Lazies, Goodness, my blog post is late today! I got caught up in Super Bowl weekend and then had to watch Downton Abbey last night. Are you watching Downton Abbey? Love the show. Not a lot of purses or handbags to be seen, but the clothing is to die for. Check it out on PBS.

On to today’s post. Our simple and sleek Runaround Bag is one of our most-loved, all-time best sellers. Not only is it a handy size for traveling light, but it teaches a simple zipper installation and offers design opportunities. Best of all, it takes two fat quarters, a zipper and some buttons for embellishment. How wrong can you go?

Bag Features
The Runaround Bag is just big enough to put your hand in, includes a front zip pocket, an open back pocket, and can be worn cross-body for comfort and security.

Perfect Button Placement and Stacking Buttons
The Runaround Bag offers a perfect location to embellish above or below the zipper. I like to add buttons and sometimes stack them or include a yo-yo and some ribbon. Click here for my tutorial for perfect button placement and stacking buttons.

Easy Zipper Installation
The Runaround Bag’s zipper installation is a great place to start if you are zipper-phobic. Truly, it is easy and full-proof. Best of all, you’ll work with the meaty part of the zipper, between the metal knobs at the top and the bulky stopper at the bottom. We even have a work-around for the bulk of the zipper pull. It couldn’t get much easier.

Pattern Review
Hop over to Fabric Lovers’ blog to read Sabra’s review of the Runaround Bag. Sabra is a long-time fan of the Runaround and used beautiful fabrics by Amelia Caruso for Kaufman. Thanks Sabra for the great review.

For a couple of fat quarters, a zip, and a bit of time, give the Runaround Bag a try and build your zipper confidence!

More about the Runaround Bag
Add Decorative Handle
Choosing Thread for a Supporting Role
Choosing a Zipper is a Design Decision
Lazy Girl Michelle Meehan’s Runaround
Joy of Sewing Can Be Found in Small Projects

Enjoy!
Joan

Lazies, Ah, purses. They come in all shapes, sizes and styles. There’s something for everyone and every taste. Back in September (link here), I shared one of the two vintage purses I received from my Aunt Junie. Here’s the other purse. I love this needlework and woven black vinyl box purse by Dayne Taylor.

The detail is as interesting as it is functional. The lock closure and handle attachment hardware become jewelry across the top of the purse. Simple, yet conservatively ornate, creating a feel for the hey day when it was crafted.

A look inside really shows the box construction of the outside of the handbag. A couple of inside pockets and gussets on the sides to keep everything in.

Here you can see the gussets and zip pocket better.

The backside is complete with edge to edge woven black vinyl strips. For me, the vinyl is an unexpected material. Upon first blush, it would not have occurred to me that this purse would have appealed to my Aunt Junie. But Junie was a crafter and a stylish gal. She would have been attracted to the needlework and polished casual disposition of this handbag. Perfect for so many summertime outings.

Here’s a nice side view. I love that the weave pattern matches at the sides.

I love the treatment of the hinges for Aunt Junie’s purse. Oval cuts of leather are anchored to each box half with brad-like hardware. Perfectly understated and perfect. This view really gives you an idea of the construction of the bag as two independent rectangular boxes connected with hardware, gussets and topped off with handles and a closure. Simple and well done.

What inspiration do you take from this handbag? Consider re-purposing a needlework project into your next bag. Perhaps use an unconventional material such as vinyl strapping to wrap/weave a covering for an existing bag. From the slight horseshoe shape of the handles to the mix of techniques and materials, there are inspirations in the combination of materials, the overall style, the individual elements and the manner in which they are all blended together for a tasteful and elegant bag full of personality and purpose. Well done Dayne Taylor!

If you’re new here, subscribe to our blog feed to keep up with my Lazy antics.

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Lazy Girl Designs

Enjoy!
Joan

Lazies, I worked with Clover Needlecraft’s hot, hot, hot new notion Wonder Clips on my recent paper keeper project for Nancy Zieman’s blog hop. Let me just say, I’m in love.

Smart, useful and cool to boot. What is not to love. I say Wonder Clips are as essential as pins.

The clips have a red piece and a clear piece. The clear is a flat piece of plastic with markings that relate to the width of your binding.

