Free Shipping Etsy Site

Just a quick note to let all of you know that I will have free shipping on any orders that are placed during the time frame of Black Friday to Cyber Monday, which is November 28th through December 1st.

Go and check out my site to see if there is anything that you are interested in. Then come back next week for a possible purchase.

Remember free shipping!!!!

New items on Clicketyclak Etsy Site

Well I took the day to take photos and upload my items to my ETSY site. I’ve already gotten some hits on the items and some people have “hearted” my shop.

It makes me feel good when people like my work. I always send them a “thank you”. This also gives me the opportunity to look at their shops too. I love the quality of work that these people do. Their items are done really nice as well as some of them are truely unique. 

Here are some snapshots of my aprons that I did for the Holiday Bazaar. You can view them on my etsy site as well. You’ve seen some of my other items here, but if you trip over to my etsy you can see better views of them and maybe items I might not have posted here.

Hmmm I seem to be missing one of the aprons. 

So nothing much more is happening. Don’t feel like sewing or embroidering – wonder why. At least if I know I need a last minute gift, I have plenty of ’em.

Tomorrow is back to work and I’ve been plenty busy. Hopefully now that I have my new puter I will be finally relocating. I did a tutorial on Microsoft 2007 last week and now I understand the ribbon on all the programs. It was quite confusing at first. Had to learn how to make pivot tables and boy is it simple when you have the formatted worksheets and a previous spreadsheet with the information on it. Heard that there is a lot of reorganization at my old job and might be a possible surplus of head count again. 

Til later…

Evening

Well earlier tonight I went to the office supply store and Xeroxed a bunch of purse patterns. I did the vintage ones that I have shown here on my blog and some others. Like I indicated before the purses are very small and are great for going out. So I wanted to make them bigger. So I wanted to enlarge them 150% more.

Well I was running into problems of getting the whole pattern onto one 11 x 17 sheet, something would be cut off. The original patterns in the book were front and back pieces of the purse or lining. They were not half, where you would put them on the fold of the fabric. So in order for me to get all of it on one sheet, I had to get the center of the pattern and then copy it. 

I noticed on the first copies that I made the purses, the author of the book did a lot of the right and left sides freehanded, thus they did not match. When I centered the pattern, I looked for the best side and used that so that when I use the new patterns, that are put on the fold, both left and right sides will match exactly.

Once I got home I started on a new vintage purse. The length of the purse is now 16 or 17 inches long (that is without the bottom gusset). On this particular purse I am working on the opening is still small, but you can at least put your hand in and get what you are looking for. I don’t have any pictures tonight to show you of the one I started last night, nor todays.

However, I did start off on the wrong foot. When I grabbed the pattern, I didn’t read. Then the material I used (the first vintage purse with the black bow), I wasn’t watching what I was doing. I pinned the fabric and pattern and cut. When I finished cutting I realized that I did not cut the pattern for the purse, but the lining. The pattern for the purse had pleats in them. Well the upholestry material being used is too heavy for pleats. The next thing I did wrong, I didn’t make sure I would have enough material to make the other piece for the back. Whew, I was lucky, but I was cutting it short. Had enough material for the handle holder and the flap. 

On this purse instead of doing the lining the full length of what the purse calls for, I cut it shorter by 2 inches. On the bottom gusset, so I wouldn’t need to add plastic canvas, I took and fused heavy weight stabilizer to the cotton material. Boy does it hold the shape great.

So far everything else is going as planned. Instead of leaving an opening at the bottom, I will be doing it on the side. Since the stabilizer is on the bottom with the fusible stuff, there is no way that I can flip the lining/purse and keeping the shape at the bottom. The other issue with this and the other I started yesterday, since I have handles, its a tight squeeze sewing and flipping it inside out.

Tomorrow after my hospital visit, I’ll make some more purses. See I opened a new shop today at ETSY. “Not Your Ordinary Bag”. I still have my other shop, but thats going to be just for my machine embroidery. I will keep my purses on that site, cause I don’t want to confuse people who have already looked at them and maybe put the item as a favorite for a future purchase. Hopefully tomorrow or Saturday, I will put some items on that shop.

Depending on my energy level, I might do some girl sweatshirts with embroidery while I sew. I still have to take pictures of the boys that I did last week.

Well, guess thats it for now. See you again soon.

Donna

My First Post

Hi I’m Donna from Downers Grove, Illinois.

I’m new to blogging but figured what the heck.

I’m a crafter and am interested in all types of art. I am lucky that I find time for my hobby, sewing and machine embroidery. I was checking out some blogs and very impressed on some of them. Will have to read them more often so I have help on projects I’ve never tried.

Learned how to sew at an early age, mom was a seamstress. I’ll never be like her, but at least I can sew on more than a button. In 2001 I received my first embroidery machine from mom. It was a PE 180D. Then there was the Disney machine and finally I went and purchased the PR 600. I used the PE 180D for regular sewing until I won a Pfaff quilting machine. I would like to quilt, but I think because it takes so long to complete something, that is why I don’t like it so much. I like to see results in a matter of hours or days. Recently purchase the Viking Sapphire 830. I really do like it, but it has so much to offer I haven’t been able to check everything out on it. But I’ll get to play with it for a long time.

Currently I’ve been finding extra time (on and off a disability) to sew and embroider on days off. Yesterday evening I took the time to finally get my “shop” started on ETSY. My husband continues to say when are you going to sell all that stuff. Well you need to have lots of stuff made before you go out the door. I have a lot of items made now that I can start selling. Today he was informed that I am getting my feet wet to see how I can do. Next year I retire and can spend more time on my hobby.

I’m really excited about my shop as well as my blog. I hope that I get a chance to post often and am looking forward to hearing from other crafters. Want to share ideas, help others and even get pointers from you. I’ll share some pics and other stuff with everyone. Need to learn more about blogging and all the side bar stuff. When I was a moderator for a yahoo group, I had lots of fun with all the ladies on the board and we had lots of fun doing sewing projects competing for prizes. So if I had fun doing that, I should have fun here.

Well I guess I should run for now. I should have been in the sewing room today, but I have other stuff that needs to be addressed.