Oliver + S Backpack

The temperatures here have been over 100 degrees and the heat sucks the energy right out of me.  This may be the reason I haven't been up to sewing much lately.   I did recently take the time to make the backpack out of the book, Oliver + S Little Thinks to Sew.   I like the book but the only complaint I have with it is you have to trace the patterns because the ones in the book are double sided.  If you cut a pattern out of the book you will mess the pattern on the other side up.  Below are some pictures of my E's backpack.   It took me two days working a few hours each day to complete it.  The most time consuming part was tracing the patterns. The lining of the bag was made out of one of my husband's old shirts.

Gathered Clutch

I love to sew and have totes full of fabric.  The office where I work is only two blocks from a fabric shop that used to carry really cute fabric. (Notice I said used to, they switched owners and the fabric is not as cute as it used to be.) On my lunch breaks I would walk down to the fabric shop and compulsively buy fabric and make plans to sew all sorts of cute things.  Those cute things never got made.  Now I work part time and am a full time mother to a beautiful, happy, cotton top headed little boy.  For some reason it is easier for me to find time to sew.   Here is the latest project I conquered. I found this project on noodleheads.  She has some really cute projects on her blog and I hope I can get some of those projects completed soon. 

http://noodleheads.blogspot.com/2010/04/gathered-clutch-tutorial.html