Changing My Strategy - Not Just Purses Any More

I'm not sure if you noticed last week but I didn't send out my normal weekly recap. Reason is, there were no posts during the prior week. My mother-in-law was visiting and I preferred to spend time with her to writing on my blog. Plus my youngest daughter was getting ready to leave for Europe and since she is living with us, helping her get ready to go was quite time-consuming as well.

However, grandma and daughter both left on Sunday January 8th and I still haven't sat down to write a post until today. Instead I've been exploring and analyzing how I want to earn a living for the rest of my life. I decided the new year is a time of renewal and as good a time as any to reflect my circumstances and make decisions for moving forward.

I found this wonderful blog called EverydayBright.com written by Jennifer Gresham and she writes about finding what you love to do and changing your career to match. By following links on her site, I found myself at her website called NoRegretsCareerAcademy.com and it just so happened that she was opening her training program the day I found the website. So, after watching her video, I decided to join.

I love Jen's enthusiasm for her work and listening to her history was very interesting. The method she uses to help people find careers they love made total sense to me, and after being a member for less than a week, I am not disappointed. Right now I'm learning how to find the crossroads of what makes me proud, my core values, and what motivates me. Quite an enlightening process.

Anyway, this whole process got me looking at what I'm currently doing. I work a 40-45 hour week as an Accounts Payable Supervisor, my department pays the bills for my company which is an oilfield services company. It's quite a good job, I am well paid, work with smart intelligent people, have a great boss that trusts me to run my department, I have input, and my employees are the best. At night and on weekends I like to sew, surf the internet, get things done around the house, hang with my hubby, and relax. For the last 6 or 7 months I've been working on turning my sewing hobby into a business, trying to figure out how to make money with sewing. I kind of thought I might do training videos to sell.

Well, after taking a good hard look at what I've been trying to do with this blog and my hobby of sewing, I've come to the conclusion that it's not really right for me. I love to sew but I'm trying to turn that into a job. I've been working really hard to find things to post about and cranking out projects so I can get experience with setting things up to sell. Quite honestly, turning a hobby that you love into a way to make money isn't as easy as it looks. It kind of takes the joy out of the hobby and to me that's just a little tragic.

You see, everything I've learned about selling on the internet says to focus, focus, focus. Find a niche and narrow it as much as possible. So, since sewing is such a huge area, I decided to choose one item I like making and focus on that, purses and handbags. Well, in my zeal to create handbags for the website, I'm neglecting all the other things I want to sew. My daughter recently told us she's going to have a baby and I'd love to make the christening gown. That's a whole different set of skills with smocking and heirloom sewing techniques. I'd love to make a few dresses for my youngest daughter. I've seen some really nice patterns that I'd love to try but when would I have the time?  You see, there's just more to what I like to do than just making purses.

So after deep reflection, I've decided to not turn my sewing hobby into a business. I've also decided that trying to make posts here on this blog just so there will be something to send in the weekly email is not something I will continue to do. That being said, I will however, continue to keep the blog and the list. I will post when I think there's something that will interest my audience, but that may only be every other week, or once a month, or maybe twice in one week, it will depend on what I'm working on. The recap will go out on the Tuesday after there is a post, but that may not be every week. You may also see me post about things other than purses, I may decide to post about other projects I'm working on at the time. I will keep the Molly Handbag Pattern available for download exactly as it is now where anyone who wants it will need to add their email to my mailing list because, who knows, I might change my mind later. Please feel free to unsubscribe at any time if this new strategy does not meet your needs and desires.

Lastly, I want to mention that I will continue to find a way to make a living on the internet. I want to create a way to earn money aside from my job so that I can fund our retirement and maybe have a business that will help support us for the rest of our lives. I'm leaning toward something in the internet marketing realm, I have a lot of training in this field and just need to find a proper way to present my knowledge. I will post here to let you know what I decide to do and if you want to follow me in that endeavor I'll share the info with you.

Thanks to everyone who follows my blog. Like I said above, I'm not going anywhere, I'm just changing how I'm going to do things. If you want to share any of your sewing projects with me, or if you have made the Molly Handbag, please send me a pic or link to your blog and I'll post it. I love seeing what others are doing.

Until next time,

Reba
reba@rkaydesign.com

I'm In The Movies! Intro Video: How To Make A Purse Using Simplicity 2685

Well, I got the first video done! It's live on YouTube!

It was much harder than I thought it would be. I thought I could just "wing it" with the intro but after about 15 takes I ended up writing a script and even making a cue card of sorts. It's going to take some time to get used to being in front of the camera, but I think I'll get there (probably with every pound I lose I'll get more and more comfortable!).

I needed video editing software that wasn't too expensive so I searched Google and found AVS4You.com. It's only $29.95 for 1 year or $59.95 for unlimited lifetime. I chose the lifetime since I plan on doing this for a while. The software is very comprehensive for the small amount you pay. I was able to do lay-overs, text, and transitions, and you can add audio overlay too. I imagine if I want to get "really" in to video editing I would need more but this will do me for now. Oh, and with the unlimited subscription you can download all their software. In addition to the video editing software, yesterday I used their video file format changer. It worked great to change my MP4 to a WMV. If you need a good, but inexpensive video editing program that's easy to use, give it a try. Below is the link, I signed up for the affiliate program but don't have the link yet - when I get it - I will change the link to be my affiliate link.

http://www.avs4you.com

Anyway, here's my debut...

