The 30 Minute Challenge

The other night, my boyfriend and I were watching tv together for a few hours. I realized it was about 8 o'clock however, and needed to work a little and make at least one of the things I have people wanting to pay me for. I told him I needed to work for a bit and his response of course was, "Ok, see you in an hour, if even." I simply stated, "I don't need an hour, I can work for only half an hour and be back in here!"

Needless to say, he didn't believe me so I made sure when I went to my craft room, to take special note of the time. I didn't do a clutch as I know for a fact these take about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes for me to make, so I tested myself on making a simple tablet case with no frills or bows or anything.

Wouldn'tcha know, I totally won the challenge and was back in 30 minutes to watch some more tv with him!!

He did ask me when I got back however if it would even fit her tablet, and did I check to make sure? So he made me sufficiently paranoid enough to ask her exactly what tablet she has (Kindle Fire) so that I could look up the exact dimensions to my Nexus 7" tablet and there was only a 10mm difference on top to bottom measurement! Yay!! AND she likes how it looks! 

Now I only need to finish her clutch and I'm golden!!

Craft ya laters!

First Official Double Zipper Tablet Case In Store!!

This last weekend, I got a chance to sit down and take my time working on my own double zipper case, the same design as what my friend Airon and I worked on last week, and am very pleased with the results!!

It's the same fabric as the last attempt I did but I couldn't bear the thought of making a case that might not work with a similar fabric I bought for myself with butterflies instead of flowers!!

I worked on it throughout the day but I must have only worked on it for an hour and a half or so. It's pretty basic once you get past the idea that there's 2 zippers instead of just the 1, and that you need an extra layer of batting and interior fabric...

It's pretty snug for my 7" Google Nexus tablet on the sides, but because of the extra fabric I used, it's got plenty of room top to bottom and is snug on the sides once it's in; the only really snug part is getting past the zipper, but that's ok.

It comfortably fits my tablet in the main section, and has more than enough room for my charger as well which means I'd have plenty of room to put a pair of earbuds in there also!!

You can't even tell there's a tablet AND a charger in there, can you?!

I will call Airon the guinea pig on this one though. She and I both noticed that it was a little difficult to get the zipper teeth on the front pocket's zipper lined up when sewing the layers together, and not have the fabric get stitched through with the zipper a little too open (you have to open that zipper to stitch over it and give it the new ends). I tried this though and it worked like a charm!:

It's maybe a little hard to tell, but I basically used a couple pins on both sides of the zipper to pin through the layers when the zipper was closed so that when I opened it and stitched over the open end on the left, it was still pretty much lined up to what it was when closed!

I must say though, I'm pretty proud of myself on this one as well as the last 2 clutches I have made and the last 2 pouches I've made. Why you ask? Well, it's all a matter of getting more and more used to my sewing machine, realizing little tips and tricks and just what works best for what I'm trying to do.

One of the things that I was getting a lot was knotted string within the first inch or so of stitching! I kept having to take the piece out, get the strings out of it and what was stuck in the bobbin area, and start again! I finally realized it was just the starting strings getting in my way.This was easily fixed by taping the strings down on the backside of the machine and then un-taping them after getting that initial inch or so sewn!!

The other thing was figuring out that the left side of my zipper sewing foot is the PERFECT gauge to get that perfect top-stitch taken care of!!

I may still have a ways to go on sewing skills and talent, but hey, considering where I was only a few months ago...I'm definitely proud of myself and my hard work. If you are trying to get better at sewing or even learning how, just remember that noone starts out perfect and good product comes out of practice, patience and hard work!!

This will be my first tablet case I'll put up in my online store at www.beadsbycelleste.com and I couldn't be happier to finally get one online since so far the only ones I've made as sellable quality are currently at Easely Amused.

Well, that's all for now. I will let you guys know what the next batch of clutches/cases look like as I hope you're as excited as I am to see them!!

Craft ya laters!!

New Fabric For August

I love August if for nothing else than my day job having 3 paychecks this month due to timing! As soon as this last week had started, I was planning on going to the store on Saturday to get more fabric. I am pretty pleased with what I got to work with, what about you?

