handmade sale

Just like so many of you I am a maker. I enjoy sewing things all - the - time. When I'm happy, I sew. When I'm sad, I sew even more. When I'm in between, I still sew and enjoy every single minute of it. 

All this sewing, of course, means that I have way too many pouches, bags, quilts, pillows, etc. sitting in my cabinet taking up precious real estate and not being used.

So, I decided that every once in a while, when things get sort of out of control, I'll do a handmade sale and put all the brand new, lovingly sewn, but not needed in our house items for sale in my etsy shop.

Here's just a sampling of what's available for this first edition of handmade sale.

Hope they'll find good new homes soon.

PS:Tomorrow is our first day of summer break. Wish me luck, keeping three kids from being glued to some sort of screen all the time is hard work. There might be quite a lot of stress relieving sewing in my future :).

Svetlana

ella bucket bag {new pdf pattern}

I'm super excited to be releasing a new Ella Bucket Bag (previously introduced as Skopelos bag) pdf pattern today, yay. 

I know my opinion is biased here, but I really, really love this bag. Its size, and shape, and its sturdiness make it a perfect summer bag.

See, I packed quite a few things in already and I still have room for some snacks and other little odds and ends I need when out and about with my three lovely offsprings. Just two more days and their summer break starts, I'd better be ready.

And this flush zipper pocket is great for keeping my phone and wallet safe and within easy reach. No more having to dump the contents of my whole bag just to find my phone or house key :).

Finished size of the bag is 10” wide on bottom, 19” wide on top x 13” high x 7” deep.

Materials needed to make this bag:
½ yard fabric A for main exterior
¾ yard fabric B for main exterior + handles
¾ yard fabric C for lining
½ yard fabric D for pockets
3 yards SF101 interfacing (or other medium weight fusible interfacing of choice)
optional: ¾ yard interlining fabric (canvas, denim, or some other heavier weight fabric) to make   your bag sturdier
7” long metal or nylon zipper
1 magnetic snap closure

Difficulty level: advanced beginner, prior knowledge of working with zippers is highly recommended.

A big thank you goes to my lovely pattern testers who provided useful notes on how to improve my pattern as well as made these fantastic bags themselves. Enjoy :).

Annette made this beautiful summer bag for a friend of hers. Love the fabrics Annette chose, so bright and happy.

I love this big graphic dot fabric Vicki chose for her bag. So chic and stylish, especially when combined with gray. Perfection for sure :).

My lovely friend Rachel made this gorgeous Lizzy House bag. Super fun, isn't it? I so very much love this combination of denim and beautiful butterflies.

Rachel is getting ready for a class with Lizzy House, I think she's more than ready :). So much gorgeousness loaded in that bag.

♥♥♥♥

What do you say? Would you like to make Ella Bucket Bag of your own? I'm offering this pattern at an introductory price of $7.00 for the next 48 hours.

You can buy the pattern by clicking directly on the button below or by going to my Etsy shop.

buy this pattern
 

Happy sewing, friends. Svetlana

simple does it

Last time I went to Ikea I found the squishiest rectangular pillow form ever. And since I adore both squishy and rectangular pillows, I simply had to take it home with me :).

My plan was to make a simple, low-key pillow cover. I was going for that old time-y feel so I used mostly light colored scraps plus some of the beautiful men's shirt fabric my friend Jamie sent me a while back.

I also went with a super simple backing and very minimal quilting. And, I adhered fusible fleece to both front and back panel before quilting them.

Originally I was going to install my trusty hidden zipper closure. At the last minute, though, I decided to do an invisible zipper. And I'm so glad I did. I think it fits this pillow well and I'm pretty impressed with how invisible the zipper really is.

In case you wonder about measurements, the pillow form is 16" tall x 26" wide.
I cut 25 - 3.5" x 5.5"  rectangles and the finished pillow cover measures 15" x 25" - I always make my pillow covers slightly smaller than forms as this prevents floppy, lifeless pillows :).

Thanks for reading. Svetlana

{how to} make wrist strap for a pouch

Hello everyone, today I'd like to share a quick little tutorial on how to make a wrist strap which can be added to pretty much any pouch you make.

To make one wrist strap and one D-ring tab you will need:

one 2" x 17" strip of quilting cotton fabric of choice

one 1/2" D-ring

one 1/2" swivel hook

1. Place 2” x 17” strip of fabric right side down on ironing board. Fold in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, press. Open the strip, press long raw edges towards middle.

2. Fold in half again and press (raw edges are hidden inside). Cut your strip into one 2” long strip and one 15” long strip.

3. Pin the open edge of the 2" strip and stitch along both long edges using 1/8" seam allowance. Pull D-ring through the strip, fold in half, stitch along the raw edge to form a loop.

