Mamma Made

Happy Halloween!

Rachel — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:42:11 GMT

Love,

Sew A Carry-All Bag For Your Little Girl - Tutorial

Rachel — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:38:35 GMT

Ellie Bag Pattern by Mamma Made

This bag pattern was inspired by my 2 year old daughter who loves to bring “stuff” with her wherever she goes. The children’s bags out there are either too small or too large so I decided to create one that was just right. This pattern is FREE for personal use. If you desire to make this bag and sell it, please contact me for a commercial license: info@mammamadedesigns.com.

Materials:

7/8 Yard Main Fabric
1/4 Yard Contrast Fabric
1/2 Yard Iron-on Interfacing
1 Magnetic Snap, Thread, Scissors, Ruler

Cut Pieces:

Main Fabric:
Main Body - (2) Panels 10” Wide and 40” Long
Bottom - (2) Circles with 3 3/4” Radius

Contrast Fabric:
Top Band - (1) Strip 4” Wide and 17” Long
Strap - (1) Strip 4 3/4” Wide and 20” Long

Interfacing:
Interface Bottom Circles, Top Band, and Strap

Construction

Use 1/2” Seam Allowance for all sewing.

With right sides together, sew Main Body Panels together on each side.

Serge or finish edges for a clean look. This bag is not lined so it makes it much prettier inside.

Press serged edges towards center back and set aside.

Take both interfaced circles and place them wrong sides together. Baste the 2 circles together.

Now we are going to gather the Main Body Panels on to our circle. If your material has a pattern, find the bottom edge which will be attached to the circle. Sew 2 lines of basting stitches around the entire bottom edge.

Divide your circle into 4 equal parts. You can do this easily by folding it in half one way, than the next. Place pins at these points.

Divide your Main Body Panel into 4 equal parts. Use your 2 sewn seam lines to help you.
Pin the Main Body Panel to the circle right sides together matching each of the 4 pins. Carefully gather the Main Body Panel to the circle.

When you are finished pinning, this is what it will look like.

Carefully sew your pinned edge.
Serge the sewn edge.

We are going to top-stitch the bottom circle to keep things smooth. Turn your fabric right side up and as you stitch make sure the seam underneath is pressed towards the center of the circle. We want to catch the seam in our stitching. View the picture below if this is confusing.

Now we are going to attach the Top Band to the top of the Main Body Panel.
Sew your interfaced Top Band right sides together to form a circle.

Divide the Top Band into 4 equal parts. Use your seam line as a guide and place your pins accordingly.

Run 2 basting lines on the top of your Main Body Panel.
Gather the Main Body Panel to the Top Band keeping right sides together.
Sew the Top Band and Main Body Panel together.

Serge the stitched seam.

Turn your bag right-side out and peek inside the bag. This is what it looks like.

This is the bag so far with the Top Band folded down.

Put the bag aside. Now we are going to construct the strap.
Fold the strap in half length-wise (right sides together) and stitch.

Trim the seam down. Turn the tube right side out. As you can see, I employed some child labor to do that for me.

Topstitch the strap top and bottom.

I also decided to stitch in the middle of the strap to keep it in place, but this is optional.

Open up the Top Band and center the ends of the Strap on each seam line.
Baste Strap in place.
Serge around the entire bottom edge of the Top Band.

Open your Magnetic Snap. We are now going to put one in the bag.

The finished band is 1 1/2”. Measure 1 1/2” up from the seam line and place a pin there. Center the back of the magnetic snap between the pin and the edge of the Top Band for cutting placement. Make sure it is lined up with center front.
Cut two small slices through the fabric where the lines are.

Put the front of the magnetic snap on the right side of the fabric, place the backing on the wrong side of the fabric, and bend the metal prongs back.

Repeat for the other side of the magnetic snap.
Fold down the Top Band making sure that the finished side is 1 1/2”. This is what your bag looks like at this point.

Top-stitch top and bottom of the Top Band.
Congratulations! You just made The Perfect Girl’s Bag!!!