I'm going to try to get the next video done tomorrow, maybe edited too. I'll post if I do. I tried today but I'm using a Flip Video and it ran out of juice. It takes 3 hours to charge and I ran out of light. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

In the next video I'm going to cover how to cut out the fabric. My fabric has a design that needs to match at the seams so I'm going to cover that as well.

Please let me know what you think...I can take it. Critiques make my products better. Oh, and I know this one is a bit boring, I'm sure I'll get better with time (and weight loss!).

Looking forward to hearing from you - until later ~

Reba

Mod Metrics Result In Cute Purse

I made a trip out to Hancock Fabrics today to see what's new. I ended up shopping their marked-down upholstery fabric as they really had a nice selection. I could have bought enough fabric for five or six purses because there was so much cute stuff and I was only looking at the marked-down items.

I ended up getting the cute mod geometric fabric in the picture for $7 a yard, yeah, I said $7! And it's 60" wide too! I found the cream fabric to match for $5 a yard. There was only one yard but hey, that's plenty. The other fabric is a quilting cotton for the lining, it was $4 something. And check out that cute button! It matches the feel of the fabric perfectly.

I was going to make an Amy Butler pattern but decided to take a look through the pattern books. They had McCalls patterns on sale for $1.99 but I didn't see anything I liked so I splurged on a Simplicity that wasn't on sale. I don't normally do that, I usually wait until they are on sale but I really wanted to get this started while I'm on vacation. The pattern I picked is Simplicity 2685 and I'm going to make View D. They show it made in only one fabric but I'm going to use a combination with the mod geometric pleated on the bottom and the cream on the straps and the band around the top. It's really going to be a cute one.

Today I tried talking in front of the video camera. It was quite shocking to see myself on camera. I'm definitely going to need to lose some weight in order to get comfortable. But who said I need to be comfortable? After adding make-up and about 15 tries, I think I got a good intro done. But it was still testing, I didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything right. but I think I got to the point where, if I prepare before turning on the camera, I could get out some instructions.

So, after talking it through with my hubby, and showing him my 'takes', I decided that I'm going to make this purse on video. I'm going to sew a little each day, not every day, but several days each week, and do a sew along on video. This will be my test run before I start making more professional sewing instruction videos to teach how to make purses and handbags using various patterns.

I'd love for you to follow along and make the purse with me. I'm not sure when I'll post the first video, I'm going to try to do some tomorrow but I'll need to edit the video and all. I'll post it as soon as I get something that you can follow and at that time I think I'll be able to post a schedule. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how I do tomorrow.

Also, I hope everyone had a blessed holiday and I'm really looking forward to this new year. I'm planning on growing this website with lots of info, video, and instruction and love that there are great people like you who follow along. I'd love for you to post below anything you want me to cover here or tell what you've enjoyed in the past.

Lastly, I want to share a great pic I took of my kitty. She really loved Christmas with all the paper, bags, and boxes on the floor. She just couldn't stay out of them. She's such a toot!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Until later ~

Reba

Love Your Gathers - Use The Best Method

Gathers made with zig-zag over thread method - they are
big and uneven, super hard to control

The other night I was working on the diaper bag I've been sewing and it was time for me to add the side pockets. The side pockets have elastic across the top and the bottom has a gather. This adds a lot of volume to the pocket so the mother can carry baby bottles or tons of stuff.

When I make gathers, I normally use the traditional method of sewing two lines using a long stitch, then pulling the bobbin thread to gather the fabric along the sewn lines. You can find this method explained in my Molly Handbag Pattern, just click the link and sign-up for my mailing list to get a free copy of the pattern with instructions. But getting back on track, I love this method because it makes a beautiful gather and the edge of the fabric doesn't twist around the thread because there are two sewn lines that hold it flat.

Last week I ran across two new methods for gathering fabric. One was especially intriguing to me so I decided to use it on the diaper bag side pockets. For this method, you put your fabric under the zig-zag foot and set your sewing machine to a zig-zag stitch. You insert your needle into the fabric one time and lift the needle while holding the top thread. Watch carefully and you will see the top thread pull the bobbin thread to the top. Catch that bobbin thread, I used my seam ripper, and pull it to the top through the fabric.

Gathers made with traditional method - makes nice tight even
gathers that are easy to control

Now pull out enough thread, both bobbin and upper thread to go to the end of what you're gathering. Hold the threads so they lay across the fabric where you want to gather, you can twist them a little if you like. Now sew, using a zig-zag stitch over the threads. The zig-zag stitch should sew over the threads, do not let it hit the threads. Using the center of your foot as a guide, hold the thread in the exact middle.

When you get to the end, stop sewing and cut your zig-zag threads but not the threads that are in the middle of your stitching. Remove from the sewing machine and pull the center thread to gather the fabric.

When I first saw this method I really thought it would be a cool way to do all my gathering going forward, but boy was I wrong. I followed the method exactly and it turned out perfectly, exactly like it should. However, the quality of the gather couldn't hold a candle to the traditional two line method. The gathers were uneven and there was no way to adjust them where they would stay. The edge of the fabric curled over the pull threads.

