Travel Purses; Passport Wallet Finished

I've got another post planned on this trio of travel  purses with all the pattern info and my hacks in one place. For right now, it's getting mailed today up to dear daughter for her upcoming trip to Sweden and Finland.

I am still hiding from my photos as she will be visiting some of the relatives there as well as possibly one of my friends who is visiting ME tomorrow! 

The travel set consists of a messenger style bag, a coin purse, and a passport wallet.

The Messenger style bag is sewn without the flap but with a recessed zipper to keep items secure while in strange places. It also contains a zippered pocket inside for extra security. The two outside pockets  stack on the front - one zippered, one a slip pocket.

The coin purse was my own design but loosely based on some small bags sewn during BagIt, hosted by ElmStreetQuilts last November. BagIt for 2016 has already started and will go on for three months this year.

The passport wallet is from a new-to-me pattern but was seriously hacked by me. I downsized the wallet to 80% of original. I added some credit card pockets inside and I also added the alternative pocket option. It also fits my IPhone6. I'm showing it with my old android which is a bit smaller.

I like the concept of this wallet but it gave me 2am nightmares trying to figure out the next step. Now that I've sewn it, I love the concept. You make what type pockets you want, then cut the outside and lining so those pockets will fit inside. Definitely my style of sew as you go.  I'll be blogging more about the pattern difficulties later.

On the main bag, I like the length of the tassel but it was a trial one out of thinner fabric. I may re-do the tassel but my brain says it's done.

I don't know if dd will want to carry all these as she usually travels via small backpack. I think she will like the passport wallet as I like to have my drivers license/ID and passport in the same place and readily available for airport screeners. She probably won't need to pull it out too often. In Japan, I felt like I was showing my passport about five times a day.

In other good news, one of my cousins saw the bigger bag/purse and ordered one exactly like it for herself. Thank you for helping to pay for new cork fabric addiction.

Little White Purse

I know someone who is attending a wedding next week. I felt like sewing a small purse with a cross-body strap that would go with anything.

A purse that could hold the essentials including the all important phone with camera.

It does look bridal - maybe too bridal white.
I lined it with pale pink cotton.

There is a lace zippered pocket in front for 'valuables'.
Behind that is a slip pocket for the phone.
And behind that the main pocket of the bag.
Everything from stash (yay!)

Phone Charger Travel Case Organizer

 When my sis has come west for her annual Oregon Vacation, charger cords are everywhere. They may still be everywhere, but I made her an organizer to corral items while packing.

 The case opens to reveal four sections. I did a divided double slip pocket for organizing her family of four.

As phones get bigger and bigger, this case may be all about the cords. I plan on getting her a four in one USB charger as well to carry in here. All electrical receptacles were in use - thus making forgetting a cord or two a reality as they were all over the house. This way, all the cords are visually seen, she can plug everyone into the four-in-one charger - utilizing just one plug-in.

That's the working theory.

Roomy enough for smart phones (but not ipads) with a clear pocket in front for the cords and plugs.


Notice those red dots at the top? Those are snaps for when it is folded up in luggage so items can't slip out.

Look at the backside - frontside? Big telephones bought at Eurokangas in Helsinki on our trip there a few years ago.

It seemed perfect.

I quilted around the phones to add some dimension.

The Case folds in half (2 X 2)with a flap to velcro over.
Snaps at the top also help secure the contents.

I still have my rotary telephone. Do you? It works when the power goes out and the cell lines are all busy. And it's ORANGE. Very vintage.

This is a story about my niece when she was nine years old. She came over to do some sewing with me and we were playing with felt and reverse applique. She saw me doing the Lazy Daisy stitch for decoration and after watching me do it once, she did it perfectly. The lazy daisy stitch is one of the more difficult embroidery stitches too. Just amazing for a nine year old.

Then we moved to my walk-in closet where I  was sewing at the time - where my fabric was stored. She was going to go treasure hunting for some fabric to take home. My old Rotary Telephone resides here too.

So Livy asks what the orange thing was. I told her is was a phone. She gives me the most confused look and asks, " What does it do?". I told her she could call Grandma on it.
She is very baffled. I instructed her to put her finger in the five hole, run it to the stop and let go, then proceed to the zero, then the three (5-0-3- area code).

This is the girl that just finessed a Lazy Daisy stitch after one look-see. She is completly baffled by this orange thing. Amazing bafflement. So I showed her. How to dial. Of course, you used to only have to dial seven numbers, now it's ten. So it takes a while.

Then she dialed.

And Grandma answered.

I loved the look on  my niece's face.

Estate Sale Bonanza

 A week ago, I went to an estate sale just out of town about three miles or so.
I hit the crafter's bonanza.

This top photo is three Hawaiian Prints (says so on the selvedge!) in beautiful rayon cotton. The fabric that drapes wonderfully.

