I keep chugging along on the crafting

Last night was another wakeful one. Around 4 AM I woke up and realized that the custom cash apron design I had devised wasn’t going to work, so I spent a while trying to think my way around it. I’m still a 3D-visualization doofus, but at least this time I figured things out before I started sewing: progress!! I got out of bed, wrote everything down, and went back to sleep. In the morning I ran my dilemma by Erik — who did find a way to make it work, but it’d still be complicated — and then sent a long message to the artist explaining the situation. She soon wrote back and, to my great relief, said my proposed alternate design would be fine. After that I was able to get back to my day with a clear conscience, and was once again looking forward to putting together the apron. It’s been an interesting couple of days because Erik has also been communicating with someone about an iPhone app commission, so we’re busy with the same kind of stuff, yet the details are completely different. Gives us yet another interesting thing to talk about at the dinner table!

Aside from working on this custom apron, I also spent some time today in prep work for more binder dividers, and I began another new design I’ve been wanting to do for quite a while. Some of you may remember that I brought my omiyage pouches to the FabMo fair, and while they got lots of compliments, they didn’t sell. I suspected this was because I wasn’t able to furnish potential buyers with a clear use for the pouches. When Tina came to visit me back in January, I was showing her the pouches (she’s the one who gave me the Omiyage book in the first place!) and explaining the problem, and she suggested I make inserts so the pouches could have compartments. Brilliant!! I wasn’t ready to act on the suggestion right away, but now that I’m getting a little more familiar with stabilizers and interfacing, I figured it was a good time.

I made two mock-ups first, to test insert size and pocket layout, then selected some fabrics that would go with the various pouches I made last fall. A little bit of sewing later, voilà! My “what are these used for?” pouches are now lovely little jewelry storage bags! I can’t wait to bring them to Craft Happy. In keeping with yesterday’s resolution, the prices will remain high, but I do believe fine jewelry is worth a fine container. 🙂 And these pouches will be particularly useful for travel… this almost makes me want to make one for myself for our Hong Kong trip. 😉

I was thinking today that I might have to revise my original plans for my Craft Happy inventory, because the items I’m leaning toward now are different than the ones I thought I’d want to make when I first planned the inventory a month ago. Oh well, that’s okay!

PS. Facebook users: I’ve created an event page for Craft Happy here and am posting regular photos of what I make for the inventory. Feel free to follow!