One-Yard Wonders....Take 1

For my birthday, my dear friend Diana gave me a fabulous sewing book called One-Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Fabric Projects; Look How Much You Can Make with Just One Yard of Fabric! It's a great book with project ideas for creating things with, you guessed it, one yard of fabric.

A few weeks ago, I decided to try my first project from the book. I selected the folklore bag, which looked absolutely adorable in the picture! I've always had a weakness for cute bags, so I figured it was a good place to start.

I set off for the fabric store, ready to pick out my "home decor" weight fabric and get everything else I needed. After a lengthy conversation with the fabric cutter as to why my bill was estimated much higher than I expected it to be (reason: I had mistakenly told her that I wanted the entire rest of the bolt instead of just one yard. Yeah. Go me!), I felt I was ready to begin my adventure.

I suspect that my fabric store faux pas should have been my first indication that I might be getting a little ahead of sewing skills, but I decided to press on and give it a try. I soon encountered scary sewing words. Words like pattern. And interfacing. And bent needle (note to self: that home decor weight fabric I picked out requires a stronger needle).

In the end, I'm not thrilled with the results, but I think it was good practice. The bag was supposed to have a top panel all around the top. The top panel was part of what I really liked about the picture, but once I got to it, I wasn't sure how it was going to look with the bag I created (and, to be honest, I couldn't quite work out how I was going to attach it). So, this is what I ended up with. At the very least, the bag is functional and I do like the fabric. And, if all else fails, there's a lot more projects in my book that I want to try.

Les Miserables

During my high school and college years, I was very involved/interested in the world of theatre and musical theatre. With the help of the traveling Broadway series that frequented Charlotte through the years and my semester abroad in London, I managed to see a number of musicals throughout the years - Phantom of the Opera, Fiddler on the Roof, Grease, Cats, Chicago, Lion King, etc.

My favorite, however, has always been Les Miserables. I've lost official count, but I'm certain that I have seen Les Mis at least four times, if not more.

BUT, it's been awhile. In the hustle and bustle of life, I have gotten away from my musical theatre roots. My iPod has few Broadway tunes, and I had nearly forgotten how fun some of these shows can be.

I have to give credit to the writers of Glee for a resurrection of long-ago delights. While listening to the Glee soundtrack a few weeks ago, I realized that it had been years since I had listened to the actual music of Les Miserables. I pulled the CD out of the closet, dusted it off, plugged it into my car CD player, and got...

CHILLS.

Actual goosebumps. Silly me: I had forgotten how beautifully haunting the music from Les Mis was...the heart (and heartache), the emotion, the tragedy. With the music filling my brain, I have thought about the storyline much more over the past few days than I have over the past few years. I suspect that I will reread Victor Hugo's novel in the near future (it was required reading in the 10th grade, but I haven't touched it much since then), and I may even have to go see it again the next time it's in town....