Emmaline Bags: Sewing Patterns and Purse Supplies: Blog Hop

The Great Canadian Craftsy Bag Tour - ROUND UP!!

4/09/2016 10:00:00 AM

Welcome back! If you have been following the tour of Canada all week, this will be a lovely glance back and our trip and a great round up of all of the prizes too. If you have missed a few spots because you were napping in the back seat - we'll show you the stops that you'll want to go back to. Click the link and you can revisit. If only it were so easy on a real road trip! - Janelle

Here's Marsha:

It looks long but it's worth it to read to the end.

Hint: Patterns, fabric, classes, bag bling. Just read to the end, ok?

Wow! That was some trip! I had a crazy vision that I was on this epic road trip all over Canada, visiting people, making bags, making wine, drinking wine and ... what happened after the wine? All of you guys were in the car with me so somebody should remember how we got here! That "Cracksy" is some powerful stuff. But then again, from this jetlaggy feeling in my head, it might have really happened…

Last night, we were making roomy dufflebags and enjoying Happy Hour with Shelaine at Shelaine's Designs in Ontario. That's probably how we all came to be waking up here in Janelle's sewing room today. Apparently, all that sipping also made Shelaine quite talkative, "For me this tour has been an eye opener and I have learned so much from each of the bloggers! I have enjoyed everyone posts and enjoyed being along for the ride. I also tried a different learning forum, and for me it was a great experience. I very much enjoyed the course I chose and learned many new skills that are going to serve me well in a variety of other projects. Another benefit of the blog tour was getting to know fellow Canadians and the camaraderie that our small group has shared! Thank you for including me in this tour and I look forward to our next adventure."

Shelaine's Weekend Duffel Bag

I remember we had driven to Shelaine's place after a decadent afternoon at Fiona's Tangled Blossoms Design studio overlooking budding vineyards and the Bay of Fundy. We'd had the voyeuristic pleasure of hanging around as she took the hammer to a carpet bag. (Pattern designed by Samantha of Sewing Patterns by Mrs. H, who's so awesome she could be Canadian.) I could swear over all that banging, I heard Fiona say, "I've loved every moment of our Great Canadian Craftsy Bag Tour. It's been a fabulously fun and exciting ride!"

Fiona put's in a professional zipper pocket!

Before that happened though, we had to make a quick getaway from Michelle's Creations in Alberta on Thursday. Michelle had just sewn herself the most stunning work of art using Janelle's Craftsy class. But her rather stiff bodyguard "Catherine" suspected we were casing the place and plotting a heist of the clutch bag masterpiece. I don't think Michelle knew what we were up to when she said, "I loved the opportunity to be part of this tour, and getting to know my fellow Canadian bloggers better. To top it off, I got to review a great class and make a beautiful bag. It's been great fun!"

Michelle perfects a clutch bag lining.

Mwuhahahaha! Wait 'til she finds out what I've got up my sleeve for the next caper! Mwuhahaha!

It's straining my memory now, but I think we were on the other side of the Rockies at Reece's Happy Okapi on Wednesday. She had turned several drop-dead gorgeous pieces of fabric into an even more stunning travel organizer. (Travel + Organize?? Hmmm... I'm not buying it!) Thankfully, my memory hasn't failed completely yet and I get to pass on this message from Reece: "Thanks to everyone for following along with us on our adventure. I hope you enjoyed the reviews and found them helpful."

Reece's travel is organized!!

I'm (almost) sure on Tuesday we were still in Quebec waiting to haul Ula and Deb away from their kids. Deb had been hard at work making fabric pots to cook her kid's toy rabbit, but she claims they were "nesting baskets". Mmmm-hmmm! Somebody should keep an eye on what goes on over there at Sprouting JubeJube. We tried to be quick but before we could grab her and run, Deb whipped out a whole laundry list of love:

"So glad I got to do this tour because:

I got to try making something that I don't usually make
I got insight about other classes that I found useful and even added some to my wish list
I can honestly say that I was looking forward to seeing everyone's post just because of the level of knowledge of the ladies in the group
I'm looking forward to the next tour to see how many things I will forget to post about next time around (heeeheee)"

Plenty of organized rid-rac here!

I think I caught some kind of bad memory bug from her.

