Oh, I do love the accessories

The purses are coming out really awesome. Every single one has something I adore about it, and something about it that sucks. The process of learning how to best assemble them is really not going as smoothly as hoped. For one thing, the smaller purses are very difficult to sew; it's like they require a very tiny sewing machine to fit inside the opening to topstitch that final seam. In my first attempt, I hand-stitched it, since the machine was just too cumbersome. But hand-stitching is too time-consuming. Another problem I encountered is my own darn brain. I went ahead and finished the purse before inserting the magnetic snap. Which meant that I either had to undo everything, so I could reach in between the lining & the outer fabric, or I had to sew on a little regular snap. I did decide to sew on a regular snap, but that turned out badly as well, since it really is important to sew through the stiff stuff sandwiched between the outer & lining, but important to not sew through the outer. In any case, it looks sloppy now, and I'm sad because in all it started out as my favorite purse, the most professional looking and pretty.

In case making a gajillion purses wasn't enough stuff to do, I got all inspired talking with a friend and want to make hats, too. I bought a pattern for some hats from the goddess of everything (I don't know what else to call her!) -- Amy Butler. Her fabrics are beyond belief. And I have to admit, I often wanted to be a wrapping paper designer growing up. More so than anything else, but I never voiced this desire, because I didn't really believe there *was* such a thing. But I still want to design fabric, wrapping paper, wallpaper ... anything with repeating patterns. And I know I'd be really good at it, but I have no idea how one goes about that sort of thing. Anyway, as it is, there are too many other things I am digging doing right now, so I will just let that one be on the back burner a while.
Whoa, that was a ramble. But see, Amy Butler's work kinda does that to a person! For more inspiration, check out her inspiration page ... full of beautiful photos and links that will get your creative juices overflowing!

The pattern I got is similar, but not exactly like the hat I really want to make. But I have never made a hat before, and am hoping that after doing several of these, I can edit the pattern to be closer to the hats I want to make. I'm fairly certain that this pattern will teach me the basic construction of a hat, and I'll be able to go wild with my own designs. The same thing happened with the purses. Now that I understand how it works, I am editing each one a little bit to be more like what I envision. It's really quite fun to learn something new this way.