Still Playing With The Ponytail Hat Pattern

 Ta-da!    I'm on a bit of a hat-making binge.  This one is cotton with fusible medium-weight iron-on interfacing instead of the heavier fabric I used the last time.

 Will you look at those snaps, bubblegum pink pearl.  The Snap Setter people are gonna make a fortune off me.  This is like shopping for penny candy except it's eye candy.  At least the snap are not fattening.

Reversed to the other side, the hat is a lovely white with green dots.

I experimented by making a slight change in the back of the brim.  I rounded off the tips of the fabric just a bit. I'm not great at getting nice points. Rounding it off just a little made it easier for me to sew and turn. 

Sadly, I've run out of interfacing and will have to break down and clean the house for the rest of the day. 

Ponytail Hat

Sewing Muse Sandra is doing a hat which reminded me that I bought a hat pattern I needed to try. 

It's a reversible ponytail  bucket hat.

front

Back with regular snaps instead of the magnetic ones the pattern calls for.

Other side!

The pattern directions call for magnetic snaps that are sewn in so they don't show from the outside.  I love my colored snaps and want to show them proudly.  Besides, my snaps were easier for me to put on and already in the house.

My purchased pattern is froFrom Winnie and Clem, and you can find it here:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/104042408/pony-tail-bucket-hat-pdf-sewing-pattern  
They also have a smaller size bucket ponytail hat pattern for sale.

 As it turns out, there are numbers of ponytail hat patterns out there--winter, scrub, baseball, and bucket hats.  Some are even free.  Here are a few of the free ones:

Winter Hat/Scarf,Mitten, Fingerless Glove AND a pocket pattern: http://www.instructables.com/id/4-in-1-Hat-Scarf-Fingerless-Gloves-Mitten-Pock/

Cute Vintage Ponytail hat:  http://blog.bramcostpublications.com/files/5/8/1/7/6/276039-267185/1149_pony_tail_hat_PDF.pdf

Blog tutorial to change a bucket hat to a ponytail hat: http://eatcraftsow.blogspot.com/2011/11/tutorial-wednesdaythe-ponytail-hat.html#.UZjOnZymX7M


If those don't work for you,  here are a few patterns for sale: 
Ponytail Scrub Hat:  http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/sewing/accessory/ponytail-pouch-and-mens-scrub-hat-/25244

OR you can get All 7 of her Surgical Scrub Hat Patterns:  http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/121082965/all-seven-surgical-scrub-hat-sewing?ref=market

Winnie and Clem also have a Baseball-style Ponytail Hat Pattern for Girls and Women: http://www.etsy.com/listing/113008080/morgan-cap-pdf-sewing-pattern-reversible?ref=v1_other_1

Another Finish: The Garden Steps Quilt

Yay!  I finally finished Clover and Violet's Garden Steps Quilt. It has taken so long that the date of 2012 I so confidently embroidered in the corner block is now a bold lie.

I used one of the quilting stitches on my machine to do the front of the binding.

This method of binding (fold in half, sew to the back, and flip to the front) is new for me. For some reason, it seemed daunting.  As it turned out, it was so easy to do that I finished cutting, sewing and pressing the fabric strips AND sewing on the binding in a matter of hours. It sewed the binding on entirely by machine, front and back.

Better late than never, right?

The Finished Handbag

FINALLY!  I do wish I had gone with the "do a muslin first" rule on this project.  This bag has many things that worked out well, but others will be changed the next time.  Now I wish I had saved these fabrics for that second version.

In any case, I'm going to show you the inside pieces first because the outside turned out to be just plain, old black.  I didn't have the right size piping that would have given it a nice contrast.  Should have waited to get that rather than rush to finish.  Oh, well.

Inside, the back has three pockets, two for glasses and sunglasses and the center one for a small water bottle.  I get migraines.  MUST have that water with me.

This next photos show the pockets before putting the pieces together.  I had no idea if this would work, but I love how it came out.  I made three separate pieces and sewed them in place.

I put a pleat in the glasses pockets so that large ones would fit, too.

