Weekend Progress Report

O.K. so I'm addicted to fabric. I used a little free time I had on Friday afternoon to stop at a different JoAnn's, a bigger one. I still had more of those discount cards to use and more coupons. I had taken a quick rifle through a stack of my patterns before work, and had pulled a couple to take shopping, including a pattern for a bag. The problem was the more I thought about using a little black clutch with my outfit, the more I realized it wouldn't work. I'll probably end up driving which means I need room for my wallet and keys. And the camera, some tissues, the wedding card, and some incidentals. They just weren't going to all fit into a clutch bag.

The bag pattern I selected had 2 side pockets (fabric A), a center pocket (fabric B), trim for the center pocket and handles (fabric C) and the main body of the bag (fabric D). When I tried to find fabrics that would coordinate with each other - and more or less match the floral fabric for the shrug (black background with peachy rose red and gold flowers, green leaves) I was stuck. I wandered over to the home dec and was quickly able to find some heavier cottons that worked perfectly. A floral print with similar values on black for the main body, black and beige houndstooth check for the side pockets, a solid rosy red for the center pocket and from the sale table, some faux black suede for the pocket trim and handles.

I had also had the foresight to bring the straw boater I was planning on wearing. I bought some black ribbon to replace the navy on the hat, and a spray of gold flowers to decorate the back brim.

P.S. Checking out here was easier at this store - the clerks had good instructions and "cheat" sheets to scan multiple cards.

So, over the weekend I prepared the hat for finishing - just need to find my trusty glue gun to assemble the pieces. Cut out the shrug, Frenched the seams and am now pinning the slippery edges to be finished by topped stitching. And I completed the bag from start to finish. Oh, and I even finished hand sewing the binding on a table runner I quilted several weeks ago. All in all, a fairly productive weekend!