The red part is curved to accommodate the bulk of the binding. So, between the ingenious flat side and the curved red side, your project lays flat against the bed of your machine while you sew. Simply remove the clips as you approach the needle.

Wonder Clips come in packs of 10 or 50. The 50 count has this dandy holding case. It’s a solid, sturdy case.

 To use, simply attach your binding as usual. Fold binding to the back and clip.

Notice that the clips go just to the edge of the binding. That helps ensure the same amount of binding is turned under.

Simply stitch in the ditch by machine, removing clips as you go. Or stitch binding in place by hand.

Click here to see my finished tablet keeper project.

Wonder Clips also work well for:
- Holding handles in place on a bag project
- Keeping layers together while stitching seams
- Working with laminates or leathers that should not be pinned

Giveaway – 2 Winners
My good friends at Clover Needlecraft are sponsoring this giveaway by providing one package of 50 count Wonder Clips and one card of 10 Wonder Clips. Thank you Clover! One winner will receive the 50 pack of Wonder Clips. One winner will receive the 10 pack of Wonder Clips.

Enter To Win
- Enter by posting a ‘Thank You’ comment to Clover below.
- One comment per person.
- Be sure you type your email address correctly so I can contact you.
- I’ll pick 2 winners using the random number generator.
- Enter by Friday January 27, 2012, 10 pm Eastern time.
- I’ll contact winners via email.

If you’re new here, subscribe to our blog feed to keep up with my Lazy antics.

More about Wonder Clips at Clover here.

Join the Lazy Fun at Facebook

Lazy Girl Designs

Thanks for joining in on the fun of Wonder Clips. Thank you to Clover for your generosity in sponsoring this giveaway and cool products.

Enjoy!
Joan

Lazies, Thanks for joining me on my stop of Nancy Zieman’s Tablet Keeper blog tour. If you’re new here, subscribe to our blog feed to keep up with my Lazy antics. Nancy’s new Tablet Keeper template will make keepers for e-tablets/eReaders (iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc) or paper pads in three sizes. I made three of these great note keepers for gifts last month. Next up, several for me!

This keeper will fit perfectly inside our new Candice bag. Our new Fat Pocket technique for the inside Candice pocket will easily accommodate these keepers. Consider making one to coordinate with your next bag.

I am forever carrying a small pad of paper with me. But it’s usually a challenge to keep it looking nice. So I used Nancy’s Template to work with my favorite 5″ x 8″ scratch pads so my paper and I can travel in style. I love these pads and have them all over the house, office and studio. (Office Max ‘Scratch Pads’, 12 pads, 100 sheets, $15.)

I have been hanging on to this bundle of Moda fat quarters, waiting for the perfect project. I made this for my Mom. She’ll love these fabrics.

I made a few minor adjustments. I made the green triangular pocket a bit larger. After test-fitting the paper pad and before the final step of adding the binding, I noticed there was room for a pen along the spine. Adding a pen holder was easy.

I added a pen pocket on the inside spine. Because the green spine fabric is simply topstitched in place, adding another layer of fabric here was quite easy. I simply topstitched another layer of folded fabric on top of the spine.

Pen Holder: Cut a strip 1.75″ x 8″. Fold 1/4″ of long edges to wrong side and press. Fold in half to measure 4″, topstitch along fold. Place on top of spine, match raw edges to bottom. Stitch in place along edges where shown on top of spine. Manage the layers to a nice pleat at the bottom and topstitch to secure.

I didn’t stop there! I grabbed some fantastic Kona fabrics and fussy cut to feature the dragonfly on these two keepers.

I worked with just two fabrics, instead of the three called for in the Template instructions. That meant that the flap closure blended a bit more with the cover.

I made one other modification, making the left lining from a single piece of fabric rather than two pieces. That meant a little more measuring and planning on my part.

I used a Clover magnetic snap for the closure. Velcro would work just as well.

The templates were easy to work with, accurate and gave me confidence. The templates include marks for perfect placement of the snap, spine, etc. Having three sizes on the template with markings for all of these things means less measuring and figuring on my part. Since all cuts are rectangular/square, this project would be easy to customize for any size fit. I used decor bond med/heavy interfacing, pellon fusible fleece and Nancy’s tablet shapers for structure.

