Fashion Show Opening

Hooray! The fashion show was a couple days ago, where I debuted my Sheekoo bags. The 300 bags were used as party favors/table decorations, and I had a booth to sell my wares. Everything went very well, and the responses from people were encouraging and super favorable. Although I didn't sell out (I had high hopes), I did sell a fair number of bags.

Now I have plenty of inventory left for my next event in mid-November. I will still make more bags, but at a leisurely pace, rather than feeling like I have to crank them out.

AND....Sheekoo.com is up and running! Thanks to my wonderful webmaster (and husband). It looks great and works great (as far as we can tell so far).

Today, I am busy moving all my sewing stuff OUT of the living room and into my tiny workroom in the garage. I need to pack away all my scrapbooking stuff, and hopefully, the sewing stuff will fit. But I've got to reclaim the living room as a living room. I can't live with the mess forever.

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Mean Pea Green Machine

Two blogs in one day! I'm on a roll, and I've been wanting to blog this for over a month. So since I'm sitting here, I'll just do it!

About 150 bags into my 300-bag project, my beautiful Bernina sewing machine got all x*3$%@z?-ed up. You know how that happens? My Bernina is THE most expensive thing I own--other than our house and cars. It's a great machine, but it wasn't really meant to sew through 6 layers of heavy upholstery-weight material. Yes, I was abusing it.

So, I took it to my trusty sewing machine repair shop (Parkside Sewing Center in Santa Rosa, CA--I highly recommend it!), and Jim told me that it would take SIX WEEKS for him to get to it. Yikes. By then, the fashion show would be upon me! But I couldn't trust anybody else to fix my beautiful Bernina, so I left it there with him, realizing I had to go to PLAN B (whatever that was).

I started looking online for industrial strength sewing machines because I obviously needed something that could sew through these thick layers I would be subjecting it to. I happened upon an Ebay seller who lived within 30 minutes from me, a fantastic woman named Kate, who repairs old Singer machines! I called her on a Saturday morning, told her my predicament, and she graciously allowed me to come to her house that same day. She told me to bring some of my fabrics and said we would try all the machines in her house to see which one could sew through all those layers.

And voila! This adorable, 50-year-old Singer was the mightiest of all!

It is a Singer 185K from 1959. It goes through all those layers like a knife through room-temperature butter. And best of all, it's so darned CUTE! I love the pea green retro color and styling. It even has its own matching pea green case!

I was able to breeze through the other 150 bags with this dandy machine. Now, I have my Bernina back from the shop (a couple weeks early even!), and I'm back in business.

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Sheekoo is Family

Okay, so I haven't blogged anything for a LONGGGGGGG time. I've been busy and productive. I finished my 300 bags, plus I have made about 50-60 more so far to sell at the Fashion Show in the Vineyards, happening at Cline Cellars in Sonoma, on October 25.

I have to say that my feet are sooooo cold (figuratively)--I mean I've got cold feet. About having a business. About putting myself out there. About thinking that I could be successful at selling my handicrafts.

But to catch y'all up (all -1 of you that are probably reading this blog), I have named my little biz "Sheekoo", which means "family" in Korean. Or as my mother says, "this group right here," as she gestures toward all the people who may be sitting at the dining room table. I like that definition. It means that it's whoever is there, sharing their lives together at the moment, not necessarily a blood tie. Isn't that how relationships should be??

Here's my little logo. Carry on!

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Travel Kit

We went to Nashville last week to visit my in-laws, and I wanted to have a little project to do on the plane. Thankfully, we are once again allowed to bring scissors and needles on airplanes! I made a little felt travel kit while traveling, so the next time I travel, I'll be ready! It's a little oxymoron-ish, but it was fun.

It's a little embellished needle and pin holder, with a teeny pouch inside to hold things like snaps or beads or whatever.

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85 Down, 215 To GO!!!!

So, you know I have an order to make 300 bags for the Boys & Girls Club fundraiser in October, right? It is turning out to be quite a challenge. I keep telling myself, this is what I want to be doing! Maybe not quite so many bags, but I remember reading other peoples' blogs and being so jealous when someone would say they had a big order to fill. Now, it's my reality, and I need to savor it!! It's a good problem to have after all.

With my friend Lorraine helping me this weekend, I was able to make 29 bags!! Yippee! That brings me to about 85 complete. I have goals written on my calendar, so I can stay on track. I hope to have all 300 complete by mid- to late-September. That will give me all of October to make bags to sell at the fundraiser, which will be a much more fun and creative process than this assembly-line rote task I'm doing at the moment.

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My New Favorite Tote Bag

I don't know why, but I just LOVE this bag! Thankfully, I made 3 of them--one for my sister-in-law, one to sell, and one to KEEP! You'd think I'd have a million of my own bags, but I don't usually keep any of them. This time, I gotta make an exception. It will be great to use at the farmer's market or a quick trip to the G&G Market. Made with Tracy Porter fabric. It's available at www.sheekoo.com!

Oh, maybe I forgot to say that Sheekoo is my bag company name. It means "family" in Korean. Or as my mother says is the more accurate translation, "this group of us right here". I kinda like that!

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Too Busy to Post!!

A lot has been happening in my world of crafts, but I've been too busy to blog it. My friend and boss Bonnie has gotten me the gig of a lifetime, making 300 (yes, 300) bags for a fundraiser giveaway. So, yes, I'm a little bit busy and a lot crazy. The bags need to be finished by October 25.

In the meantime, I've also been making and listing bags on ebay and etsy in order to make acquire the funds to purchase all the materials I'll be needing to making 300 bags! Here's some of the ones I've been making.

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