4. Pull swivel hook through the long strip making sure not to twist the fabric. Open both short raw edges, align them and pin together (right sides are together).

5. Stitch along the pinned edge using 1/4" seam allowance. 

6. Press the seam open. Your wrist strap forms one continuous loop now.

7. Refold long raw edges towards the middle seam again, press. Use pins or Wonder Clips to hold layers aligned. Stitch along both long edges using 1/8" seam allowance taking the pins/clips out as you go.

8. Position your seam over swivel hook, fold the strap in half. Use pins of clips to hold strap edges aligned and stitch across the strap (going back and forth a few times) about 1/2" from swivel hook to keep it from sliding around.

9. That's it. You're all done. Now simply attach D-ring with its loop to right side of exterior panel of your pouch before sewing exterior panels together (I usually attach it about 1" from the top edge) and add wrist strap once the pouch is finished.

Hope you find this tutorial helpful. 

Enjoy your weekend everyone. Svetlana

let's mingle {a finished quilt}

It's been a while since I had a new quilt-y finish to share which makes writing about this half rectangle triangle quilt - Let's Mingle that much more fun.

I started this quilt months ago and I enjoyed making the blocks quite a lot (more info here), but once main blocks were done I got stuck. I wanted to add a plain border but had a hard time deciding which color to go with. It was between white, gray, and light blue. As you can see, light blue won and I went with a thick-ish border of uneven width.

I wanted to hand quilt Let's Mingle at first, but I soon realized there simply was not enough time in my day to take on a big project like that. So, I went with my trusty straight lines but decided to outline larger and smaller diamonds formed by half rectangle triangles.

Now, I absolutely love the finished quilt and I adore the way quilting looks but let me tell you, this quilting design was not really my brightest idea ever. I was using my regular Juki sewing machine and walking foot for all the quilting and there were crazy amounts of stops and turns as well as shoving the whole quilt through the machine's harp space a million times.

Let's Mingle finished at 58" x 69". It's beautifully soft and squishy, just perfect for some summer napping:).

I'm submitting Let's Mingle to Home Machine Quilted category in Blogger's Quilt Festival. Did you have a peek? There are tons of absolutely stunning quilts on display.

Have a lovely day friends. Svetlana

sew organized for the busy girl {blog hop}

Hello, welcome to my stop celebrating Heidi's gorgeous retro style book Sew Organized for the Busy Girl.

Not only is this book full of wonderful sewing projects, it also gives tons of very useful advice on how to get better organized as well as how to make the most of the sewing time we have. I love how down to earth and totally doable Heidi's advice is and I'll be definitely implementing lots of her ideas to get my sewing space in better shape :).

 As far as projects in this book go, I love how they range from pouches to pillows, to more complicated, yet not too time consuming quilts. Pictures above show two of my favorites: Brass Ring Pillow and Summer Tourist Quilt. Don't you just love that styling? So beautiful.

And since I think one can never have too many pincushions, I decided to make Heidi's Deluxe Pincushion. It's wonderfully big and I adore the addition of patchwork pocket. I used some of my favorite scraps in combination with linen and some Doe cotton to make my pincushion. Plus, I added a little bit of hand stitching for some added interest. ♥♥♥ how it turned out.

I think Sew Organized for the Busy Girl would be a great book to add to any quilter's library. I will definitely be reaching for my copy soon as I have quite a few projects from the book on my very long to do list already :). 

Hope you'll stick around and see what others have created using Heidi's book. Here's the line up:

March 30 - Lynne of Lily's Quilts (Tour Kickoff & Book Giveaway!)

April 6 -      Jodi of Tales of Cloth & Angela of Cut to Pieces

April 13 -     Lindsay of Craft Buds & Debbie of A Quilter's Table

April 20 -    Leanne of She Can Quilt

April 27 -    Fat Quarter Shop

May 4 -      Erin of Why Not Sew?

May 11 -      Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts

May 18 -     Svetlana of SOTAK Handmade (we are here)

May 25 -    Lucy of Charm About You

June 1 -       Maureen of Maureen Cracknell Handmade

June 8 -      Becca of Bryan House Quilts

June 15 -     Beth of Plum & June

June 22 -    Jessica of Quilty Habit

June 29 -    Caroline of Sew Can She

July 6 -       Heidi of Fabric Mutt (Tour Wrap!)

Talk to you soon. Svetlana

blogger's spring quilt festival 2015

Hello, happy Saturday to you all!

Can you believe Blogger's Quilt Festival is already here? I must admit, it sort of crept up on me this year but I'm glad to have a chance to talk about one of my very favorite quilts once again. 

I pieced this My Way Home quilt using a combination of cotton, linen, and corduroy fabrics and I knew right from the beginning I'd be hand quilting it.

