Took a little longer than I anticipated, but it turned out super cute!  I’m delighted to share with you:  The Manly Travel Power Cord Roll-Up, just in time for Valentine’s Crafting!

This tweedy little wrap has space for multiple laptop/phone/digital music accessories and cords, and bundles up nice and tidy to fit in a corner of a suitcase for travel.  Plus, it’s masculine enough to make husbands want to use it, but sweet enough to look good no matter what.  Woot!

I made my version from a pair of thrifted suit pants, but you could make it from a couple of fat quarters with no trouble (which means that if you like it enough, you can make a girly version for your lady friend, too).

Easy peasy steps and sewing!

You’ll need:

• a piece of wool tweed measuring approximately 18″ x 22″ (or a fat quarter of fabric)
• a cotton fabric for lining, same dimensions
• thread
• one 1/2″ button (I harvested mine from the same suit pants I cannibalized for the tweed)
• (optional) piece of cotton batting measuring 18″ x 22″

Prep your fabric

Because I harvested my fabric from a pair of pants, I had to begin by prepping it–I chopped off both legs, thinking I’d need two, but settled on just using one.  I slit up the inseam and pressed and steamed as much as was reasonable.  I left the cuff intact–it’s an interesting detail and I wanted to utilize it in the new design.

Square up the fabric.  I began by guesstimating the dimensions of the pocket I wanted to make–by eyeball, but it’s right around 6″ deep.  I folded that up, then trimmed the sides even, followed by squaring off the top.

The obvious selections for a lining might have been white or black, but since both of us have both white and black power cords, I wanted to choose something that would contrast and make them easier to dig out–no point in making a cord tote that makes it tougher to locate your cords.  I chose a soft, masculine blue that reminds me of dress shirts.  This is a fat quarter of Kona cotton.

Open out the cuff of the pants, if you have one.  If not, sew the edge of the lining right side to wrong side with the opposite edge of the main fabric.  In this case, the lower edge of the tweed, which will become the upper edge of the pocket when this is assembled, is sewn to the upper edge of the lining.  Use any seam allowance you like–this is 3/8″.

Flip the lining over so that pieces are wrong sides together.  Press the seam nice and crisp–use plenty of steam.  You can see in this image that there’s a lip of tweed sticking out–that’s the cuff from the pants, which I’ll be using to make a folded edge on the pocket front.

Fold up the pressed edge to create your pocket.  (If you’ve looked at Stitch by Stitch at all, you’ll begin to recognize this as a distant cousin to the picnic placemat project–not deliberate, but I guess my mind tends to work through problems in similar ways!)  At each side, cut away a small chunk from the top down to about 3/4″ of an inch above the fold.  We’re going to create a self binding, and you’ll need to leave that little chunk behind for the mitered corner.

Press in that little corner with the tip of your finger until it forms a triangle.  Then fold the raw edge in 1/4″ and press.  Fold again another 1/4″ and press again.

As you press, pin the edge in place, heading up toward the top of the wrap.  Remember, you’re folding the edge OVER the pocket, so you’ll want to be certain that the pocket depth is right where you’ll want it later.  Repeat on the opposite side; once both right and left are done, you can do the upper edge.

At the upper edge, fold in the corner again, making a triangle like you did before.  Press in place.

Fold the side in, double folded, until it meets the triangle you’ve pressed.

Fold the upper edge the same way, catching the upper edge of the lining as you do.  Press in place–don’t worry that the tip of the triangle is poking out a bit, we’ll fix that in the next step.

Open the side and top back out, then trim off the tip of the triangle so that you’ve cut it below the creases left from pressing in the sides.

Re-fold the sides and upper edge and pin in place.  Repeat all this on the other upper corner.

Now that everything is pinned and ready, you can stitch!  Begin at one lower edge, backtacking securely, then sew up one side, pivot at the miter, sew across the upper edge, pivot again, and sew down the opposite side, backstitching when you get to the bottom.  Press, press, press.

