I’m completely in love with this lunch bag tutorial from Pink Penguin. I don’t think I’d use this as a lunch bag but it’s versatile enough to be used for anything and it’s a decent sized bag. I took a photo next to Yoyo for scale… he looks a little put out because I woke him up to take the photo.

My first bag was a bunny themed one that I sent to Aimee. Most of the fabrics in this bag were leftovers from the quilts I made for her daughters 2 years ago.

My second bag was made from scraps of the adorable Michael Miller Bug Jars fabric.

I made a slight modification to finish off the inside seam. I added 1/2″ to the height to the cover pieces and took that extra 1/2″ and wrapped it around the last seam you sew which is exposed on the inside. Then I top stitched through all the layers to finish it. It’s a lot of layers so a weaker machine might get stuck  but this is an option if you don’t like the exposed seams inside. I really liked how it looked so I’ll continue doing this. Next time I’ll use thread that matches though. I ran out of light green thread and I had to finish the bag that night…

I wanted to make a sock bin  for the Larva because she likes to leave a trail of shed socks across the floor as the day progresses. A lot of the fabric bins I’ve made in the past were pretty time consuming and I wanted something fast this time. This tutorial for making fabric bins that Aimee sent me was perfect.

I used Bug Jars fabric again and made this in a couple of hours. I used Peltex inside so it’s super stiff. It’s not as pretty as other bins I’ve made in the past but the ease of construction and time savings was well worth it.

And it’s great for holding socks! Except that the Larva keeps taking it and upending it on to the floor.

And the last project is this cute purse I made from a purse pattern from Etsy. I love how the bag looks and it’s a perfect size for my needs. The instructions could be a bit clearer, but it’s a simple purse, so it’s easy to figure what’s going on. I’m going to try to think of another way to assemble this bag so that I can get Peltex inside. I like very stiff purses and interfacing alone doesn’t seem to be enough.

I actually had a lot of trouble following the JP Ryan pattern so I ended up taking copious photos and writing up notes for myself for the next time I make one of these. Because… yes, I already have fabric for another one. =D If anyone else is going to be using this pattern, feel free to check out my notes… they might help!

I did manage to get a wearable dress by the event although there were a few almost all-nighters in there. (I’m getting way too old for that btw. LOL) The only thing missing for the Bal was the trim which Judy and I finished later for a lovely photoshoot at Gamble Gardens.

Judy and I picked up this quilting fabric 2 years ago. It was a case of “Oh my how pretty!” so we bought a couple yards each. And then we stared at it for a few days and then went, “Wouldn’t this make amazing francaise…?!” and went back and bought an entire bolt each. =D I will state for the record that I would not use quilting fabric again for a francaise. It’s just too narrow a width of fabric which complicates things. The fabric really did look nice though!

The photos from the event are mostly from cell phones so apologies for the quality.

Judy’s feathers eating my head.

I was looking through my photos after and noticed that I ended up with a lot of photos of Judy’s boobs. LOL <3

Judy’s solution for how to eat dinner neatly. =D

The lovely Katherine in a stunning dress as always!

And a couple shots of everyone watching the entertainment.

So, as you can see, the front of our francaises were quite plain. I ran out of time to make my trim and in a gesture of solidarity, Judy didn’t finish hers either. We finished the trim for a photoshoot a month later with Doris and I love how it all looked when we were done! It really made the dress feel finished.

These photos were shot at Gamble Gardens in Palo Alto. It’s a tiny garden that’s a wonderfully versatile location for something so small. We had a lot of fun!

More photos on my website!

I finally made a comfy costume for Dickens so that I could eat ALL THE THINGS. Srsly, Dickens Fair has some of the yummiest food, and every year I’m sad that I can’t eat more because I’m wearing a corset. This year, Judy, D and I were Victorian maids. Bunny actually wore something nice so I guess we were her maids! And Mi and Lorelai did street urchins. It was a fun comfy group and I think we stopped at every single stall that had something edible. It was awesome. =D

A few weeks after that, we attended the GBACG  New York Society Tea (which I just call the Holiday Tea). I was thinking about fixing up my black & white striped dress but it takes me so much much longer these days to finish projects. I realized after working on my maid costume (which took me weeks and it’s simple!), that I was going to have to start in December if I wanted to get my robe a la francaise done for the next event in February so I opted to re-wear one of my old dresses that didn’t need fixing.

After the tea, Mi, Doris and I hopped on a trolley (hence the really blurry photo taken by an amused tourist) and rode it up to the Fairmont. I would love to do photos of a bunch of us on the trolley in costume at some point… just not on a weekend. It was crazy packed on the trolley.

We wanted to see the life-size gingerbread house at the Fairmont that we’d heard about. Uhm… it was kind of disappointing. LOL It’s more of just a facade than a real “house”. We did get to see the place where the GBACG Pemberley regency tea is going to be held though. That’s going to be a lot of fun!

Here’s one last photo of us at the Fairmont.

Last September, we organized a victorian photoshoot at stanford with our friend Jeff Kuo as photographer. Some of the girls made new costumes which were originally for the GBACG Tissot picnic, but we didn’t get tickets so we decided to organize a photoshoot on our own. I re-wore my key lime pie victorian which I never got good photos of. The photos came out gorgeous but everything Jeff does looks good.

And one last photo of the Larva with her godmother. This was before her hair started to grow back in. LOL