Hot Patterns Red Hot Mama Multi-Pocket Tote

I ordered two Hot Patterns a while back after the fiasco pants. I ordered the Red Hot Mama Multi-pocket Tote and the Deco Vibe Cosmopolitan dress. They arrived in a timely fashion but the purse pattern was missed half of the pages including the directions and the Deco Vibe dress had no directions included with it. I emailed and it took quite a while to get a response. When I did get a response, it was a nice one. They were sorry for the mistakes and they would 1) send me another purse pattern and 2) email me directions for the Cosmopolitan Dress. It was fine but it was a pain. I finally got around to making the purse. I've actually been sewing a lot even though there hasn't been much on the old blog. It's secret-sewing!!!

This baby is large; definitely a beast. I'm not sure if I love it though. the pocket in the middle is really big. I took several pictures with it on me so you can see exactly HOW big. It has three main pockets. The outer two are smaller and have all the pockets. The inner one is huge with no pockets. You can add them to the middle, of course. I used an IKEA canvas fabric for this. I wanted a firm fabric and want to use leather eventually. This is my practice bag, if you will.

I put a ton of pockets in it. It's really hard to see what I did when it's in the bag so I also drew some pictures of all the pockets. 

The inner bag is so large, I can put in an entire pair of shoes like this. Not stacking the shoes, but putting them side by side. Like I said, LARGE inner bag.

I will use it around town and then I will let you know how I like it and it's massive-ness. Here it is for scale on me.

See? She's BIG!!

One issue I had with the bag was the less-than-stellar directions. I consider myself an accomplished seamstress and I have (I think) really good spacial abilities. I can easily image how something goes together by reading the directions. This bag boggled me. There were steps that were just flat-out missing. I used the directions, the YouTube videos and a lot of wine to get through this. If I make it again, in leather, I will be more prepared. Beware if you decide to tackle it!

Laminate Tablecloth–Boring but PRETTY!

This is nothing exciting about the sewing aspect of these, but I love the fabric. We have a casual dining table in the kitchen for our normal dinners and a more “formal” dining room. This is what I call the Kid Table. There is always food being dropped on it, water being spilled on it, etc. I made a couple of new laminated tablecloths and thought I would show them to you. I’ve never used this type of fabric before but I love it and it’s perfect for this!
 

 

I used some pretty crazy patterns because I kind of like having the bright and colorful table and the more sedate, formal table. Isn’t the pattern fun? This is from Fabric.com. (Remember they are a sponsor! That means if you click the link and buy, I get a cut! FYI!)

 

This is Amy Butler Cameo Laminated Cotton Harriet's Kitchen Sugar. They had this in other colorways too.

 

We also use those heavy duty plastic mats. Kids are damn hard on furniture. This is what every meal in my house starts like. Salad. Luckily, the four kids are good eaters and love them some salad.

 

We also have a giant bulletin board that hangs over the table. This is where we hang all the great kid art. There isn’t really much on it right now because it’s summer. Once school starts, we have oodles of stuff. Last week, this whole board was full of tiger-striped pink balloons because it was our littlest ones birthday. She turned four!!! You can still barely see one of the balloons in the upper right corner. It’s a rotating art piece and I love it. The fabric on the bulletin board is from IKEA and I love that too.

 

Laminate is not bad to sew. All I did here was sew around the four corners. Really, my only advise is to use a leather foot. If you don’t have one of these, you need one. That makes it a breeze to sew. I used a large gauge needle (a 90?) and regular thread.

I also bought Brandon Mably Laminated Cotton Zig Zag Multi. OMG, right??!?!

 

I bought Heirloom Laminated Cotton Opal Blush too.

I also love these but did not buy.

Kaffe Fassett Laminated Cotton Flame Stripe Yellow

 

Logan Laminated Cotton Blossoms Pink

 

Riley Blake Laminate Medium Chevron Red/Black. This is like RAWR!

 

The dreaded SCH___________ starts tomorrow for me so I am turning in early. Uck!