It felt like ages since I last sat down to sew. No inspiration. But I was still using the bag I made myself last spring and I really needed something else. Of course I still had this one (the very first bag I made!) and this one (first with zipper), but I really liked the elastic pocket. That pocket was everything I hoped it to be. So easy when I’m working (I’m a freelance reporter) to be able to just pull out my notebook and pen, instead of having to open zippers or dig around in a big tote.
This bag has the same big elastic frontpocket, with small pockets for pens and my cellphone in it. Inside the main bag there are two zippered pockets and it closes with a zipper. I think I finally get the hang of putting in zippers!

That’s why I went ahead and used up some of my bigger scraps to make these zippered pouches. I think I will make more, fill them with something appropriate for each family member and use them as gifts for Sinterklaas. (Um…I hope there are no family members who read this blog instead of or next to my dutch blog!) Oh yes, only six weeks left! I really need to start making and buying. Such fun!

Look at the mess I make when sewing! It started out in nice little piles, but it always ends up like this…

I seem to have lost my creative flow lately. Maybe I need to reconsider where my stuff goes. It’s kind of hidden now and I seem to forget about the things I’m making. But maybe it just this phase of “not feeling very well” I am going through (this too will pass, this too will pass…).
Anyway, today I finally got my act together and made something. Remember the quiltsquares? They were fun to make and I even made some more, but the squares didn’t look right to me. The pillowcases just didn’t have the right combinations of colors and prints.  So I decided to use the vintage pillowcases for a simpler design and wait with the stars and other fun designs until I can buy better quilting fabrics.
I cut the squares during my summerbreak and I even managed to sew them into pairs. And than I forgot about them for a month.

Today I remembered and I finished the quilttop. I did all the sewing on my vintage sewingmachine and I am finally getting the hang of that too. I am quite pleased with how it looks. I am going to back and bind it with a vintage sheet I have (yay! more stash busting!).

Now I need to get myself some batting and finish the quilt. I think I’ll leave it on top of the closet to remind myself…

During my break I cleaned out my fabric stash. In my refound enthousiasm for sewing I had accumulated an awful lot this past two years. I looked at every thing and didn’t just ask myself if I liked it (because I did – or else I would have bought it), but if I was really going to use it (not my own wisdom, I read that Amanda cleaned up her stash like that).
A lot went (back) to the thriftstore.
There were two fabrics that were bugging me. Children’s print, farms. Was I going to use those? But I liked them too much to let go of them. When I saw them together I figured they would be perfect for a quilt. So that’s what I made. I cut around the holes in the vintage fabric and combined it with some terry that I had no other use for.
Now it’s a quilt, but I still don’t know what to do with it. I did have fun making it though and that’s what counts.

 

A present for my mother. I wish I could take credit for the embellishment, but that was already on the fabric.

I have been thinking a lot about the way my crafting has evolved lately. And I don’t mean that in a good way.
It is reassuring that I’m not the only one, but that post and some short reactions back and forth have triggered even more thinking.
When I started knitting and later sewing about two years ago, I was so excited about the things I made. I knit myself some cardigans and made some bags for myself and the kids. Oh, and I had a lot of fun knitting my whole family scarves as a Sinterklaassurprise.
But something changed. People who used to be inspirational for me, started to be an example. That may sound ridiculous, but it’s the best way I can describe it. Instead of triggering creative processes in my mind, I started wanting to be like them.
I wanted people coming to my blog and tell me how fabulous my crafting was (it isn’t, I’m not that talented, I know) just like they did with those blogs. Also most of those people I admired had shops and their stuff sold like crazy. So I opened an Etsy shop too.
That was a stupid thing to do. I started making things to sell and that made my crafting very selfconscious. The more I wanted things to be perfect, the more mistakes I saw. I have blogged about that frustration before, I think.
I even started collecting fabrics to make stuff to sell, again, copying the fabulous stashes I saw online. For me having a big stash (well, not that big compared to some others, but for me and for the little house I live in it’s a big stash) is not a good thing. I thought it would be like having my own little shop, but instead it frustrates me. It makes me feel that there is so much work to do. I need to cut down on that too.
I have a stupid pile of bags laying in my closet. They are not selling, because they are not that special. I think most people who would like a bag like that are able to make them theirselves.
Yesterday, I was finishing two other bags. Made from vintage pillowcases, made carefully, hoping to be able to sell them. And suddenly Beki’s post came to my mind again. And I realized I was not having fun at all. I was just being frustrated at some stupid stitches that weren’t as straight as I wanted them.
I did finish the bags, but than put the whole shop thing out of my mind. I started cutting into some other pillowcases (saved to make bags to sell) and started putting together a quiltblock. I have been wanting to try that for a long time, but I was always thinking about that shop that still had zero sells. Time for sewing had turned into “now I have to make something that others will like” instead of “let’s have some fun”.
I did have fun with the quilt block. It was not perfect, nor were the other two I made. But that didn’t matter, since this is going to be my own quilt.

And now I’m with Beki. I’m going to play from now on. Have some fun, make things just because I like making things. The shop will be closed, maybe even deleted if I have the courage (it is kind of hard to let go of dreams.)
Also, I’m taking a blogbreak for the rest of the summer. For the mainly the same reasons. I love being a (very small) part of the craftblogging community, but lately I’m asking myself if I’m not too obsessed with it.
I have been struggling to come up with a post every day and sometimes feel like I’m doing things to blog about them instead of just documenting my life. I have been deleting blogs a lot since I started blogging in 2001, but I always started missing it after a while, regretting I deleted things. I don’t want to do it like that again. I’m just giving myself some time off, to find my way back to having fun and being at peace with myself and the things I do.
I hope to return here on the 1st of September with lots of fun crafting and nice pictures.
Hope you all have a good summer, filled with lots of fun!

E. needed something to keep her hair out of her face when dancing. So I made this simple hair band, with some elastic in the back. The embroidery was already on the fabric.

When I was making this bag, I thought I finally had it. Perfect stitching, great combination of vintage fabrics. This just could become my first sale on Etsy.
But then I ironed it one more time (you know, to make it even more perfect for the pictures), somehow got stuck behind the zipper and made a nasty spot that won’t come out.
Oh well, I’ll keep it for myself. I do like it.

A request from my brother: a manly bag to hold his lunch at work.

I have been on a sewing binge today. Three bags, a summer skirt and this organizer. It was a great way to use some of my stash of brown vintage fabrics. The back is made from old kitchen curtains, the pockets are from vintage pillowcases. I love how they look combined. As soon as I hanged it, I stuffed it with all the things that were looking messy on the coatrack and it’s kind of full already. Still need to declutter!

Look what I bought myself! A real vintage (antique?) handsewing machine. What’s even better: it works and it works silently. That means I can sew (only straight stitches, but still, it’s a start) when dh is working at home. Maybe now I will be able to finish things…