New Dance Bag

I am happy to report that the bag is finally fully finished. I found a great button to finish it off and also worked on fixing some of the issues with the ties that I had. I am really enjoying using it, and I think it will be even better now that it has a closure. This bag looks absolutely beautiful from any angle. I love this fabric! I also like how the bag looks when it starts to get filled with items. The bag goes from a very flat design to a lantern type design.
I also like that this bag used up some stash items. The ties are a scrap of satin cord that I had lying around. The straps are scrap pieces of black linen that I have started to fall in love with. Linen is quickly moving to the top of my list of fabrics I like to work with. When I say linen, I also mean real linen, not a linen like blend with polyester. Linen is wonderful as it takes on a softer texture the more it is used and washed. It is also wonderfully breathable. I recently even switched over to linen for all of my fighting tops for Belegarth as the breath ability is unbeaten for me in the hot climates of our tournaments. The interior of the bag is also made out of scraps of black cotton fabric. I always seem to burn through the black fabric, and this season was no exception. I have quite a few black synthetic blends that I cannot seem to find uses for as I have become such a convert to the natural fibers. They just look better, react better, and are more comfortable to wear. This does not mean that I am not still a believer in the occasional stretch fabric here and there, but overall, I really cottons, linen, bamboo, and some animal fibers like alpaca.

I also have found that I am really into the same manufacturer of Japanese style fabrics. The last time I went into Stone Mountain and Daughter, I found this wonderful fabric in the remnant bins. We needed new pillows, and I thought it could be a good option. I also thought it would make a wonderful choli if Dan did not like it for new pillows on the couch. It turned out he did, and I figured out that I could potentially swing both pillows and a choli if I cut smart. I used the remainder of the left over linen for the backings of the pillows. I am happy to finally have new pillows that I can wash seeing as Dan and I tend to fall asleep on them every weekend. I can also easily remove the pillow forms and get new ones when they wear out and keep the beautiful covers. Overall I am really happy with how they came out

Also, I got featured in a SF Etsy team treasury on their blog. It is located here for those of you that want to take a look. It is a treasury based on Chinese New Years!

Today I am hoping to get some early plantings done for the balcony garden. Some of the seeds have taken off so much I cannot wait any longer. Hopefully I can dig up some good packaging peanuts soon, so I can get on this planting.