Ula on the other side of town at Lulu & Celeste was also making baskets, or was it a tote? Oh yeeeeeah! She made a market tote out of oilcloth. Well, half of a market tote... From somewhere beneath a couple of children, we heard Ula’s cries for help. Or maybe she was saying, "Thanks so much for following along on the tour! I hope you had as much fun reading all the reviews as I had. It was great having an excuse to buy more oilcloth!" Her words were a bit muffled on account of all the glue... Maybe it's best not to mention the glue. Don't talk about the glue!

Meanwhile, back at the beginning, this wild cross-country ride started on Monday. Janelle gave me a tank of that potent gas from the Alberta Oil Sands, I tossed everybody into the pouches and totes I'd been making for two weeks and hit the road. I did remember to take the cats out of the bags first before I put all of you in. You're welcome!

Marsha's pouches say "Hello Canada!"

This really has been an epic escapade for me. And I'm not talking about just the last few days; the past 2 months have been jammed with watching Craftsy videos, sending emails, making lists, learning to edit photos, sewing, writing, hunting down links, learning some more, cursing, crying, caffeine, research... did I say cursing? I haven't gone with this little sleep since... since... let's just leave that thought right there, shall we?

Thank you all for joining us on this tour. If you missed any of the stops, be sure to go back and check them out. These ladies worked really hard to bring you their reviews, plus each one has a special link to get you 50% off the class they reviewed. Don't miss any of them.

Here they are again (because it would seem you have the memory bug too):

Emmaline Bags -- Tour Kickoff

Seam of my Pants -- Learn to Sew: Simple Bags with Nicole Vasbinder

Sprouting JubeJube -- Sew Sturdy: Home Organizers with Annie Unrein

Lulu & Celeste -- Sewing With Oilcloth: Bags & Baskets with Kathy McGee

Happy Okapi -- Sew Sturdy Travel Organizers with Annie Unrein

Michelle's Creations -- Mix & Match: Clutch Bag Techniques with Janelle MacKay

Shelaine's Designs -- Sew Better Bags: The Weekend Duffel with Betz White

Tangled Blossoms Design -- 20 Essential Techniques for Better Bags with Lisa Lam

Now let's talk about those Sur"prizes"

Tomorrow at 2 PM Atlantic Time (1 PM Eastern, Noon Central, 11 AM Mountain, 10 AM Pacific... yes we have that many time zones, plus the half zone in Newfoundland and Labrador, which makes no sense to me whatsoever!) Oh dear! Lets start over…

Tomorrow (Sunday) sometime around brunch time, all 8 blogs on the tour will post a Flash Giveaway. It will last for 24 hours only! (That means it ends on Monday at 2 PM Atlantic, 1 PM... no no, let's not start this again.)

Prizes

Prize Pack A (Canadian, US and International entries accepted)

1 Craftsy Class: “Mix & Match: Clutch Bag Techniques” by Janelle MacKay of Emmaline Bags

Prize Pack B (Open to Canadian residents only)

$32CAD store voucher for Tangled Blossoms Design (Redeemable in fabric and S&H)
The Manhattan Bag PDF Pattern
The Manhattan Mama Hardware Kit

Prize Pack C (Open to Canadian residents only, unless you are prepared to pay for the extra international shipping.)

Prize Pack D (Canadian, US and International entries accepted)

1 PDF Purse Pattern (winner’s choice) from Blue Calla Sewing Patterns

Make a party of it. Bring your friends and let's see if, together, we can break the internet between Sunday brunch and Monday afternoon nap. You know you wanna. I would if I were you.

See you tomorrow! À demain Marsha

Thank you, Marsha! Wow, this tour gives a whole new meaning to the term "travel handmade". I loved being a part of this event. The bloggers put so much work into it and I really want to thank them for letting me be a small part of it. Thanks to all. So DO like Marsha SAID! Revisit ALL of the blogs tomorrow to participate in the wonderful FLASH GIVEAWAY! What a wonderful way to say farewell to the tour members. Thanks ladies!

I would love to hear about what class review you enjoyed reading about in the comments!
Or… just tell me if YOU have been to Canada.

May all of your bobbins be full,

Janelle

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4/06/2016 10:16:00 AM

Bag Making Tutorials

The Great Canadian Craftsy Bag Tour - Kick Off!!