The finished pockets turned out okay as it was a short gather at the bottom of the bag, so I used it. It would have been a nightmare to pull out all that zig-zag! I can't imagine making a ruffle for the Molly Handbag with this method, I'd pull my hair out and it would look so unprofessional. Check the two pics in this post - doesn't the traditional two line method make a much nicer gather? I think so too.

So, needless to say, I do NOT recommend this method for gathering and I will never use it again. I'm just really glad I wasn't gathering a larger section.

Oh, the third method of found was to use clear elastic. I guess it's made of some kind of plastic or rubber. I didn't even know that kind of elastic existed, I'll look for it the next time I go to the fabric store and give it a try. I'll let you know how that turns out too.

Until later ~

Reba

Need A Great Way To Carry Your Sewing Project To Class?

Find instructions for this fabulous project bag at Sew Daily!

Surfing around the internet today I found a nice sewing resource over at Sew Daily. It's a free download that had some good info about how to organize your stash fabric. It also has five patterns to make things to organize your sewing room. I only liked one of the patterns, but I liked it a lot... you guessed it, it's a tote.

This tote is for carrying your sewing stuff with you when you need to be on the go, like to a class, or to a friend's house. It's not too big, just big enough for one project, and it has lots of outside pockets for all your notions and tools.  The pic is one I copied from the pdf file, I figured they wouldn't mind since I'm sure they'd love for you to stop by and get a copy. Here's the link to the page where you can download the file:

http://www.sewdaily.com/media/p/203/showcontent.aspx

You may be familiar with the Sew Daily site but it's fairly new to me. It's owned by the publisher Interweave.  I found it the other night and signed up for their message board, but quickly found that it was overrun with spam. I made a post saying such and asked if the moderators had abandoned the site. There was a reply concurring with my comment.

A couple days later I got a reply from one of the moderators saying they are trying to get it under control and to please be patient while they clean it up and install something to help. I think I'll give them a little time and then check back. I'd like to have a place to go talk about sewing and I love Interweave books and products. Maybe, if we're nice, they will set-up an area for sewing purses and handbags! Here's the link if you want to go check it out as well:

http://www.sewdaily.com/forums/

Lastly, there are some very good videos and such on the Interweave site. I signed up for their affiliate program and would appreciate it if you used my link if you decide to make a purchase. I'm going to post a graphic with the link in my sidebar as well so if you decide to click over later.

http://www.interweavestore.com/store?af=rkaydesign

Thanks! Until later ~

Reba

Last Minute Gifts You Can Make In Less Than 3 Hours

Make this beautiful bracelet - tutorial at SewCraftCreate.com

Christmas is around the corner and we're all scrambling to finish our shopping. Some people are so hard to buy for, they have everything they need, you know it and they know it, but you still want to give them something because you love or appreciate them.

For those hard-to-buy-for people in your life, have you ever thought about giving a handmade gift? If you can sew, a handmade gift is the ultimate treasure. Even if it isn't perfect, your special person will know you took time to craft it yourself, and giving your time is one of the greatest expressions of love and gratitude you can give.

I scoured the internet for these wonderful gift items you can sew in less than three hours and the patterns or instructions are free. Hope you can use one for your special someone.

Instructions for this FAB Chef Apron
on MarthaStewart.com

1. Beautiful Rosette Bracelet at SewCraftCreate.com - http://sewcraftcreate.com/2011/06/rosette-bracelet-tutorial/
    
2. Cute Braided Ribbon Headband at SkipToMyLou.org - http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/08/19/headband-refashion/
    
3. Petite Strawberry Pincushion at VanessaChristenson.com - http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2011/01/v-and-co-how-to-petit-strawberry-pin.html
    
4. Fashionable Infinity Scarf on YouTube.com - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK_ACEkyMTw
    
5. And for guys - A Chef's Apron at MarthaStewart.com - http://www.marthastewart.com/269923/chefs-apron?czone=holiday/santas-workshop/santas-handmade-gifts

I'd love to see your creations. If you send me a picture, I will post it with a link back to your blog or website if you have one. If not, that's fine too, I'll still post it so other readers can see your handiwork. Or if you have a sewing project that would make a perfect gift, go ahead and post a link in the comments.

Until later ~

Reba

Tangerine and Tango - Yum!

I saw the announcement this morning that Pantone® named their color of the year to be Tangerine Tango 17-1463. I immediately went to my Pantone chart to see it in living color (I used to be a graphic artist, my Pantone chart was an essential tool) and it is as beautiful as I thought it would be. I have been in love with deep oranges for some time now, just look at my first Molly Handbag and then Molly Loud Flowers and then Uptown Molly, all had deep oranges in the fabrics. 

 

If you don't know what Pantone is, I'll give you a little info. Pantone is a company that has been around for about 50 years. I know them from my graphic arts days. Pantone provides color charts where each color and shade of color has a specific number thus standardizing every color. When you're talking about orange, there are probably over 1000 different hues of orange, ranging greatly with varying amounts of red and yellow. By giving each hue and shade a number, you can specifically pinpoint the exact color you need. This is especially important when printing on paper, fabric, etc. Because Pantone is such an authority on color, they use that authority to name a "Color of the Year".