You’re in the home stretch now!  Time to mark your pockets to sew the channel stitches that will form them.  The upper portion, where the lining is visible, will become a flap to cover the cords and keep them inside the roll-up, so we don’t need to stitch there, just on the pocket itself. I used my Clover chaco liner, because its sharp “teeth” allow it to place chalk on the nubby tweed without pilling it or dragging across it the way tailor’s chalk might.  Use a ruler to help you keep your lines good and square with the lower edge of the roll-up.

As you’re drawing your lines for your pockets, think about what’s going in them.  I made sure to have one that was at least 4.5″ wide, since both my husband and I take our Mac chargers with us when we travel.  Remember that you’ll need more than the width of the object, since these things are all three-dimensional, and will take up more space than just the measurement of their width.  I like having sections of varying sizes, so I mixed it up some.

Head to your machine, and simply straight stitch on top of your lines, backstitching at each end to secure the stitches.

And you’re done!  You can tuck in a cell phone charger, an iPod accessory cord, a large laptop charger, even ear buds.  The flap folds down to cover the whole thing and keep everything secure so it won’t slip out when the baggage guys snatch your bag from you while you’re trying to board the plane and toss it carelessly beneath into the luggage compartment.

I really like the menswear feel of this project, and how the lining genuinely reminds me of a shirt inside a man’s suit front.  Sexy businesswear!  For your cables and cords!

For a closure, I took the tab off the waistband of the pants and repurposed it as a button loop–I loved the feature on the pants, and wanted to find a way to include it in the design.  If yours don’t have one, or you’re working with straight fabric and not thrifted goods, you can make a tab, or you can use a hair elastic stitched through to make a small elastic loop to go around the button.  I filled and rolled up mine before marking the button placement, then hid the stitches inside one of the pockets so they’re not visible from either side of the roll.

It’s traveltastic!  We two are heading to the mountains this Valentine’s Day weekend for a couples’ retreat.  This will be his travel gift (despite the fact that we’ll get no reception up there–at least his cords and cables will have a nice place to rest while the two of us are reconnecting!).

I am, at heart, a planner.  I tend to make lists and sketches and diagrams and schematics, and wrestle endlessly with ideas–talking them out loud to myself as I bring them to life–before I act on my plans.  Sometimes this looks like procrastination, sometimes it looks like too many ideas, but it’s where my best work gets done as often as not.  There are occasions, though, where I get an idea and it takes hold of me and I run with it.  This is one of those times.  Better yet, it’s one of the times when I get an idea from a plan I’ve been dreaming up, and the two have wild hairy babies and take off into the wild world, breeding huger plans that involve all of you, too.  So, I’m kind of excited about this today, and hope you’ll play along with me.

Here’s what happened:

Yesterday, I was sort of lazily looking around the (messy) studio, thinking to myself, “What should I sew next?” in the lackadasical way of someone who has something to do but has forgotten about doing it.  And then it hit me: Advent calendar.  How many days left until December?  Ooops.

Last year, I planned to sew an Advent calendar based on the one my mother had made when my sister and I were young.  It never happened.  So this year, at the Sewing Retreat, I was working through plans and deciding what I wanted it to look like, determined that I would get it done this year.  I didn’t get it done yet.  I had a vision of a patchworked and semi-quilted project that would last until my own children have children, very much in the style of the one my mother still hangs every year.

Last night, before I taught my class at the shop, I mentioned all this to Diana, our intrepid manager extraordinaire.  I lamented how challenging it would be to make this calendar in one-and-a-half days, but was determined to see it happen this year.  The design is a village path leading between houses, with a chapel at the end, twenty-four buildings in all.  A (fabric) paper doll family moves from house to house over the course of the Advent season, arriving at the chapel on Christmas Eve to await the birth of the baby Jesus.  The foundation of the whole thing, which is designed to hang on a door or wall, isn’t the challenge–it’s all those little houses!  Diana, who always says just the right single word or phrase to fire off a million ideas in my head and make the final details click, says, “You can make one house a day.”  That was all. And the light went on: What if I make one house a day?  Like, through the Advent season?  And this year, as the little family makes their way to the chapel, the village grows–and then next year and every year after, the calendar is done and ready to enjoy?  Brilliant!

