Butterfly Tote

I made this tonight, wiht inspiration coming from the new orange handles I had in my stash.  I love these handles and the fabric, and am very pleased with how the bag came out.  It’s a ‘simple’ tote with no real closure at the top.  Why is it I always want to keep and use my new creations!?  One day I’ll let myself.  But not now… I’m getting ready for my first show (very excited and nervous) so need every piece I am making.

Here is the new creation:

Butterfly and Orchid Metal Frame Bag

I love this bag/pouch.  I love love love it!  Again, I’m so torn because I’m going to sell it, but want to keep it.  The fabric is 100% cotton and is nice and heavy.  Add some interfacing and voila, a nice sturdy frame purse!  Where I live the butterflies are starting to come in droves which makes me think this bag came at the right time.

Thanks to a great tutorial at u-handblog I have learned how to make great metal frame bags.  It turns out that it’s not as hard as I thought, and is actually quite fun!  I especially like looking for fun frames.

I also made a make-up bag using the same fabric and a zipper.  I like the fall colors (since I don’t really have them much here) and the look of the orange zipper with the fabric.  It’s nice and roomy… I think I’ll be making one of these for each member in my family for Christmas… perfect little pouch for packing the little things in your overnight bag.

Happy Sunday!

Fun Zipper Pouches

I love making zipper pouches in all different shapes and sizes.  When I made the following pouch, I instantly fell in love and had a hard time listing it on Etsy.  This pouch is made using Amy Butler fabric and a nylon zipper and can be used for make-up, pencils, pens or anything else!

Isn’t this fabric great!  I love the white zipper.

Yummy Bags!

I love them all!

Set Up Google Base – LetsEts

Using LetsEts I’ve sucessfuly set up my Google Base.  This allows me to add my feed of products to the Google search engine very easily.  The process was not too bad and I thought I’d share what I did:

1. Go to LetsEts
2. Enter your Etsy User Name
3. See your product images and information appear as a list
4. Download your xml (or whichever file format you choose)
5. Click on the Google Base link provided at LetsEts
6. Sign up for Google Base account if you don’t have one (Google will take you through the steps automatically if you need an account)
7. In the settings of your Google Base account make sure you type in your URL, otherwise the next step will not work correctly
8. Upload your xml (or whichever format you saved) file
9. Voila!  If it has worked, you will see the number of files uploaded and the expiration date

I look forward to see if this proves to help my sales on Etsy.  Will definitely report back.  It’s hard to tell as Etsy doesn’t have a real stats program, but I’ll see if anything increases in the next week or two now that I’ve uploaded my product information.

Would love to hear how Google Base has worked for you.

New Purses, Etsy, and Hello!

I have started my Etsy shop and will have more items available each week.  I’m very excited to be bringing the items I like to create to this online store.  I’m also going to be soliciting local boutiques and stores, but Etsy is a great online area for my goods.  I like the community and so far people have been very nice and helpful.

I’m specializing in totes but will also offer up clutches, pouches and actual purses.  I love to create and bags are something I’ve always loved.  I like all sorts of bags for all sorts of occasions and now have a place to justify my desire to make new totes all of the time.

I will be using this blog to talk more about the projects I’m working on and things I hope to learn (or can share to help others learn!).

Would love to hear some of your stories as they relate to creating bags, selling online (Etsy or otherwise) and sewing in general.