Going round with green

I was fairly unproductive over the weekend in terms of working on my 15 page research paper. But I did manage to make a pattern AND sew something from it. Golly gee, did I feel productive! Well... maybe not where I need to feel productive in. I should have been looking at pyramids, not swirly green fabric.

See, isn’t the green fabric pretty? And tempting? How could I say no to making something pretty out of that fabric? Well, I couldn’t. I have a hobo bag I bought from Target a few years ago and it’s slowly starting to come apart. I thought it would be a good idea to create a pattern from what I liked about it. This pattern needs a bit of tweaking to it, but overall I’m happy with how it worked out.

I made a few changes to the Target bag, like not putting in any lining. I didn’t get my head around how to do that until I was putting the finishing touches on my lovely green bag. I may add lining at a later date, but that’s when I buy more fabric. I’m trying to deplete my excessive stash that I brought down to Georgia with me and it’s slow going. The skirt I made was another project from my stash and I have a second purse in the work. We shall see what else comes from the stash in terms of projects.

And yes, I'm modeling the bag in my pj's. I remembered to photograph this right before NCIS yesterday, and I was all ready for bed before hand. I wear socks with skirts and am ready for bed by 8... Not really, just the random times I remember 'oh hey I need to take a picture!'

Falling for mums

Back in July and August, before I moved down to Georgia I had a little bit of fun with my camera's macro option. As usual... Outside in my front yard my mother had planted mums. I think by the time August rolled around she was quite frustrated with them. They look lovely when they're in bloom, but once they wilt they look hideous! Just when my mother went to pull the plants up, they'd have flowers again. Ah, the endless cycle of nature.

I had the opportunity one day to take my camera and capture some of the flowers beauty before the died and annoyed my mother even further. I was so happy with the clarity in these. Even though my camera says it has a 10x zoom, sometimes the zoom isn't clear, or agreeable. I managed to get a few really nice shots and I thought I'd share. Here is one of the red/orange mums.

I love the contrasting colors of the petals to the inner section and the scattered of the yellow/white around the center. The combination of colors reminds me of the fall leaves. The leaves which Georgia is lacking here. As my roommate has said, the leaves don't change colors, they just die right off the trees. I feel Georgia's fall isn't as spectacular as it is up north, but I am partial to the northern weather habits.

Plaid winter wishing skirt

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. Yet... I've been super busy adjusting to graduate school down here in Georgia. This weekend was super fun with 3 days of work and an annotated bibliography, test, and presentation all on Monday. Today I have a project due as well. All of that school work left no time for sewing, it's going to send me into withdrawn, not a good thing!

I did manage to get a skirt sewn a few weeks ago. I know, I'm horrible at getting things posted. It took me forever to get a picture of it and then I got distracted (by homework, shiny objects, and perhaps a glass of wine...).

I whipped the skirt together without a pattern, not bad for never doing something like this before. The material is bottom suiting, so it's a bit thick and was a pain and a half to attempt to iron flat (let's just say it didn't happen in some places, stupid stubborn material). I won't be able to wear the skirt for another month or three as it's still 80 degrees down here in Georgia. I believe the skirt would be better off in my native Ohio for this time of year.

Do pardon the socks here, my feet were cold. I slipped the skirt on before I walked to class, which requires wearing socks. Why you ask? Because it takes 40 minutes for me to travel from my apartment to the building where I have classes. Yes, it's a long walk, but it goes by fast for the most part. I may sew later on today, so let's hope there isn't as much of a gap between posts. Or I may just have to start posting about what I'm learning in class. Anyone up for architecture history?