 

Quoting from the Pantone website, here's a little more about the "Color of the Year" process and what influence it has.

About the PANTONE Color of the Year

The color of the year selection is a very thoughtful process. To arrive at the selection, Pantone quite literally combs the world looking for color influences. This can include the entertainment industry and films that are in production, traveling art collections, hot new artists, popular travel destinations and other socio-economic conditions. Influences may also stem from technology, availability of new textures and effects that impact color, and even upcoming sports events that capture worldwide attention.

I love this color. I've actually had to tell myself, "no" at the fabric store because I wanted to buy more fabrics with orange. Here are a few swatches I found on Fabric.com using colors that are in the same family as our new "Color of the Year". I would buy these in a heartbeat. What cool purses I could make from these...do you agree?

 

Click to Enlarge

Until later ~

Reba

 

International Quilt Festival in Houston

We went the International Quilt Festival today. My sweet hubby went with me and we had a great time.

I guess I'm lucky to live in Houston because if I didn't I would never have gone to the Quilt Festival. The convention center where it's held, George R. Brown Convention Center, is huge. [off topic - I Googled George R. Brown, I didn't have a clue who he was...he was one of the original founders of Brown & Root, now KBR, Inc. and formally a subsidiary of Halliburton, the engineering and construction firm headquartered in Houston.] Anyway, I digress, the convention center was about half quilts on display and half trade market with every kind of quilt and quilt supply vendor you could ever think of.

I found a lot of stuff I really want, who wouldn't? But there were also a lot of booths with the same stuff. There was lots and lots of quilting fabric. And if you want to buy a quilt, there were lots of those as well. All the major sewing machine companies were there, so if you were considering a new machine, it's a great place to see all the machines. The most expensive thing I saw were the long arm quilting machines. The one I liked was $30,000! Thank goodness I don't quilt, I know I would be tempted to dream about having one.

The one thing I saw that I really think I will buy is a home pressing machine. The one I looked at was around $250 but the owner of the shop, who was from Atlanta, said he had another model that's perfectly good for about $150. I want it for Christmas! Yes, that means I will be able to fuse interfacing for a purse in about 10 minutes instead of the 1-1/2 hours it takes with my iron.

I bought a new pair of scissors for clipping curves. I like to clip very close to the seam and if I try to clip all the way down to the tip of the blade, they split. This happens because of the multiple layers of fabric all with interfacing. I found a pair made to cut rubber stamps so I tested them with eight layers of denim and they worked perfectly...so I bought them.

I also stopped and talked to the girls at Craftsy. What a great website and the girls were super sweet. So sweet I had to take their picture, see it to the left? I only found Craftsy last week and I have fallen in love with it. The classes they offer are top quality. I posted my Molly Handbag pattern over there and a ton of folks have come through my project post and signed up to get it. If you found my site from Craftsy and joined my mailing list, welcome and thank you for coming by.

Anyway, that's another year for the International Quilt Festival, it went off without a hitch and was pretty awesome!

Until next time ~

Reba

Survey Results

Last week I ran a survey to find out what topics my blog followers enjoy reading. I didn't get a whole lot of responses but I got enough to see that I'm headed in the right direction.

Before I posted the survey I looked back over my posts since I started the site. Overwhelmingly, the posts that included projects, instructions, and handbags were the ones that had comments. Yesterday I added a "Most Popular Posts" widget to the sidebar, and again, overwhelmingly, the posts that deal with purses and handbags came up - check out the sidebar, just scroll down a little - see all the purses lined up one after the other? Those are my most popular posts.

The survey helped me a lot. It confirmed that you don't want to hear about business, how to do blogs,  or anything other than purses, projects, and sewing. It also told me who your favorite designers are, what problems you have when sewing, where you hang out on the internet, and what you like to make.

So, first I want to give a great big THANK YOU to those who took the time to give me input. It is most appreciated. I know each of you has to ration your time and I am so grateful that you gave me a few minutes to respond. I also greatly appreciate that you take the time to read what I write - I can't describe how much that means to me. Thank you, thank you.

How will all this information guide my business and this website? Well, here are the results from the survey:

Favorite Purse/Handbag Designer:	Amy Butler
Favorite Fabric Designer:	Amy Butler
You like to make:	handbags and purses, many currently quilt
Topics you want to read about:	sewing technique, sewing projects (mostly handbags/totes/purses), color matching and trends, fabrics and which to choose, which thread to use, what's the difference with interfacings, sewing needles, altering patterns, sewing machine reviews, adding accessories to a design, e.g., pockets, hardware.
Your problems when sewing:	Amy Butler patterns are very hard to follow/confusing, broken needles, color matching, don't know which interfacing
Where you hang on the internet:	Some use Facebook but none use Twitter, you love give-aways, like sew-alongs, and most comment on blogs

And here's my take-away:

I should stick to the subject of the blog which is purses, handbags, and sewing. You guys really like Amy Butler, both her purse designs and her fabric. And you read blogs for fun and to learn how to sew and make handbags (among other things).

So, that's what I'll do, stick to the subject at hand. And thanks again for the input. I'm looking forward to having a clear direction to guide my writing.

