​I've always been a pen and paper kind of gal. Packing lists, and to do lists, shopping lists, paper calendars, journals... all of it. I grew up with my mom using one of those giant monthly wall calendars in the kitchen, as well as a daily list of what needed to happen, written out each morning on a fresh piece of notebook paper. So it was a natural progression for me to continue this paper planning into my own life.  And as my life became more complicated with business and kids and partner, I’ve gravitated towards using a bullet journal. ​

As you may have seen in my previous post Fabric Wholesale Direct Collab, I've been gifted several lengths of fabric in exchange for blogging about them. In this particular post, I'll be talking specifically about the dri-weave knits. 

I love my Huxley bag pattern as is, but I also love how versatile it can be. After lusting after a few roll top bags on instagram, I realized that my Huxley pattern could easily be converted to create one of my own! So, I decided one of my #MakeNine projects was going to be a hacked Huxley, with a roll top, using waterproof material. And because I can't go simple, I added in quite a few other hacks too. Here is a breakdown:

This blog post will continuously be updated to let you know where and how to get your Huxley Kits!

​I love my Huxley Bag pattern! It's a convertible backpack that can also be a cross body bag and a bike bag! I absolutely love this pattern, but I know that finding all the hardware for a project like this can be intimidating. So I've set up some kit options for you!

One of the things I love about sewing my own clothes is the ability to create meaningful garments for meaningful events in my life. There are the huge life events like my wedding (and yes I did make my own wedding dress) and then there are smaller but still meaningful events like running my first post baby road race. Running after giving birth has been a really difficult transition for me, and I felt like I needed to celebrate the hard work I'd put in to get ready for this half marathon. So of course, what better way to celebrate than by making myself a new Madi tank for race day?! Of course, in the end, life got in the way and I didn't end up finishing it in time to wear it for the race. But I still think of it as my Indy Mini Madi.

Hello everyone! Today I'm happy to inform you that my Felt Sewing Toys pattern is ready! And it is FREE to all my subscribers! Not a subscriber? No problem! You can click HERE to sign up, and get your code in the final welcome email. 

Already have your pattern? Then you are in the right place!
This is a tutorial for how to put those sewing toys together!

When I send out my patterns during the testing stage, I always make sure to tell my testers that they should go ahead and make any changes that they want to the pattern. I do this so that my testers can end up with a finished product that they actually love and will actually use! I also do this because I find it so inspiring to see all the different ways that people can take my patterns and make them their own. 

This blog post is going to highlight some of my testers, their bags, their thoughts on their bags, and some of the changes that you can make to The Huxley Bag!

So I thought to myself "what's the worse that could happen?" and decided to write and said I'd be willing to volunteer.  My fear was that this bag looks soooo complicated to make, and as y'all know - I'm still a beginner-ish at the art of sewing.  But even with that, Madeline (owner of Goheen Designs) said she would love for me to try it.
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I received the instructions on May 4th and she said she would be interested in getting all feedback back by the 28th.  With me going on a trip to Orlando on the 24th for the rest of the month, I needed to get working on this right away.   I wanted to make sure that if I found it too challenging, I would have that feedback for Madeline before I left for Orlando. 

THE PATTERN FILE
I received an email from Madeline with a ZIP file.  Within the Zip file, there were 8 files: 2 A0 format files, 2 Tiled, and 2 Wide format files.  There were 2 files of each because the Huxley bag gives you a Large and a Small version of the bags.  In addition to the patterns, there was a file with instructions (all 47 pages of it!), and a file with testing parameters. 
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I decided, based on the suggestions in the instructions that I will go with the View A in Large.  Why?  Because the instructions had the View A  as the primary, with the zipper option as the alternative view.  And Large because I wanted to use it for my Mac laptop and the instructions suggested to use the Large version if I wanted to make one that fits a laptop.  Once I find some free time, I might try the alternate view and make the one with the zipper, I've seen some pictures online already of this view and it's also oh-so-pretty. 

PRINTING THE PATTERN
The next day, I went over to FedEx office to get print the pattern out in wide format.  I've never done this, and I don't even remember the last time I went to FedEx/Kinkos to get something printed.  It was probably 10+ years ago when I had to do a school project.  Anyway, the rep knew exactly what to do with the file I provided and soon after, I was walking out of the store with this really long print out that was rolled very nicely.  Wow, did this exercise just saved me an hour of printing out, cutting and taping the pattern?  Yes it sure did! Totally worth it! FedEx charged me like 12 bucks for it, so yes, definitely worth it! 

FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS
When I first started reading the instructions, I got really scared! I've never seen sewing instructions that would take 40+ pages to describe, so it was really overwhelming.  But when I showed it to the beau and he said in a nonchalant tone of voice: "this will be so great for you babe, you'll learn so much going through it", this alone encouraged me to move forward and instead of overwhelm feelings, I was now super excited!  I immediately went upstairs to my fabric stash to see which fabrics I will be using for the bag, soon to realize I didn't even know how much I needed of each.  Oopsie - back down to read the instructions. :) 
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Once I started with the instructions page by page, it didn't seem as scary anymore.  It's like when you have a huge project and if you look at the big picture, it can get very overwhelming.  But if you break it into sub-tasks, you're like "I've got this".  This is how I tackled this pattern testing as well.  I started thinking - "ok, let's do page 1 and 2", and next thing I knew, I was done and onto page 3.   The directions were super clear and easy to follow.  I did have a small hiccup with the handle reinforcement, but a quick email to Madeline and a fast response, straighten my confusion and was able to move forward in no time. 

