Faux Accents Done Four Ways

Anyone who has shopped NYC's Garment District knows the wonder that is Spandex House — an entire store dedicated to just the stretchy stuff (On the web, it claims to be "one of the largest collections of Spandex in the world"). Packed with printed, spangled and laser-cut stretch fabrics, Spandex House makes me long for the few short years in which I figure skated (I was in it for the outfits, obviously).

On one shopping trip with several esteemed NYC sewing bloggers, I picked up a yard of perforated stretch faux leather. What did I plan to do with it? Play!

To date, I have used it four ways.

1. As a pocket embellishment on a striped jersey Scout Tee by Grainline (using the Tiny Pocket Tank pocket pattern, also by Grainline):

2. As a contrast bag bottom embellishment:

3. As a contrast yoke, again with a jersey Scout Tee by Grainline. I re-cut the pattern, drafting this yoke detail, which I love:

The yoke wraps around to the front, creating an epaulet-style look:

 4. As a contrast raglan sleeve on a short-sleeved sweatshirt I am working on. The pattern is self-drafted. Long sleeves would have been better, but I didn't have enough left for that. I'm still figuring out how to finish the sleeve hems.

From the front: 

Of course, it's a little shiny and very faux-looking, but I still think it's a fun add-on for casual clothing items like the above four pieces. Any other ideas for ways to use faux as an accent in your me-made items?

Finished Object! Mommy Poppins Bag

One project done on the new-to-me Singer Featherweight, and I'm already thinking of all the garments I could attempt now that I would never have been able to do on my anemic contemporary Singer. Jeans? A leather jacket? 

I digress. The new machine, on loan from the Peter Lappin Singer Sewing Machine Museum, Chelsea Annex, came just in time; I don't think the Mommy Poppins Bag I made this weekend would have turned out half as great without it: 

I was so thrilled to test out Jodi Bonjour's newest bag pattern. It's actually a diaper bag, but I think it does just fine as an NYC-sized handbag.

Work(Almost)-in-progress: Sew Fearless Mommy Poppins Bag!

Do you follow Jodi Bonjour's blog Sew Fearless? She's a super cute crafty lady with four five kids and a poet for a husband. (Not to be confused with my dear friend Andreae, who also blogs, has four kids and is married to a poet. It must be hard, it seems, to refuse the advances of an amorous poet).

Jodi is also a patternmaker with a small line of cool projects for kids and super useful tutorials on things like adding nursing openings to empire-waisted tops/skirts. (I'm bookmarking that one even though my husband's not a poet and I'm planning on being pregnant anytime soon).

And she also has the best tag line ever: "Over come your fear of needles." Love it.

So of course I'm super excited to be testing her latest pattern, the Mommy Poppins bag, a carpet-bag-style diaper bag.

This is Jodi's bag. To see more version of this bag go to her blog: Sew Fearless

Please nobody tell my husband I'm sewing a diaper bag. He may get nervous and start checking the condoms for holes, a la Rick Moranis in Parenthood.

Ok, so it was a diaphragm. This movie is from 1989. I was 11 then and didn't know the difference.

I think this bag is a great design for a larger, NYC-sized purse or bag you might bring on an all-day outing (every day in New York is an all-day outing, and every woman in NYC is carrying two purses right now. Seriously: Google-streetview any Manhattan address and you will see a woman standing on the corner with two bags on her shoulder. We all need massages, stat!)

Actual Google Street View pic

I'm using fabrics I had on hand, the main outer bag being Marimekko's Lumimarja print (which we had hanging over our bed for years. But I recently changed things up and was waiting to find the right project for this fabric. I love it — plus it was pricey, so I better not mess this up).

The accents will be sewn in the pale brown chambray Gingermakes sent me (she gets a shout-out nearly every post for being so damn generous!). I also have some suede that I hope to use as an accent if my machine will let me. Check out the cool hardware Jodi sent me:

I've never sewn a true purse before. Did you know there are so many things you need to make a handbag? Stabilizers and sheets of plastic, closures, buckles, three kinds of fabric....I ordered up supplies from Hancock Fabrics, hoping to avoid a trip downtown to the Garment District (not because I dislike going there. It's just a big deal for me to get the time to myself to travel all the way there from the Bronx). But already I've discovered other stuff I forgot to get before I can proceed....more interfacing, lining, and I don't want to skip the rivets that Jodi includes in her perfect-looking examples of this bag. I do believe sewing this bag is going to be a major learning experience for me.

Why have I never sewn a purse before? I've been dubious that my sewing machine could handle stitching thick layers of durable fabrics or leathers. Also, I've filed handbags under the "Looks better when professionally done" category — a header that also includes jeans.

How about you, readers? Anyone dabble in handbag construction before or after getting their start in garments? What's keeping you from sewing a handbag?

I want this too

How greedy of me to write three posts about the things I covet in one week. But I can't afford this Holding Pattern Overnight Bag from Modcloth anyway (it's $95 US) and would be mad at my husband for spending so much on a bag for me in these tough times. But maybe you can afford it. (And I wish you no harm should you run out and buy this bag. Really. I do.)

Or you could do what I did, and enter the giveaway at Burdastyle.com and then hold your breath for the next 24 hours hoping that you will win. Seriously, isn't it cute?