Until later ~

Reba

Tired of Reading Boring Blogs? Help Me Give You What You Want

It's so exciting to watch people sign-up to win the Uptown Molly Handbag! A big thank you to everyone who is taking the time to enter. It will be cool to see who wins! If you haven't signed up yet, click on the following link and enter by Sunday:  Uptown Molly Handbag Give-Away
In fact, if you if you complete the survey at the end of this post, I will give you extra entries in the give-away - so go to the give-away and click the link that you did it after completing the survey!

I decided to do a survey after I joined a membership site called A-List Blogger Club this week. I'm really impressed with this site. That's not an affiliate link, I'm not making money to talk about the club, I haven't been there long enough to form an opinion on whether or not I would promote it, but I do like it, a lot. I'm learning so much...right now I'm going through a writing boot camp where I'm learning about topics like sharing my story, finding my voice, writing a compelling headline, writing a great introduction, and so much more. My head is starting to swim with new info and I'm loving it!

The people who run this site, Leo Babauta of ZenHabits.net and Mary Jaksch of GoodlifeZen.com and WriteToDone.com really know their stuff. Somewhere on the site I read or heard that a blogger really needs to listen to his or her readers and be sure to write about what they want to read. One suggestion was to take surveys and I thought that was a great idea.

So, I went to Survey Monkey and made a survey. I'm going to leave it open for about a week and would absolutely LOVE for you to give me your thoughts, opinions, and suggestions. It will be anonymous so you don't have to worry about what I will think of what you say - say anything because everything you tell me will make this blog better and allow me to tailor it to what you want to read.

So, here's the survey. Be patient, if it's as slow to load as the Rafflecopter give-away, you need to wait a minute for it to come up on the page. Thanks in advance for your time and I'll recap the info I get in a week or so. Thanks again!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Uptown Molly Give-Away!

Remember Uptown Molly? She was the handbag I made during our Molly Handbag Sew-Along. Well...it's time to give her away!

Yes, this is my first give-away, so this is all new to me. However, I saw a great feature over at SewMamaSew.com where they used Rafflecopter to handle a give-away and reported that it worked really well for them. So, I thought I'd use it too, anything to make the process easy on me and fair to those who jump through the hoops to get entries.

I really want people to join my Facebook page, I only have 49 or so followers and really want to build up that portion of my site, so I'm going to make giving me a Facebook "Like" mandatory. The other things I have listed are optional, but if you do them you get more entries and a better chance of winning.

I especially want to hear from anyone who has made the Molly Handbag using my pattern, feedback in the way of a comment is worth two entries. And even if you haven't made the pattern, if you only reviewed it, as long as you comment on the pattern, it will be worth two entries.

You can enter starting at 12:01 tonight until Sunday at midnight - at 12:01 on October 31st, the contest ends. I will post the winner sometime that night after all the Trick or Treaters have stopped coming to my door. I'll post the winner here on the blog.

So if I've left out anything, please let me know, this is the first give-away I've ever done and I'm sure I forgot something. So, here goes!

Thank Goodness for Carbonite

Carbonite. Back up. Move on.

And that's what I did a few months ago. I signed up for Carbonite, it backed up my computer and continued to do so everyday since.

Thank goodness.

Yesterday when I got up, my computer froze while I was posting a comment on Facebook and when I went to reboot, it never booted. I must have tried restarting it 20 times yesterday, last night, today. Finally, I had the computer repair guy come out. He ran a diagnostic program and told me I needed a new hard drive.

Over the last 6 months I've been working on R.Kay Design. I have a lot of pictures and patterns I've been working on.  Believe me, if it hadn't been for the fact that Carbonite automatically backed up everything and I didn't have to remember to to do it, I would have lost everything. I know myself, I would not have taken the time to do the backup myself, I know, it happened to me before and I lost everything.

Right now I'm typing this post on my hubby's laptop while my computer is incapacitated until the repair guy and I can get back together tomorrow. I logged on to Carbonite earlier to see if my 'stuff' was there - it's there! Whew!

How much work, pictures, downloads, ebooks, programs, and God only knows what else, would you lose if you woke up tomorrow and your hard drive was gone? That might be something you need to think about. I recommend Carbonite, back up, move on.

Until later ~

Reba

Do You Have a Plan to Get from Start to Finish?

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Have you ever known exactly what you wanted to make, what you wanted it to look like, and when you wanted it to be done – but somehow, and you really don’t know why, it didn’t happen that way? Instead of finishing that project, a new shinier project came along and stole your attention and this one ended up unfinished in a drawer somewhere? Maybe you even have multiple unfinished projects in that drawer? Believe me, you’re not the only one, I’m the queen of unfinished! But recently I’ve worked really hard to teach myself how to finish, and, low and behold, I’m actually getting my projects to the finish line.

What am I doing? Probably nothing you haven’t already heard or know about, it’s just that doing it is not always easy.

I first start with a plan to finish. Believe it or not, telling yourself and your ‘always looking for something new to do brain’ that you plan to finish this project helps you get there. Whenever I decide to start a project, I actually allocate time to do it and I never purchase the items unless I have the time to do it. Not that I know exactly how many hours it will take, but I usually have an idea. I tell myself what days I’m going to work on it and why I have time on those days, e.g., my hubby will be at work that night and I’ll be home alone, or we plan to have pizza on Thursday and I won’t have to cook dinner.

