WIne Bottle Sleeves

 Creative Girl's Mom, aka Tax Girl, went above and beyond for me lately. Tax Girl showed my parents her townhome, here in town. To no avail; regarding my parents moving closer.

Tax girl also volunteers with AARP Tax Help and helped go over our taxes yesterday.
Her daughter says she likes Pinot Grigio white wines so three bottles were purchased and a search for a wine carrier was made on Pinterest.

Maybe five gazillion sewing tutorials for various wine carriers emerged. I picked this one because there was an opportunity to de-stash my felt box enough to maybe get the lid on -if I could find the lid. Ahem.

 Simple construction. Felt doesn't fray, so the seam became part of the details.
I decorated them with a monogram initial. I should have printed these initials  'mirror-image' from my computer. Not bad for free-hand. They are ironed on with Wonder-Under fusible webbing.

 Reusable. All materials were from my stash. The tutorial called for a covered button. I didn't have any the size I was looking for, but I did have vintage covered ones. Instead of being matchy-matchy with the button matching the monogram. It works.

On  this Super Bowl Sunday, it is raining cats & dogs. Sad, gray light. I probably need a glass of wine after this. lol.

I've done another sewing project that will post on Thursday - it needs time to get to it's destination. It feels good to work the creative angle after so many months of family and work issues that I can't post here.

85 Yen Tote Bag

 I found this piece (3/4 meter) for 85 yen when I visited my friend in Japan. She knows all the secret local yokel fabric stops in Japan. 

I knew I would make a tote bag with it and I sewed it yesterday.

I started with 17" squares and let my sewing  evolve with these free-style cut flower details.

I used a black pleather for the handles and cut the flowers from them. Once cut, I knew I wasn't gonna be able to sew them on - all those tiny curves... Then I decided to use double sided tape, still not quite right. Took a break and about half-hour later, it occurred to me to use buttons. No buttons this weird green (a little lighter than split pea). I finally found my covered button stash.  I'm very pleased with this detail.

 One slip pocket inside. Unusual for me,  I know.
I typically add three or four. This simple tote begged to stop at one.

I was thinking about some closure thingy,
but I'm not coming up with anything that won't ruin the simple lines of this tote.
There's a little Marimekko thing going on with the flowers.

My best thought is to crochet a chain of black and make a bigger covered button....
Or, I might just say, "It's finished."