But don’t take my word for it. Take the word of the people who actually own these fabulous bags!

Eleanor Grace Galloway, Age 2 1/2, “Mine Elephant Bag, Mamma!”

Esther Marie Galloway, Age 6, “These bags ROCK!”

Rosemary Elizabeth Galloway, Age 9, “I love my bag! I can fit all of my stuff in it!”

Love,

The Ellie Bag Pattern is made by Mamma Made Designs. This pattern is for personal use only. You may not sell bags made with this pattern without a license.

The Perfect Art Print

Rachel — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:39:07 GMT

Of course I will definitely need this print by Eleanor Grosch of pushmepullyoudesign. Is there even a question?

My little Eleanor love the next two prints.

This last two prints Rosemary is begging me to buy.

Go and check out Eleanor’s store. She has a plethora of items from prints to home wares to tee-shirts. She is one of my most favorite designers!

Love,

I LOVE Enchino

Rachel — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:28:20 GMT

Some designers never disappoint. I am always inspired by the Japanese designer Enchino and all the amazing prints available. The colors are bold, the patterns quirky and not predictable. After awhile you can just predict fabric lines, colors, themes…it’s so refreshing when the little box of rules gets broken up a bit.

Just to test you…here is a question. My daughter Esther LOVES tigers and so we are going to be designing her a “tiger inspired” room. Okay stop. What is the first vision that pops in your head? Is it this?

Just kidding.

In the end, these are the fabrics and colors designed by Enchino that will make up Esther’s room.

I’m very excited.

Love,

All Is Beautiful In California Land

Rachel — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:24:52 GMT

Hello everyone! C’est moi, Rachel! Just a quick little blog post to let you know that all is well. We have sold our house and have been living in limbo for almost 2 months now. Our first house fell through and we are currently in Escrow in a new house WHICH IS EVEN BETTER! Is that even possible? Ahhhh…the life of living with no permanence really gets your priorities in order. We have relatively no stuff because it’s all in storage and it’s amazing how freeing that feeling is. Just you and a couple of clothes on your back that you wear over and over again.

Living each day as Today and not looking for happiness in tomorrow is quite a challenge, but it’s been an amazing time of stretching and growth as people. I can honestly say that in my (almost) eleven years of marriage this entire experience has brought me the closest to my husband than we’ve ever been. You can fight it, or go with the flow. Since we don’t really have a lot of control over things, I thought going with the flow was the best option.

Miss you guys and I miss all my projects which will resume in due time. The ideas keep piling up in my head, but for now I just need to store them neatly away in my brain. Oh, and by the way, my new sewing school/studio is going to be 3 times the size as it was in the old house! So, no crying for me…I am only laughing with joy.

Love,

Making A Button

Rachel — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:45:19 GMT

I know I’m supposed to be working on three vintage dresses…but I’m getting a bit distracted because my husband Jon is re-vamping my Mamma Made site to newer and greater things! This coming year I am starting a sewing school for children and I’m going to have a link to my school on my site. This way people can sign up, pay, view the different classes and curriculums all in one place. I won’t have to mess around with endless papers and such. Sounds so nice! All this to say, I’m working on a button for my site to link to my school page. I’m going to show you my progression.

I thought it would be cute to have a “button” and a needle and thread. So, this is what I came up with.

Kind of cute, but Jon said it looked to crafty. I don’t know, I liked it. But, since I do value my husband’s opinion I decided to explore some more options. I thought that I should do a different version of my Mamma Made logo that was designed by the incredibly beautiful Eleanor Grosch of pushmepullyoudesign. Here is my first attempt.

Rosemary said that the picture didn’t make sense. If a Mamma was teaching a child how to sew, where was the child? She directed me in this next design.

Jon commented that it looked like the Mamma was going to stab the child with the huge needle. Isn’t that little girls face so stinkin’ cute? Eleanor is good I tell you! Go visit her blog, there are lots of goodies there. So the child needs to be moved so she doesn’t get stabbed by the Mamma teacher.

