Last summer I made a Plover Pouch in to a small handbag for my youngest daughter and never ended up sharing it here, and now my oldest wanted her own Pink Plover Handbag!
So jumping back to last summer, after looking at the designs she wanted, we decided that the Plover Pouch was the perfect starting point for a cute little handbag. I fully admit this was out of my comfort zone. I hadn’t worked with vinyl much, but was determined to see how it went on a small Plover! For hers I used black Mora Faux leather from Emmaline Bags that I had in my stash. But I never took pictures of it because she starting using it right away. I guess that’s a good thing! I kept meaning to make another, but I guess I got busy with other things.
see it on her shoulder? hehehe, only picture I have of it!
Pink this time!
So my oldest daughter asked me to make her one for a trip she was going on after Christmas, but she wanted hers in pink. I couldn’t say no!
I used EB-Fuse medium weight interfacing on the Mora and used waterproof canvas for the lining. I kept it simple with no inner pockets (next time I’d definitely add some for her). But I did manage to sneak in a cute patch from Matchy Matchy!
I used some double sided 1/8″ wide tape (WAWAK Double-Sided Adhesive Basting Tape – 1/8″) which worked really well to keep things in place before sewing. Other than that, the Mora sews up beautifully. I did skip the topstitching around the main panel/gussets, felt like it wasn’t really needed there with the faux leather and I didn’t want to mess anything up at that point!
Strap Hardware
For the strap connection I used these strap anchors from Emmaline Bags. They worked great! I was nervous because of the layers at the gusset, but it worked great. For the other one I had made, I used some leather and d-rings and riveted it on to each end of the gusset. I like the look of that one, too!
She said she’ll untuck the one zipper end if closing it (while tucked in) becomes cumbersome. But for now it’s tucked in. I might mess around with trying a different zipper install method next time!
Project Details:
Pattern:Plover Pouch (Small size) with handle attached at gussets
Goodbye 2025! 2025 you were a weird one. Not gonna lie, it’s been a strange year. Business and for the world. I have to admit I am fully am ready to write this post and wrap up the year. Time to go 2025!!
In 2025 I did manage to sew a few more things personally. I just shared my Meadow Star quilt, and have two more tops being quilted as we speak. And how did I get those done you might ask? I got to attend a sewing retreat in October with old and new friends alike! It was a blast, and good for me to jump into a group where I only knew about half the people. The rest were amazing to meet and I hope to join them more in the future!
Personally
On the personal side, my family and I had another fun-filled year. We enjoyed paddle boarding, I took a trip to Cheyenne, WY to visit family with my mom and aunts, weight lifting a lot more and loving it, hiking, no real vacation this year oddly enough, a trip to the State Soccer Tournament for my youngest (that whole season was a major highlight), tennis, lefse making, and I made so many batches of these cookies that I have the recipe memorized (I split mine into three!).
Same as last year, I filled in at a local University in their costume shop in the theater department! For 200 hours over the course of the Spring semester last year and almost 200 more hours this fall semester I got to help make costumes, do alterations, and generally just have a good time. It does take a lot of time away from my business, but it’s been worth it! The students are amazing, they even made bags using my patterns! We did a workshop on Valentine’s day and it was a huge success.
2025 Recap
A quick recap of the year would include releasing two patterns, the Trail Tote (more of a major update release) and the Quarry Tote. I’m still working my way through the Quarry Totes I want to make. Honestly, I have piles of fabrics meant to become this and that that I hope to get to. Speaking of, I have a couple Quarry Totes that I made and haven’t shared yet.
I did a video sew-along for the Quarry Tote on my YouTube Channel! I had a great time filming it during the summer even though it was 10000% humidity. I really enjoyed making this pattern and the in-person testing group (thanks Mallory!) was amazing. I like mixing up the online testing group, so we had a fun time with a spreadsheet of notes!
Orchard Run (my current fabric collection – now in shops!) released in January and I’m pretty sure it was my most favorite fabric collection yet. It was great to have the ability to have my designs traditionally screenprinted, so I got to use a lot more colors. In the past, my collections were all overprinted on fabrics that Robert Kaufman already had as the basecloth (mostly Essex, etc.). I loved that, but the new cotton/flax basecloth was beautiful to work with. This past fall I got to share all the projects I made using Orchard Run, so go have a look if you missed them!
Onward! What’s coming up!
I hope to keep evolving more as a business! I feel like some changes need to happen. After 16 years, you’d think it would be more of the same, but it’s an ever-evolving process.
I’m excited for those changes! I hope to cut back a little on my non-business commitments so I can focus more on the business. Particularly the creative side. The business/admin stuff really takes over if you let it! I love my job and more than ever I love making things! I’m still immensely grateful to have a part-time employee and work with a few contractors that I trust and respect. EVERY DAY I continue to strive to do my best to help you create the projects that you want to create! I want to be very intentional about sharing the things I make. It’s so easy for me to set it aside and move on to the next thing, but I would love to aim at sharing something once a week either on my blog or on social media. It needs to move up the priority list!
Case in point, I never shared these Plover Pouches I made for Moda for their H&H Americas booth!
I’ve got a new pattern that I’m working on, and I’m so excited to show you. I’m hoping to have it ready for the end of January. Get ready to highlight your favorite fabrics! I’m going to continue with video sew-alongs. I also plan to continue to add items to the shop to help you find the supplies you need. I hope to do some streamlining of products, I’m not fully sure what that entails, but time will tell.
I’m hoping there will be a new fabric collection toward the end of the year. I’m pretty excited about some new opportunities on the horizon.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading. Your comments on this blog help keep me motivated to share in this space. It’s been very quiet in the blogosphere this year.
Thank you for your support, comments and encouragement over these past 16 years that I’ve been in business. It truly means everything!
Yep! Another quilt kit, another quilt for me! This is my Meadow Star Quilt! I guess I went on a little bit of a quilt kit buying spree. I do not feel bad about that in the least! First, I love supporting other creative small businesses. Second, kits are fun and relaxing for me!
Working in small batches
I worked on piecing the blocks at the end of the summer. Meadow Star (pattern by Then Came June) is a fun one, I honestly didn’t get bored at all. I mostly worked on two blocks per sewing session and it worked out great for me. I often don’t take time to just sew something I want, so this was a nice break. Toward the end, I was getting antsy seeing it come together, so I bumped it up to about 4 blocks in a session.
Gotta make it special
The funny thing about this project is that my very first step into the piecing instructions on the first block I screwed up. Definitely was not paying attention and was ready to get going, so I messed up! Good thing I have plenty of fabric to substitute in, so it was kind of a fun side quest finding fabrics that were similar enough to the ones I cut wrong. I found some Carolyn Friedlander prints (see image below, it’s the first/corner block) that were perfect actually and that got me back on track. I honestly like that it’s one super minor thing, but it makes the quilt one of a kind.
The rest of the quilt I followed Then Came June’s layout exactly. The blocks are big so the top came together quick, too! I have only a tiny amount of patience for piecing long rows, but this one was slick! Not a lot of seams to match up, which is definitely something I appreciate! I dug through Meghan’s blog post and did the same quilting and thread color.
Oh, and I made matching pillowcases with the leftover wideback backing! I added some Ruby Star Speckle that I had in my stash for the accent. Pretty cute if I do say so!
I hope you all had a great weekend. I got to spend lots of time with my family and even got some snow! Are you making any gifts for Christmas? I’m hoping to sneak a bit of time to make some smaller gifts, I hope to make some quick videos on Instagram, so hope you follow me there!
