Tag: Junebug

Jolly Braid Tote Bag

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UPDATE, October 2025: The updated pattern has been released and is now available to download from Fat Quarter Shop’s website here. It is no longer a free pattern.

UPDATE, March 2024:  I have been informed that the pattern is currently being updated and will be re-released sometime in the future.  When that re-release happens, I will make sure to inform you, dear readers.  🙂  If you would like a personal heads-up from me when the re-release comes out, please leave a comment on *this* post, and I’ll go through and message every comment when the re-release happens.

UPDATE, August 2023: The link to the free pattern does not work at the moment.  I have emailed Fat Quarter Shop and am awaiting their reply on how to fix it for you!  Thank you for pointing it out!

I’ve been posting teasers on Instagram all week about a project I’ve been making for Fat Quarter Shop, and it’s finally time to show you the finished product!

Friends, meet the Jolly Braid Tote Bag, a super easy, very beginner-friendly bag made from Jolly Bar precuts.  I’d actually never made a structured bag before this, and I have no idea why I waited so long to get on the wagon!  SUPER easy, and totally satisfying to sew.

The pattern is available from Fat Quarter Shop.  You’ll need a Jolly Bar package, yardage of two other fabrics, some Annie’s Soft & Stable, one-inch polypro strapping for the handles, and a roll of “Fat Jelly Braid” Triangles on a Roll paper (seriously, I want to buy every available size of Triangles on a Roll because I love it so much).

I chose to make my bag from American Jane’s newest collection, “Merry Go Round,” and I’m really pleased with how cheerful it turned out.  When I first saw the dimensions of the pattern (12 x 11 x 5″), I thought it would make a great library book bag for my daughter, so I went with sunny prints to match her personality.

For my two prints, I went with Merry Go Round “Yellow Large Floral” (SKU# 21720-14) for my accent print, and “Red Mono Floral” (SKU# 21723-11) for my lining.

And, because I intended for the bag to hold heavy books, I added two inches to each end of the nylon strapping for the handles and tacked them down inside the construction of the bag so I wouldn’t run into ripped handles in the future. (I have ripped A LOT of handles out of A LOT of book bags…we nerdy girls always carry too many books in our bags!)

DSC03594-2My little Miss Junebug wanted to help with the photoshoot so much, so I let her!  There’s nothing like spending a beautiful autumn afternoon following your kid around the neighborhood as she proudly shows off her “new bag” to everyone she meets on the street!  (Don’t you just love it when a finished project makes the recipient enthusiastically happy?!?!)

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Thank you so much, Fat Quarter Shop, for allowing me to sew along on this super cute bag!  It’s going to get a lot of use in our home!

Fat Quarter Shop also has a tutorial video to aid you in the construction of your own bag!

Disclaimer: In exchange for sewing up this project, Fat Quarter Shop provided me with the materials.
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Life’s Simple Pleasures

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I was driving the Brookelets home from school the other day and noticed that a tree on the side of the street had a lot of its leaves twirling towards the ground, which prompted me to exclaim, “Oh!  Falling leaves!  One of life’s simple pleasures.”

Miss Junebug scrunched her nose at me and asked, “What does that mean, ‘life’s simple pleasures’?”  I explained that a simple pleasure was a rather ordinary occurrence that just made your heart happy, and generally didn’t cost any money, which made it all the more special because it reminds you that you don’t need to spend money to be happy.  My girl nodded and went back to reading her book.

What I thought was a quick little explanation of some random phrase has apparently been percolating in her mind because we were driving to the library today, and saw a maple tree whose leaves had all turned a brilliant scarlet, but hadn’t fallen off the tree.  Junebug saw it and said, “It’s too bad those leaves aren’t falling off the tree because then they could be a simple pleasure for Mom.”  I explained that, even though the leaves were still on the tree, it was still a simple pleasure for me because I liked how it looked.

She looked at me through narrowed eyes, “Does that mean that simple pleasures can happen even if you spend money on them?”

“What? How did you make that leap?” I asked.

“Well,” she said, “you spend a lot of time just looking at your quilts and the things you knit, and it makes you really happy.  But you spent money on them, so I thought it was a complicated pleasure.”

I laughed, “A complicated pleasure?  No, spending money doesn’t take away the simple pleasure of admiring a job well done.  I’m proud of myself for finishing a big project, and I’m pleased with the good job that I’ve done on that project, so it makes me happy to look at it a lot and just be pleased.  It’s fun to make stuff.”

“Really?” she said, “Because it doesn’t seem like you have a lot of fun when you’re making stuff.  You yell a lot, and you breathe angrily when you run out of thread.  And sometimes you burn yourself on the iron or cut yourself with the circle blade…”

I studied her face for a moment, then turned away to stare at the traffic on the road while I thought about her statement.  Then I nodded, glanced over at her and said, “You’re right…it’s complicated.”

 

Rachel Wishes She Had a Crafty Mother

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I was in my craft room, trying to locate a pattern that I know I purchased this week, when my youngest daughter, Rachel, bounced into the room.  This was not ideal, as I was planning to commence sewing her birthday present once I found the missing pattern.

She’s a bit of a flit-on-by kind of girl, so I assumed she’d blast me with a bit of hurried chatter before continuing on her way to some other unsuspecting member of the family, but, of course, no.  She stopped next to me and watched me for a few seconds, then said, “I want to use the sewing machine.”

I looked over her, raised an eyebrow, and said, “Oh, really?  What for?”

She giggled, “To sew a quilt!”

“Oh,” I said, “what kind of quilt?”

She shrugged, “My usual, you know…the one I always make.”

“Why don’t you make a different one?”

“Because that’s the only one I know how to make…”

“Hmmm,” I said, “wouldn’t it be nice if you had a mother who could, like, I don’t know, TEACH YOU how to make other kinds of quilts?”

“Yeah, it really would,” she said, “I really wish…WAIT! I DO HAVE A MOM THAT CAN TEACH ME HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENT QUILT!”

And that, my friends, was how I came to start another quilt instead of working on my kid’s birthday present.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, there is some massive pattern perusal happening that I need to get back to…

Junebug’s First Quilt

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11216585_10153421784701670_7238221019505939422_nI shared a picture on Instagram a few weeks ago of Junebug holding up her completed quilt top.  It was supposed to have its binding by that time, but my back had flared up earlier that week, so the binding had taken a back seat.  Ever since that day, Junebug has “reminded” me that her quilt needed binding. Continue reading →