The Blog: Updates from the studio

Look how great these look together!

Wore my Sunny Side Up bag with some Prada sunglasses today. When I noticed them hanging from my bag I knew they belonged together. I just adore the...

Want to see my studio?

I upgraded my studio (or atelier, as they say in the fashion world). I love it so much! I've finally gone up the walls, getting everything off the ...

Hand dyeing alligator skin

I've cut and skived all of the pieces for my alligator leather bag. Now it's time to dye it. If you saw in my last post, I'm coloring it to look li...

Making a hand-dyed alligator bag

I've had this idea in mind for over a year that I want to dye an alligator skin like a mosaic. So that each scale of the skin is a different color....

Orange hobo bag complete

Here's the second bag I've made from my circular hobo pattern. All finished and I love it! I shortened the strap to a shoulder length which feels b...

Second hobo style bag underway

I'm making another version of my new round hobo-style bag design. This time, I'm building a more structured rigid style with no piping. I'm also ex...

Test Bag Complete!

Here's how my first test bag turned out from the pattern I was working on. I'm really happy with it. I purposely made the strap very long so I coul...

Creating my first-ever sewn bag pattern

I feel like I've done enough practicing on other people's patterns, and I'm raring to work on my own design. I haven't gotten to play much with cur...

All finished

And here's how that tote bag turned out. What do you think?

Building a tote bag

I've been working on another practice project and thought you might like to see what's happening and some of the elements that go into it. After cu...

Two new skills unlocked - Zippers and piping

I've finished another practice project! This one is a small zipper pouch, for toiletries or makeup, with a zipper top and piped edges. Piping is n...

Saddle Stitching - The Process

Do you know why saddle stitching is so time consuming? In addition to being done entirely by hand, it needs to be done in two steps. The needles u...