Auction Preparations ~ All Sewn Up!

Whew! I've finished sewing for the auction for The Bo M. Karlsson Foundation (and its a good thing since the big event is TOMORROW!). Chris and I have a few more things to organize and prepare, but the items for the silent auction are all ready. Hooray!

The scrappy clutches (made using this great tutorial by Christine of From an Igloo) turned out pretty sweet!

I'm calling this one "Evocative Evening Bag" and I really like it (even though I put the pleat in backwards - I'm not sure that a pleat can actually be backwards, but I intended this pleat to poke out on the inside instead of the outside). I struggled a little bit with this first bag, especially when attaching the top of the bag to the bottom, but I think this was mostly due to the fact that it was 11:30 pm when I finished the bag.

The lining fabric is very cool - this fabric was leftover from my hallway curtains (and the exterior blue fabric is a remnant from my master bath curtains).

My second go-around at making the scrappy clutch was near perfect. I constructed this bag during the daylight hours, which probably helped quite a bit! This one's name is "Vintage Violet". The fabric looks vintage to me, especially the white and black fabric, but it is actually not very old - I bought it about 7 years ago or so from Hancock Fabrics when the store just up the street from my house (sadly) went out of business. And guess what? These fabrics were actually purchased to make curtains, too - but I decided that the purple was too dark once I made them, and we took the white ones down from Chris' office when we changed his office into Marcus' nursery (thus necessitating a definite curtain change). And, guess what I used for the lining of this bag - you got it, remnants from the fabric I used to make the curtains in Marcus' room!

The lining of the second bag turned out much neater than the first - this is because I did the fold over of the fabric after attaching the front of the bag together. I used a basting stitch to keep the fold-over in place, then I pinned the lining down and sewed around. I guess you have to look at the tutorial to understand what I'm talking about. And, doing it the same way Christine explains in the tutorial will probably work out great for anyone else, I am just kind of clumsy and this bag opening is very small - so I had a few unwanted wrinkles inside on my first bag.

Here's the interior of the purple bag, nice and neat.

Charlie really liked the clutches. He immediately grabbed the "Evocative Evening Bag" and filled it with matchbox cars. I'll have to make him one of the Hobo Bags from Made, especially since I didn't end up making those for the auction wine bags - more on that in a moment.

I managed to get the centerpieces for the table done. I didn't want to use real flowers because I feared they would be too aromatic and disrupt the whole "wine nose" thing with the wine tasting. So, I bought some inexpensive carafes from Fred Meyer, filled them with wine corks (thanks Karen for all of those corks!), and stuck some fake stems inside (purchased at JoAnn Fabrics). The glass pitcher in the center will go on the food table - that centerpiece has a (fake) orchid in it to - which cost an extra dollar than the other stems. I thought this was a bit silly considering the flowers are fake and didn't seem to be much different in terms of materials and construction. I guess the company thought that if real orchids are more expensive, fake ones should be, too? Funny (at least to me).

In that last photo you may have noticed the square vase I had in the front. I was going to use that for the registration table, since I wanted a shorter arrangement there that would be hard for clumsy me to knock over. I changed my mind on the square vase, though, and opted for this short cylindrical vase instead. Inside, a tall shot glass is surrounded by corks. This way I can put some real flowers into the vase on the registration desk, which will be placed far from the wine tasting.

So, back to the wine bags I was going to create using Made's Hobo Bag tutorial. I didn't get to these, and decided instead to donate a diaper bag I made for myself just before Marcus was born. This Amy Butler fabric is one of my favorites ever. I made this bag using the Hip Mama Diaper Bag tutorial from A Mingled Yarn. It is a messenger-style bag (strap is long enough to cross over your front) with two front velcro pockets (under the flap), two side velcro pockets, and a back (lined) zipper pocket (please forgive the wrinkles, I just laundered this bag for the auction and still need to press it).

Inside are five elastic pockets for bottles, diapers, snacks, what-have-you. And, check out this equally fabulous Amy Butler fabric - love it. WHY would I give away this bag, do you ask? Well, because I never use it anymore. I found out that a big messenger-style bag was not really for me, and I ended up buying a cute backpack to use when Marcus was itty-bitty and Charlie was still in diapers. Once Charlie was out of diapers (and I guiltily gave up using cloth diapers with Marcus), I realized I could get by with a much smaller bag for all of us. I would actually make this style bag again, I'd just make it smaller with a shorter strap so that I could just throw it over my shoulder. And, I would definitely use that tutorial - it is very well-written.

Plus, I'm definitely making myself a new bag as a reward for all of this sewing! You betcha!

Wish us luck on the auction! I'll let you know how it goes!