The other side has a one-piece pocket all the way across, split into three sections.

The center of the inside has this insert sewn into the gusset with three sections for store coupons, my Kindle, and the iPad my husband now has to buy because I have a place for it. That is how this works, right?  If you make it, they will fill it.

The outside of the bag has an open pocket on one side.  I put in an elastic strip across (hope you can see it!) inside there with spots to hold a my phone, a pen, and a small notepad in place.  This elastic satisfies my "fear of the phone falling out" syndrome and the need to get to a ringing phone quickly. 

Other side has a flat zipper---first time doing one of those!  The penguin fabric in these two pockets is an homage to the original pattern that I was supposed to do.  That one had penguins on the outside.  I had to keep something from the original.

The outside piping was to have been in the solid rust/orange fabric I used on the inside.  Okay. Gotta show it.

It's just so plain.  The next bag gets piping.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers, mother-to-be, and potential mothers!  I once had a friend whose boyfriend gave her mother's day gifts because she was a potential mother.  Now that kind of guy is a keeper.

The New Handbag--Almost

See all those squiggly drawings and attempts at figuring out the math in the back? This is a pile of all the cut pattern pieces--hopefully all of them anyway.

I missed my deadline for finishing the handbag yesterday, but I have a ton of cheap excuses that I shared with Sandra in what may have seemed like an eBook but was really just a whiny email filled with cheap, insufficient excuses...

 1.  I just could not NOT change the pattern.  I think this should be in the psychiatric association's list of mental illnesses along with fabric hoarding.  Right now (I say that because things still may change) the only things remaining from the original are some piping and gussets.

2.  I am spatially and mathematically challenged.  Following pattern directions is really difficult for me. Making a pattern has been the thing of nightmares--literally.  I have been working on this thing in my sleep.  I will admit to having come up with a couple of impressive solutions while sleeping, though.

3.  My son has had to use my car for over a week now leaving me with a bicycle.  It may not seem like much of a problem, but when was the last time you saw someone show up at Joann's on a bike?  Let me assure that riding with a roll of heavy duty interfacing sticking up out of your backpack causes people to point fingers and stare.  

Friday, May whatever Friday is, 2013.  I shall get this thing completed.  Maybe.

The New Challenge: Handbag vs. Baby Quilt!

Sandra and I have another challenge!  In the next two weeks, I will make a new handbag--this one from Lisa Lam's The Bag Making Bible:

Picture it minus the tassel and the penguins.  I am not a tassel-kinda person and prefer to use my penguin fabric for my pjs. 

If I can just avoid making changes to the pattern, I have a chance of achieving my goal.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember a time when I have not changed a pattern to the point of making the project ten times more difficult.  I'm hoping the challenge aspect will keep me on pattern.

Sandra will be putting together a special baby quilt--batting and binding and quilting.

Next time I post, I shall be the proud owner--okay, maybe just the owner of a new handbag.  No point in setting expectations too high here.

Protesting CISPA on April 22

Tomorrow, April 22, 2013, I am joining with Anonymous in protesting against CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act by blacking out my Blogspot and dot com sites.

Why?  This act, passed by the U. S. House of Representatives on April 18th will allow corporations to share their users' personal information without the government needing a warrant beforehand.  CISPA will not only negate any privacy contract the companies have with users,  it will also directly counter the fourth amendment of our constitution which quite clearly states:

           

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Many large companies have supported this act including AT&T, Comcast, EMC, IBM, Intel, McAfee, Oracle, Time Warner Cable, Hewlett Packard, and Verizon.  Of course, this act will give these companies complete liability protection when releasing information. 

Fortunately, many other groups fiercely oppose CISPA,  These include numbers of civil liberties organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, library associations such as the American Library Association and the American Association of Law Libraries,  the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reporters Without Borders, Reddit, Mozilla, as well as quite a few security experts,  and academic leaders. 

I hope you will join me in this venture.  Individually, we bloggers are a tiny fraction of the internet.  Together, however, we have the potential to make an impact.