This one might seem odd, but there's a totally valid explanation. No, it's not getting used for a tablet case or clutch or anything. It's most likely going to be used for a zippered pouch armband for a friend who is a fellow motorcycle rider like myself, but has a TX toll device that he'd prefer to wear in a pouch on his arm than store in his backpack or case on his bike. There will be more on this later...

I actually ended up getting a lot of this floral as when the cutting lady was undoing the fabric on the bolt, she saw that there was only 1 1/3 yd left on the bolt. They hate doing remnant packaging so they offer to give you an awesome discount on what's left if you'll just take it with your cut!

This blue floral I think would go nicely with this silver polka dot I got the other day.....

...or as a real simple pairing with black.

I personally really love this fabric and can't wait to see it made into a clutch and/or case!!

Just another variation idea to pair these together instead of just with black.

So what do you guys think? I really like these fabrics and can't wait to get to work on them. I only have to get some zippers ordered from a seller on Etsy (Zipit) that stocks YKK brand zippers at a fantastic price and I'm excited to get good brand zippers, en masse, that will match the fabric I'm using much better than the Coats & Clark ones I've had to get locally at Joanns. 

I believe I already have someone interested in the blue/silver fabric paired with the blue it's pictured with for a banded clutch, and maybe even a similar tablet case pairing!!

Keep an eye out for what's next!!

Craft ya laters!!

Possibility of pairing up cases?

I noticed something on lunch at work today...

I made this clutch first, as a prototype to the design I've made so many of now, and use it as my regular daily purse:

And as you know, I made this tablet case for my Nexus 7" tablet this last weekend, excess space on sides and all:

But when I went to lunch and wanted to take both, this is what I came up with!:

It's pretty amazing how snugly they fit together!! Now, I can't hold the tablet case by just the top mind you, but I can hold it to my side like you would just one or the other, and not have to worry about my clutch sliding out of my hands to hold on to the tablet case!

What do you guys think? What if the clutch was made with the same fabric as the tablet case for a matched set and sold as a pairing?? Would that be something that anyone would like?

Well, off to finish my day of work so I can go home and work on some more sewing!

Craft ya laters!!

Getting Into Tablet Case Making

I have decided to try tablet cases next as a little break from doing my clutches. I have a 7" Nexus tablet myself and have many friends who have various tablets they use and carry with them all over and I finally decided I needed a case of my own!! Though...I didn't quite get the measurements right the first time.

**Disclaimer: I apologize for the pictures being in weird angles/directions. I cannot figure out why Blogger does this or how to fix it**

It looked pretty enough:

I got a nifty fabric for the lining:

And yet, it wasn't quite big enough for my tablet:

At least I have a pouch to store my new business cards in!!

Next, I worked with my friend Airon and guided her through making a tablet case for her 10" Nexus:

Nice, pretty silver dotted fabric for the lining:

A peek inside the front pocket:

 The front pocket is plenty big enough to store your charger, earbuds, etc:

A look at the tablet inside the case:

Look at the awesome!!: 

 I decided to try again in making a case for my tablet and tried a different pattern this time as well as something a little more autumnal:

Best of all, my tablet fits in this case!!:

Although, fits is an understatement. I have about an inch of room to the sides total:

And I have about an inch, inch and a half at the top: 

I'm not too concerned though as I'm trying to decide if I really want to cut this down for a more snug fit or if I want to keep it about this size and maybe add a pocket in the front so I can slip my phone and charger in there or what. It also is enough room that instead of trying to awkwardly handle the case while my tablet is in there, the extra space is a pretty good fingerhold for actually holding the darn thing while walking around!!

There was the question of the knot around the bow though. Per the directions I was using for the pattern, the knot seemed a little big and because of this, it wasn't constricting the bow itself enough to keep the fold lines:

I know it's maybe a little hard to tell the difference, but I did a little hand stitch on the backside of the knot to shrink it down about an inch to keep the middle of the bow tighter and I feel this helped make it look much better:

 I can't wait to use this fabric some more as well as make some more tablet cases!! The next thing I do will definitely be a case in the same style as Airon's case, only, in a fabric similar to my first attempt but with butterflies instead of flowers. I'm so excited to get it done and start using it!!

Craft ya laters!!