Resources
Nancy has a great video demo online here: Tablet Keeper Video
Nancy offers a nice step-by-step overview of the project on her blog here: Tablet Keeper Blog Post
Enter Nancy’s giveaway here: Nancy’s Blog Tour Giveaway

January 3            Nancy Zieman                   http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog
January 4            Amy Ellis                            http://amyscreativeside.com/
January 5            Sharon Pernes                    http://craizeecorner.blogspot.com/
January 6            Vicki Christensen              http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/
January 9            Joan Hawley                       http://www.lazygirldesigns.com/blog/
January 10            Pat Sloan                           http://patsloan.typepad.com/
January 11            Eileen Roche                     http://dzgns.com/blog/
January 12            Liz Hicks                           http://blogerisms.blogspot.com/
January 13            Fran Ortmeyer                 http://cloverusa.wordpress.com/
January 16            Ilene Miller                       http://happyvalleyprimitives.blogspot.com/
January 17            Julie Herman                   http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/
January 18            Jenny Gabriel                  http://www.sewvacoutletblog.com/
January 19            Natalia Bonner                http://www.piecenquilt.blogspot.com/
January 20            Frieda Anderson             http://friestyle.blogspot.com/
January 23            Cindy Cloward                 http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/blog/
January 24            Beckie Hansen                 http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog
January 25            Amy Webb                         http://www.amylouwhosews.com/
January 26            Allie Robertson                http://thinkcrafts.com/
January 27            Mary Mulari                       http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog
January 30            Laura Wasilowski            http://artfabrik.blogspot.com/
January 31            Carol Porter                        http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog

Clover Needlecraft provided the Tablet Keeper template set, strap interfacing, hardware, and tablet keeper shapers for this project.

I hope you’ll subscribe to our blog feed and join us again.

Enjoy!
Joan

Popular Posts
1 Yard 1 Hour Tote
Make a Perfect Yo Yo
Tutorial: Easy Pillowcase

Lazies, you are part of my daily life and I carry you with me. I love hearing from you, seeing your Lazy creations and sharing this Lazy journey together. You inspire and delight me. I hope I brighten your world, too. I’m raising my cuppa cuppa this morning to toast another fabulous year together and wish you the happiest of holidays.

Have a cookie, slice of pie, or yummy treat for me. Take care of yourselves and each other, be safe in your travels, enjoy the specialness this season brings, celebrate life, embrace your loved ones, find some down time and recharge your mind, body and soul. I’ll see you next year.

Love and Hugs,
Joan
xoxo

Lazies, Here are a couple of quick last minute sewing projects to round out your holiday needs. From our hugely popular 1 Yard, 1 Hour free tote in two sizes to a simple fabric garland, there’s a little bit here for everyone.

Top Left: Fabric Garland
Top Right: 1 Yard, 1 Hour Tote
Bottom: Fabric Ball Ornament

1 Yard, 1 Hour Free Tote Pattern

Both sizes of this free tote pattern follow the same directions. Make handles from fabric or use ribbon. A small piece of Velcro makes a nice closure at the top edge of the bag.

Small Tote: 10″ x 11″
- 21″ x 24″ fabric
- 30″ of ribbon for handles

Large Tote: 19″ x 16″
- 1 yard of fabric at 42″ wide
- Optional – 1” Velcro (sew-in kind, or Fusion fusible Velcro work great)

Directions for our With Love Tote here: 1 Yard, 1 Hour Tote
More info about the small tote here: Quick Gift Bags

Quick and Easy Pillow Case

Another quick project for anyone on your list is a pillow case with contrasting hem. Here’s the one I made for my nephew.

Directions here: Pillow Case With Contrast Hem

Fabric Garland and Fabric Ball Ornament

These are great project for your stash. The garland can be made in any size and used to wrap gifts or decorate the tree. The ornament is a wonderful way to showcase your favorite fabrics.

Directions for both projects are here: Garland and Ornament

Rice Pack and Zip Bag

Need a quick gift for a pain in the neck? I mean, someone with a pain in the neck? Consider whipping up this practical and beautiful rice pack and coordinating storage zip bag.

Directions for the rice pack: Rice Pack and Zip Bag

4 Quick Gifts From 3 Fat Quarters

Don’t forget how quick and easy many of our Lazy Girl patterns are. Here are three all-time favorites to keep in mind. Our Wonder Wallet, Maggie and Suzi are perfect for any size kid on your list.

