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obsessed with little pouches...

Lately I've been obsessed with making little zippered pouches to organize all the goodies in my purse. I've made one to hold my makeup, one for my extra camera batteries and cord...even one for my eyedrops!

We all know what a nightmare the purse situation can become and little zipper pouches are the perfect antidote for handbag mayhem. Not only are they fast and easy, they make great gifts too! Here are some great zipper pouch tutorials I found online.

Lined zipper pouch at twelve22.org

Front zipper pouch at thimble.ca

Centered zipper pouch photo tutorial on Flickr

— Hope

Craft Haven Collective - Sewing School

In case you missed our holiday newsletter, there’s a fabulous new sewing school in San Francisco that you must check out! They’ve got loads of classes and gift certificates too!

Craft Haven Collective was founded by Kelly Williams and Hannah McDevitt, former instructors and staff of Stitch Lounge! They have just launched a brand new sewing and crafting school in San Francisco, offering introductory to intermediate pre-registered classes in sewing, knitting, and crafting. The teachers at Craft Haven Collective are solely focused on making the world a more creative and beautiful place to live in and thrive.

A note from Kelly and Hannah:

The independent spirit is so important. Bringing new crafters together to continue their growth and education generates new ideas and excitement in the crafting community. We're here to help you gain the skills to realize your budding visions, whether you're a new crafter or have been doing it for a lifetime! At the Craft Haven Collective, we bring a high level of professionalism, top of the line equipment, intimate class sizes covering creative and accessible projects that follow today's latest fashion trends, and focus on education while still having fun. We are centrally located in Potrero Hill, just two blocks from the Potrero Hill Shopping Center, and highly accessible to most mass transit.

Check out the class schedule HERE

— Melissa A.

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great holiday gift for a newbie seamster

I've noticed this year that animal pillows have been making the rounds on all the design blogs...in particular, these cool pillows by Areaware:

At $48-$84 a pop, though, they're pretty spendy. This is where your seamster skillz come into play, making you not just a crafty holiday shopper, but a thrifty one too! Egg Press has introduced these adorable Stitch Kits, featuring Clauss the Raccoon:

Perry the Snail:

And Magnus the Monkey:

The kit includes hand-screened canvas, instructions, and a name tag! And at $24 per kit, they are a more affordable option than the pillows above. If you don't have seamster skillz, gift the kit to a newbie seamster friend as an easy DIY project.

Buy them here

— Hope

cut me some slacks (an eco-tote)!

Back in August we received an absolutely touching and inspiring email from a new friend named Karen, who recently re-ignited her crafty flame with some help from our books Subversive Seamster and Sew Subversive! One of her first back-in-the-saddle refashioning projects was this diaper bag made from an old pair of pants!

My favorite part about her bag is the belt that she used to accessorize it! A gal after my own heart. Not sure if you can tell from the photo, but Karen actually installed a zipper into her bag to keep everything in place. Smart.

I made a similar bag a while back and Karen suggested that I put a picture of it up on this post too, so here you go…

I used a skirt for my project and lined it with a pillow case. Bags are such a fun and easy project to make because they don’t have to fit your body; size really doesn’t matter here.

Try making one of these as a holiday gift this year! And as always, send us photos of the cool stuff you make so we can show it off for you!

xox,

MelA

— Melissa A.

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portable stain remover!

A while back, we posted about a miracle stain remover called Oxi-Clean that helps get tough stains out of vintage clothing. The post turned out to be quite popular...who knew you seamsters were so passionate about stain fighting? ;)

Here's an update...Oxi-Clean now comes in a purse-sized spray bottle, so you can act quickly on those accidental spills! I bought one for a few dollars at Target and have it stashed away in my purse for quick fixes. Cool, huh?

Your ever-vigilant stain-fighting friend,
Hope

— Hope

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