Brunch with Bob’s Red Mill
We teamed up with Bob’s Red Mill and expert baker Nicki Sizemore to bring you a FREE brunch baking class! Follow Nicki as she prepares four of her favorite brunch recipes — each sure to impress any crowd.
Can’t Get Enough of Bob’s Red Mill?
You’ll love Nicki Sizemore’s other free class, Holiday Baking, and Cat Ruehle’s free class, Everyday Paleo Baking.
Enjoy!
Last summer I bought some gorgeous floral material to make my favorite Flirt Skirt to wear this summer. I still haven’t done that. I have, however, made two more dresses from the hallå agnes swing top & dress pattern.
This first material has the design as the red top I made, but in blues and I made it as a dress. Here’s the front: 
This dress comes together really quickly with serged seams, and serging used to attach the neckline and armbands.
I had thought I’d change how I attached these bands, but decided to make another change I’ll tell you about below.
Here’s the side view: 
Here’s the red top just as a reminder to see the print on it.
I know my hubby loves blue on me, so I think this blue dress will be his favorite.
This forth agnes is a dress too, in black, white, with little bits of yellow. 
The yellow isn’t very visible in the photo, so here’s a close up:
I think four agneses is a good place to stop for now. I really do love this pattern, and am living in this dress this summer.
One Change
Although, I’m loving all my hallå agnes dresses and top, but there’s one little element I wasn’t loving. The seams are all serged on these dresses and the top. That’s great. The seams all looks nice and neat this way.
However, once these were washed, I found the seams at the neckband and arms were flipping or folding in half. It wasn’t visible from the outside when I was wearing it, but I could see it when I was putting the garment on. I didn’t like it.
Here you can see how the seam has folded up:
My fix for this was to use my coverstitch machine. It worked beautifully too. I’ve finished all my dresses this way now, and no more flipping or folding seams.
One of the things I did to help line up the stitching was to use the markings on the presser foot. That first grove was my guideline. It worked out really well.
Drafting Again
My new wires are here and it’s time to start drafting again! I’ve done a few drafts now, and that’s led to a couple of questions. I’m one or two answers away from drafting, what I hope is, my perfect bra pattern.
Happy creating!
Welcome to my stop on the Canada 150 — In the Bag tour.
This tour is a bag-making, bag designer, bag supplier tour, so by my title, you may have guessed I’m featuring a bag from Emmaline Bags.
Most of the bag patterns shown on our tour were donated to the bloggers by the designers. You will be able to buy them, and maybe even win one. (I’ll be giving away a pattern on June 10th, so keep checking in.)
Here are all our sponsors, but some of these are our Designers too. (At the end of this post there are links to all of our sponsors & designers)
All of our Designers offer great patterns you can purchase, however, I really wanted to show there are free options out there. We are celebrating after all!
The bag I’ve chosen is a pattern from Emmaline Bags – and it is free. In fact, the additions I’ve made to it are all from Emmaline Bags’ blog, so they’re free too. Well, you do have to buy your materials and hardware…
Here’s the pattern I made:
Isn’t that lovely? I’ve been admiring the Miss Maggie’s Handbag since it came out, and dreaming of a leather Miss Maggie. However, I found some perfect fabrics I wanted to use for my Canada 150 bag.
Here’s my Miss Maggie’s Handbag:
Oh, I love it! The material I used for this was created to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday this July 1st. This is Stonehenge Oh Canada by Northcott. I’m including a link for the fabrics just in case you love it too. Being Canadian, I was able to find this at my local quilting shop.
Here’s the back view of my bag:
Nice hardware, eh? Yup. I really do love this bag.
Pockets
The bag is lovely all on it’s own, but I wanted to add a few things. The first thing I added was a zipper pocket inside the bag.
This zipper pocket is the perfect size.
Here’s the tutorial for adding a zipper pocket to a bag.
SEW AN EASY ZIPPER POCKET METHOD 1- A TUTORIAL.
Janelle (owner of Emmaline Bags) says, ‘Everyone needs an internal zipper pocket in their purse or handbag…’ I felt the same way. I love to have a zippered pocket to keep things tucked away and safe. This tutorial was easy too. I had no problems with it whatsoever.
