Last Minute Details

I'll be heading out in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday, out to AZ to attend my Grandpa's memorial service. I haven't been back to AZ in about 9 years and am very excited to see all of my family! I really wish the circumstances were different but it will still be great to see everybody. This is the first time in about 5 years that all of my siblings will be in one place, I can't wait to see them all!

I'm wrapping up last minute stuff here before I go and leave the husband with all of the kids for the weekend. You know, the laundry, the grocery shopping, all those goodies.

I'm also wrapping up some things for my business. That's right, I said business. Friends, Julie Pickles Designs is no longer just a group of words on a pattern cover. Things just got real around here.

Turns out, I should have had these before I started selling patterns. I had no clue! So, here they are and now I can safely sell patterns and go to craft shows. I'm officially official!

Speaking of patterns, remember me mentioning having THREE in the works? They are all out for testing! My testers have had them for a couple of weeks now. I have been hard at work on the cover models too. I think I have everything wrapped up that I need before I go. By the time I get back and finish mine they should be finishing up testing. The goal for release is the end of this month!

I decided a needed a new bag for the trip too.

Yes, I know, it's been mere months since I made the last one. Have I mentioned how much I love bags? 

This time I've chosen the Emmaline Bag to make. 

The bag has a lot of pleats so I thought I'd leave out the thicker interfacings. But then this happened.

Um, yeah, that won't do.

So I thought I'd add fleece to the lining instead, but even the lining has pleats. And I added a zipper pocket, so I had to figure that out too.

A little bit of brain power (which I seem to be running low on these days) and I had an answer.

I laid a big square piece of fleece over the lining with the pocket attached, and then felt for the zipper and drew a rectangle on the fleece over where the zipper was laying. I made it a bit bigger to allow for the fabric of the pocket too. (and I really wish I had taken a picture of these before I fused it)

I cut that rectangle out and fed the pocket through it, then laid the fleece on top of the lining piece. I fused it in a few places and then used the lining piece as a pattern to cut the excess fleece away. 

Here is the lining with the fleece attached and the pocket sticking out of it. (That pocket is not as large as it looks by the way). 

If you look at the bottom, you can see where I cut a pieces of the fleece out for the pleats. I didn't do that for the last bag and it wasn't as fun to make the pleats with all of that bulk!

So far, so good!

Those rectangle rings are pretty heavy, it definitely needed that extra support. We'll see how well it does once I get the false bottom put in and add the straps. The false bottom made a HUGE difference in the support of the weekender, I'm hoping for the same for this. I'll report back when it's done!

And in case you are ever wondering what my children are doing when I sew...I took the above pictures while sitting in my sewing chair.

Here's Moose

And Bug, sitting on my leg

They definitely keep things interesting!