On the bag front, the one I made is nice and cavernous, but a bit floppy for day to day use. I might be able to fix this simply by making a new lining/innards, since that can be attached after the fact. I still think I'll bring it on my trip next week since I tried it out in backpack mode with some weight in it (a six-pack of beer!) and it worked just fine.
However, this meant I was still in need of a bag. My shoulders are hurting me more all the time and I really need to stop carrying weight on one of them at a time. Backpacks are key. But I'm vain, and wanted something that could still look kind of like a purse. Enter amazon prime:
Dry erase marker for scale.
With these sorts of convertible bags, you can either have the straps cross eachother like on this one (i.e. each backpack strap goes all the way to the other side), which means you don't have issues with the whole thing flopping over if you grab it by one strap, or you do it the way it is on the bag I made, where the backpack part is all one one side. That's where the floppiness is a problem - if I grab it by the backpack part, the whole thing kind of just squishes down until I put it on.
This little bag is more stable, but the fact that the straps cross over makes it a little harder to open the bag up all the way, particularly if it's on your shoulder. Still - I don't plan to keep more than my wallet, keys, phone and a mini umbrella in here- it's so I have something to wear at the park when I'm running around after the kids. And I like that I COULD squish in a small water bottle and sunblock if I have to.
On the sewing front, I haven't cut into my suiting fabric yet, but I DID finally cut into a lovely Michael Miller fabric that I've had in stash for something like 3 years:
Mimi NEEDED a new dress. She NEEDED it. Okay, maybe I just needed to make her something sunny and pretty that she'd wear before she turned into a big girl. This is almost (needs a hem and buttons) a full-skirted button-back dress with little cap sleeves. It really turned out well and I only spent about 2 hours on it - I've made the pattern 3 times. Tracing and cutting was definitely the longest part this time! I traced a size 5, but Mimi really could have gone down a couple from there - I'm going to need to place the buttons so that they cinch up the back a bit but can be moved outwards later. And I only attached one of the sashes on backwards! I'm leaving it - we almost always end up cutting off the sashes anyhow. The pattern is "Jane" from Petite Poche by Wendy Schoen.
Oh, I did do some other family sewing. Mimi wanted two pairs of old knit pants cut off into shorts (very frugal, that girl), and then we needed to turn the cut off parts into dresses for her doll by cutting arm holes. Jeanne wanted a t-shirt turned into a tank top, so I cut off the sleeves and did a little double fold thing on the cut edge, hand embroidering it with a stretch stitch. She really liked it - kind of a little bit sporty with some girly edging.
Next up - I'm traveling next week so I'll bring my final AC skirt from my SWAP 2017 planning (good airplane work!). After that I either need to work on the suits (ugh, wool in summer), or get started on my long-promised effort to really make a bodice and dress block/moulage.
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