On Derby Day a beautiful idea was born — and I forget the name of it because it was really long, but the gist of it is to get together with friends every once in a while for an afternoon of crafts! Each “Crafternoon” would be hosted by someone who also leads the project though in this case, we all sort of helped each other out because none of us really knew what we were doing. My friend BS hosted the first one and another friend supplied the project, which was a really cute idea and fairly simple to do, though we did cut out one step to simplify it even further. Some people actually cut two steps (if you care, it is the lining and the circle bottom).
Here is a link to the tutorial we used to make our Yoga Mat Bags.
Everyone met at BS’ apartment where she had a great spread of wine, cheese, crackers, and some delicious chocolates. We had a slow start because it was nice just to sit around and chat, but eventually we got ourselves to the fabric stores nearby to hunt for some fabric that was not ridiculously expensive. That part was not easy. One of our friends almost bought a yard of fabric for $45, but the saleslady was kind enough to let her back out when she found out the price, even though the yard had already been cut. The deal of the day went to GL who found super cute, silver fabric for $3/yard.
Back at the apartment it took another while to get started – I think we were feeling a bit lazy yesterday – but finally everyone started cutting and measuring, and BS gave us a demo on how to use her very old Singer sewing machine.
It’s beautiful, but just a little temperamental. It makes this really sweet sound, like an actual machine, whereas my new machine humms along sounding like a computer.
We only had one guy in the group, and I think he was there sort of accidentally and didn’t really know what he was getting into, though he totally got into it. 
I opted not to lug my heavy sewing machine all the way from LIC to Chinatown, so I felt like I shouldn’t take up sewing time. Instead I kind of just hung out and helped here and there, and took a bunch of photos.
After a while some people needed a yoga mat bag break, and BS provided them with an old summer camp fave — string friendship bracelets! Another tutorial was needed as we haven’t been to camp in a while, but it was easily located on-line.
Finally GW finished her bag.
Well, almost, anyway. She still needed to put the string through the top for a cinched closure, and she skipped adding the circular bottom for time – plus she doesn’t own a yoga mat so she wasn’t really bothered about that.
I had to leavee at this point so I didn’t get to see the other bags but I am sure they were great! We are hoping to cinvince our friend JP to host the next Crafternoon so we can make homemade kites! I am struggling to come up with a craft because the only thing I do is sew, so if you have any ideas please pass them on!
Now all I’ll have to do is shorten whichever dress I go with and find a cute pair of black, satin, high heels, and I am good to go! Yeah! What a huge relief….
