The Harvest Is Beautiful

Dark purple beets, two tiny tomatoes in a child's red wagon!

Passport Wallets

Kristin and I are taking a trip to London in September. I was inspired to make passport wallets after seeing ones made by a fellow seamstress on the Sense & Sensibility Sewing Forum. I thought this would be a good project for Kristin and me to do together. I had started teaching her to sew several years ago, but our plans were derailed when she broke her arm in two places. We just never got back to it. So this was a golden opportunity. The pattern was originally in Adorn magazine. It was fairly easy, although there were a few directions left out/"Oops's" (such as when the directions left out the turning under the 1/2" raw edges after turning the credit card holder, and to turn under the raw edges on both sides of the accent stripe), but altogether it was a very nice pattern.

It was fun! Kristin was a quick study and did most of her wallet herself. I did the sewing of the vinyl driver's licesnse pocket, which was a challenge for me as well. I used a roller foot, specially made for sewing vinyl and leather, but it was still difficult to keep it straight. (The trick was to start sewing the seam from the middle of the seam instead of at the end, then turn it around and sew the other half of the seam.)

I chose dark blue with floral for my colors; Kristin wanted more subdued colors, so chose black and dark blue. The photos were not cooperating. We tried many times, but kept getting glare or bad colors. I really have to have someone teach me how to use a digital camera properly.

My wallet

Kristin's

The outsides

Updates

A couple of quick updates. Hopefully photos will follow at some point. Here is what we have been working on:

1. Kristin and I made our passport wallets for our upcoming trip in September.
2. We have begun the arduous task of cleaning and organizing the basement. This includes more uncluttering and purging, repainting the concrete floor, demolishing an old and inefficient tool bench that Paul has hated since we moved in, purchasing another, larger wire shelf to store Paul's tools, and finally ordering a train table for Robert's model railroad, that we have been waiting to set up for several years (it will go in the spot where the inefficient tool bench was). Cleaning a basement is an awful job to do, but already things are looking nicer, cleaner, fresher, and more organized. This makes me very happy!
3. Paul put up the wood molding around the inside of the bathroom door. All that is left is to install the little glass shelf/towel bar above the toilet (which I ordered yesterday).
4. I am happy to report that Tyler is now almost completely toilet trained, including night training. Within a week of the Potty Party he was completely day trained. I recommend the potty training method we used to anyone!