My latest sewing project

My husband has been out of town all week for work, so I have been doing some housework and sewing. Today is the deadline to postmark my entry for the Push the Envelope contest at the American Sewing Expo! And it's done!

A little background...for the contest, they send 100 envelopes of sewing goodies out and you have to make something with them. This year's goodies were similar to last year, three spools of thread and a zipper, but the threads were green and two browns, and the zipper was a 7 inch cranberry one. I was really worried how it was going to come together!

Anyway, here it is! Sorry for the photo quality, my husband has the laptop so I can't get the good pictures off my DSLR, these were taken with my cellphone. I'll switch them when I have access to my memory card :-)

 This is the front. I used the Bellagio Bag pattern from studiokatdesigns.com. Last year, my 9 inch persimmon zipper was hidden inside my project, so this time, I modified the pattern and added this little pocket to the flap. The opening isn't big enough to get a whole hand in, but the pocket's not that big either, just big enough for a ChapStick or some photos or some other little thing you want to new able to get to. Not your cellphone though, there's a side pocket for that!

Here's the back, and the best display of 2 days of work! As I said, they sent three spools of thread. I don't own an embroidery machine, so I have to make do with what I do have! Since I can't do all that fancy stuff, I did a plaid with zigzag stitches out of two threads. Why 2? Because the third was this weird puffy stretch serger thread that my non-serger machine didn't get along with. So on the first day I did the plaid, and the second day I used the third third thread, with all it's lovely puffiness, to hand embroider the lazy daisies into the spots I left blank. The more daisies I stitched, the more I loved this print I created! Seriously, it's so much better in person than photos can show.

 Here's the bag with the flap folded back. There's a pocket in the front, and you might be able to see the cellphone pocket on the right side.

Here's a picture of the inside. The pocket has a zippered pouch on the front as well.

So that's it! You can see it in the Push the Envelope gallery exhibit at the American Sewing Expo in Novi MI at the end of September :-) Hopefully this year I'll get a ribbon with a number on it!