Appleton Dance

by Linda Theil Knowing my predilection for product advertising bags, a good friend gifted me with the packaging from her Michigan-made, American Spoon pancake mix. Following in the footsteps of other repurposed packaging -- like the slings I made of Starbucks coffee bags -- I made a Kandou "Mini-traveler Sling" out of the American Spoon canvas bag my friend gave me. With the addition of cuts from the "Apple Festival" collection by Jane Shasky for Henry Glass & Co. I widened the American Spoon bag enough to create the front and back of my mini-sling. I highlighted the advertising on the front and back of the American Spoon bag by making the front zippered pocket zip in a straight line across the top of the bag front instead of diagonally as shown in the pattern. I used the back of the American Spoon bag to make a large slip-pocket on the back of the sling, instead of creating the vertical, zippered pocket described in the pattern. I used an ivory cotton from m...

by Linda Theil Tina Sharapova of JTS Design posted her textile labyrinth, fidget-toys on the Labyrinth Makers FaceBook forum recently, inciting me to try my hand at making my own finger labyrinth out of fabric. My first venture is an 8-inch-square, log-cabin-pieced design with a three-cycle labyrinth stitched over the piecework, and a 5/8-inch button sewed inside to act as a game piece. Log-cabin-mouse fidget, front Log-cabin-mouse fidget, back To make your own three-cycle labyrinth fidget, you will need: Materials for three-cycle labyrinth fidget: 8-inch square cotton for backing 8-inch square iron-on fleece 2.5-inch square cotton for log-cabin center square variety of 1.5-inch-wide strips of cotton for log-cabin "logs" 5/8-inch button or bead  Proceedure 1. Beginning with your 2.5-inch square, sew ten 1.5-inch-wide strips of fabric to center square, alternating in log-cabin quilt-block style. Note: I cut my strips a little wider than 1.5-inches and that is why my block is ...

  by Linda Theil I'm a bit obsessed with trompe l'oeil  "plaid" quilt tops; so, when my GAAQG study group investigated Ricki Timm's "Convergence" quilts, I wondered if there was a way tomake a "Convergence" quilt that looked like a woven plaid. I found several YouTube videos describing various iterations of the "Convergence" process, including a video by Timms himself, but the video I found most helpful was a very short and simplified "Basic Convergence Technique" by Sonny DeWitt. All of the "Convergence" quilts had a woven appearance, and they all used four different fabrics to create the convergent look, but I didn't know how to translate the directions to create an actual, faux woven-plaid. The DeWitt video paired four fabrics into two strips sets of two fabrics each.  This was the same process used in the "Buffalo chex patchwork" and the "The white buffalo"  faux-plaid quilt tops I ma...

  by Linda Theil There is something absolutely adorable about this sweet, little mini-duffle from Kandou Patterns. At 7x4.5x.2.5-inches the bag is tiny, but roomy enough for necessities AND sunglasses! The "Mini Bag" pattern is included in Kandou's "Trio Bag Pattern Bundle" that includes bags fashioned to coordinate with the Kandou "Trio Sling Bag/Backpack" that features a three-piece front with a diagonal zippered pocket. I made the trio sling version documented in the AppletonDance post "Zingerman's Sling". Although I cut the bag front in three pieces as designed, I did not feature the color-block style in my Mini Bag, but cut each piece from the same fabric from the 2022 collection "First Light" by Ruby Star Society. I intended to make the back of the bag from the same fabric, but I mistakenly cut the back panel from the fabric I chose for the gusset. Both the back and gusset are cut from a fabric in the "Mixed Bag...

  by Linda Theil A cute bag kept popping up on my Internet feed that looked a lot like Diane Spencer-Ogg's "Arch Zipper Pouch" pattern with a lot of extra bells and whistles. Having made so many of this brilliant pattern (see list below) , I challenged myself to create a Fat Archie to rival the manufactured bag I admired. What I ended up with was a kind of small backpack, bowler-style bag of no great distinction -- but amusing and satisfying to work on. I designed my Fat Archie using J. Wecker Frisch's "Mad Masquerade" for Riley Blake Designs published in 2022. I originally bought the fabric to make a tote for a friend who is a fan of John Tenniel's Alice in Wonderland drawings. The fabric featured several large panels that I could use for all the extra pockets. The base and zipper gusset are made from Mora faux leather from Emmaline Bags . The finished size of this bag is 11 x 10 x 3.5-inches. I will describe how I created Fat Archie, but since the pro...

"Daily Essential Pouch" top by Linda Theil I have always admired Minki Kim's beautiful videos of her elegant designs, but felt intimidated by the magnificent precision of her sewing. I have purchased a few of her patterns, but had not tried making one until I bought her pre-printed panel that produced a simple backpack, and had some success with it. Please see my post "Minki Kim pre-printed panel" on AppletonDance.  I saw Minki Kim's video about a darling little box that she calls the "Daily Essential Pouch" and bought the PDF pattern. When Alisa needed a container for Emerson's birthday gift, we thought this 7 x 5 x 2-inch zippered box would fill the bill. Daily Essential Pouch top For the quilted exterior I chose "Kirtland Warbler" , a discontinued Charlie Harper licensed fabric published by Birch Fabrics. This fabric was part of Birch's second volume of illustrations that Charlie Harper created for the Ford Times magazine....

by Linda Theil To add to my collection of recycled advertising packages, I made a sling out of the muslin bag that Zingerman's Bakehouse in Ann Arbor used to package their holiday stollen. The bag was just the right size to fit my well-tested "Sandhill Sling" by Noodlehead Sewing Patterns; but since I had just purchased a similarly sized "Triple Sling Bag" by Kandou Patterns, I thought I'd give that pattern a try instead. All the Kandou patterns that I've tried have been well-written and beautifully designed, and this "Triple Sling" was no exception. I made a minor change to the pattern by inserting the strap directly into the top strap-connector, instead of using the rectangle ring prescribed in the pattern since the additional hardware seemed superflous to me. I could have substituted a D-ring and an extra swivel-hook on the strap to make a detachable strap, but I wanted to reduce the weight of the bag, not increase it. I didn't have a ma...