The next photo is one of several lengths of Pendleton Wool. One is tagged Pendleton. These were all stored in a cedar chest. Lucky me. Cuz the rest of the fabrics were stored willy-nilly and I will have to double-check them for whatever lurks within.

Pendleton $6.00/yard!

 A buttload of zippers. 10 cents each or 'Let's Make A Deal'. I came back on Sunday (Half-price day) and found the rest of the zippers.

There were a lot of laces and trims but there were also a lot of musty mousiness. I left those.
A house, outbuildings, shop, barn. Filled with vintage loveliness.

 This pattern goes with the Hawaiian prints above. This is a well-known Muu-Muu designer.

 My co-worker and I both write a ton of letters. Fun critter-shaped letters. She loved these!

Vintage novelty prints.

 A stack of Hawaiian, Wools, pretty striped Swedish blue and yellow stripe.

 The orange and black is a stunning authentic batik.

 This is a Japanese style Tricot.
Yes, tricot knit. The kind you make slips out of.
I just love the colors and the japanese pictorial. Eagles, cranes, Swordfish, 60's mod water.

 What a fab haul.

I had an phone emergency last week. My barely three-month old phone slipped off the couch arm and hit the rug in just the right spot. The screen didn't break but the LCD thingy came loose and the screen is all wacky-doodle. I managed to retrieve these photos and thank god I had moved the Japan photos to my laptop a month ago.

I had finally got the new phone all set up just the way I wanted and BAM! -- dead in the water. It will cost too much to repair. I'm using the old Samsung S2 for now. My new blogging app - Blogaway - won't work on the older phone. I had gotten used to it's photo loading capabilities.

 Come to find out, a lot of the newer Samsungs: S4, S4 Mini (me), S5 all have this problem of not taking any guff. Reports of sticking it in your pocket causing the LCD to break loose, Hitting it against your keys in your purse, dropping just one time....

yeah.

I might switch to an I-Phone next time I  have spare money. Although, I will be selling the pendleton wool as well as all of the above estate goodies, so maybe some spare change will make its way to me by Christmas.

Catching up on some planned blog posts - three to go, -- now that I retrieved the photos off the S4 Mini by way of the Samsung Kies program.

Smart Charging Pocket

My sewing for the day.
Today is laundry day. I am busy getting ready to host Thanksgiving here so things need to be baked. Rolls - check. Coconut Macaroons - Done. Pie Crusts - ready in freezer to roll out Wednesday night to make Pumpkin Pies - yes.

November is home of Handmade Holidays over at SewMamaSew.
Today's projects are for the techy (techie?) people in your life.
Saw this - had to make one.

Normally my phone - which has to be charged every night(!) sits on the edge of my island. If you want to bake something, get the toaster out, or make waffles, one is always juggling for space with my phone. This smarty pants phone doesn't take kindly to batter dripping on it or (gasp!) water nearby.

 

Sometimes the cord slithers onto the floor where I live in fear someone with size 10 shoes will flatten the end.  
I didn't have another solution until today.

Coolest thing. Sewed up in twenty minutes flat.
Jet fabric was from my free spoonflower fat quarter I got over Labor Day weekend.

Inner fabric is from Finlayson in Turku, Finland.
I did not hoard these fabrics.
So there.

Now, on to the Butternut Squash Soup.

Taking A Call -Smartly

• When the phone rings, proceed accordingly:
   
• Answer: Slide  to the right.
• Send to voice mail: Slide  to the left.
• Reject with message: Slide  up, and then select the desired message.

 

I couldn't answer  my new Smart Phone  
      1.  Too smart to read the tutorial.  
      2.  I jabbed at the green button, knowing I am supposed to tap lightly.  
      3.  Well, fine. Three days later: read the tutorial. Dang it.   
      4.  Slide to the right.  lol   Of course!   
      5.  Don't be such an old lady. Read the tutorials on the rest.

Skyrocket

I have less than 30 days to learn to use my new phone, appropriately called 'Skyrocket'.
The box says I am smart to get this well before our trip to Sweden & Finland as I can't type worth a darn. But wait -- I don't need to. I can speak and the phone will text for me. So cool.
I can download our airplane information, crap, stuff, folder and they can scan us through security via the phone and those little QR square thingamajigs..
I have access to google maps which will tell us how far we are gonna walk to get to that other museum in Stockholm. Or lay up instead at the Ice Bar drinking out of ice, sitting on ice, walking on ice.
You know how we all hate voicemail now? This phone lays out the voicemails visually - like texts. Much easier to access.
Texting - no worries about the hyper-sensitive buttons, just say it and the words magically appear.

I can call my friend in Helsinki to let her know we are almost there and can she pick up up at the bus station?
AT&T also has a data plan that allows for calls 'over there'. I can activate it before I go and tweak it when we get home. So - if the kids need to call, I can leave the phone on without  dying of phone bill shock.
If you use the Wifi in, say, a coffeeshop, then you are not using your data plan which is finite and costs a gazillion dollars if you go over the allotted MB. I plan to use my friends' computers and look for Wifi places to keep data usage to a minimum. We are mostly in major cities, so it shouldn't be difficult.

