Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Day 99 - Home Stretch


I am in the home stretch of completing Project 65 Totes.

At this point there are still two phases left, closing the interior and top stitching.  DH took pity on me and while watching the Olympics he turned all the interiors in for me so I could begin stitching interior opening close.  

I was hoping to ship the bags out yesterday, but it appears I will be another day or two as I complete this phase and complete the top stitching as well. 

I couldn't help myself when I saw the pile in the living room, so I snapped a couple photos to share.


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Day 90 - Tote #1

Now that the leather handles have been cut, I thought I would complete one tote first to ensure proper placement of the rivet holes.

One down, 64 more to go....

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Day 89 - Leather Handles

Before - 65 Straps of Leather
I pulled out the large box containing my order of leather straps.  The day I have been dreading has arrived - Leather Handles

 This next phase requires several time consuming steps, including: 
  • Measuring
  • Marking
  • End Punching
  • Hole Punching
  • Placement on Bag Exterior
  • Sewing Handles onto Bag Exterior
  • Riveting
  •  
     
    Tools

So after a few of work, the straps have been cut into 130 handles and the ends rounded. Reviewing my list in comparison to my Project timeline, I doubt if I have allotted enough time. I guess we will see…

After – 130 Handle

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Day 86 - Piles

I started working on the interiors last week when Juki had a breakdown.

Now that Juki is back and purring, I made progress with the totes' interior this week...
Slip Pocket + Lining = Pile

Sewing corners
Interiors - Done!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Day 83 - Disaster Strikes - Juki Down


So looking at this photo, can you answer the following question:

What’s missing from this photo? 

Did you figure it out?
Well, it’s Juki, the muscle behind this operation.   

Yesterday I was moving along sewing the interior lining seams of the tote lining when disaster struck.  After changing the bobbin, the thread jammed and Juki came to an abrupt halt.  After an hour of vain attempts to resuscitate Juki, DH and I gave up.   

Luckily I have two other sewing machines so I continued on, but at a much slower pace.  So this morning DH took Juki to the repair shop so they can attempt to repair him.
Sigh….

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Day 82 - It takes a Villiage


These are photos of my girlfriend Laura and DH helping me through various stages of Project 65 Totes.  Without them, this project would not have advanced as far as it has today.  



 All I can say is thank you guys….

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Day 78 Pockets – Good Enough to Eat


This is Emi. 

I’ve blogged about my puppy in other posts over the years, so some of you are already familiar with my spoiled pup.  Most of the time she is a sweetie by keeping me company so I don’t get lonely in my Studio. 

The other day I finished stamping my logo on the slip pockets and after they had dried, I left them on my sewing table. Tonight when I came home from work, a surprise was waiting for me.  Apparently, my little assistant discovered the pockets were good enough to eat. 

What’s the saying…one step forward, two steps back?

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Day 75 - HM Mills Logo


I love Saturday mornings, it’s the first day of the weekend and I still have high hopes that I will accomplish everything on my Weekend To-Do List.  


I woke up early to stamp the tri-slip pockets with my logo and was still drinking my first cup of coffee when I finished.  As I was admiring my work, I decided to snap this photo as they lay drying on the kitchen island.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

One Hot Day

Took a day off from work as well as a day off from Project 65 Totes to spend the day with my sweetie.  DH and I took a day trip to the Florida Keys.  We slowly meandered our way down, did a little shopping, some sight seeing, had lunch on the water and walked along the old 7 mile bridge.

What a wonderful hot day....