Hey look, I made mistake!

This is a show & tell where I show you a dress and you say wow but then I'll point out the mistakes...because I made a big mistake but liked the finished dress to much to not fix it!

In making and messing...

This is me sewing, it's also me 'surviving' 2yo tantrums... it's a been a week of tantrums, I need a lot of patience and sewing is calming (sometimes).  

This isn't my sewing room though, I don't have one. I truly wish I did have my own crafting studio but alas, the kids need bedrooms so I'm stuck on the corner of the kitchen table.  Being in the kitchen means that I have to look at the dirty dishes, so they must get done first. Then the lunches must be made. Then the dinner prepped. Then the dinner cooked. Then 'can I have a biccie Mumma" and the "can I have a drink Mumma" and then "when are we eating Mumma" ... 

Patience. 

Patience.
I'm not even going to talk about all the tantrums that my daughter has been having, she is a real screamer and she is quite good at making her face turn blue and she is a hitter too and a slapper. Ouch.
Patience. 

Patience and back to sewing.
So, this is what my kitchen table looks like all the time....
**excuse the scrappy looking chair but it's actually an antique that was given to hubby, we didn't paint it though - that is how it was given to us**

We haven't eaten at the kitchen table since Christmas dinner... I know that is lazy but hey, nothing quite makes a point of "Mumma needs her own crafty space" then this crazy mess. In fact, when you open the front door, it's one of the first things you see and I'm hoping that hubby will get sick of it and then make me some proper space, fingers crossed!

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So, what have I been making or planning?

~ the fabric above, I found in the back of my stash.. how could I not have made it up before now is a mystery, so I spent the night cutting it and hopefully it will be a tote bag really soon

~ I've also cut the fabric for the Marie dress and hope to finish it today

~  I'm not happy with my current pin cushion, it's useless and keeps falling over so I thought I'd buy a magnetic one but geesh, they are more expensive than I thought they'd be (in Aussie dollars they are anyway)

~ I've got to hurry and finish my crochet blanket, the baby is due this week ...oops, I kinda put it on the backburner and am now paying the price for it. I need some speedy hooky skills!

What have you been up too?  Where do you sew? Do you have a knitting nook?

Welcome Mr Jacket Pillow

So, what to do when a favourite jumper of your child becomes too small?  You turn it into a cushion!

A cute way to store my iron

I hate ironing, totally hate it.
In fact, I don't even iron hubby's business shirts, nope they get a good flick when they come out of the washing machine and then are hang straight to dry so no ironing is needed but with all this crazy sewing I've been doing lately, my iron is out a lot! ..yeah, ironic
The iron was forever sitting on the kitchen bench waiting to cool down so I could put it away and hubby was getting annoyed that I would then forget to put it away and he would move it to some weird spot that took me forever to find. I needed to find a way to put my iron away whilst it was still hot.. and I found the solution.

Bunny slippers, I'm in love!

I have to share my latest finished project with you, these adorable bunny slippers!

Things I'm doing (or not doing!)

It's just turned winter here so you'd think I'd be snuggled up inside with a hot cup of tea and some crafts....well, no! 

Pattern Review: The Bionic Gear Bag

An honest, unbiased pattern review of the BGB pattern, all opinions are my own.

What bag is it?
It's the Bionic Gear bag and you can get it here BUT the pattern is super expensive, it is $20 for just one pattern!  ...No, you didn't read that wrong, twenty bucks is really expensive for a pattern.  
I'm a knitter and a pattern for just $7 is costly but $20? That kind of money would buy me & my two kids lunch or it would buy 5 fat quarters of fabric or it would buy a new cookbook.
Honestly, I can't believe I coughed up the money for it but I really wanted to make my brother something for his birthday and this was the only thing I could decide upon.

So, I paid megabucks for a pattern, was it worth it? 
No.
Personally, I don't believe that the pattern is worth that much mainly because its a just a pattern for a small bag/pouch and the pattern itself is written terribly.

So what is it (apart from the ridiculous price) that I don't like?