The fabrics I used for the inside of the bag are both special edition fabrics that were created just for Canada’s 150th. The maple leafs (part of the Canadian Sesquicentennial Collection by Northcott) inspired my maple leaf on the front of my bag, and the Canadiana quiz material (same collection as the maple leafs) was just too fun not to use.
More Pockets
The bag comes with one slip pocket included in the pattern.
That pocket is perfect for a cell phone, or anything else you want to keep separate in your bag. I’m thinking my cell and sunglasses!
You can also see in of all of these pocket photos that I’ve added a magnetic clasp for a closure. This closure is what the pattern suggests, and Janelle has a tutorial for that too.
How to Install a Magnetic Snap Closure
Janelle has some really great tips in this tutorial to keep that snap tightly secured, and I followed them.
Bling Bling
I had to add some bling to my bag.
Who could resist a Sewn label? Not me. Anyone who sees my bag will know it’s an original and handcrafted.
The Long John Strap Anchors, the handmade hanging metal tag, and the leather tassel are more bling. Well, the strap anchors are rather practical in that they attach the straps to the bag, but they definitely bring the bling factor.
So much more love!
To make my tassel, it was back to Emmaline Bags’ blog for another tutorial.
HOW TO MAKE A TASSEL: AN EASY BAG MAKING TUTORIAL.
I had so much fun making my tassel. It was extremely satisfying. Leather is so lovely to use. The leather I used for my tassel was from a second-hand score. A box of leather samples and a few other things for $5.
As well as making the tassel from my upcycled leather, I also made a gorgeous Maple leaf – the symbol on Canada’s flag.
Over the top love!
All the beautiful bling I bought (commonly called hardware) came from Emmaline Bags’ online store. Unfortunately, it’s not free. But you do have a chance to win some.
Hardware Tip & More
In the Miss Maggie pattern, it’s suggested to keep the plastic protective covering on your hardware while you sew your bag. That makes a lot of sense, but some of my hardware didn’t come with plastic on it.
I used some Press & Seal to cover my hardware during the sewing process and it worked perfectly!
There were no scratches to any of my hardware this way. Not only does Beverly Johnson (The Fairy Bra Mother) tell us how to clone a bra with Press & Seal, but now I can see another great reason why we all need this in our sewing rooms! You can see I started by covering my hardware with a bit of felt. The Press & Seal was faster and no pins.
I have one more little tip for you. To attach the magnetic clasp, I needed double-sided fusible interfacing. I know I had some, but I could not find it anywhere. I happen to have lots of single sided interfacing though and more than one sewing machine.
I sewed a strip of interfacing together with the glue sides out. It worked perfectly under the magnetic closure.
How to Win
For my give-away in the Canada 150 – It’s in the Bag tour, I’m giving away a PDF pattern from Emmaline Bags.
Comment on my post about your biggest sewing failure for a chance to win. Marsha (Seam of my Pants) has already picked the winning post number for me. All you have to do is post. The winner will be announced on the 10th.
As well, on the 10th I’ll be sharing my project that didn’t work out for this tour.
Enjoy the rest of our tour.
Happy 150th Canada!
&
Happy creating!
Each blog has an exclusive giveaway, so be sure to visit them all.
(These links will be active on and after the day they are scheduled.)
Tangled Blossoms Design ◊ With Love in Every Stitch ◊ Happy Okapi
Michelle’s Creations ◊ Barabooboo ◊ Soca Sewing
Glitter in my Coffee ◊ Michelle’s Creations ◊ Seam of my Pants
Seam of my Pants ◊ Creative Roots Sewing ◊ Happy Okapi
Giveaway ends at midnight EDT (North America)
CANADA DAY 150
Please join us in thanking our tour sponsors by visiting their websites.
* Jewellery is the Canadian spelling.
Craftsy is saying it’s National Handbag day and has a great blog post with some free bag patterns. It’s Thanksgiving Day in Canada. I’m good with celebrating both!
Here’s a wonderful free bag with a tutorial.
This pattern comes from the instructor of Craftsy class Mix & Match Clutch Bag Techniques, so you can bet it’ll be a great tutorial! The small handbag is perfect for quick trips when you need just a few things.
Happy creating!