MATERIALS I USED: ​

• Front and Back: Nate Berkus Decor Fabric;
• For the "Leather": a 100% polyester piece that looked like brushed leather I got in the remnant section at Joann's and added fleece interfacing
• For the straps: same leather-like fabric on top of black cotton webbing
• For the inside lining: Cotton+Steel Shadow Animal print I got at a local fabric store that used to sell only Japanese fabric (they closed down unfortunately *sadface*).   
• For the laptop pocket: a plain blue/gray linen and added a light interfacing for some sturdiness.   
• Metal rivets, hooks and adjusters - brass. 
• Plastic snaps - black.  Just because I already had these. :) 

THE HARDEST PART
​Believe it or not, it was the rivets. I've never used rivets before, and I didn't know which tools to use. I googled and youtube'd several resources and at the end, I was still confused.  I purchased a set of snap and rivets setters kit on Amazon based on this YouTube video on How to Set Rivets, but when I tried using the tools, mine didn't come out good at all.  When I used the hammer alone, it came out ok.  I mean, it totally makes sense to use a tool that's concave so that when you hit the rivets with the hammer, it doesn't flatten the cap.  Perhaps I had rivets that didn't need the concave tool?  Or maybe I had the wrong tool?  I don't know, I'm still confused about this one...

THE RESULT​
And here is the result of this pattern test - I am in LOVE with it.  It's super cool that you can switch how you wear the bag from one shoulder (messenger type) to backpack to hooking it on your bike and go! I've gotten so many compliments already from my friends and I'm sure this pattern will be such a good seller! In all honesty, it's a really good challenge and I feel like I've learn many more useful skills now that I've gone through this.  Yes rivets - I'm looking at you! 

​All in all, the project took me about 10 days from start to finish.  But it's not like I worked on this bag every single day.  I didn't have all the materials, so some days I'd be sitting here just waiting for the items to arrive.  And other days - well, I got distracted with other sewing projects. :)  I would say though, if I did this continuously - it probably took me 3-4 days to finish. 


What do you guys think? Like the bag?  Want to join the challenge?  If you're interested in sewing your own Huxley bag, head over to GoheenDesigns|Huxley as she has now officially launched the pattern! Hurray! 

It's here!!! The Huxley convertible bag sewing pattern is here!

A cross-body bag, a backpack, and a bike bag all in one.
​Combine that with the two different sizes, and the two views (one with a lid flap and one without) and you have here in this pattern 12 possible bags. All the options you need for going from bike, to hike to car. You can create the perfect bag to keep up with you on all your adventures. The larger size fits a 13” laptop, while the smaller size is perfect for carrying a tablet. Just enough room for your essentials, without so much room that you are tempted to bring the whole kitchen sink (over-packing is a serious problem for me). 

Wear it on your back to keep your hands free. Throw it over your shoulder as a cross body for quick access to your essentials. Or snap it onto your bike for easy sweat free riding.

As adaptable as you are. 
The perfect bag for all your adventures.

​This pattern started out as me solving a problem for myself. I wanted one bag that I could use in several ways, depending on my mode of transportation for the day. Backpack for walking around, cross body for getting in and out of the car to run errands, and a bike bag for when I'm riding around downtown. I also wanted the transition between these options to be easy to sew, and easy to use. And I think I succeeded! 

After making this bag for myself a few years ago, I decided to offer it as a finished product in my Etsy shop. And while I had a TON of people loving it, the bag didn't really sell because I had to price it so high for my time and materials. Then, as I started building up my pattern line, I realized that it would make the perfect bag pattern for other sewists! As I worked on it, the bag kind of took on a life of it's own as I gave it two sizes and two views, a ridiculously in depth instruction guide (it's seriously like 45 pages), and then even an option for hardware kits. 

Part of what I love about the Huxley bag is that when you use the right materials and hardware, it looks so impressive. People are always so surprised when I tell them that I made the bag myself. And yet, it's not a super complicated bag. There are a lot of steps, and a lot of pieces to keep track of, but all the sewing itself is straight lines, and you don't need to worry about fitting at all. 

I've got a great little downloadable freebie for you guys! 

I've always loved the idea of Me-Made-May, but I've always been intimidated by it. For those of you who don't know, MMMay is a challenge started by Zoe Edwards of SoZo to help sewists develop a better relationship with their handmade wardrobe. It is a huge deal on instagram every year, because most people pledge to wear all handmade for the entire month, and post a selfie every day on instagram using the #MMMay18 

​Which is super intimidating right?? My handmade wardrobe is not nearly filled out enough to wear only handmade all month. And posting a picture of myself every day to instagram is quite a commitment for me. 

​But then, I listened to episode 38 of the Love to Sew Podcast, which featured Zoe and the MMMay challenge. And Zoe emphasized that this challenge is NOT a photo challenge, and it is NOT the same challenge for different people. You get to choose what you want to challenge yourself to do. You don't have to wear me-mades from head to toe. And you don't have to post an instagram selfie every day. You can track your challenge however you want!

So of course, my mind jumped straight to bullet journaling! 
I'm obsessed with my bullet journal, and I love creating new spreads to help me keep track of my life, so I whipped up a few pages to help me track my newly inspired MMMay!