Present for Grandpa

Well, the weather won yesterday.  It rained all day so, my little photo project got put on hold.  It was however, my father-in-law's birthday and I thought it would be fun to try and sew up a little gift for him.  But the question all morning was, what?  I searched the worldwide web for a little inspiration and came across this great idea over at Sew Fantastic.  A soft case for his shades!  First, I had to go through my fairly juvenile, slightly girly fabric stash and find something Grandpa-appropriate.  I came across some fat quarter scraps by Joel Dewberry that fit the bill.  This tutorial is very well written with nice, crisp pictures so it was easy to follow.  The only tricky part for me was topstitching the pouch opening.  I didn't do the most stellar job but, it came out pretty well.

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More Bibs and Brighter Photos

I finally edited some of my  photos to make a much brighter background.  I've noticed that when you're scouring through listings on Etsy, the ones I usually end up clicking on are items against bright, white, backgrounds with no other distractions in the photo.  I haven't had a chance to apply them to the shop yet, as I know it's going to take me hours to do all the edits.  I think it will be a really good thing in the end though.  After all, lets face it, the better your photos in Etsy, the better your sales.  

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Bibs

I've been trying to get these bad boys listed in the Etsy shop for a while now.  I'm having a hard time with my photos.  I can't seem to get enough light and certain fabrics always seem to give me trouble.  I've tried a light box and I'm still not satisfied.  This last series I shot outside on the patio over a piece of tagboard.  They came out fairly well but I would still like an even lighter background.  I see a lot of people photographing their cute handmade goods hanging from clothespins on a line, or against a fence or a distressed wooden door.  I have to admit, I like that look and am considering giving it a shot, even though I think it's pretty played out.  Natural light is certainly the best way to capture the trueness of fabric.  We have a great yard here in Kailua and I think tomorrow we'll have some fun with these kinds of pictures.

In the meantime, I've started a Flickr account.  I've been messing with their editing program Aviary, and can now create mosaics using Big Huge Labs.  You can see the start of my photostream here.  I'm still getting organized so don't judge me!

I've also added "Wicked Awesome" up there in the right margin of this blog.  This, of course, is in the spirit of my friends from Boston.  If you see something wicked awesome in the worldwide sewing web, send me the link and I'll feature it.  This button changes frequently! 

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Journal Covers

For over a week now, I've been obsessing over these journal covers I saw at Stitched in Color the other day.  Not a horrible first attempt.  The sizing turned out perfectly thanks to the tutorial.  I'm just not super stoked on my scrap selection or my patchwork job.  Anyhow, here's a shot of it.  They're made to go over one of those hard-covered, black and white composition notebooks.  Cute!  I think I'd like to make some for Christmas gifts this year.  Such a great idea ...

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working

...see baby on my belly?
working, a photo by melissabonte on Flickr.

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