Grab three fun and funky fat quarter of fabric, follow the cutting guide at the link below, and stitch up a few quick gifts. Use the small Maggie or Wonder Wallet for gift cards. Load a Suzi with themed items such as nail care, sewing or other hobbies.

Info here: 4 Quick Gifts

Enjoy!
Joan

Clover Seam Ripper, item 482W and Havel’s Seam Ripper, item 18933

Clover Seam Ripper – My All Time Favorite
What sets this Clover seam ripper apart from other similar designs is the quality and the handle design/features. The handle includes a little band of rubber grip ridges (black part of the white handle) which gives me really good control. The handle is rounded, rather than flat, allowing me to easily roll it between my fingers as I maneuver the pointed tip between stitches. The tool is very secure in my hand and gives me great control.

The ripper is sharp with a nice point for getting in under stitches. It has a ball point for safely getting in between fabric without ripping the fabric. It’s another fine product from Clover. It is well-thought-out, easy to maneuver, and it works. The pointed end will work as an awl in a pinch for certain jobs – that’s a nice benefit.

Havel’s Seam Ripper – Big Jobs, Tight Stitches
Sometimes I have different ripping needs which call for another approach. I’m talking big jobs, or tight spaces. If I’ve backstitched and can’t easily get the point of the Clover ripper into a tightly stitched seam to get things started, I call my Havel’s seam ripper into action.

Simply touch the stitches with the blade to cut. You do not need to maneuver the tip of this tool under the stitch to get started. The long, flat, sharp, curved, scalpel-like tip of the blade is great for working in tight spaces.

Once you have a few stitches cut and the seam is opened a bit, simply hold the fabrics apart causing tension at the next stitch, and cut a few stitches or more at a time with the blade.

Now please, puh-lease, be careful when using either of these tools, but especially the Havel’s or any other scalpel based design. Dude, it is a razor blade. Sit down when using this blade. No dog or cat nearby, please. Keep the lid nearby and put it on every time you set the ripper down. Every time!

The upside to the scalpel styled rippers – they are really good at ripping. Needs very little force or pressure to cut. You can rip bigger jobs quickly. I tried a Candice pocket with heavy interfacing and it was horrible. Off it came! In seconds.

The downside to the scalpel styled rippers – they are really good at ripping. You can easily cut your fabric when you don’t mean to. Practice using one on something that doesn’t matter.

Both of these items work well on the quilter’s weight cottons that I work with. I don’t work with fine/delicate fabrics, so I don’t have a recommendation for you there.

Now, about all those little broken stitches hanging on for dear life in the used-to-be-seam. Use scotch tape to remove these buggers quickly and cleanly.

Havel’s Seam Ripper
Item 18933, Suggested retail $3.50

Clover Seam Ripper
Item 482W, Suggested retail $4.00

Enjoy!
Joan

First up, my new-found love is Purse Parts Handbag Zippers from ByAnnie creator Annie Unrein. I LOVE these zips.

These zips are only available in 24″ length in 30 colors. These zips have larger teeth that can still be safely sewn over and cut to the length needed. The zipper pull has a nice big hole on the end, large enough to feed double fold bias tape through, great for embellishing with an exquisite pull of your making. The zipper fabric is a bit wider along the teeth, giving you more room to sew into your project.

The sensory experience: they feel great and sound great. Zipping and unzipping, they sound luxurious. The feel of the teeth coming together and then apart again is smooth and rich. Suggested retail is $4.95 each.

These Handbag Zippers are ideal for the following of my designs:
Candice
Margo Handbag
City Bag
Towne Purse
Summer Tote
My Favorite Duffle Bag

More about these zips and see a color chart at ByAnnie’s website here: Purse Parts Handbag Zippers

Kathy Southern of StudioKat offers really cool black and white zips which she considers ‘neutrals’ for her bag designs. I must agree. Kat only offers a few zips longer than 20″, the recommended length for our Candice bag. Here is her 22″ black/white ‘purse zipper’ with two zipper pulls. This zip is closed at both ends. To use for our designs, cut off one end, keep both pulls, sew it into our projects: Candice, Margo. Leave it closed on both ends for City, Towne and Summer. Keeping both pulls will allow you to open the bag from the center. You can remove one pull if you like. Suggested retail is $5.00 each.

