Keeping Busy

The past couple weeks have been more like a roller coaster for me lately. A very close family member has been in and out of ICU, the hospital, and sent to a rehabilitation center. He was very, very sick, with a huge list of problems that they had tried to fix. Wednesday morning, he went back to the hospital, we were told there was nothing else they could do. He was put on what they call "comfort care", and had a drip of morphine. Wednesday night, or very early Thursday morning, we got a call from the hospital saying that he had passed. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of family visits, cremation planning, paperwork and cleaning house.

With that, it was really needed that I got my Amy Butler fabric in the mail shortly after. I had ordered it from a seller on Etsy a couple days before he had passed away, as a early birthday gift to myself. I am really gald that I ordered it now, because with the horrible turn of events, a couple sewing projects is what I really need at this time. I find that its always easier to really keep busy with projects while I'm stressed and dealing with something.

Anyway. The fabric is beautiful, I've been wanting it ever since I seen it, so I'm really excited that I finally got a couple pieces. What is even more awesome - is that a package came from my fiancé on Friday that contained my birthday gift. A shiny, new orange yoga mat. It's so perfect because now, I can use my new Amy Butler fabric to make a yoga bag for it. I had intended to make me a little handbag to carry around my iPod, cell phone and lip balm, but now I have 2 projects that I can do. And hey, I can now make my yoga mat bag, and have a matching purse to go with it.

Cosmetic Bag

A couple weeks before I left to see my fiancée Iowa, I made myself a little cosmetic bag, intending to use it for my toiletries. It turned out really adorable, and it was my first time both sewing on a zipper, and handstitching a lining in place. I've never done either, so it was fun. I followed this helpful tutorial on creating it, only I made mine slightly longer, to hold my many more needed supplies.

In the end, I never even took the bag with me on my trip. Even though I made it bigger than the tutorial, it still wouldn't fit all the stuff I needed it to. Now, it sits and is serving a cosmetic bag's real purpose: keeping all my makeup pieces in once place. I also found that I sewed the fabric too close to the zipper, so it catches sometimes. I'm not sure I used the zipper foot on my sewing machine right either, because it should not have been as difficult to sew up as it was for me. But still, turned out nice, I am impressed with how well I did on it.