Beth Skwarecki

This is my latest sewing project. I had made a flowery shoulder bag before, based on these instructions. The bag was lovely, but I don't own anything that really goes with a blue-and-white flowered bag. (Well, except for the skirt that I made from the same fabric). So I thought I'd make something a little more "me".

I had a plan: black denim for the outside (black goes with everything; denim is nice and durable) and I'd patch some of my scraps together to make the lining. I followed the plan until inspiration struck, I stitched a rocketship onto the pocket, and suddenly the bag was really really cool, far cooler than any patchwork scrap lining could ever hope to live up to. So I scrapped the scraps and found some red fabric.

I'm really happy with how the embroidery turned out, but the truth is, you shouldn't be too impressed. While this stuff takes a little bit of patience, it's not hard at all. I traced the image onto the fabric with a dressmaker's pencil, then I stitched over the lines (slowly! patiently!) with a straight stitch on my sewing machine. It's fortunate that the design was small, because I can't do slowly and patiently for more than about two minutes.

I've started a photoset on flickr for clothes and accessories I've made for myself. I'm really enjoying my time at Wardrobe Refashion. Shopping for clothes is no fun, but making them is really cool.

I'm starting to get annoyed with the selection of fabrics in town. JoAnn's is the only fabric store I know of, and most of their stuff is either polyester, or quilting fabric. I did find a good online place to buy cotton: Organic Cotton Plus. Their selection and prices look really good.

Anybody have other suggestions for favorite online fabric stores? I'm especially interested in linen, wool, silk, that sort of thing. Polyester and quilting fabric I can find anywhere :)