I wanted to make a handbag for Em. It was one of her Christmas gifts.
I have many handbag patterns, but have only made three so far: Chris W’s Serendipity Hip, Emmaline Bags’ Craftsy Clutch Bag and Miss Maggie’s Handbag.
I keep going back to the Miss Maggie’s because I really love the shape of the pattern. If you haven’t tried it, it’s a free pattern.
So, it was a Miss Maggie’s again.
Even before I picked a pattern, I found this gorgeous material. I’m not even sure where I saw the material, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it was perfect. Em loves cats, and bright colors. Well, this is perfect for her
Em’s Miss Maggie’s
Here’s Em’s Miss Maggie’s:
Oh, I’m loving this too.
I used iridescent hardware for this bag. I thought the shimmer of purple would go beautifully with the bright colors.
Here’s the side view:
You can still see some kitties, but you can also see the black and grey material without the cats that I used for the back. It still gives some visual interest, but doesn’t take away from the front of the bag at all.
Here’s the back with the straps hanging down.
I really like the back of the bag too.
I make my straps longer than the Miss Maggie’s pattern suggests. I make them long enough to make this a shoulder bag.
I also change the straps just a bit more by making them Jazzy. I read a post on Chris W.’s blog about Jazzy straps and have done this a few times now with my straps. You can read how to do it here.
One thing I learned about making Jazzy straps is to use the darker color for the part that will get the most use. I found on my Canada Miss Maggie’s that the straps were showing the most wear at the top where I’d hold them, or where I’d pick up the bag. Using a lighter color there wasn’t the best idea. It might add more pop at the top, but it also shows the most wear there too.
Dressing Up Miss Maggie’s
Miss Maggie’s Handbag doesn’t need a lot of dressing up, but she did get a couple of fun features in the hardware I used.
The first choice I made for Em’s handbag after picking out the fabric was to get the iridescent Long John strap anchors. I love these anchors and have used them most of the time I’ve made this pattern. This was the first time I used the iridescent. They add a lot of bling.
Don’t they look great? I’ve also used iridescent rivets.
I bought some metallic purple faux leather from Emmaline Bags to make a tassel.
That adds just a little more bling to the handbag. And this faux leather is lovely to cut. It’s very soft.
The tassel above is gold because the iridescent ones were out of stock at the time. I have since received the second iridescent tassel, and will give her both… as soon as I make that second one.
The last bit of bling had to be positioned just so.
The Handmade tag had to be positioned just so one of the kitties was looking at it.
Here’s the inside of the handbag.
A lot more bright colors. All the fabrics I used to make Em’s Miss Maggie’s came from the Cat-i-tude line of fabric.
I hope Em loves her gift as much as I loved making it.
Happy New Year & happy creating!
Boxing Day isn’t only an Aussie tradition. It’s also a Canadian tradition, and one I thoroughly enjoy every year.
Don’t you love all these options? I do. Also, I really like the shape of these. For boyshorts, these actually work for me. There is some curve built in.
I made these up from some cotton Lycra I had in my stash. I also tested the pattern for Em in CL.
I really liked this pattern and knew I’d want to make more for myself. Em also requested more. So this style is a hit with both of us. It was time to have some fun with the pattern.
Here’s my Ruby bra. The same lace I used for this bra, and a previous Angie bra, was now being used to make the Clover Boybriefs.
I’ve used black and black cherry cotton Lycra for these, and rather than bands or elastic as the pattern calls for, I’m using black lace trim. I’m loving these panties!
Here they are from the back.
Oh, this is a lovely set. I need to hurry up and get all my gifts sewn up so I can finish a second pair for me, and for Em.
Here’s my pup. Isn’t he adorable? He’s wearing the new suede boots I made him just a few months ago. I can see by the photo that I was still in the process of organizing my sewing room. I’ll share more on that later in this post.
But I do think my cousin was onto a good idea. I’m going to try making the boots with fleece again, but backed with a heavier leather. I’d been using vinyl for the past few years, and I know it doesn’t last.
Those red cords? We call them the mittens of shame. Does anyone remember having a string of yarn running from one mitt through your sleeve, around your back, down the other sleeve and attached to the other mitt? I do. Because our pup lost his boots, he now has to have these fleece cords pinned onto his coat. They can’t come off his boots either because they’re sewn on under the Velcro. A boot may come off once in a while, but they’re not lost anymore.
In the photo above, you can see the set I made, the spare set that’s in process, and a few extras I cut out, but am not sewing just now. Those extras are ‘just in case’. If he gets a hole in a boot, I’ve got spares to replace the holey ones, and spares to replace those!
I was keeping some of my stash in Space Bags. Sadly, this is how they were being stored. Everything was folded, and safe, but it looks a mess.
A few more storage containers, and it’s almost perfectly organized. I think a couple more containers, and it will all be so nice looking.
Maybe next year. I can still close the doors on this and it looks neat.
It was a pleasant surprise to find I knew the other students. We’d all taken either the Beginner Bra-making class or Shelley class at Central last year. And of course, we’d all taken those classes with Jeanette of 
This is the manual we were given. It has the complete Drafting course in it, as well as a bunch of other great resources.
We also got a full set of Long wires, and a complete set of Classic patterns (all the sizes). There were sample packs of duoplex and power net, a notebook, a binder (shown above), a set of curves, and a bra kit with findings. All in a great bag. I’m pretty sure that was the best swag bag ever.
By the end of the first day, we’d all been measured and learned how to measure someone else by measuring one another – all under Jeanette’s instruction. We were almost ready for Day Two, but before that, we had homework to do.
Day Three built upon Day Two. We were starting our lower cup draft. Well, we needed our frame to be done correctly at this point, and the one I had with me in the class still wasn’t corrected. Things weren’t fitting together. Again, Jeanette pointed out what I’d done wrong on my frame. I was back to the drawing board. Literally. I’d had a little more practice drawing frames by Day Three after Day Two’s homework, so it went much more quickly. I was on track in no time. We finished the day with a draft of our lower cup, our upper cup, and lots of information on how to do adjustments if needed.
Something I’ve heard and read repeatedly is: To get accurate measurements you have to start with a well-fitting bra. It’s so true. Jeanette brought fitting bras with her, so we all started with a well-fitting bra to get our measurements. And it works!
On my drafted bra here, I added a couple of features just because I could. I gave this bra a Gothic arch, and a thinned band under the cups. This draft is for a Horizontal seam. This seaming is the basis for the ‘Heather’ bra. The Heather bra is actually a Wacoal bra. It’s the 
I thought it would be fun to see how the same lace can look very different used in different ways. I’ll be using black duoplex and power net for my newest bra.
I really do love this bra. It’s kind of funny, but my hubby is taking all the credit for this bra because he brought the lace back from Amsterdam. We all know there’s a little more to the bra than just lace. But he’s having fun taking credit.
It’s a very pretty pop of color.
Even though I used the same lace on both of these bras, they definitely look different. Do you have a preference? Let me know which one you like best.