Dollar-Bill Dottie and Bucket Bag

This is Dottie. She's my "first born", after years of not sewing anything, I took to my machine like a duck on a junebug this weekend. I made her without a pattern or template, with a little inspiration from Linda Kopp's Plush-o-rama, and I turned off that nasty little perfectionist that lives in my brain. You know the one - the "oh this sucks", the "this is not perfect", the "i'm not any good at this and should give up" little monster that often knocks the stuffing out of our creativity.

Instead, I embraced my mistakes and heralded any imperfections. I set myself free and I have wonderful Dottie to show for it. The first thing i did was sew the sticking-out-tongue on and i knew right then this was going to be an excercise in "take that!" to my insecurities to craft-making.

She's Dollar-Bill Dottie. She has a dollar coin - one of those new ones - in her back pocket.(Dollar-Coin Dottie didn't sound right.) While making her, i had to snicker at times - she's so silly!





I made her a matching bag. Again, not perfect, but colorful and fun, and made without a pattern. One side:



the other side

"i steeck my tongue out atchyou!"

Bucket Bag

I also made a handbag - the "Bucket Bag" from Christina Strutt's book "Romantic Home Sewing". I am very pleased with this as well. With this project, not only was my creative side sated, but the evil perfectionist as well. It's lovely and i will be making more in different fabrics.

This is what it looks like in Christina's book:



Here is mine: (it's a little floppy and hard to model. In retrospect, i should have put something in it to help distinguish its shape.)





As the pattern indicated, I used different fabrics for the exterior and lining.



I love linen. Beautiful exterior fabric:



Beautiful interior fabric. Isn't it dreamy?:




Mr. Biddles was very helpful during my sewing madness. I consulted with him on several points.

"ugh. wake me when it's over."

.