Because to me, this very simple patchwork was just a perfect canvas to showcase hundreds and hundreds of small hand stitches. I used Perle Cotton #8 for hand quilting and the final texture of the quilt is just incredible. I wish you could touch and feel how soft and drapey this quilt became.

And since this quilt was about getting out of my comfort zone and trying out some new things, I decided to forgo the usual binding and finished the quilt without it. I've seen quite a few Kantha quilts being finished this way so I thought why not?

Finished size of this quilt is 49" x 58".

I'm submitting it to Hand Quilted category over at Amy's. Hope you're submitting some of your quilts (up to two entries are allowed) and you'll stop by to see all the amazing beauties already showcased.

Wishing you all a very lovely weekend. Svetlana

handmade style basket

Anna's blog (noodlehead) was one of the first blogs I discovered when I started sewing and I've admired her gorgeously refined style and eye for color ever since. I made tons of bags and pouches using Anna's patterns and her free tutorials. So, of course when I heard she wrote a book I rushed to pre-order my copy and I was anxiously waiting for it to arrive.

Well, the book finally landed in my mailbox yesterday afternoon and what a treat it is. It's a beautiful, well written, gorgeously styled book full of fantastic projects. Would you think I went crazy if I told you I already sewed a basket from the book this morning? Yes, I'm definitely not wasting any time here :).

I added Annie's Soft and Stable instead double sided stabilizer to the exterior panels as I wanted my basket to be soft yet sturdy at the same time. Plus, I love the texture and the look of simple straight line quilting.

I used two different linen fabrics from my stash. I think they play quite nicely together, don't you agree? And I even cut into my long hoarded Amy Butler polka dots for the lining.

I love how this basket turned out. ♥♥♥

Seriously. Linen, dots, leather handles. So many of my favorites in one project.

And I especially love the way handles are installed. Such a genius idea.

Off I go, more projects to be made :).

Talk to you soon. Svetlana

Linking up to Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

fannie pouch {a new pdf pattern}

Hello, happy Monday to you all!

I'm super excited to show you my newest pdf pattern today.

Ta - da!!! Fannie Pouch!

I designed this pouch mostly with my teenage daughters in mind as I wanted them to have a safe place for their phones and some cash when they are out and about with their friends without having to carry real purses around.

The pattern, however, also includes instructions on how to add a thin detachable handle which makes for a lovely convertible pouch that can be worn both attached to belt loops of your favorite jeans or carried as a regular little purse.

Its finished size is 6.5" wide x 4" tall x 1" deep so it's a perfect size to fit your phone, some cash, sunglasses, and even a few other necessities in.

I love using hardware when making my bags and pouches as I think it adds extra polished touch to a finished product. This little pouch uses swivel hooks, D-rings, as well as heavy duty snaps for closure. I bought my swivel hooks and d-rings on Etsy here, and snaps are from Joann.

This is a beginner friendly pattern and here's the list of materials needed to make one Fannie pouch:

1 FQ fabric A (main exterior, flap lining, swivel clasp tabs, handle)

1 FE fabric B (flap exterior, pocket)

1 FE fabric C (lining)

12” x 18” fusible fleece

2 heavy duty snaps - size 24 – 5/8”

2 – 1 1/4” swivel clasps with 1/2” loop end

2 – 1/2” D-rings

What do you think? Would you like to make a Fannie pouch of your own? I'm offering this pdf pattern at an introductory price of $5.00 for the next 48 hours.

You can purchase this pattern by clicking on the button below or by going to my Etsy shop.

buy this pattern

Thanks so much for stopping by. Wishing you all a super creative week. Svetlana

caravan zipper pouch

Anna's newest Caravan zipper pouch has been on my to do list for some time now. I bought a pattern a while back and I was saving it for when I wanted to take a little break from all the things that needed to be done and simply sew with no specific purpose in mind :). And today seemed like a perfect day to do just that.

I kept the exterior of the pouch quite low key (a combination of text quilting cotton + yarn dyed linen) but decided the pouch needed a little pop of color so I used this bright yellow fabric for the lining. And a metal zipper, of course. I simply can't get enough of metal zippers these days.

It's a pretty big pouch, perfect for my growing collection of snaps, setting tools, and pliers. Ever since I started this serious obsession with pouches and bags the amount of tools, snaps, clasps, ... I now own has multiplied tremendously. Which is not such a bad thing, really, since this justifies making yet more pouches to hold all the stuff :).

This pattern is well written and easy to follow and I would very highly recommend you give it a try. The only changes I made was to add interfacing to lining as well as exterior panels and I added a little ribbon tab to the side. Also, I used 30wt thread for topstitching.

And now it's back to laundry and getting some dinner done :).

Talk to you soon. Svetlana

Linking up to Finish it up Friday.