I work a fulltime job and time is always short, so allocating time for my project keeps me moving forward. When I come home after a long day at work, if I hadn’t planned to work on my project, I know for certain that I would fall on the couch and enjoy one of my favorite TV shows. And believe me, nothing ever gets done sitting in front of a TV. However, if my plan was to work on my project that night, I don’t even turn on the TV unless it’s the music channel (I always listen to music when I sew or create). Once I get started working, I always seem re-energized.

The other thing I do and probably the thing that keeps me on track best is, I stay away from the fabric store. I just get starry eyed when I go to a fabric store, it’s the craziest thing. I swoon over all those beautiful fabrics and the wonderful things that could be made from them. My brain doesn’t function rationally while in the store, it doesn’t understand that the fabric will still be there the next time I visit. I try telling myself that even if the fabric I like isn’t there next time, something better will be there in its place. That only works about 20% of the time. It’s better to just stay away and reward myself with a trip when my current project is complete.

I know situations change and sometimes, even though you planned to work on your project, something will come up and you can’t…that’s life. Rarely will a plan laid out in detail be followed though without any adjustments. Changes can and will be made along the way, but planning “the way” is how you get to finish. Without any plan at all, you become a victim of your circumstances (e.g. being tired and just wanting to watch TV) and at that moment, it’s hard to tell what will move you closer to your goal and what will take you farther away.

I think most of us know what we need to do to complete a project. Making a plan and finding YOUR way to execute it will help you complete more projects.

How do YOU get projects to completion? Do you have any ‘little tricks’ that might help the rest of us? Leave a comment.

Until next time ~

Reba

Safety in the Sewing Room

At work today I was working on an online training assignment that needed to be completed by the end of the month. Included in that training were several modules about different types of safety. That reminded me that I had cut my finger recently with my rotary cutter and that when we sew there are things we need to do to stay safe.

Even though, for the most part, safety when sewing is common sense, I thought I would list a few things for you to think about. In the end, even the smallest injury could ruin a beautiful project by staining it with blood. Larger injuries could change our lives forever. Safety is up to each of us, just being aware may help you prevent an injury.

Most sewing tools are sharp, e.g., scissors, rotary cutters, pins, needles, and seam rippers, to name a few. And I didn't even mention the sewing machine. Since all sharp items can cause injury, here are a few safety tips when using some of our most used tools.

Seam Ripper - when using a seam ripper, aways point it away from you. When I rip a seam, I pull the two pieces of fabric apart and catch the thread between the fabric about two or three stitches in, then I pull just a little. That usually releases several stitches and then I do it again. I hold the fabric close to my body using one hand to pull the fabrics apart with my thumb and my first two fingers. The seam ripper motion is away from my body. When finished, I put the seam ripper away and if yours has a cover, use it.

Needles - I almost ruined my daughter's wedding veil when I poked myself with the needle when I was attaching her tiara. I was lucky that the blood only touched the underside. I was working on this just a couple of days before the wedding, it would have been very hard to replace it had I bled more and gotten blood on a portion where it could be seen. When using a needle to hand sew, a thimble can really help. I also use little leather grabs that I buy in the quilting department. These help me pull the needle through thick layers and keep the sharp point away from my skin.

Pins - When using pins, just stay aware of what you're doing. I stick myself mostly when I'm trying to do two things at once, like when I'm thinking about something else and pinning at the same time. Also, sweep often to pick up stray pins that may be on the floor and wear shoes in the room where you sew. I stepped on a pin once when I was young and it hurt for a very long time. Wearing shoes will also give your feet protection against a dropped pair of scissors or a rotary cutter.

• TIP - Keep something in your sewing area for discarded pins, needles, and sewing machine needles. An old mint tin or empty prescription bottle works great. If you cut a hole in the top of the prescription bottle you can just drop the old needles in, then tape the hole shut when you put it in the trash.

Scissors - When using scissors, try to remember to lay them down in a closed position. When handing them to someone else, be sure they are closed, grab with your hand around the blade, and hand them with the handles facing the other person. Also, when clipping seams, sometimes I find myself holding the fabric taut with one hand, thumb and first two fingers. Since with this type of clipping you use the very tip of the scissors, be sure the skin between your fingers and thumb is out of the way of the tips of your scissors.

Rotary Cutters - A rotary cutter has got to be the most dangerous tool in the sewing room. When used safely, a rotary cutter can cut the amount of time to cut out a project in half. But when safety is not used, a rotary cutter can cause a lot of misery and even end a sewing hobby forever.

When using a rotary cutter, before you start to cut, stop and look at your hands. Make sure the hand that's not holding the cutter is not anywhere that could come in contact with the blade. When I first started using a rotary cutter I found that the straight edge ruler I was using to cut against didn't always keep the cutter on track. The cutter would fly off the line I was trying to cut. Be absolutely sure your other hand is nowhere that the blade might end up. I try to keep that hand behind the blade.