I had a $125 certificate to Best Buy so I bought some accessories there but they did not have the Powerskin - essentially another battery that 'gloves' the phone. I went back to the AT&T sore where I get a work discount of 50% on accessories (sweet) and bought it there.
The battery only lasts about a day so it needs to be charged every day. The extra battery will buy me some time. Definitely a power hog.

This phone also has rear & front facing cameras - so I can skype with it. So if my friends - who I have not seen in 30 years can't recognize me, we can skype. haha - they don't have this phone so this is for a future trip.

I'm going to learn how to use my new phone this weekend, install some free apps and possibly implode my aging brain cells. So cool.

Anyone out there have favorite free apps???

I just love the name of the phone - so in the airplane moment - Skyrocket - lol
And it says right on the box -- SMART.

My old phone is ten years old and will be retired to the kitchen drawer where it will lie in darkness as an emergency phone if this one dies.

I Want a New Phone

My son came home this weekend to lend some help to a friend in need and helped us as well. His buddies moved the kitchen island back into the kitchen from where it has been nesting during the remodel. So glad to unload those pans and cookbooks. I seriously purged my cookbook collection and even let go of a cast iron dutch oven pan - with a lid!

Never Mind the Burgeoning Clutter

If you will remember - this is the difficult part of the remodel. Seriously being ruthless and purging the house of items I rarely use. It is emotionally wearing.
I helped a friend last weekend do just that in her shop. Boxes were piled willy-nilly, kids books, costumes spilling out, the walkway was being encroached upon. She was saving the boxes for that 'rainy day'. Her husband was okay with saving them - as long as they were flattened. I have to add in here; I have to hide boxes from my husband or they are recycled. period. 
She had two purposes to save boxes; one to have them - they have moved a couple of times. Have you ever tried to move without enough boxes? The second reason was her u-pick strawberry field. So, we saved the obvious moving boxes and the strawberry 'flat' boxes and flattened the rest and recycled them. This was obviously highly stressful for my friend and I had to keep looking at her face to determine the amount of hyperventilating going on. We also organized and put away 1. costumes her kids had worn, 2. hair doodads, 3. books and games, 4. small items to give as extra gifts to her nieces and nephews, and the dreaded 'garbage' category.   It was obviously very emotionally draining to decide what to do with the kid's stuff.

The point of this remodel is to not only make our home beautiful but to simplify and reduce the clutter of living twenty years in this home. Some days, it is very daunting to let go of anything. Other days, it causes me to hyperventilate myself and oddly, there are days when it is easier to let go. In my defense, it is definitely helpful to have the kids living away from home, busy in their lives. My friend still has both kids at home but they are on the point of departure. 

 

 My re-upholstered garage sale sofa set find is home at last. There is a chair, a sofa and this charming loveseat. The upholsterer did a bang up job. Rabe's Upholstery; his dad, Don does furniture. Rabe does cars - and airplane seats. No web site: They are located at 34081 Barlow Rd. towards Woodburn.

 

 Ready for Sunday morning fires.

 Two more of these Oregon plates have joined my 'collection'. I had four of them on my kitchen soffits. Now I have six. I cannot extract from my overloaded brain where they will be hung. I need two more plate hangers. Paying a visit to Michaels to buy them - will this decide where the plates are hung? My newest acquistion is the yellow Oregon 1859 -1959 Centennial Plate. I found it at a church runmmage sale. In the lower left is a picture of the Jantzen Swim Girl. My son asked, "Where's Jantzen."

 I think the blue one of Mt. Hood and the fancy cut-out one of Crater Lake are my favorites.

My son brought home his new phone as his last one had  stopped working. He is studying Pharmacy and he downloaded the free version of the pharmacology app. He can look up Tylenol and see all the different versions available, see the dosage amounts, drug interactions, the chemical name, and also take notes.  My brother got a new phone sometime last year and brought it camping at Crater Lake. His app was star gazing. You pointed the phone at the night-time sky and the phone would tell you all of the constellations above you and you could move it into the next sector, etc. That was interesting but when the boy showed his phone, that's when I fell into serious phone lust. I want it. I want to use up my valuable free time researching which downloadable apps to use. I think an ebay app would be great for when I am garage saling and I don't know if an item I am looking at is worth 'something'. 

The boy added this later:
Blackberry Curve 8520. 

Seeing that it took me about a whole day to discover all the benefits and tricks to it, you might wanna isolate yourself for a whole weekend with it. 

there are more styles, i got this one primarily because it had a good camera, WIFI router built in for free internet, and an amazing organizer with alarm function to remind you of everything you have to do. and it comes with word and powerpoint and excel :) 

its a business phone that i think you would like. full keyboard for typing.