Diaper Bag

My cousin is having a baby and I was invited to her baby shower.  Yay for pink everywhere and silly shower games?  I'm not very good with babies or what a new mother needs so I turned to The Google for advise.  Thankfully  Warehouse Fabrics - Diaper bag with a divider came up as one of my first search hits!  The pattern and directions were clear and easy to follow. 
 

The Supplies:

• 1.5 yds of main fabric (I used 45" wide home decorator fabric from JoAnns)
• 1 yd of lining #1
• .5 yd of lining #2
• .5 yd of lining #3
• 2 yds of Craft Fuse
• 2 yds of fusible fleece
• 1.5 yds of cording
• 4 purse rings
• 1 magnetic purse snap
• 1/4" elastic

Not only was the bag a hit, my mom wants a bag like this one for the beach!  I'm glad I made this bag, it really showed me how easy and fun making bags can be.  I'm inspired by this project to make my own messenger bag.

Dog Vest

Happy March everyone!  I wish it was the start of spring but unfortunately I'm watching spitting snow outside my window.  I have a 3 mile run planned for today but I might skip and spin inside instead.  I can be either wet or cold on a run but not both!  This morning DT was up and out early so I got a head start on today's project.

Deimos is my dachshund and is always cold!  His new favorite item of clothing is a vest from cloak & dawggie.  It is super cute and he can wear it all day without wiggling out of it like other sweaters so I decided to make him another one. 
The Goods:

• 1/2 yard of cotton Home Dec fabric (40% off at Joann this week!), 
• 1/2 a yard of fleece and 1 yd of interfacing.  I used Craft Fuse because I had some lying around but I think a lighter weight would work just as well.  
• One package of maxi piping or bias tape
• 8 inches of grosgrain ribbon
• 7" of 2" wide velcro
• D ring

 Since you can make two jackets out of the 1/2 yd of fabric I decorated one jacket with bias tape and one jacket I used reflective piping.  I traced around the existing jacket and used it as a pattern.  If you want one, just let me know and I will try to make a pdf file for you.
The Steps:

1. Cut out your face fabric, interfacing and fleece.
2. Fuse the interfacing to the fleece.
3. Sew the maxi piping to the fleece using a zipper foot (or piping foot if you have it!)
4. Sew the ribbon to face fabric, inserting the D ring
5. Sew face fabric and fleece, right sides together using the zipper foot.  Make sure to leave a hole to turn the vest!
6. Turn vest right side out and press.  Top stitch around the vest, closing the hole.
7. Cut 2 3.5 inch strips of velcro, rounding the edges.
8. Stitch velcro onto the vest, soft velcro side on the fleece.

For the bias tape follow steps 1-4 then stitch on the bias tape, sandwiching the two fabrics.  Then follow steps 7 & 8.

Step 9:  Show vest to doggie.  Have doggie do excited "New Clothes!" dance.  Convince doggie to model new vest for blog photos.  This process took the longest!

With flash- love that reflective piping!

Without flash