4/04/2016 12:28:00 PM

Hi everyone, I'm turning my blog over to Marsha today, a great Canadian blogger who is going to help kick of our Great Canadian Craftsy Bag Tour. I've watched some of these Craftsy classes, but not all of them… so also I can't wait to hit all of the stops on this tour! Here's Marsha:

A couple of months ago when this idea for an all

Canadian blog tour of Craftsy popped up and I jumped all over organizing it, I had no idea it would be so exhausting and so rewarding at the same time. Reap some of the rewards and join us for an epic road trip, if you will.

Hi, I’m Marsha. I’d try to give you a brief synopsis of who I am, but there’s nothing brief about me. I can make a short story long, and I usually do on my own blog Seam of my Pants. I’ll rein it in for once and just say that I sew, I craft, I draw, I rescue cats, I teach, I read, I travel, and despite my long-winded writing, I’m an introvert.

Let me share a little about this Great Canadian Craftsy Bag Tour. (Say that out loud just one time fast, I dare ya!) … ok, then! … We are a group of eight Canadian sewing bloggers scattered all the way from the Maritimes (on the Atlantic coast), over the Canadian Shield, across the prairies, up and down the mountains, all the way to the Pacific coast. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any bloggers from our northern territories and I’ll try to do something about that next time. Short of moving further north myself, that is, because that just. aint. happening! Not all of us are bag-makers, but those who weren’t, were more than game to give it a shot. (Have you ever eaten Caribou or Moose meat? Now, that’s gamey!)

Each of us chose a bag-making class offered on the Craftsy platform. (Please don’t tell me you never heard of Craftsy because I’ll have to come and slap you awake!) Anyway, we each chose a class, followed it through and sewed the class projects. We’ve written up our blog posts documenting our experiences and opinions, and will be posting them this week from April 4^th to 9^th. Craftsy generously provided us with the classes at no charge, but don’t let that fool you, we still say what we think! – Politely, of course. I’ve seen some of the fabric choices and the work(hu)manship of these ladies and I have yet to pick my jaw up from the floor. Wow! Just WOW!

My very humble little beginner tote bags and pouches are taking care of the Montreal Monday (that’s today) stop on the tour as I review two classes: Bag-Making Basics: Reversible Tote & Zipper Pouch and Learn to Sew: Simple Bags. Pop over to the blog and find out what I did (and didn’t do) to those unsuspecting pieces of fabric.

Check out the first stop on the tour!

Then we take our lives in our hands as we cross the Champlain Bridge to the suburban cities collectively known as the South Shore of Montreal. Over there, we’ll find two more bloggers. Deborah started her fabric obsession before she could even talk, and she hasn’t stopped playing around with it since. Who can blame her? If you got a purple sewing machine when you were 5, you’d become an accomplished sewist too! Although, there was that time she took a little break to work in women’s retail, but that didn’t last. Just to make the rest of us seethe with jealousy, she also studied photography so the pictures on her blog Sprouting JubeJube are to die for. (hrmph!) These days, she takes her coffee intravenously to keep up with 4 kids while sewing for them and herself. They all have very different personalities and style preferences so no hand-me-downs happening there. That’s a dedicated mother! She still has time to take on the challenge of making Annie Unrein’s Sew Sturdy HomeOrganizers from Craftsy.

Because we don’t want to travel too far on our first day, we’ll just run down the street to visit Ula of Lulu & Celeste. Ula also chases kids around, but only two. She’s just a teeny weeny bit (ok, I under-exaggerate) crazy about wool felting and creates some adorable ornaments and critters when she’s not sewing for her girls. But she put down the sheep long enough to make some bags and organizers out of oilcloth. That’s one brave woman!

Then, because neither rhyme nor reason has any part in a Canadian road trip, we jump nearly 5,000 Km to visit Reece in the spectacular Fraser Valley between Rocky Mountains and Pacific coast. And we run into Annie Unrein again, this time with her class: Sew Sturdy Travel Organizers. (We could seriously use a travel organizer for this tour!) Reece was kind enough to interrupt her enjoyment of gorgeous spring weather to sew and write. If you want your lower mandible (jawbone) to hit the floor like mine did, you have to go to Happy Okapi on Wed., April 6 and see what she made.

A wee sneak peek form Reece's review - can you tell what she made?

