What became of the hexies?!

This post took a lil longer than I wanted. Oops. We went up north for the week for my daughter's birthday, and well, I discovered that while I have lots of ideas, sew lots of things, and know what I want to blog about..the part that holds me back is uploading and working with the actual photos. *ahem* I'm terrible!!

Anyway....remember these little lovelies?

 

Well, I turned them into these...

A matching set!

I made these cute matching bags for my daughter and her BFF. Their birthdays are only a couple days apart, and right at the end of summer/beginning of the school year. They're nearly inseparable all summer, but once school starts, they spend more time apart as they live in different cities. Knowing how close they are, and how tough it is to make the summer/school year transition, I thought a matching set of bags might help a bit. Ease the pain of separation so to speak.

They're typical teenage girls, so a make-up bag was the natural choice. I lined them with oilcloth, and did french seams so that any spills wouldn't completely ruin anything. After doing the first bag, I began to regret the french seams idea...but I did the 'good mommy' thing, and still made the second bag just like the first. lol The oilcloth lining made for some very thick and uncooperative french seams. It looked nice, but nope, won't be doing that again. Lesson learned.

My daughter knew I was making the bag for her friend, but didn't know I was making her one. (I'm sneaky...wanted to know she'd like the colors and fabrics so asked what she thought of them, then made hers when I got the ok...she asked me to make her one!! lol) So, after I finished them, I made these quick little tags with their first initial so she would know one was for her too. :)

They were the perfect gifts for these two. They loved em, were all smiles and I know they'll get a lot of use out of them...well, least my make-up freak will. *smile*

So, not too bad for my first batch of hexies!

Finally! Some Hexie love for me

I have been admiring all the hexie projects that are everywhere for the last year or so that they've been the all the rage in the crafting world. Admiring from afar.

I am not a person who does fiddly, involved or time consuming hand-sewn projects well. I will either find a way to do it by machine or will suffer without. The repetitiveness kills my interest-meter and attention span, and my hand-stitching sucks leaves a lot to be desired. Any time I've taken an on-the-go sewing project with me in a car or wherever, it's not too long before I'm picking up my phone and surfing the net or playing games instead of getting anything accomplished. The extent of my hand-sewing is closing up any seams I've left open for turning with the invisible stitch!! *snicker*

So...no yoyo's, or beautiful hand-stitched quilts, or embroidery, beading, etc for this gal, no sirree...and thus far hexie's have been on that list.

I took one look at the EPP method of making them, and then at how many would be needed for most projects and instantly added them to my 'never-do' list...with a frown and a bit of a sniffle. Unlike most of the other things on that list, I actually really wanted to do some of the hexagon things I've seen.

I know many people find handwork calming and relaxing...I wish I were one of them. I find it repetitive and mundane, and I just don't have the patience for that kinda thing. I often zone out which leads to mistakes that I then have to take out and start over/give up...whichever. *sigh* Let's just say my half-done on-the-go project pile is kinda large and falling over on my WIP pile.

BUT!!! Oh yes, there's a but...and even a then...I'm sure another but somewhere along the line.

Last week I found a link thru pinterest for sewing hexies by machine!!! (And now I've remembered to go and PinIt so I can find it later when I forget where I saw it...see, blogging is saving my sanity already.)

Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studio has an awesome tutorial for machine piecing hexagons (without marking!) here for anyone interested. ;) Woohoo!!! I was saved...and have already started adding hexie projects to my list.

Image via Tallgrass Prairie Studio

THEN!!!

Yesterday Mr. Man and I had to take a trip to Madison, a 2hr+ drive for us, so I was frantically searching for a project that I could take with me in the car. (I really must stop waiting til the last minute.) I was initially looking for a knitting project. Those don't involve sharp needles that I stab my fingers with when I start to zone out. ahem.

 My search quickly veered off course (as it often does) and I ran across this article. How to hand-sew hexies...without the paper/basting/EPP craziness. *gasp* I know!!

Yes yes, I know. This is still hand-sewing... I hear you all snickering.

BUT. (told you)
     A) it doesn't require first basting & then sewing them together (who came up with that plan anyway?!?)
     B) it doesn't involve whip-stitching. I never like my whip-stitches, they're messy
     C) you can't see the stitches anyway. Score!!

I figured I'd give it a whirl and quickly got a small batch of them ready to take with me on our road trip.

I am happy to report, that I actually sewed together 19 hexies. And. They turned out beautifully. Aren't they gorgeous?! The method is actually very quick. I can now do hexies all over the place! Tho, I will try to keep myself under control. *grin*

I hope the links help some of you who may also have an aversion to the EPP hexies...for whatever reason. You can join in on the hexie love too! :)

I saw these floating around Pinterest & now I could make one for myself.