Mexico Musings

My first paid, published writing was for Threads a Taunton Press magazine devoted to sewing enthusiasts.I wrote about my addiction to sewing, fabric and anything related. It was for their back cover humor page. The letters to the editor ranged from applause, to self recognition “I could have written that.” to nutty remarks from the Christian right being oh so offended that their hobby was being likened to drug activity. The letters raged back and forth for six months!

So if you have the affliction, or if you have any passionate hobby, you know the feeling when a project takes hold. It consumes you, you think about it all day and all night, you talk about it to anyone that will listen, usually only the dog will stick around after the first telling.

So, back to the Summer Tote. My daughter the writer sent a two liner email, asking if I would make a tote for her laptop that would be easy to carry for her upcoming writing workshop. Over the years I have designed dozens of purses and totes. They were denim, lined with some wild fabric. I would choose the recipient’s theme, whether that was an iris, a fish, moons and stars, and embellish the outside. My totes are treasured gifts.

I live in Baja California Sur; we are long on palm trees and sand, short on good textiles and the supplies that go along.

I wanted something special for this special woman. I Googled online patterns for totes. I kept coming back to Lazy Girl Designs. Don’t you love that name? Joan Hawley’s designs are original, smart, sassy and easy, if you have the instructions. Which I did not have. And to purchase the patterns is the easy part delivery by burro to my house on the beach is near impossible, and add to that the deadline, I was desperate.

I called the lead Lazy Girl herself. And offered to pay a premium if she would fax or email the pattern.
She tried, because of the special paper it is printed on, she could not. Joan was so concerned that I could not get her product, she asked me to call a particular online distributor, and see what they could do about shipping, and she would tell them to add some free gifts.

I called Quilter’s Warehouse, spoke to Heather, and made a new friend, but we could not figure away to expedite delivery for under $100. The pattern only costs $9.00!

So I ordered the pattern and a lot of other stuff for later delivery by my son when he comes to visit in July. But I still needed the Summer Tote construction and cutting guides.
Don’t you love the Internet? You can find so much.

Joan has videos of the construction of most of the Summer Tote on her website. I watched that video, closely repeatedly for hours. I watched her other videos, and read her blog and the back of the pattern envelopes (online). I followed links from people that posted on her blog, and I figured it out.

It was not easy, I ripped, and sewed and ripped again, and cried, and stomped away from the machine many times. But oh my goodness, the Summer Tote is gorgeous. I love it. When the patterns arrive, I am going to make several for myself and friends. And if you are on my Christmas List…
I wrote to Joan and described my painful journey. And I asked her not to expel me from the Lazy Girl Club, for working so hard to make the tote. Her entire approach to sewing is to find the easy, lazy way to do a job!

Take a look at the tote, and drool!

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 6:54 am and is filed under Sewing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.