And the Winner Is....

Comment #97 - Stacy!!! Congratulations Stacy!!


Thanks to everyone who entered!! I really enjoyed reading all of your comments and I hope you'll continue to follow me along in my crafting adventures.

I want to give a big thank you to Sew Mama Sew for putting this Giveaway together - it was a lot of fun! It was my first giveaway and I'm sure it won't be my last.

Thanks again to everyone who participated. Enjoy the wallet, Stacey!!

Follow Up

I just wanted to follow up with a few items with regard to my wallet giveaway below.

First off, I just want to say WOW, I'm am overwhelmed by the amount and positiveness of the comments I have received so far! Over 200 in the first day! Secondly, I just want to apologize for the the fact that your comments were not showing up immediately when you posted them. I had not realized that the blog was set so that I had to approve each comment before it was published to the blog - a blog newbie oversight. ;) This has now been fixed and I did a bulk approval so that each comment was published in the order that it was received. Your comments will now show up immediately, so keep them coming.

I also want to clarify a couple things and answer some questions I have received so far:
- The contrast fabric used in the wallet is a pink color. The pictures on the blog don't quite capture it properly.
- I currently do not have a tutorial for this wallet, but may look into it in the future. I'm not really experienced in tutorials, but may give it a try later on.
- The billfold will be posted to my website An Artistic Bent by the end of today, for custom orders. I don't have any of this design ready made yet, except the one I'm giving away, which is the first one. But will have some in the near future. Custom orders are welcome though. :)
- Unfortunately I don't know what the name of the fabrics are that I have used for this wallet. I've been able to find small amounts of it in the stores, but it never has the designer name on it. As soon as I find out, I will post. Or if any out there knows, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks again to everyone who has posted and don't forget to check out the other giveaways listed at Sew Mama Sew. I spent most of last night going through the other blogs and I'm not even half way through! There is some really talented people and lovely stuff out there!!

May Giveaway Day - New Billfold Wallet Debuts!!

Here it is! My new billfold wallet design is finally finished and I'm giving away my first one as part of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day event.

The Billfold is made of 2 beautiful coordinating fabrics and has a snap closure.

A change compartment is located on the outside back of the wallet.

The inside contains 6 cardholder slots which hold approximately 16 cards,

two small compartments for receipts (beneath cardholder slots),

and one large compartment for bills.

So, how can you win this wallet, you ask? Well, leave me a comment on this blog letting me know what you think about the new design. I will then take the total number of comments posted from May 27th to 31st and input that number into a Random Integer Generator, which will provide me with the winning comment number. The person who wrote that comment will win the wallet. I know, I know, it's not creative at all, but I'm really tired right now and I can't come up with a creative question at the moment. I promise that if Sew Mama Sew does another Giveaway Day I will come up with a much more creative way to choose the winner. :)

The Giveaway will be open until May 31st, I will post the winner on June 1st and items will be shipped out to the winner by June 3rd. I will ship internationally, so come one, come all!

For more info on my wallets and aprons, visit my website - An Artistic Bent.

Also, free to check out Sew, Mama, Sew for all the other blogs giving away great handmade items.

New Design for May Giveaway?

May Giveaway Day is tomorrow! I'm really hoping to finish my new design tonight so that I can debut it as my giveaway tomorrow.

Tune in tomorrow to see if I was successful and enter for a chance to win the item!

Fabric Excitement!

I received my latest fabric order and I am so in love with the new designs that I had to share them. I have not purchased fabric from these 2 designers before, but I can tell you that I will definitely purchase more of their fabric in the future. The colors are vibrant and the fabric quality is amazing! My pictures don't do them justice. These gorgeous pink sunflower fabrics by Valori Wells are for a custom apron order.


These beautiful fabrics are by Dena Design and I plan on making an apron or two out of these as well.

I am so stoked about these gorgeous fabrics that I can't wait to start them. Once the aprons are completed I will post pictures so you can see the finished products. With these fabrics they are pretty much guaranteed to be gorgeous! At least I hope so.

