Wholock Hobo

Last week I finished my first official commissioned bag, and I'm really happy with it. This project made me think I should get business cards and carry them, because you never know where you might sell something! Like when you're at the vet. My cats' vet noticed my Doctor Who Rosie back in June when I brought them in for a checkup, and asked me if I made it. Her daughter is a Whovian and a Sherlock fan (do they have a name?), and had a birthday coming up, so she was thinking she would like something like that. I showed her the India Hobo, and she loved my idea.

I made a large India, which is fully reversible. On one side we have Doctor Who -

and on the other side, it's all about Sherlock.

I ordered the special prints from Spoonflower. The gray and blue for the Who side came from JoAnns, and was a lucky find. It was perfect, with the gray shades, and the blue diamonds that resemble stars. I hadn't received the special order stuff yet, so I pretty much crossed my fingers and hoped the colors worked. As you can see, I lucked out and it's just perfect. Making the choice for the Sherlock side was much harder. I was told the intended recipient liked bright colors, but I tend to think of dark, muted tones when I think of Sherlock, so I had to dig a little deeper and do some research since (please don't throw things at me!) I'm not really into it and have only watched the first couple of episodes. What I came away with was the damask wallpaper, a yellow smiley face, and a purple shirt. Getting the Spoonflower print of the wallpaper was cost prohibitive, plus it was still pretty drab, so I settled on using purple. It took a month to find the I right one, and I found it at Calico Basket while I was visiting family for summer vacation. It is a gorgeous purple, blue and tan damask batik. My photographs really don't do it justice.

I somehow forgot to take a picture of the side of the bag that is only this, so this is my little bit of leftover.

My tag on the inside of the Who pocket! Please ignore my chipping nail polish.

Choosing accent piping and zippers was exponentially easier. I took the lazy way out and used pre-made piping from JoAnns. The zippers were part of a multicolor pack I bought on Etsy from Zipper Shop. Putting the bag together is actually fairly quick once you get to the sewing, but my least favorite part of making bags is ironing on interfacing. It definitely adds body, but standing there pressing a dozen pieces of interfacing to their fabric counterparts is quite boring, and I don't yet have a full sized board that I could set up in front of the tv. ;)

In the end, it came out pretty much just as I hoped. My client was extremely happy with it, and I hope her daughter loves it too!

*Post contains affiliate links to Swoon Patterns

Summer Shut Out

I realize it's been pretty quiet, even for me. With Cy out of school, time to sew is minimal. While I have in fact done some (okay, a very little bit of) sewing, I have not gotten photos taken and write ups done. Talk about your lazy summer! How do bloggers with kids do it when they rely on blogging for income? My hat is off to you who are able to make a career of this. Don't cry for me, though! School starts in a week (what?!?) and I'll hopefully have more time for sewing instead of being forced to do things like go to the park, play outside, or play in the pool, and otherwise spend time with my amazing kids all day. It has been pure torture, can you tell?

Currently on my cutting table is a Wholock themed India Hobo Bag that I'm making as a commission. Yay for actually making a paid project! Here's a peek.

Piping subject to change.

The fabric choices were pretty much left up to me with a minimal amount of guidance, so I hope she loves them. It took awhile to decide on the main fabrics, but I'm liking how it's coming together.

The project list from now to the end of the year is filling up, but exciting. Once the bag is finished up, hopefully in the next day or two, I'll be whipping up some Avengers themed pieces to add to the link up over at Crafting Con! There's an Iron Man and a Hulk design sketched in my little black book, just waiting to be made, so with a little luck they'll be ready on time!

Don't mind my pajamas. And yes, it's blurry on purpose.

I also signed up for the back to school swap through the Scientific Seamstress Lab Group on Facebook, so I'll be squeaking out a couple of extra pieces closer to the deadline than I'd like. And that's just for the next 2 weeks. Time to say goodbye to summer and get back into the sewing groove!