Go West, young m… Oops! Big scary ocean that way! I guess we have to go East. And our first stop for a rest break is smack dab in the middle of Alberta, somewhere between the foothills of the Rockies and the wide-open prairies. (You do not want to take on those prairies without a full tank of gas, among other things.)

We can use the facilities at Michelle’s place but it’s ok if we spend a few minutes celebrity-stalking Janelle because we’re sooooo close! We drag Michelle away from her obsessive bra-making, rip the stretch lace out of her hands and force her to (gasp!) make one of Janelle’s clutches from the Mix & Match: Clutch Bag Techniques class that’s the talk of the town. We didn’t have to force too hard because as it turns out, she’s also a little bag-making freak. Bras, bags, bras + bags … Go see Michelle’s “Brags” at Michelle’s Creations and check out her post about Janelle’s class on the 7^th. “Only in Canada, you say. Pity!”

Take a peek inside Michelle's bag!

Are you tired yet? Well, suck it up, Toots! We still have a long way to go on Friday, the 8^th – 5,000 Km to be more or less exact-ish. First to see Shelaine hiding herself away in Southwestern Ontario (that little part of Canada that dips south of the 49^th parallel.) This lady is brand new on the blogging scene and we’re going to show her some love in the friendliest Canadian fashion. We’ll just pop in for a little looksee in her sewing room. She’s working on Sew Better Bags: The Weekend Duffel pattern from the Craftsy class by Betz White and sharing what she learns on her blog Shelaine’s Designs. This feisty lady is a study in opposites, going from hunting and four-wheeling in the Northern Ontario wilderness to playing with her Juki and pin cushions in her sewing room. I warn you, be vewwy, vewwy careful around her because she’s taken down a bear with her bow and arrow. (Let’s see Daryl Dixon do that!) And before anyone gets mad about Pooh’s cousin, Shelaine eats what she kills. (That could be taken as another warning. Hmmm…) In any case, you do not want to miss her bag!

You'll want to see more of this one!

Aaaaaand off we go to get a little bit of Down East hospitality from Fiona, the transplanted Brit and freshly minted Canadian, in Nova Scotia. (If… only… we… can get Shelaine to stop squirming in the duffle bag…) Fiona runs Tangled Blossom Designs, in between running after 2 kids and a husband. The woman has a lifelong thing for vintage fashion (and seriously, the cutest hairstyle in her profile photo!) Go look! Ok, so here we are on the east coast with Fiona and her blog is set to go live with her take on Lisa Lam’s class 20 Essential Techniques for Better Bags. And as with all things multitasking, we’ll just wait until she’s done cutting and shipping those international orders of fabric, oh glorious fabric, your satiny hand … Sorry, lost you there for a minute… Yeah, so kids, bags, fabric, and the world’s highest tides in the Bay of Fundy.

I know you’re tired and so am I. Let’s ditch the car and fly back to see Janelle, who needs no introduction, just outside of Edmonton (with ~~the world’s biggest~~ the world’s second largest indoor mall). She’s waiting in the middle of all her yummy bag bling to give us a quick recap of one epic road trip across (and cross again) the True North with Craftsy!

Now that I’ve taken you on the tour in your mind, how about joining us for real? Visit our blogs, and follow us, as we share our adventures on the Great Canadian Craftsy Bag Tour. I must thank Craftsy for proving us with the classes and a super duper pri… (uh, I can’t say anything about that until Sunday), Janelle of Emmaline Bags and Celine of Blue Calla Patterns for even more pri… (sorry! Right, not until Sunday), and all the warm-hearted bloggers who put husbands, kids and lacy underthings on hold to host us on this tour. And thank you readers for being here, and especially for getting all the way to the end. You all ROCK!

Wrap it up and bag it for us, Janelle!

À tantôt,

Marsha

PS. Is it Sunday yet?

PPS. Follow me here: https://www.pinterest.com/marshalaw/ https://www.instagram.com/marshalawz/

________________________

Thanks Marsha!

Just to recap, you can hit all the stops here:

Monday, April 4th - Seam of My Pants

Tuesday, April 5th - Sprouting JubeJube
Tuesday, April 5th - Lulu & Celeste

Wednesday, April 6th - Happy Okapi

Thursday, April 7th - Michelle's Creations