But of course, being me, I continued to think about the plan, and it began to take on a larger form all of its own: what if as I make each house, I blog each house?  And share them with you, like an Advent house-of-the-day as December moves along?  Fun!  But then, I have some other really cool stuff I want to do on the blog this December, and I don’t want to pepper everyone with multiple posts per day.  So maybe the houses go on their own page?  And I link to them from the main page?  But wait!!  Wouldn’t it be cool if we could make little houses together?  Like….like…like an Advent Calendar Sew-Along!

The fabulous wreath featured on this button is available from georgiapeachez in her Etsy shop–love those vintage bulbs!

And now here we are!  I’m delighted to invite you to join me in sewing my Advent calendar this December, bit by bit, all of us together so that we can finally, finally get it completed and share it with our families.  It’s such a great tradition, and one I loved so deeply as a child, and I hear and read so much about so many of us wishing we’d found the time to make one.  In the spirit of our 2010 Sewing Goals, let’s make the time and sew them alongside one another.

You’re certainly not limited to making a calendar like mine, although I’ll be sharing details, tutorials and templates as we go along if that’s what you want to do.  I’ve compiled a list of amazing and modern and inspiring Advent calendars to sew all over the web for you to pick from–just making one while the rest of us do is enough to share the spirit!

I’ve placed a button in the sidebar to click each day and see the newest little house go up on the background.  I’m super looking forward to seeing all the many, many variations out there, and can’t wait to see this one finished and drinking in the buzz and the warmth of Christmas!

Advent calendar designs, tutorials, and inspiration:

• The Whipstitch Village Path Advent calendar! Follow along each day starting tomorrow, and see the circa-1975 inspiration here.
• Embroidered felt Advent calendar on Purl Bee
• Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson! shows a quilted calendar on Sew, Mama, Sew
• Jenny B Harris of All Sorts does a pocket-style calendar
• Wouldn’t these stacked fabric Christmas trees make a sweet Advent calendar display on a table top?  From the Small Object.
• Liesl Gibon’s lovely mitten calendar on Oliver + S
• Wool stars Waldorf-inspired calendar from Heirloom Seasons
• This blanket stitch garland from Anna Maria could be a super cute Advent garland, too!
• Super sweet felt calendar from Inchmark (via The Long Thread)
• Teeny tiny stocking calendar from Trillium (love this one!)
• Miniature Santa sack Advent calendar from The Mother Huddle (via CraftGossip)
• House of many windows Advent calendar tutorial from See Mommy Sew
• Little Birdie Advent calendar from Skip to My Lou
• Modern quilted Advent wall hanging from Freshly Pieced
• String of Lights Advent calendar garland from Elsie Marley
• Updated 12/1: I just learned through Dana of MADE that Homemade by Jill has been hosting an Advent Calendar Sew-Along, too!  See all the posts here.
• Fairytale Pumpkin has Advent calendar kits available for purchase.
• Pocket Advent calendar from Noodleheads
• Did I miss a really great modern Advent calendar?  Add the link in the comments and I’ll update the list!

When I was writing Stitch by Stitch, I really wanted to focus on the struggles I see the most in folks who come through our classes.  No matter what the sewing background–someone who took Home Ec so long ago they feel like they’ve forgotten most of it; someone who learned from her mom and wasn’t really all that into it then, but now she’s kicking herself; someone who’s brand-new to sewing and has never even touched a machine before; someone who has learned alone from the web or from books, and is worried that the subtle nuances and foundational facts might’ve been overlooked along the way–the most common complaint I hear is that we’re all  looking to make sure we’ve got the core skills, the foundational techniques, nailed down so we can really see how far our sewing will take us.

