Medicine Bag: For the Hippy in Your Life

When I was 10 years old or so, my summer camp secret buddy made me a suede medicine bag. It was pretty cool. Then when I was a college freshman in fashion school, I rediscovered that medicine bag. I still thought it was awesome and started wearing it regularly. But in a room full of fashion majors, not without light-hearted ridicule. Someone even bought me crystals as a gag gift! I put them in my medicine bag and kept on wearing it.

This year, I came into lots of suede. And suddenly Native American paraphernalia is super hip. I thought about making medicine bags, and then mine broke! So it seems I was destined to share my medicine bag with you.

If you want to embroider or bead a design on your medicine bag, this is best done before cutting. I simply drew my design on with black and red sharpie, which can be done at any point!

1. Mark holes around the edge, about a quarter inch apart, on the inside. Puncture these markings through both pieces of suede with the awl.

2. Thread needle, knot a double strand. Start with your knot on the inside and sew back through the top holes again, creating a straight tack.

3. With the two pieces of suede on top of each other, right sides facing out, sew around the edge, passing the needle straight through your awl holes, front to back. This should create diagonal stitches.

4. Snip two vertical holes in the back, and six in the front.

5. Lace the long, skinny neck piece through these holes.

6. Tie, fill with crystals, and wear for good energy and hippy/Native American chic style!

DIY Gift Guide

For those of you looking for holiday gift inspiration, I thought I'd post a collection of my past DIYs that could make great gifts for your loved ones.

For the beauty in your life.

For the snuggle bunny in your life.

For the writer and doodler in your life.

For the elegant woman in your life.

For the stylishly farsighted in your life.

For the one who deserves pampering in your life.

For the stylishly funky in your life.

For the snow bunny in your life.

For the cook in your life.

For the technophile in your life.

For the gardener in your life.

For the animal lover in your life.

For the coffee or tea lover in your life.

Go forth and good luck!

Guest Post at Blume and Grow: Paper Garland

Guess what? I just wrote my very first guest post! Carrie from Blume and Grow offered me the opportunity to play with the beautiful transparencies from her shop, and I made this really fun paper garland! 

Use it to trim a tree, wrap a gift, or deck a hall!

 Find the full tutorial here:

Blume and Grow is a lovely blog: crafts, photography, scrapbooking, food, life. Here are some of my favorite posts: {diy} card using fall photos, {how to} stamping | printing on vellum, {wedding} poster art, and {diy} sharpie mugs. 

You can find Carrie's guest post for From Scratch, a scrapbooking DIY for beautiful handmade page protectors here:

Enjoy!

Dream Tote!

I have a lot of stuff. Too much stuff. Especially in my closet. A year or so I had a revelation concerning all this stuff. A lot of it I rarely wear or use, but when I try to get rid of these things I can't. Why? Because they still serve a purpose or fill a hole. You need to fill that hole with one beautiful, well-made item so that you can get rid of a host of sub-par items that have been serving that purpose together.

For example, my tote bag situation. Sometimes you need a tote bag. For me, most often it's the days I don't work from home. In addition to the small items I usually stuff in a little handbag, I usually want to bring a lunch, a bottle of water, perhaps my knitting or reading, perhaps supplies for a class I'm teaching. So for this I have been relying on 3 dirty, ugly, ancient, a-little-too-small tote bags. None good enough to stand on its own.

So I made myself a damn beautiful tote bag. With all the bells and whistles.

You may recognize the fabric from last weeks apron DIY...

I just like it so much! And there's still plenty left. Who knows what else I'll use it for!?

A note about the Cut List: If your self fabric is directional, like mine, you'll want to cut two 16" x 19" pieces instead of one 16" x 38".

Left: Lining with Pocket; Right: Self with Pocket and Strap

The first step is to assemble all the bells and whistles. Sew on all your pockets and straps before we complicate things by sewing them together and making them not flat anymore.

You may also note that I matched my fabric for that front pocket. Because I love that kind of stuff. It's all in the details, my friends!

1. This is where you should be: front and back assembled with straps and pocket.
2. Topstitch bottom reinforcement pieces to the precise center of the body, and the bottom of the side pieces. The easiest way to do this is to press your raw edges in before sewing.
3. Sew your sides in. Be careful around those tricky corners! Repeat this step with your lining, but leaving a hole somewhere to flip your bag right-side-out through.
4. To attach lining: Place your right-side-out, fully assembled bag inside your inside-out lining and sew the top edges together.
5. Pull your bag through the hole you left in the lining and close up the hole with a topstitch. Push your lining its proper place inside your bag. Press and topstitch the top edge of your bag.

Beautiful, isn't it?

It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas

What smells more like Christmas than cloves and oranges? Okay, maybe pine does, but it's a darn close call! I don't know about you, but I'm getting in the spirit with some classic orange and clove room fresheners. If you've never made them before, do yourself a favor!

1. Wrap up an orange with string like you would ribbon on a present, leaving nice long tails.

2. Tie off those tails into a loop for hanging.

3. Push cloves into the orange around the string so it doesn't slip off.

4. Push lots of cloves into the orange however you please.

5. Hang up and breathe deep!