I'd also like to mention the online store that I purchased the fabrics from - honeybeehumble. I don't plan on mentioning every store I purchase fabric from, but there were a couple things about this order when it arrived that I was very impressed with. Each fabric was cut perfectly with pinking shears and then folded beautifully. Most fabric packages I receive are pretty well folded, but I have to say that some of the cut edges are disgraceful. It makes you wonder if people have their eyes shut while cutting. Honeybeehumble's package however was a lovely surprise and you know that this is someone who truly loves fabric. I will definitely be purchasing from them again in the future.

May Giveaway Day - May 27th!

That's right; you heard me, 'Giveaway'!!

I came across this fun event through one of my favourite blogs (Oh, Fransson!) and thought it looked like a great event to be involved in.

Sew, Mama, Sew is hosting the Giveaway Day and they will be posting a list of participating blogs on May 27th. The Giveaways will be open until May 31st and items will be shipped out to the winners by June 3rd.

Make sure to check back here on May 27th to enter my Giveaway!!

From Apron to Potholders.

Last Friday I had a very clear plan of what I was going to get accomplished, but like many well-laid plans, things can quickly run amuck. My original plan was to make an apron for my very creative cousin (she designed my ‘An Artistic Bent’ logo) and get it mailed off to her by the end of the day. Earlier in the week I had made my final decision on what fabrics to use and had them all ironed and laid out ready to be cut. I was set to go.

I measured the pieces for the skirt section of the apron, measured again to be certain and then proceeded to cut. As soon as I made the last cut, a little voice in my head told me it was wrong. I looked down at the piece and knew it was too small. How the heck did I do that? I measured twice?! Then it hit me, the measurements I had used were for the skirt without the allowance for the gather – 4” too short! Apparently I wasn’t completely focused when figuring out the dimensions. Darn it!! Okay, so how to proceed? After taking a look at what I had left of the desired fabrics I realized that I could cut another skirt section out (this time the correct size) and use the piece I just cut out to make the top section of the apron. Okay, no problem, right? Not quite.

Once again I laid the two main fabrics down on top of one another and made the measurements (this time with the 4” included). Again I measured a second time to be sure. I made my cuts, and picked up the pieces so that I could pin them for sewing. That’s when I saw that one of the fabrics was about 2” shorter than the other. Complete rookie mistake. When laying the two fabrics on top of the other, I didn’t double check that the fabric on the bottom (the shorter fabric which should have been on top) covered the complete area to be cut. I seriously could not believe that I made such a ridiculous mistake, especially after the initial cutting screw up! Okay, back to the fabric remnants, did I have enough?? Nope! How could I have made two such basic mistakes in the matter of an hour?? How was I going to make the apron now?? Were the Gods trying to tell me it was not a day to be sewing? After about 15 minutes of muttering (okay, maybe it was a bit louder than muttering) about what a stupid mistake I’d made, I had a light bulb moment. That’s what I’m going to do! I had seen an article or blog (can’t remember which) about a week previous on making potholders out of pretty fabrics. That was it! If I couldn’t make an apron out of the pieces, then I was going to make something else that I could send her until I could order more fabric for her apron.

Now I was starting to feel a bit better. With a new direction, I sat down, figured out measurements and started cutting; AGAIN. This time, all went as planned. With the 3 different fabrics, a couple layers of batting and some ribbon, I was good to go! This is also the point where I decided this little disaster story might make a good lessons blog and went to get my camera to document the making of the potholders. And, here’s how it went.

Material needed: 3 coordinating fabric designs, cotton batting, ribbon.

Side 1 consists of one single fabric design measuring 9x9”.

Side 2 consists of 4 strips of 3 fabric designs (2 inside strips 2.25”x9”, 2 outside strips 2.75”x9”). The four strips are sewn together using a ¼” seam allowance. Once sewn together, iron flat and trim sides so that it measures 9x9”.

Align front and back pieces with wrong sides together and 2 layers of cotton batting (each measuring 9x9”) in between, pin and sew through all four layers using a ½” seam allowance. Be sure to leave 3-4” open on one side. Trim seam allowance to 1/4".
Turn potholder right side out through opening, making sure to push out corners fully. Iron flat ensuring the open edges are pressed under.

Place looped ribbon in opening, making sure the ends are tucked at least a 1/2" inside the potholder and loop is the desired length. Edge stitch all the way around the potholder, 1/4" from edge. At desired intervals, stitch straight lines from one side to the other, creating quilted look. Voila! Easy, pretty and functional. Even if they were supposed to be an apron. :)