Still afloat and trying to sew

I must be the laziest person on the face of the earth. That's the only excuse I have for not posting in so long. Anyway, we're still living aboard our boat here in Florida and now that our air conditioner isn't battling 90 something temps I've managed to do a bit of sewing.

A long time ago I printed some nautical charts onto fabric and these prints actually made the trek from PA to FL with us. And as I've been itching to sew I didn't think I really needed to buy 'new' when I should be using up 'old'.

On the spur of the moment I grabbed my Nicole Mallalieu Belle Bag Pattern and came up with this.







It's actually pretty cute and one of the charts I used was of Tangier Island in Virginia (if you've never been there, you're missing out on a good time, but BYOB since alcohol isn't sold there).












Here's a side view. The solid fabric is a brushed denim of some sort that my mother gave me out of her ancient stash a couple of years ago.

I learned a valuable lesson though.

I purposely decided to use Velcro instead of a magnetic snap on the inner tabs that pull this purse 'inward', and that worked out fine, BUT, since I've made this bag many times before and didn't bother to re-read the directions, I totally forgot about the snap that needs to be installed in the facing.
Oops!
Too late.
So I thought, oh what the heck, just use another piece of Velcro.

Word of advice. Don't do it.

Using Velcro on the tabs appears to be okay, but unfortunately, Velcro in the facing of this bag won't hold any kind of weight. Really. I'm just thankful I wasn't making this for someone other than myself or I might not have figured this out.

What I'm saying is, don't use anything other than a magnetic snap on the facing.



Now that we no longer feel like we're living in a pressure cooker, we actually use some light blankets in the evening.

Whose legs do you suppose are peeking out from underneath this blanket?

Well, they're certainly not mine!

We're settling into a nice routine here in our marina and enjoying life on our boat. I'm now able to ride my bike one mile in order to get to the Gulf so I can then get in an hour walk along the shore. This is a hell of a lot better than fighting snow and living daily with dreary gray skies, and yesterday we finally broke free from our dock lines and went out in the bay for a sail.

And even though someone stole my newly purchased potted plants and tossed my cheerful Halloween pumpkins into the marina, I still plan on decorating our dock box for Thanksgiving.

No gold medal for me but I'll settle for honorable mention!

With Valentine's Day occurring tomorrow, and our being invited to our friends' (for what appears to be an annual event) I thought I just might whip me up a sweetheart of a purse.

Well, I had good intentions anyway.

I was once again perusing the Freebies for Crafters site (I've been living there these days) and I saw this cute little wristlet. Actually the basis for this wristlet is identical to the little zippered wallets I make but they just make it a little bigger and add a strap.

This is where I don't get my gold medal because I didn't refer back to the exact measurements, and you can see for yourself that the zipper should be sitting higher.

Poor Betty Boop looks a bit too boxy!!!

Needless to say, she'll be spending Valentine's Day at home.

Alone.

Her back view.

This has been such a hellish week in The Big City with all the snow that's just lying everywhere, and I had no desire to spend hours in traffic just to get to JoAnn's, so this was the only fabric in my stash that was even remotely Valentine's Dayish.

I'll hang on to her for awhile but I just don't see her hitting the town with me anytime soon.

I was feeling a little disappointed and then I spotted these scraps left over from my Belle Bag.

See the zipper in the bottom of the picture? A couple of years ago I ripped it out of a Salvation Army purse that I'd bought for its hardware and it's been dying to be used ever since.

It was a perfect match so I tore the rest of the old lining off and put it to new use.

So here is my finished little wallet. I'm so glad I saved that zipper!

The back is ever so cheerful!

See how well the zipper matches the interior?

I'm loving my 'matchy matchy' bag and wallet!!!

And let's not forget my orange flower Scrabble pendant from Home Studio.

And even if I don't deserve a gold medal, I'd love an honorable mention award!!

A finished bag, and a sneaky cat.

After breakfast today, I finished my Belle Bag (mentioned in yesterday's post). It's made from three Orla Kiely tea towels. Apparently Orla Kiely was the rage last year and somehow, I got swept up into the madness.

Actually I had no idea who the hell Orla Kiely was (if indeed Orla is/was a person) but I had just seen this particular print on someone's blog the day I walked into Target and saw these towels on a clearance rack.

So I bought them.

Talk about gullible! It's not like I even found them appealing, but if everyone else had to have them...

This bag closes with two magnetic snaps. One set is in the tab that pulls the sides in.

The other set is in the facing, as seen here.

Hans came home from his get-away ski weekend, and upon observing my latest creation, promptly asked me if it's a Halloween bag. I wasn't too surprised as it certainly does have a pumpkin look to it (I wonder if he would have asked me this if he knew I spent the previous evening watching the Crime Channel's presentation of 'Women Who Kill'?).

I do have a couple of pretty orange sweaters I could wear when carrying this, but if I only use it during October that's fine with me.

It's not like I don't have enough purses the rest of the year.

But really, I just like fun things! Life and purses don't have to be serious.

The handles are boning covered with left over fabric from a messenger bag I made for Baby Girl a year or so ago.

I use two folding card tables covered with a shower curtain, as my cutting table. Hiding underneath the curtain are three big plastic tubs full of fabric and supplies.

Last night when I realized I needed handles for this particular purse I yanked the curtain aside and found this.

Chlorox's latest hiding place!

A very bad cat caught lying on top of a whole container of fabric.

So busted!!!!

The big escape!

The best laid plans...

When we got up this morning (a really late, almost noon morning!) I informed Hans that I had a wild day in store for us.

First, coffee and cereal (how I slave for that man!)

Then the gym.

To be followed with a trip to the big library so that Hans could get something to read (I currently have 2 books so I'm ok).

A very necessary trip to the grocery store (toilet paper!). Together. At the same time!

All of this would be followed up, back at the apartment with big bowls of left over beef stew!



Then Hans' cell phone rang and all my plans went to hell in a hand basket.



"Let's go skiing for the weekend!" Hans' friends cried.


And throwing my plans to the wind, Hans couldn't gather up his ski equipment fast enough. He even went so far as to reschedule the huge on-line poker game that he won a chance to play in. Now to understand how important these poker games are to Hans; I could stand in front of him, frantically waving my arms all the while choking on a thousand chicken bones, and he would say, "Can you wait just a second? There's this big bully from Romania who has no idea how to play poker and I think I finally have him beat! He's put me all in for the last time and..."


Anyway, I think you get the picture.

So while Hans went skiing, I ended up cutting out a Belle Bag from a couple of dish towels.

Here are the main pieces of the body of the bag.

The green pieces are the lining.

I had sewn the main bag together when I remembered I would need these important things called 'handles'.

I have a loop of boning attached to the top of the bag to see how a fabric handle might look, in addition to the handles lying beside it.

Tomorrow I'll make my decision.

Since a certain someone went skiing, I went to Liquor Land and found this.

A bottle of Tempra Tantrum wine.

Hans called me after arriving at his friend's condo at the ski lodge and I told him about my find.

I informed him that this would be the perfect wine for me to drink during PMS.

He asked me if this was a fire that really needed more fuel!

We'll just find out, won't we!