Fiber Babble: Daisies and Dots

Daisies and Dots

March 26, 2009

Abandoned book "Motor Mouth" by Janet Evanovich ♦◊◊◊◊

Mom had mentioned that she needed a small-ish tote bag to carrying a book in for when she needs to sit in a waiting room. (Wow, that sounded clunky) She was also bright enough to mention it in the month of her birthday (February).

I'm sure that years of observation have taught her that I have no memory for this sort of request, but if it's fresh in my mind I'll usually act on it. If she'd mentioned it in March, I never would have retained the thought until Christmas. Or I would have thought, "Oh! I can make that for a Christmas present and be ahead of the game!" Followed by, "Christmas is a long way away, I don't have to start right now, I can wait a little bit to start this project."

And I'm sure that the rest of that story is pretty obvious.

(There's an outer pocket here, kinda held closed by the ribbon and the cute little button...)

Details: Finished size approx 8x10x1½, big enough for most hardback books. Inner patch pocket reverse-appliqued and lined. Outer 'in-seam' pocket. Outer bag machine quilted, inner lining loose. Straps approx 1¾ wide, fabric over interfacing, 4 rows of parallel stitching.

Since I was making this freakin' adorable bag (seriously, isn't it just TOO much?) I decided that maybe she'd just want to carry a little paperback and maybe not the whole tote.

So I made a paperback book cover with handles and a snap - because she, too, lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest. I drew a yellow arrow pointing to the snap in the Action Shot below:

Action shot (See the cute little ribbon bookmark?)

And lined it with more of that happy daisy print.

If you're thinking of making a book cover with a snap and handles, be sure to extend the width of the main and lining fabric by at least 1½" on each (short) end. I made the inner flaps (the things that hold the covers of the book in) by folding rectangles in half - those I made 3" longer.

All of this 'longer' stuff allows the book to still be held in the cover, with extra room to sew on snaps and not choke the book.

I just did my own thing on both of these projects, but if you need a pattern there are a bunch of them out there (for free!). Just do a web search for "sew paperback book cover" or "free tote bag pattern".

And just an aside (or two):

First off, the mayo treatment was not a resounding success. Much too much work for too little payoff. But it gave a good story!

Secondly, when I did a cursory Google search so that I could provide search terms for you? I ran across all kinds of group and forum posts where people are asking for these types of patterns. I've run into that in some of my Yahoo! groups, too: "Does anyone have a pattern for [fill in the blank]??"

Why don't the people who post these questions do their own web search? There's always some helpful group member who is quick to offer links to patterns for whatever is asked, and they frequently get them from a web search. Is this the equivalent of dropping your hanky? Does the poster just want to be part of the conversation? I mean, you're on the computer to post your question. That indicates you have the means to do your own Google (or whatever) search.

Surprisingly, I'm not going to get a twitch over the non-searchers. I just plain don't get it.

Labels: sewing

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2 Comments:

At 3/27/2009 2:56 PM,

Anonymous Babbled Back:

Love the tote and book cover .. how cute is that!

and the fabric nummy

now for the 'does anyone have a .... " yup you must be hearing me mutter when I read these posts and grumble and snarl .. seriously .. when i'm really crotchety about it, i just post the bloody search link ..

twins?? maybe LOLOL and yes, the mayo was a good story, I'm STILL giggling about it at odd moments LMAO

Reg hears me and just looks sideways (he already knows why i'm chuckling) and shakes his head .. must be a nervous twitch of sorts??

hugs
g

At 3/27/2009 4:52 PM,

Julie Babbled Back:

Hi! I have a set of old dishes that are called "Daisy and Dot" and I thought that might be what your post was about. LOL. They are vintage brown - serving pieces mostly. Pretty.