Shifting Gears

Soooooooo.......What happened to the Tweedy Sweatshirt Sew Together???????  Well..........

Rhonda was spending time at her 'western address' and all of the things she wanted for tweedy shirts were piled up at her 'eastern address' and she hadn't made the transfer in time for a February plan.  Life and circumstances often have other plans...so we decided to table the rest of the projects and make a new plan later in the year.  So stay tuned...we may get back to tweedy shirts, or we may jump into a new season with another idea.  Whatever it is I know Rhonda will make it challenging.  That's just how she rolls!!

Since I didn't have another sweatshirt deadline this week I just kind of lazed around.  I finished a sweater that has been waiting for sleeves since this summer (I'll take a picture at some point!), I tried out my new snow shoes, what a hoot,  and rearranged the bedroom furniture, not a hoot, but way better! (now I just have to get the little dents out of the rug!) 

I did do a fun little project at the end of the week that I will share...

A dear friend was having one of those pesky "zero" birthdays and I wanted to do something special that didn't involve anything 'old' themed!  She has started keeping a journal so I made a cover that she can use for standard sized Moleskine journals.  I collected things that would have some connections for her...

...the little picture was collected at an art fair on Key West.  A place we have shared together.  The ribbon came from Taos, a place we both visited last year, although at different times, the other bits and pieces came from my 'inventory'!

I felt pretty ingenious with the pattern I came up with.  It ends up creating a lined cover with flaps that fold in, to hold the journal, all with just two seams!  I love it when there is a simple yet elegant answer!

I started with a length of fabric that was 6 times the width of the journal plus a 1/4" which was the width of the spine.  I folded the ends in to just meet at the center and then folded the "flaps" half way over the front and back of the cover.

          

Here's the part that may be a bit confusing....keeping the flaps folded in I reversed the first fold so the inside and outside of the cover were facing each other....

          

Then I just stitched across the bottom and the top, trimmed my corners and refolded everything to the outside.  I added a ribbon 'bookmark' and covered the inside spine with a piece of petersham ribbon.  It really turned out great.  I may need to make one for my journal!

          

I did do some fun embellishing before all the folding and sewing...I finished it by adding a tie to make sure all her secrets stay safe!

          

Even though it is the middle of winter outside, I seem to be dreaming of linen and T-shirts so next week I may shift gears and see what springtime projects I can scare up!  I think pulling out the linen scraps for the journal cover may have started something!  😀