Groundhog day (again!)

How ironic that it's Groundhog Day as I feel like we are in a cycle of not-much-changing around here! Another day, another storm, another snow day, everything's closed. Again.

 We enjoyed our day at home. But I was especially pleased, as I discovered that my sewing machine is not in need of repair, as I feared. I had been working on the Dapper Day Bag from Sew Liberated for about two weeks now. It was slow going... my thread kept breaking and my machine just wasn't operating normally. I kept changing the tension, the thread, the settings. Nothing helped. I finally had time today to break out the manual and figure it out. Guess what? I put the needle in backwards. I didn't even know that was possible! With that quick fix, I was able to finish. Yay. 

I made the yellow-trimmed one for an arty friend who loves black and white. 

I'll keep the gray and green one.

I've found that adding hardware and replacing fabric straps with something more heavy duty finishes most bags nicely.

If you try this pattern, I would double check the length of the top band. It was too long on both bags and I had to try to compensate with extra folds. Other than that, I like the bag! It's a great medium size, and fun to make the piping. Now, what shall I sew next?

Also, Finnian wanted to share (virtually!) the m&m cookies we made:

We love the standard Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's always a big hit!

Happy Groundhog Day!