I really like where this is going. The little girl is looking over the Mamma’s shoulder. The double hair tails bug me though. I’m going to try one last thing.

Et voila. I really like this. What do you think?

Promise I’ll get to posting pictures on the vintage dresses soon. School is right around the corner!

Love,

A Vintage Journey

Rachel — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:40:38 GMT

School is upon us—we have four weeks left of summer. It’s crazy how quickly time goes by. After sewing my bag and getting my quick creative fix, I wasn’t really thinking about sewing again until we were settled in our new home.

I changed my mind when I was perusing the designer Amy Schimler’s blog Red Fish Circle and saw this:

Oh my goodness! Pink hippos! She only had one fat quarter left for sale in her shop and I grabbed it up. I didn’t even know what I was going to make with it yet, but I had to have it. This is the beginning of my vintage journey.

I had to find the perfect pattern for these hippos. All of my pattern-making stuff is tightly packed away in the garage and I have no desire to dig through and find everything right now. I headed over to ebay to peruse the vintage children’s patterns and I found some gems!

Project A – Eleanor Grace

This pattern is so adorable! It’s from the 40’s and all the pattern pieces are pretty solid and complete. This will be the hippo dress. I am going to sew View A and the hippos are going to be the yoke and the top half of the skirt (ie. all the white parts!). The dark pink fabric is going to be the main dress and I’m going to use the green fabric as the ruffle trim around the hippos.

The dress is very straight forward, so I don’t see any real problems surfacing. The only thing that might need adjusting is the neckline. For some reason a lot of the older patterns have really really high necklines. So high they look uncomfortable. I’ll keep you posted.

Project B – Rosemary Elizabeth

I was so excited looking at the vintage children’s patterns, that I decided that although finances were a bit tight, I could make my big girls a “back to school” dress. This is what I found for Rosemary.

My 8 year old is such a 50’s girl. She loves to tuck her shirts in (even when they are supposed to blouse out over leggings) and wear belts cinched tightly around her waist on all of her pants. The styles today are mostly casual and flowing for children, but she will make an unstructured outfit structured. I gave up and just let her do her thing. She is just more comfortable. She will love this dress with the fitted bodice, pin-tucks with ruffles, and very full skirt. Here are the fabrics I found for her:

Project C – Esther Marie

I can’t make a dress for one and not the other! I found this really sweet dress for Esther. This pattern is also from the 50’s. She loves dresses but isn’t quite as girly as Rosemary; I thought this design was just right for her.

She immediately knew that she wanted View 1 (that’s my girl!) so that she could have two different fabrics playing off each other. Here are the fabrics I found for Esther:

So begins my vintage journey. I also had to track down some one-piece slips for the girls to wear under these dresses so they would get the desired fullness.

Some things are easier and cheaper to buy than to make. Plus, I really dislike making crinolines. If you do it right (and my mother always made me do things the right way), it’s a lot of work.

Let the fun begin!

Love,

Less Is More?

Rachel — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:38:22 GMT

Perhaps.

Love,

New Fabric Design

Rachel — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:47:29 GMT

I wanted to create something with color and yet maintain a light/airy feel. This is what I came up with.

It’s fun to mess around.

Love,

Amy Butler "Birdie Sling Bag" Review - Just Read It

Rachel — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:28:50 GMT

Well, it’s done and I really like this bag. It’s just CUTE! How can you not like a cute bag? I’m expecting my sister Megan to send some fabric my way asking for one of these for herself. But down to business. In this post I’m going to go through my experience making this bag, point out things I really liked, and things I decided to change.

All in all, I give this bag a thumbs up.

Pattern

First of all, I really like the weight of the paper they used for this pattern. It can be used countless times without the annoying rips and tears. Since this is a bag pattern and there is no need for fittings (yay!) I would hope that the paper would be nice. Well, it is.

