30 Minutes Per Day - Week of Aug. 24, 2009

School Clothes: Piano Bag and Vintage Butterick 2409

I'd like to thank all of you who are actually trying out the concept on whatever scale you can manage and are leaving comments about it! You've been an encouragement to me and I'm glad you can use the concept. Keep it up - all those minutes do add up eventually.

This week's projects include a new piano bag and a jumper for my daughter. I was able to finish the last Jalie top on Sunday and start the piano bag by getting the outer bag constructed. The piano bag is my own pattern, the same one I used to make myself a bag earlier this summer.

Here's what I was able to do this week, in 30 to 60 minutes per day:

Monday: Installed the inside pocket of the piano bag lining. She wasn't sure she wanted a pocket, but I suggested it would be a good idea since she can never seem to locate pencils for her music.

Assembled lining and pleated both bags together.

Tuesday: Finished the bag by binding the upper edges, which included the straps.

My daughter picked out these fabrics; they're not exactly what I would have picked, but she liked them. Getting the bag done is a good thing - I just got an email stating that piano lessons will start on Monday, and I'm going to guess that flute lessons will start next week, too. This will be her sixth year of piano and her first in flute, should be fun.

Wednesday: Cut out vintage Butterick 2409. I didn't exactly have enough fabric, so the skirt is not quite as full. I ended up piecing full widths of the fabric together and in the end was less than 18" shy of the amount of the original pattern pieces.

Thursday: Assembled the skirt. Thursdays can be busy for me, so seaming the skirt, finishing the edges/hem and putting in the gathers was easy enough to do without too much extra thinking. Oh yeah, did I mention that this pattern is missing the instruction sheet? I don't think it had it when I bought it, but no big deal - it isn't a complicated pattern.

Friday: Assembled the bodice and bodice lining.

Saturday: Finish the jumper. I added the skirt, finished the lining at the waist and added the buttons and buttonholes.

After a quick try on, we decided that it needed a snap for a little extra security since the front overlap - the only opening to the wrap jumper - is not very deep.

Tomorrow I will trace and get a start on a white blouse for my daughter, which will be her last piece for a while. There are two more pieces we discussed, but I will probably end up making those as Christmas gifts since she doesn't need them right now, and by then she'll be tired of what she has now.

I also plan to make myself a vest next week, after that it will be my son's turn for clothes. I've promised him a short sleeve shirt, some trousers and some time this winter a new blazer for school.

Parting Shot: Turkey. Yep, that's a turkey and it is on our front lawn. We have a flock of wild turkeys that live around here and this is the time of the year they're seen moving about the neighborhood as a flock.