The rest of the story

I didn't have a restful sleep last night, and I'm paying for it today. I've been in a brain fog all day, that doesn't seem to be diminishing. I'm just - foggy, groggy, and now, bloggy.

But I managed to finish the wee purse. When I got back from my morning work, I took the purse apart and started the construction part again, because I conceived of a better, prettier way to finish it.

This was the second time I was taking the stitches out of this purse. Last night, I originally made it a different shape and size, more like a phone case or eyeglasses case than a purse. It looked like crap. Imagine if you will, a narrow, flat, boring small fabric bag. That's what I had at 11 p.m.

During my Downton Abbey viewing time, I had cut out four square (more or less) side panels and two half-circles for the bottom, planning to make a drawstring reticule (if you read Jane Austen, you'll know what that word means. If you don't - what's wrong with you??). But then I tried the flatter small bag idea, with only two side panels, and using the half-circle pieces as lower halfs of the panels, not a flat bottom. So it looked like a rectangle with one curved end. In other words, CRAP.

Went back to the reticule idea, and got the four side panels sewn into a tube, and the two half-circles sewn into a circle, to sew to one end of the tube. It was a little... on the stubby side, shall we say; a little too short to really hold anything.

So my finishing idea today was to add a green silk band to the top of the tube, and put the drawstring inside that band.

It took most of the afternoon to redo and finish the purse, but it's much better than my original concept. This is how I design in general - ideas come to me in bursts and pops and sudden swoops, and while it's a pain to redo something, the final outcome is almost always worth the hassle.

A little teaser

Sunday's creation was almost a failure.

This happened last night. I've been anticipating this night for a while now, and thought, "What could be better than a 'Downton Abbey'-inspired creation??" Something beautiful and luxurious. A friend suggested an exquisite hairpiece - and when I saw Lady Rosamund's headwrap in the dinner party scene, I knew that would be next week's project. GORGEOUS!

But last night, I wanted something I could work on whilst watching Season 2, Episode 1. I decided to make a small drawstring purse.

I had a scrap of velvet, dyed a mottled blue, green and purple; also some green dupioni silk for the lining. Perfection.

Then my evening started to unravel; we were low on milk, so a quick run to the grocery store before The Show - not only milk, but requests for the following food items as well: blueberry bagels, strawberry cream cheese, Pop-tarts (that's not gonna happen!), and Toaster Strudel. The kids were thinking about Monday breakfast. Made it back, then ran to my workroom to grab my supplies; I wanted to work and watch in the greatroom.

As I turned from my sewing table with my arms full of supplies - I dropped my box of pins all over the floor of my workroom. ALL OVER THE FLOOR. All the pins. Everywhere. And no Ryan Gosling around to pick them up. Sadness.

But my show was starting, I had to get to the sofa, with my fabrics in hand. What I didn't realize was that the episode was two hours long. I could cut out the purse, but no sewing until after 10 p.m., after everybody was in bed, and the dog was let out for a final time.

I finally had the purse pieces together by 11:45 p.m., but it wasn't pretty. Sewing velvet requires some concentration and finesse, neither of which was happening so late at night.

I've decided this isn't a FAILURE in my creation-a-day goal, because I made something. It's just not complete. I'm off to work for a few hours, then I'll finish up the purse, and move on to today's creation - whatever the hell that will be.