Materials

The materials to make this bag cost about $43.00. I had to buy the pattern which was $13 so the fabrics and interfacings were about $30. That does not include the magnetic snap that I added which was another $5.00. I need to get all the pattern pieces together and lay them out, but I do feel that they asked you to get way more material than you actually need. I ended up with a lot of waste. If your fabric is $8/yard, having an extra half yard here and there is really wasteful. Like I said, I need to lay out the pieces to be more accurate with that opinion. That being said, is this $48 bag plus time worth the effort? Hmmmm…you could really get something cute from Macys on sale for that money. Just sayin’.

Directions

This pattern has been said that it is a great one for beginners. I agree and disagree. Sometimes I feel that patterns which are catered for beginners spell things out in such an exaggerated way that it’s actually a bit more complicated to follow. I feel that this happened for me in several places. Since I’m not a beginner, I don’t know if the manner of instruction is actually helpful for people just learning how to sew. I liked that they did have some very clear illustrations to show some steps that may cause someone to think twice. Sometimes those drawings are more confusing than anything else. In this case, they were helpful.

Things I Changed In The Pattern

There were several things that I changed in the making of this bag. I probably would have made it as they suggested, but I saw/felt/wore a pre-made bag and thus made some mental changes as I tried it on. I felt that the bottom of the strap was too wide and caused the mouth of the bag to gape open. I narrowed it down 3” total on each side and as you can see in the pictures, it’s still pretty substantial. There also was not a closure for this bag, so I decided to add a magnetic snap. The weight of the bag was a bit heavy and stiff for my taste so I altered the interfacings around a bit. I did interface the lining with the suggested fusible fleece, but I interfaced the outer shell with an extremely light-weight fusible and interfaced the strap and the band with a heavier weight fusible but on one side only. On the lining side I did interface where the magnetic snap went to give it some stability. I also changed the depth of the pockets making them custom for my phone and my GPS. Not huge changes, but enough to make this bag absolutely perfect for me.

Level Of Difficulty

I think that this bag is one that anyone can conquer if you take your time. However, it isn’t one that you can whip up in an hour. The prepping of the bag includes cutting your fabrics, interfacings, and fusing them together; this can take an hour or two. The actual sewing will go a bit quicker, but with the curves and gussets be patient and take your time. I also recommend not getting hung up on edges that don’t perfectly match as you go along. As I was sewing, I ended up truing the edges and seams to make things go together smoothly. I did think that the pattern could have been tightened up a bit. But, just go with the flow even if things aren’t perfect—it is just a bag after all!

Irene of Mushroom Villagers gives a review of this bag on Sew Mama Sew and talks about this very thing:

There's something funky with the pleated main panel not matching the top band well. (The main panel is wider than the top band piece.) Each time it hasn't matched up well and the pattern instructs you to pivot at the joint, but it looks funny. I recommend trimming the main panel to fit the top band and sewing a straight seam instead.

At the end of this bag making process when you are attaching your outer shell to the lining, take your time because the bulk could frustrate you as you finish your final top-stitching. I recommend smoothing out the fabric and pinning carefully so that you can be confident as you sew that you won’t be getting any other parts stuck where they shouldn’t be.

Will I Sew This Bag Again?

You know, I probably will. It’s a fun bag, I like the pleating details and the large interior for all my junk. It would be a really great gift to give to someone too. As to the cost of materials and if it’s worth it, well, it is a personal creation and people spend money foolishly on all sorts of stuff. It’s gotta go somewhere, right? And you have a wonderful sense of self-satisfaction that you created something you love and hopefully will use.

Love The Bag But Don’t Want To Make It?

Well, you are in luck because I saw this bag on Etsy and you can buy it. Just type in “Amy Butler Birdie Sling” and a plethora of them will be at your disposal. I’m not sure how that works exactly because on the pattern it states:

This pattern is for personal home use. Projects are not to be produced for commercial purposes, nor are they to be made into items for sale.

Well, happy sewing and happy buying! Buy at your own risk!

Love,