. Make sure the "free flyer" projects I pick up all over the place are in the binder for that, so I can actually find them!

That's it! Currently I am about 75% through Phase 1, which is the phase that will take the longest. I will be posting pictures and describing my organization system in more detail.

PhotoShop: Camouflage Plug In

I just found this awesome plug in for Photo Shop that creates camouflage patterns! I was looking for it to fill in pants for a wardrobe storyboard. Since I also use camouflage for many other things (scrapbooking, my blog (obviously) and my website) this plug in will be *very* useful to me.

You can get it here:
Camouflage Plug In

I have tried it out and it works wonderfully!

What I love about this plug in:
It's FREE! (how can you beat that??)
You can create your own colors (for instance I can create pink or purple camouflage patterns too)
If you know how to use PhotoShop already, this is really easy to figure out how to use.
You can change the scale so it is really easy to make 'small' camouflage prints for use in wardrobe storyboards.

What I don't like about this plug in:
Well- what's not to like? I can't think of anything I don't like about it. I DO wish that they had included a "digital camo" version- even just one so it would be easy to create that pattern in any color scheme. But hey- it's FREE! :)

Here, on the left, is my image for my common woodland camouflage pants. This is Simplicity 3763 View A for my wardrobe plan storyboard. On the right I created the same pants pattern with the same view- and created a purple version of the woodland camouflage. I actually don't have this fabric so it is not in my wardrobe plan- but I wanted to make it and post it here to show you that it can be done!

If I get a lot of requests for it, I can post a tutorial on how to make your own wardrobe storyboard, including how to use this plug in to create camouflage patterns to include in your storyboards.