Welcome to the Latest Thread & Happy MLK Day!

We are so excited to share the upcoming plans and events, new LaCartera Kids designs, fabric haul, Blogiversary Celebration, Sewing Tip, handmade handbags for our Handbag Junkies, and PDF Patterns.

So Happy MLK Day! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and prepared their resolutions for a prosperous New Year! I have decided to streamline the blog this year to one blog post a month to allow me to focus on building my product line. We will still have the same featured posts like Hit or Miss, Sewing Tips, LaCartera Kids, and textiles designs all rolled into the Latest Thread posts! If you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, we will continue to share a photo a day from our customers, new designs and events.

Blogiversary

I am excited that I get to share my 7th year of blogging with you! It’s been a total roller coaster ride, but I’m so blessed that I have YOU to thank for creative inspiration and encouragement! I know that life gets in the way and we don’t socialize as often as we use too, but we have so much information bombarding us constantly! Sometimes I’m reminded that those of you that started blogging or following me at the beginning of my journey are still keeping up with my adventures even if you don’t like a post!

So I want to take a moment to THANK YOU! And announce our year of Fan Appreciation and monthly giveaways for our followers that take the time to comment share or like a post. Each month we will determine who our “Top Fans” are and surprise them with a giveaway item.

This month we have 1-2 yards of fabric from Accra, Ghana!

What will you make?

LaCartera Kids

We have so many great things planned for the kids this year and we are committed to adding more items for boys this year by spring! I created some textile designs last year that we plan to incorporate into quilts, colorful Hawaiian shirts, and tank tops. There’s also a plan to use the embroidery machine more too!

Lisa has started the year with a line of gift sets for little girls that are so adorable! Each set will include a little purse, hair bow, and matching keyring. She would love your feedback! She also has a host of her amazing one of kind hair bows! Here’s a look at some new items in our Etsy Shop!

Hit or Miss, Fab or Drab?

During Christmas, I identified a problem that I need to focus on. The problem is that most of my handbags sold out and sometimes they sold before I could upload them to the shop! Don’t get me wrong, this is a great problem to have, but it has forced my focus on sewing, sewing, and more sewing! Although, I love to socialize, comment, blog, like posts I have to get down to business.

Several years ago I created a crossbody bag made from denim fabric that one of my girlfriends still uses today.

She reached out to me before the holidays to discuss her trip to Ghana and said she needed a fanny pack for her trip. I had just finished creating the Odyssey fanny pack

and thought this request would be an easy task and could also consider this a gift! She had made up her mind of the perfect travel fanny pack that she wanted and it was a smaller version of the crossbody bag that she loves! On such short notice for her upcoming trip and the Christmas frenzy, I told her to give me a pair of jeans that I could upcycle to create the fanny pack.

Her main focus was having quick access to her passport, money, and itinerary at the airports and safely keeping her passport with her during her adventure! So that was the beginning of the fanny pack. After posting the original design I received mixed messages that the design was great, but not a fan of the fanny pack. I have to admit that I was around when the fanny pack was first introduced and I do have one that I use for bike riding or walking that holds my water bottle and phone. But I’m not the biggest fan of the fanny pack, so I decided to make this design convertible to make it more appealing and useful to more people. The design now converts from a fanny pack to a crossbody, or you can hang it from your shoulders.

So what do you think? Is it a Hit or Miss? Fab or Drab?

I have several preorders for this bag from friends and if you love sewing, you should read the PDF Patterns section.

PDF Patterns

As most of you know I usually create my designs and patterns for all of my projects. I rarely use or buy commercial patterns. If I like something I usually can recreate a similar look. After learning Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and taking pattern-making classes. I thought that I would create more patterns, but I quickly realized that the process takes me at least 40 hours to prepare a pattern for test and sale. This would be okay if I didn’t already have a full time job and didn’t love to design and create during my limited free time!

 

So needless to say, I have promised some folks that I will create a PDF pattern for the new fanny pack – crossbody bag. I have started documenting the tutorial and I am committed to releasing the pattern for testing at the beginning of March 2020.

I have a small PDF Pattern Testing group on Facebook and will need five additional pattern testers. If you think this may interest you, please let me know. I will make the official announcement next month, so you have time to think about it!

Sewing Tip

Myra at So Sew Easy says “knowing good basic sewing skills always comes in handy. But sometimes, challenging fabrics can still be too much to handle. Indeed, what may seem like simple tasks of folding and cutting fabric can become frustrating –not to mention the difficulties that will be encountered when we start running our sewing machines through these uncooperative fabrics. Generally, when dealing with challenging fabrics, there are some things we can do to immediately improve the situation. Adjusting your machine’s thread tension up and down until you identify the best setting for the particular fabric can do wonders. Speeding up as well as slowing down the sewing may make your sewing machine run smoothly over the fabric. You may just have to experiment a little. Simply making sure that the fabric is free of dust or any adhesive residue may also make it cooperate better with your sewing. However, if these quick tips don’t work, then you can read on and take note of some of these helpful hacks and tips for sewing difficult fabrics.” Read more here…

Just Business

I’m adding the “Just Business” section to share our upcoming events and plans. Besides the giveaways we talked about earlier, we have also decided to offer “Flash Sales” that will last for a week or less and will mostly spotlight our new products.

We are preparing our first “Flash Sale” for the week starting on January 26th, to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

Stay tuned there’s more to come from LaCartera!