4-H Demo: Making a Drawstring Bag

I recently did a 4-H Public Presentation on sewing a drawstring bag. I took my sewing machine and demonstrated making the bag and sewing the casing. I showed how to put the drawstring in and told everybody why you always sew on the wrong side.

These are my tips and instructions for making the bag.

This is me practicing- only during the demo I was facing the audience.

My awe-inspiring poster (I used The Synonym Finder for this description) As a side note, The Synonym Finder is immensely satisfying (and I did not use the finder for the word immensely. I just thought of it.)

My brother suggested that my sewing machine is enigmatic*. And I'll agree because it has many groovy buttons. As in cool. Did you know, according to The Synonym Finder, there are 11 kinds of cool? Some of them sort of say what I want to say, but not really. So, I went with groovy.

I enjoyed it because I like speaking to the public and sewing is extra awesome! In dictating this to my mom, I used my language arts lesson on not using "commonly overused words". How did I do?

I get to go on to the next level and present it again. And I hope to move on to the level after that, but that will be it because this year this is no "level after that" (state level).

* Enigmatic- go ahead...look it up!

** Disclaimer- Heather (Mom) is only the stenographer. She had almost nothing to do with the moments with The Synonym Finder unless you count that both E12 and R10 were doing an assignment on humor along with being challenged not to use overly used common words. It's all about application and I'm pretty sure I could make a mint on writing lessons to go with nothing but a dictionary and thesaurus!

Pin Cushion

I made this cool pin cushion at my sewing school last fall. I love it especially because I can wear it on my wrist. There's some cardboard in there protecting my wrist from the pins.

It fits around my wrist and we had to sew velcro on the band.

We also had to attach the flower part to the band really well. I put my signature star stitch in there to hold it together tightly. This was a fun project!

My Secret Lair

It is wonderful to have my own space to work. Since I got a sewing machine for Christmas, I can sew up in my room too. I have art strips above my desk to hold my art work. I can do art, crafting, and sewing there.

This is it...my own secret lair!

My sewing library

My sewing basket and mini dress form

My artsy craftsy books. When my mom helped me to re-organize, we put some up in my closet. These are the ones I use most often.

I recently got some hat boxes from my Great-Great Aunt and two of them will go here and hold some of my fabric for quick projects. I really like hat boxes!

This is my paper stash. I love paper. Behind the paper is my bead box. I also love beads.

Here are my drawing supplies and behind it is my scrapbooking box.

My new sewing machine fits right back there so I can still have room to be crafty without it!

This one shows my art strips too. My mom designed this spot and my dad built it. My mom painted the art strips...do you see the glitter?

This picture shows my cool chair. It's a classroom chair, but my mom likes it because it has rounded edges and is carpet friendly. This one is a teacher sized chair so I can use it for a long time.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my Secret Lair (mine because my mom has one too). This is such a fun place for me! And generally my brothers don't venture in. Did you know I have three brothers?

December Craft Sale 2010

I participated in the craft fair put on by my sewing school. I made three colored pencil rolls and three needle books for the event. I sold all but one colored pencil roll! During the craft fair I was able to spend time with other crafty ladies. It was fun and I'd like to do it again sometime.

How to Make a Colored Pencil Roll

You'll need felt and some cotton fabric along with pinking shears, pins and ribbon.

Pin one piece of felt to one piece of cotton. Cut it out to match the size of the felt with pinking shears.

Pin the ribbon folded in half to one side of the roll (this was my mistake the first time). Sew around the edge about 1/4 inch from the edge. Sew a few times over the ribbon area using reverse on your machine.

Fold up the edge on one end making sure the felt side is in. Sew the edges up and mark the seams every half inch using a ruler and a marking pencil and sew the seams to make the slots for the pencils. The only thing I would do differently is to use felt by the yard so I could make it just a big longer. That way I could fold the top down over the pencils before rolling. Considering I didn't use a pattern, I think these turned out really well!

Colored Pencil Rolls- First Attempt

My first try...I like the colors a lot, but I didn't do the tie correctly. I fixed that in the next try and I had a cute roll for colored pencils. I'll show you how I fixed it next.

This is me at my mom's machine- same brand as mine but older! We didn't use a pattern so we sort of went by trial and error. I sure had fun putting them together!

Quilt Making

I have been working on a quilt from the Corps of Re-Discovery. It was part of the fabric stash and small projects that I took to my room and out of my mom's secret lair. I just followed the directions to make the 9 Patch quilt squares. It's coming together pretty well.

I hope you liked seeing how I've been putting these quilt squares together. I can't wait until the quilt is finished. The directions from the Corps of Re-Discovery are easy to follow and these little videos were fun to make.

Just so you know...it turns out that I really don't like actually blogging! So, from now on I will continue to write in my sewing journal and my mom will take those entries and share them here on Miss Bliss with you. My mom thinks that is a winning compromise- especially since it involves writing practice!