Monday, November 26, 2007

one bag to rule them all

It being Thanksgiving weekend, and the time for my annual Lord of the Rings at-home filmfest, I couldn't resist the title. Instead of cheering Aragorn and co. on, I chose to spend a good chunk of the weekend sewing Amy Butler's Nappy Bag.
Details: Nappy Bag Pattern, bought in Portland at some very high-end fabric store. Fabric: Kaffe Fassett, Pinking Flower design. Lined in olive green poly-cotton, and reinforced with some cotton canvas that used to serve as a birdcage cover, back in my bird owning days. I am altogether pleased with this effort; the pattern is clear and easy to follow, and printed on heavy paper that one can use again and again. I LOVE the fabric, the late-summer colors, with it's whole Indian print/vintage soft-around-the-edges look going on. My topstitching was nice and even, and the bag has many, many pockets inside. I can see this getting a lot of use, at work, for travel, the gym, the beach, knit night, etc.

Still leaves me not watching Lord of the Rings, but hey, Christmas holidays are coming...

In other news, I decided to organize all my sewing things in a basket. Actually, everything was in this basket before, but just kinda dumped in, and it was really quite the nightmare to find anything. I used all the little Clinique and Aveda zippy bags I owned to organize thread, bobbins, sewing notions, tools, etc. in the basket. I don't sew that much, but having everything accessible might make it more appealing.


Really, the whole weekend was about getting my life back in some sort of control. I did things like deep clean the bathroom, laundry, take long walks with the dogs, and generally try and gear up for a season I do not care for in the least. At least the waning moon provokes my desire to purge things, so maybe the housecleaning binge will continue.

We also worked out the perfect martini, which consists of 1/2 gin, 1/2 vodka, vermouth and olive juice. Named it the LeahTina, for my two friends who feel strongly about what goes in a martini. Leah describes gin as "a bitch" and Tina, when asked if she had any vodka (for Leah) simply asked "why?" The LeahTina is a perfect drink, junipery and clean like gin, but smoother and maybe a little bit more dangerous, made so by the vodka's evil ways. Oh, and I found out that Franklin Delano Roosevelt used to call cocktail hour "the children's hour."

4 comments:

Acornbud said...

One bag..., heh, cracked me up:) I love the bag. The fabric is very pretty. Deep cleaning the bathroom is a fantasy of mine.

Lucy Barber said...

That new martini sounds like sacrilege to me -- but it does bridge the east coast/west coast divide about martinis. Since I don't drink them, I'll just have to wonder.

My "waning moon" inspired an attack on the papers piled upstairs. It was partly successful though piles do remain. Still, most unopened envelopes were either opened or discarded.

Unknown said...

we've been all about the pear martinis lately. i know, i know, so fruity and not an olive in sight. but still, yummy.

before i zoomed in on the bag's fabric, i thought the pattern might have been persimmons! looks great and i can't wait to see it in action (holding yarn of course, perhaps dyed w/persimmons?). brilliant idea to repurpose the bird cage cover in this project.

i have to wonder if p read your entry and was prompted by the LOTR talk to finally get out the bowenite/greenstone/tangiwai pendant we got while there. tradition dictates that the presenter dips it in the ocean and then professes his love or whatever to the recipient. the sneaky guy did so on our birthday beach walk at dawn. pah! not a bad way to start the day. we'd gladly join you for some filmfest, either at your place or ours. would even show you our site guide and pictures of us geeking out on location.

Opal said...

Oh you rock the bag! I just love it. I'm so envious of your mad sewing skillz.