Additionally, get in the habit of always retracting the blade to the safety position or put a cover on it before you set it down. The last accident I had was when I layed the blade down for a second without pushing the safety cover up. I then wiped up some frays from the table with a sweeping motion and my finger ran against the sharp edge of the blade. It's really a lot sharper than you think, so think about safety when using it and go slow.

One other thing to consider when using a rotary cutter is to wear a cut-resistant glove. I haven't found one but have only started looking after that last accident. If anyone reading this post knows where to get a good one that has flexibility, please post a comment.

Lastly, before discarding a rotary blade in the trash, fold a piece of cardboard around it and tape the edges. You can use the cardboard from a box of crackers or something from your kitchen. You don't want a sharp blade to cut through the trash bag and hurt someone when they're taking out the trash.

Sewing Machine - The only thing I can say here is don't sew when you're tired or talking. If you have someone there with you, just don't talk when the machine is moving. When I first learned to sew in jr. high school, I had a classmate who sewed a lot like I did. One day she came to school and her finger was all bandaged. She told me that she wasn't paying attention and her finger got in the way of the needle. It was very painful for her. I still cringe to think about it and am very careful when I have to get my fingers close to the moving needle on my sewing machine.

If you've never seen or used a needle felting machine - OMG - it has five fast moving needles and the needles have barbs! It's like a needle fest under there. Thank goodness those machines have a needle guard!

Lastly, I want to close with a word about sewing safety where there's children in the house. I'm not going to say much as that's a whole other subject and I know all of you already know how to keep your children safe. Please understand that I'm not trying to talk down or patronize you, I just feel I need to add a word in this regard. All these items are very dangerous in the hands of a child. Be sure to put things away when you're not using them so that children cannot get to them without supervision. I don't have young children in the house any more but one thing I always used to do when I did have small ones was to take the electrical cord off my sewing machine and hide it every time I was finished sewing. That kept curious hands from getting into a moving needle. Of course, that was along with all the obvious stuff having to do with scissors, cutters, needles, and such.

Until later ~

Reba

Some Of My Favorite Tools

Everyone who sews has an arsenal of tools that they couldn't live without. Here are a few of my favorite tools and why they are important to me.

• Metal ruler with a sliding marker. I don't know how I ever sewed without this. I only recently started using it after seeing it on a sewing show, but now I use it for EVERYTHING. It's especially handy when putting in a hem, but don't save it for only that.

• Long pins with flowers on top - found in the quilting tool area at JoAnns. I first saw these in Lisa Lam's Bag Making Bible. It didn't make sense to me to use different pins but I saw them at JoAnn's one day and decided to try them. OMG, I don't use regular pins anymore. These are long, which is great, they are flexible making it easy to push through thick layers, like when you're making handbags, and they don't hurt your fingers to push in like the heads on regular pins, instead you get to hold the little flowers. They're fabulous.

• My iron. Goes without saying, you gotta have a good iron. Mine is a Rowenta and actually I'd like to have a better iron as this one leaks sometimes but it still works well and gets nice and hot.
• A box bought at Lowes that is a component of a silverware tray. This box is mainly to hold my pin cushion in place. You know how when you try to push a pin into the cushion with one hand, how it starts to roll? Not if the cushion is squeezed into a box that's a little smaller than the cushion. It will hold it upright so you can stick pins in with one hand all day. It also holds all my other little gadgets that tend to get lost, like my thread clippers, seam riper, disappearing ink pin, and metal ruler.

• Clipping scissors that cut all the way to tip. I purchased a $20 pair of Fiskars clipping scissors and work great for clipping curves, clips right up to the very end, except on thick layers, like with handbags. Boo. Not sure, I might spring for a better pair soon.

• A tape measure that hangs around my neck. You know, this was invaluable for me until I bought the metal ruler (above), now it's just handy. I still use it, just not as much because I use the metal ruler for EVERYTHING.

• Small scissors to cut threads. This is a nice little pair of Fiskars. I keep them right next to my sewing machine, in the box (above). I can't live without them. First thing I do after I sew a seam is clip the threads and these scissors are perfect for that.
  
• All my sewing machine feet - especially the satin stitch foot. Before I bought my new machine that came with every foot you can imagine, I had started to collect all kinds of feet. I even have feet that I haven't used yet. I started buying feet to help me sew when I finally realized that they can really make your sewing much better. Sewing machine feet deserve their own post, so I won't go into a lot of detail except to say that my satin stitch foot is favorite and most used foot other than the regular foot. See my post about how I use it to do topstitching.

Until later ~

Reba

Copyright and Sewing Patterns

I just recently started sewing again after not looking at my machine for at least 15 years. One of the things that inspired me to pull out my machine (actually I went down and bought a new one), was seeing patterns on Etsy. I decided I wanted to make a cover for my daughter's IPad, so I bought a pattern on Etsy. Then I wanted a Kindle cover, so I bought another pattern. Then a purse, another pattern.
One thing I noticed on some of the patterns I was looking at that I had never even considered was a statement that if I wanted to sell the finished product I made from the pattern, I had to buy a license to do so. I didn't think twice, I decided I wanted to sell the Kindle covers, so I purchased the license. I wonder why I didn't even think twice?

