Hey! Can You Make Something For Me?

As I sharpen my skills at quilting and sewing, I have noticed my stitches are straighter, my designs and color coordinating are more pleasing to the eye and my end products looking a bit more professional. Which you would expect, right? Practice really does make perfect.

My handbags get a lot of notice amongst my friends and family. Lately, I get a lot of "hey, can you make something for me?" Of course, I always jump at an opportunity like that. I LOVE making things for people because I love the joy it brings them and honestly, it puts my stuff out there for other people to see.

A few months ago, I was practicing constructing a dresden plate. A friend of mine was pinning them all over her Pinterest board and I loved them. A dresden plate is a type of piecing with 2 or more fabrics, that are shaped like petals of a flower. Some have rounded edges and some are pointed. I found a pattern online and some scrap fabric and went to it. I would say it turned out ok. I could see where I would need a bit of tweaking if I were making them for a quilt (which I intend to do).

My daughter (she is 5), who is very intrigued by my sewing, walked into my crafting studio one day and spotted the dresden flower. She fell in love with it. "Mommy, please can I have this?!" I said sure. It was just a practice one and I wasn't going to do anything with it. I asked her what she wanted to do with it and after a moment, she asked, "can you please sew me a bag and I want this right on the front!?" Absolutely, I said.

So a week later, I went to the fabric store and picked out a cute butterfly fabric that would go well with the flower I made.

My practice dresden plate and the pieces cut and ready to be assembled.

After finally finishing a handful of custom projects, I have recently had some downtime to work on some things of my own. At the top of my list was my daughter's bag. And with my new found embroidery skills, I decided to add a personal touch to the center of the dresden flower.

This is my own kid tote design, complete with an outside pocket and fully lined interior. It is the perfect size for a child to carry some coloring books and crayons and/or markers. I make some of them with matching marker roll ups which I sell in my shop. The design and construction of the kid tote allows for use of up to 4 different fabrics to create something really unique!