One of the things I see the most is the total paralysis a lot of us get when we’re confronted with the various stitches on the machine.  When I very first learned to sew, my machine made a straight stitch and a zigzag.  That was it.  Not even a buttonhole function (alas).  So when I moved up to my next machine, I was suddenly confronted with piles of stitch options, and I had no idea which ones did what or when to use them.  You know which ones I used?  You got it: the straight stitch and the zigzag.  And all those other little buttons just went to waste.

I want better than that for all of us.  I spent some serious time with my owner’s manual investigating what it had to say about each stitch.  I’ve learned over time that some manuals give more details than others, so I combed through reference books and various sites on the Web to fill in gaps, and I’m delighted to present you with:

A Stitch Identification Primer.

Flip through the slideshow to see details on each of the stitches shown above on the sampler (the stitch sampler itself is one of the bonus mini-projects included in Stitch by Stitch).  Because these are images of lines of stitching, a number of photos will extend beyond the frame–just grab them with your mouse and shift to see all the details and text, since I’ve included facts and suggestions for using each one!  Larger images can be seen on Flickr.

Happy stitching, y’all.

When Lizzy House’s new collection Castle Peeps was released, I ordered the entire thing for the shop sight-unseen–after Lizzy Dish and Red Letter Day, I didn’t need to see it to know it would be fabulous.  And boy, is it ever!

Very few collections have sold so quickly or with so much excitement.  So when Lizzy invited me to create a project for Castle Peeps Summer Camp, I felt like I’d been invited to sit at the cool kids’ lunch table.

Introducing the Castle Peeps Travel Play Set! Soft toys made from Castle Peeps fabrics, complete with a travel pouch to take them along wherever you go.  Includes a keep (reversible, should you change sides halfway through the action), a village (to defend or maraud, depending on your mood), and plenty of peeps of varying persuasions (all in triptych, so you get three for the price of one).  Everything is machine washable, soft (so it’s great no matter how old your kids are, and it grows with them), and folds flat (thanks to the velcro closures).  This project is a breeze to make, and my children couldn’t wait–truly, literally COULD NOT WAIT to play with it.  Since it’s Fairy Tale Week at their preschool, it was a chore to convince them Mommy needed to have the toy today.  Good thing I’m bigger (for now).

I think my favorite part about this project, other than how easy it is to make and how quickly it sews up, is how adaptable it is.  Does your kid need phalanx after phalanx of peeps, but won’t really use the castle?  That’s fine–just make dozens of little men and leave the rest alone.  Do you have three kids and need three castles, so they can war against one another?  The elements of the project each take a fat quarter or less, so it’s a snap to make multiples!  Make it all in one colorway for a matched set, or make a little out of each colorway to mix it up–your choice.  Download the PDF instructions to make one–or many!–of these beauties for your own house!

Happy stitching, everyone!

Additional download: Tower/Village Roof Pattern Piece

Operation Blankie Rescue

So, I’m sitting at the laptop, 20 minutes into naptime.  And our three-year-old appears, holding her woobie: Pink Blankie.  Not the most creative name, but there it is.  Except, I look closer at Pink Blankie (PB for short) and there are TWO.  Two pieces, that is.

“Honey,” I ask, “What happened to Pink Blankie?”

“I ripped it.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Because I was being bad.”

So, that settles that.  She went back to bed with half of PB, and when she woke up, verified that I’d be able to “stick it back together.”  I promised I would, today as she went off to preschool, and thus I found myself with the tattered bits of a flannelette blanket.  A mother’s work is never done.

I considered my options: I could zigzag over the tear.  That’d be quick and easy.  But with fabric this worn and soft, I knew the stitches wouldn’t hold long.  I could run a quick straight seam, but again, they might not hold very long, and the seam allowances were sure to fray like mad.  So I decided to use a French seam, to get those seam allowances all wrapped up and out of the way.

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