I Should Be Sewing (Project 65 Totes - Four More!)

My 65 Totes customer reached out to me the other day.  Apparently, there will be 69 women in attendance for Bid Day, therefore she needs another four more totes!

Unfortunately, Bid Day was the following day and obviously it will take me a few days.

So I should be sewing, working on the four totes, preparing for the holidays and working on new designs for the Fall and Winter, but no.   Instead, I am watching the bands of rain coming in as Tropical Storm Issac moves through the South and into the Gulf. 

(Photo : National Hurricane Center / Google Maps)
Tropical Storm Isaac Route, Path Map into Florida, USA

Sweet Words

Earlier this week my sister asked if I heard from the 65 totes customer as the totes would have arrived at their destination on Monday.

Nada.

We nervously concluded that no news was good news and left it on that note.

I came home today to find a box of flowers on the kitchen counter.  From DH?  No, from my customer...

 Wow...such sweet words.... :)

Day 102 - Shipping Day

What a wonderful day!

It’s Shipping Day for my 65 Totes.  I lined the hallway with three very large boxes and after DH and I did one more count, they were sealed and ready to be carted off to UPS.

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.

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....

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

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!

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….

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….

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?

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.

Day 33 - New Uses for a Kitchen Stool

I have discovered a new use the kitchen counter stools.  As the bolt of canvas fabric took too much room on the counter, I found the two stools worked great as bolt holders....

Day 20 Project 65 Takes Over

Project 65 Tote is taking over.  

I do have a studio, here is the post to prove it, but as I work through the phases of this project, I am starting to notice Project 65 Tote  is slowly taking over the portions of the house.   From my previous post, you already know that I have set up a Cutting Area and  my wonderful island in the kitchen has not seen the light from underneath the large cutting mat for nearly two weeks.

The small guest room (which also houses my Elliptical machine) has been converted into a receiving area for all the supplies that have slowly been trickling in during the past few days. 

Now the guest bed has been converted into a  holding area for cut out bag components. 

What’s next, hmmm….

I have to admit, I have been eyeballing the dining room table as it may have some possibilities and we never use it.  Why don't we use it, you ask?  I don’t use the dining room because DH and I always eat our meals in the kitchen on that island… ; )

Day 13 - 130 Pockets

My revised weekend goal was to complete cutting out all the pieces for the bag’s interior (which includes the lining and both the slip and zipper pockets) since the canvas portion of my fabric order did arrive in the 94lbs fabric shipment.  However I had a few orders that needed to be completed by the end of the weekend, but I did manage to cutout the slip and zipper pockets for a total of 130 pockets.

Day 11 - 94lbs of Fabric

My original thoughts on how I would write this post this morning was more around the arrival of the 94 lbs of a fabric required for my 65 Tote Project.  And yes, here is what 94 lbs of fabric in your living room looks like, in case you ever want to decorate with three bolts of fabric. 

Michael Miller Magnolia Lane Magnolia Branch Aqua -

 Designed by Laura Gunn

Instead, today’s post is about about Risk and Project Planning. I failed to evaluate my risk and hence failed to plan on how to mitigate that risk.   

This afternoon as I pulled into my driveway with great anticipation (I had been tracking my Fabric shipment via the UPS Tracker online) imagine my disappointment when I noticed that one of the bolts of fabric was not the lovely fabric designed by Laura Gunn, but an unrecognizable white and red striped canvas. So here it is on a Friday evening and according to my Project Plan Schedule, I should complete cutting all fabric this weekend.  Hmmm I did not factor in, receiving the wrong fabric, that customer service does reopen until Monday and as of today, I am officially behind schedule.  Oh the madness.

Day 1 - Anatomy of a Project

A few weeks ago a potential customer reached out to regarding my Orange Market Tote.  She represents a Sorority at one of State Universities and inquired if she could customize the tote with a different material for use as Bid Day Gift and oh, she wants 65 of them by August.  

So here I am, about to embark on my largest order to date. Where to begin, I guess I will be put on my Project Manager hat and begin the planning process.  I have to have the totes ready for shipment sometime in mid to late July. This should be interesting as I only have 10 weeks to complete everything.  Oh if only I could quit my day job.

Stay tuned…