I always have design envy when I start browsing the web and see great looking websites. Of course there are many not so great sites out there too but so many of the sewers out there have these really nice sites. I’ve yet to find a Word Press template that I really really like.

Additionally, I’ve been trying to re-conceptualize my sewing site, Polite Façade. I am planning to hire someone to design a logo for me. It won’t be until September, probably, because I’m traveling for the next two weeks. I’ve gone back and forth and around in circles with different concepts and finally came to the realization that in order to be truly satisfied, I’m going to have to hire someone and get it done right. Unfortunately, I don’t know that I’ll ever move beyond sewing as a pass-time so shelling out the well-deserved money to a designer is not really something I have a budget for. I wish that I did. I believe very strongly in supporting independent designers and I believe in paying for quality. I just wish I had more money!

My web design skills are fairly minimal and I can’t seem to settle on something for Polite Façade. I don’t know what I should put up on there either. Initially, I tried to keep a blog there that was just devoted to sewing and then leave this blog as a more personal one. I realized that just left me with two blogs that were almost never updated. The best thing to do is to simply blog here and if I want to talk about sewing, then talk about sewing I shall!

So what to do with my site? If I were ready to launch a store, I’d know what direction to go in but at least until the sewing room moves from dream to reality, that just isn’t going to be the case.

I feel myself trying to cling to summer as it slips away. I don’t want it to end. I don’t want the fall to get here. I don’t want cold weather. I also want to be able to stay home and sew. But… I’m a single woman. I need to make ends meet and that means moving forward despite the fact that I’m digging my heels in. I guess I’m not alone in not knowing what I want to be when I grow up even though, at this point even I will admit, I’m grown up. Sometimes it feels like I’m alone. When you have so many friends who are married and who have chosen careers and are following that path, it’s hard to justify wanting so much to be Peter Pan.

The reality is, I like staying home. I am fortunate in that I have been able to go through school, earning 2 university degrees and working on a third. I am fortunate that I have been able to avoid settling for less though I’d love to settle sometimes. I know what I want, a job I can do from home. My own hours, for the sake of my health and my sanity. The freedom to be mobile. The freedom to devote time to creating. I envy those that are able to do it. I also envy those that are content to go to an office or building every day, wear uniforms or suits and do so with no regret. That isn’t me. I wanted it to be me, very badly. I know, now, that it won’t ever be. Armed with that knowledge, I am lost and grasping in vain to the last strings of summer and this freedom.

I finally made myself a bag I’ve been wanting to make for months. I used Echino fabrics for the exterior and the lining. The pattern is the Highbrow Hobo from U-Handbag.

It’s a nice bag and I really like it. There’s no inner pocket in the pattern and I really wouldn’t want a bag without one so I added a double pocket. The only part that I really had problems with was the faux piping along the top. Every time I got by the snap, it got messed up. I ended up just not doing it after ripping it out twice. There just wasn’t enough room even using the zipper foot.

If I were doing the bag again I would do the straps differently. I don’t like that the short ends have raw edges on them. I couldn’t be bothered coming up with a different way of doing them this time around but it’s definitely not something I would have left if the bag was for someone else.

I’ve gotten tons of compliments and lots of people have said they wanted my bag so I guess that’s a good sign! And here it is!

I wanted to finish the bag before I go away. I’m going to Toronto in a couple of weeks so I wanted to have it for then.

I’ve been reading a lot. I read the entire Sookie Stackhouse series in the span of 2-3 weeks. I’d read the first one a little while ago and then I read the other 9 plus the collection of short stories all this month. Since I finished them I don’t know what to read. People have tried to suggest books to me but I really am looking for something in particular, something I guess I can’t really describe but I will know it if I should ever stumble onto it.

I really enjoy the Sookie Stackhouse series. I think the writing and character development in True Blood is better but that doesn’t take away from how enjoyable the books are in the least. I really wish there were more of them so I could keep reading.

I just watched Repo Men and it was incredibly boring. I guess when you rip off your ideas from another movie you can’t really produce anything of substance. I thought I’d give it a shot even though when I saw the preview I was really not impressed that they’d copied the premise of Repo Man – The Genetic Opera completely. I’ve got to say that was probably a waste of 2 hours, it wasn’t really worth watching but since I have nothing to read I didn’t really have anything else to do!

I wish the summer would never end. I’d like to stop things right now and just stay here forever…

After getting some pleasant news last night, I realized I needed to get my butt in gear and start working on the bag I’m making myself. I’d like it to be usable when I go to Toronto next month. The last prep work I needed to do was cut out and iron on interfacing. So I did that but something seemed a little weird. I saw that I needed to transfer notches from the pattern to the bag so I decided to iron out my lining pieces first. I’m using a heavier linen and so I go to iron one piece and all this water is suddenly all over. I stare at it. I blink. I think, is my iron leaking. Well… I’ll just try to iron it and maybe dry this water up. Press the iron to the fabric. Lift. Stare at it. Look at the iron. Look at the soaked fabric. Hold my hand in front of the plugged in, turned on, had just been used iron. Cold.

Amazing! Now I need to buy a new iron. And so it is with great sadness that I announce the untimely death of my friend, the iron.

I guess I will add to that, part of why this is so distressing is that the iron was really light. Newer irons seem to all be quite heavy and because of some issues, I find them too heavy to manage. I hope I can find a new iron like the one that died, one that’s not heavy and easy for me to hold. So long dear iron, so long.

I had been looking for a small shelving unit for what will eventually be my sewing room. I had thought an old spice pantry would be perfect but I hadn’t really seen anything. The other day while my mother and I were looking for something else in the tool shed, I saw this wooden shelving unit. I asked about it and we hauled it out. It’s not 100% what I wanted but it’s certainly more than adequate. What makes it even better is that my great grandfather made it. There’s also a magazine rack that he made.

Tonight I bought some paint and I sanded down the shelving unit, though I didn’t sand it down all the way. I don’t care if it’s not perfect, I’d like it to still look a little “rough”. I put on a coat of paint and it’s back in the tool shed drying. Tomorrow I’ll put on another coat and hopefully that will do. I’ll probably wash down, sand and put a coat of paint on the magazine rack as well.

If I ever get there, my sewing room is going to be pretty awesome.

A lot has been going on and I haven’t had the chance to post about this project but better late than never. I mentioned awhile back that I was going to make the thread holder from this tutorial. Well, not only did I make one, I made two!

When I went to buy some peg board, it only came in a really big piece. I had the guy at the hardware store cut it in two but, of course, I had to buy the whole thing. I ended up making one thread rack for myself and then another for my best friend.

The tutorial on Sugar Bee is great but I wanted to go through what I did because I did the whole thing myself and so can you!

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