Well, now I'm making and planning on selling patterns, so I thought I'd better check out the copyright laws. Come to find out, a license was not necessary to sell that finished product unless I just wanted to buy it as a courtesy. The pattern designer has no recourse under the U.S. copyright law if I make and sell the item. In fact, the only thing covered under copyright is the wording and images used in the instructions and the graphics used to market it.

The copyright law will cover the interpretation of how to construct the piece, in other words, the written instructions, but it does not cover the design or idea.  And further, the copyright law does not cover any 'useful item' and that Kindle cover, and all clothing for that matter, are useful items. The copyright law only covers works that are written or recorded, like books, sheet music, plays, graphics, pictures, motion pictures, and the like.

So, unless I was going to try to sell her written pattern as my own, the idea for the Kindle cover was not copyrightable. So there was no way she could me tell how to use or not use that idea. In fact, if I want to make a pattern and write instructions in my own words with my own pictures of how to make that Kindle cover, even if I didn't change a thing, it would not be unlawful and the person I purchased that pattern from would have no recourse. That is why you see the same 'high fashion' dress on the rack at Macy's made in a less expensive manner, it's not breaking copyright law to copy a design. Of course, there is the matter of integrity, so I wouldn't do that. However, when it comes to the pattern that I'm speaking of, I changed it so much it's really not the same any longer, so someday, I may go ahead and write up instructions for my new version. Who knows.

Anyway, I'm not giving any advise about law as I am not an attorney. And you should always speak to an attorney about your own work, please DO NOT rely on this blog post for your legal advise concerning copyright law. Just be aware that just because someone says you can't sell an item you make from their pattern, doesn't mean they have the right to do that. They have the right to sue you if you copy, but people have the right to sue for any reason, doesn't mean they will win.

P.S. The photo on this blog post is of one of the Kindle covers I made from the referenced pattern...the pattern that I paid for the license to resell the item. It's on Etsy at this link: Handmade Kindle Cover .

Until later ~

Reba

Cleaning a Dirty Iron

I use a LOT of interfacing when making my purses. Consequently, I use my iron a LOT. I consider my iron to be as important a tool as my sewing machine...well, okay, a close second :-). Anyway, because I use my iron so much, the sole plate is constantly getting dirty.

When I first started making purses I never thought about cleaning the sole plate of my iron, but when it stopped gliding smoothly over my fabric and even started leaving gunk on my new and precious creations, I decided I'd better figure out how to clean darn thing.

I did some research and tried several things and the best solution I found was size 00 steel wool and wax paper. Now I clean it the second I notice anything on the plate, even if it's hot.

Cleaning your iron when it's cold is best because you can hold it up against your body and put elbow grease into the scrubbing. I take the steel wool and hold it in an old piece of fabric or an old kitchen dishcloth that I've reserved for just this purpose. While scrubbing, tiny pieces of steel wool break off and stay in the fabric. You don't want to wash this with anything else or the pieces might end up on something that will scratch you or something you don't want to be scratched. Just reserve the cloth for this purpose and never use it for anything else. Also, you might want to go outside or stand somewhere that you can easily clean up the steel - not on carpet. I usually do it in the kitchen over the sink.

If the iron is hot, as long as your cloth is thick enough, you can scrub it but you have to be careful not to burn yourself. I do this only when I'm in the middle of a project and the gunk is going to mess up my fabric. Again, be really careful.

Lastly, after I have scrubbed all the gunk off, I iron a piece of wax paper. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but it makes your iron glide over fabric like nothing else. It's a beautiful thing.

Till later ~

Reba

Setting-Up A Mailing List

Anyone who reads my blog or follows me on Facebook or Twitter knows that I've been planning to give away my Molly Handbag pattern for free when its finally ready for the world. Well, it's finally ready so now I have to set-up a mechanism to make it available for download. I have decided to create an R. Kay Design mailing list and as a gift for giving me your email address and allowing me to send you emails (which I will not abuse, I promise), I'll give you Molly for free.

Anyway, last night I started to work on setting up the sign-up form and all the pages and emails that go hand-in-hand with collecting email addresses for a mailing list. Believe it or not, it's not totally simple. Well, it's not hard either, but it is a lot of work. I thought I'd write about the process in case some of my readers are interested in doing something similar. And next week, I'll post about why I made this decision and the benefits a business gains by having a mailing list.

I decided to use Aweber for my mailing list management provider. The reasons I decided to use them are:

1. I used Aweber before on other websites and I have an account
2. Well known and well respected mailing list management provider
3. Good instructions on how to set-up a list with videos, templates, etc.
4. Affordable and expandable

After looking at Aweber's system I determined that I need to create the following:

1. A form to enter the subscriber's name and email that sells the list and free gift (Molly!)
2. A web page to land on after the name is entered
3. An email that the subscriber will receive after entering name/email where there will be a link to click to confirm subscription
4. A web page to land on after the link from the email is clicked that has a link to the download and instructions for how to download and extract the zip file
5. An email that the subscriber will receive after the confirmation link is clicked that also has the download link.

So far I have the sign-up form done and it works. I also have the page in # 2 done. Nothing's on the site yet since none of the other pages are done. Hopefully later today everything will be in place. I'm so excited! Can't wait to get all this detail done so people can start working on their very own Molly Handbags.

Till later ~

Reba