Kat offers lots of zips in several lengths. She also has the great rectangular rings for Candice I mentioned in last week’s blog post.

Check out all of Kat’s zips here: StudioKat Designs Purrfect Handbag Notions

Terry from Atkinson Designs offers a great line of 14″ zips in 36 colors. I like these zippers very much and they are perfect for our smaller projects: Runaround Bag, Perfect Pouches, Purse-Nickities. Great zips, great price. Suggested retail is $1.10 each.

Check out Terry’s zipper assortment here: Atkinson Designs Zippers

I still like Coats & Clark zips and they are great for all of my designs. Keep these additional zippers in mind when you need something more or different.

Enjoy!
Joan

For Candice, use the same accent fabric from behind the front slant pocket to attach the rings for the handles. This fabric placement is a very mindful and intentional part of the design. The rings are a show piece for the bag. Call attention to it. Or why do it at all?

Using black below the rings and red above forces my eye to stop at the point where they come together and think about what I am seeing. I am calling attention to the design. The rings are the opportunity to do so very stylishly.

Below, I’ve done a mock-up of the same Candice bag from the cover and I’ve Photoshopped the red/white fabric in place of the black below the rings. It looks nice. You can still see the rings. But visually, your eye is going to want to jump right over the rings from one fabric piece to the other, as though the rings weren’t even there.

Take a look at the two photos side by side. The left has the black below the rings, the right has red/white. For me, the rings nearly disappear in the photo to the right.

If you choose not to use rings, you can still create the design element of where the two fabrics come together simply by piecing your handle fabric at the ends.

To piece handles for Candice:
Cut 2″ lengths for each end of the handle.
Cut the rest of the handle at 24.5″.
Sew the three pieces together using a .25″ seam allowance for a 27″ handle with 1.5″ accent fabrics on each end.

Ring Options
Now, let’s talk about those rings. I have totally been groovin on the Clover rectangular rings. I must say, when I first saw them I thought they were really big. I thought they might over power my designs. Then, I worked them into a prototype and some kind of weird sewing mojo magic happened. They were absolutely the right size and scale. Ah, a new learning curve for me.

I’m frankly quite conservative with my boldness. It’s true. So I surprised myself when I saw these cuties in place on my bag and all was right with the world. I used the 1″ size rings for the 1″ wide handles in Candice.

Studio Kat Designs offers a great set of rectangular rings, too. They are perfect for Candice. Kat sells a pack of 4 in nickel or brass finish. Hop over to her site and check them out: StudioKat metal rings

For more info about rings, see our post: Choosing and Using D Rings

Enjoy!
Joan

Candice purse, LGD130

Shelly worked her always-inspiring-magic with Paintstiks and rubbing plates to embellish a hand-dyed fabric for her Candice. The hand-dyed fabric ranged in color from the lime green accent corner behind the front slant pocket to the blues and maroons you see under the painted swirls.

Shelly used her new ‘Doodles’ rubbing plates and iridescent Paintstiks to create this vibrant design full of visual movement and depth. And look at that zipper pull in the picture above – it’s perfect!

The back is awesome. Those Doodle plates are dandy! And the rectangular rings look wonderful, picking up the light tones of the iridescent paints.

Giveaway
Hop over to Shelly’s blog for more about her Candice and the giveaway.

Click here: Cedar Canyon Textiles Blog Giveaway

More Painted Creations
Before you go, take a quick look below at some other incredible Paintstick transformations by Shelly and her Cedar Canyon artists.

Shelly’s been painting on my designs for years. You might remember her incredible Safari Margo from last year. Wow!

Margo Handbag, LGD127

Katy Bags, LGD121

Wonder Wallet (never looked more wonderful!), LGD211

Remember to hop over to Shelly’s blog at Cedar Canyon Textiles to read more about her beautiful Candice and enter the giveaway.

Click here: Cedar Canyon Textiles Blog Giveaway

Follow Shelly and Cedar Canyon
Be sure to subscribe to Shelly’s blog while you are there and follow Cedar Canyon Textiles on Facebook here.

Enjoy!
Joan