Some Fresh designs, including my first sewing pattern!

I've had a pretty terrible couple of months, health-wise, but things are finally settling down.  I had extra fatigue problems, precipitated in part by medication issues, and then I managed to strain my abdominal muscles (who knew, right?  but lucky me, I typically can strain almost any muscle doing almost nothing, a nice after-effect of chemotherapy).  I even lost my voice for several weeks, and it's been difficult to sit in certain positions, but I am finally starting to get back to my old baseline.

Anyhow, I can now blog about my first sewing pattern!  I designed this Turnlock Shoulder Bag pattern for Interweave Stitch, and it was published in last month's Winter 2012 issue.

I was pretty proud of this turnlock design, sewn in an embroidered wool suiting fabric from JoAnn.  It has an involved construction (think Amy Butler involved, but not as many pieces), with several layers of interfacing to provide body, and rivets for attaching the side straps.  Of course for a simpler bag,  cut back on the interfacing and sew the shoulder strap directly to the bag in between the lining and outer fabric (omitting the sides traps altogether).  I ended up using rivets for attaching the side straps because of the thickness of the wool fabric, but if you use a lighter fabric you may not need rivets.

Recently I also had a new hat pattern published in Fresh Designs: Hats, the latest book in the Fresh Designs series from Cooperative Press, an indie craft publishing house that likes to promote independent designers.

The Traveling Lace Cap is fun and quick to make in worsted weight yarn, and two sizes are included in the pattern.  The small brown version shown was made with Fiberphile worsted (100% squishy wool), while the medium green one used Pigeonroof Studios Bacchus, which is 60/40 wool/silk and has a soft sheen.

There are tons of cute hats in this book, which is available as a download from Ravelry or in a printed (with digital included) format directly from Cooperative Press.  Click here for more info at CP and to order a printed copy, and click here to check out all ten hat patterns on Ravelry.