Well,
~ the pdf document is a massive 82 pages long
~ I couldn't figure out what pages to print because there is no note at the start or a Contents page. 
In fact, I ended up going to an online sewing group especially for the bag & asked as I couldn't figure it out on my own
~ Oh my gosh... the waffle, the dribble, the unnecessary words, sentences, stuff about her mother, her grand-daughter etc
~ I thought I bought a pattern not a book
~ I thought I bought a pattern not a tutorial
~ There is not actual 'pattern' or easy to read sewing instructions
~ It's written like a tutorial and I quote "I’m writing this as if we were having fun and doing this project together.  :)".
No!!! I wanted to buy a pattern not a ruddy tutorial.
~ It hasn't been update since forever
~ It talks about why she 'invented' it ... umm, I don't really care I just wanted the pattern not why etc, if I wanted to know why, I'd read your blog/website
~ It refers to a website that is out of date & gives you a password to access special features on the site but there is no where on the website to add the password
~ It over explains the most basic things, over & over & over again
~ By page 7, I was so confused that I just wanted to poke my eyeballs out
~ There are no quick-easy-to-reference sections just lots an excessive amount of worthless words & photos that really don't explain anything at a glance
~ It keeps referring you back to their website & the useless password
~ She talks about a "Futz Factor"  ...wtf?
~ When you really need some diagrams to help explain things like "Mark a dot 2” in to the left from the future right side" ...there is nothing to aid you and it fact tells you to go "the site" but doesn't bother to give you a direct link
~ gah... the overuse (& un-necessary use) of the words "Lather, Rinse & Repeat" 
....once again..wtf?
~ and if you are lucky (or unlucky) enough to get the Bionic Dumpling Dish included with your pattern, it includes things in the materials list BUT doesn't bother to tell you where or how to actually put them into the dish. Totally useless.
~ Silly me thought that paying $20 for a pattern that it would be a PROFESSIONAL pattern not an amateur pattern.

It's possibly the worst written pattern in history ...but the finished result is really cool!  
Yes, totally weird!   

I wish the designer would 'cut out all of the crap & waffle' and just have a plain pattern with instructions instead of a "hey, I made a bag & put together some instructions that'll be lost in my long-winded tutorial because I'm going to assume that you can't sew for shit" type of thing that costs the earth to buy. 

The designer assumes that you need help,
instead of giving you confidence in making it all by yourself.

I think the designer should invest some time & effort and approach Craftsy about filming a class and then we could all enjoy it and it be more fun. I really enjoyed making my Tinker Tote & I did it via a Craftsy class - it would be a great format for her to use as she seems to like 'helping us' learn so much. 

Am I being harsh? No.
I joined some of her Facebook groups to get the confidence to sew this bag and then promptly removed myself from them because geesh, things got spiteful when people asked polite questions about their orders, what I saw made me so sick to the stomach with the horrid way they treated people that I run from that group so fast. 
I do not condone bullying in any format for any reason.

Ok, so all this sounds a bit tough but I was just so shocked by the pattern that I wanted to share and if this helps you to decide to make this or not or to choose another pattern then go for it.
Live a little, perhaps try the pattern and see if you agree with me or not, tell me, try another designer just keep making!  
If still in doubt, try one of these patterns and then you will understand what I'm talking about when I talk about a good pattern (especially this one) or you may like to try some of these patterns too.....

Or even better, try the 'original version' of this bag, grab the pattern here....

So tell me, have you made this bag and what did you think of the pattern? 
Perhaps you would like to review the pattern in the comments too.

The bgb / bionic gear bag pattern, is it really worth the money? No.

If you need more Crafty Inspo, then check out my shoppable lists here....

I utilise affiliate (aff) links throughout my blog as a way to help me keep crafting. If you click on an aff link, I receive a very small amount from it at NO cost to you. So please help me to keep CraftyRie up and running by clicking on my aff links! Many thanks, Rie

Do you love my new basket?

I'm a little chuffed with myself at the moment because I made this super cute basket!