My Bag in ‘Just For You’ and Book Giveaway

About a year and a half ago, I was asked to contribute a project to a book, authored by the girls behind Sew Can She (a daily free e-mail in which I receive a new free sewing tutorial in my inbox every day). I’ve subscribed to their e-mails for what seems like forever, and they’ve featured some of my free patterns on their site, so of course I said yes. The book just came out, and it is called Just For You and it is beautiful!

My project for the book is called the Crafty Satchel. Co-author Sarah, who blogs over at Blue Susan Makes, prepared the step-outs for the book based on my written instructions. Sarah made the bag that appeared in the book, as the authors wanted the aesthetic throughout to be along the same lines. The book version looks beautiful, I love the fabric choice and the unique leather handles! Last month, Sarah guest posted for Purse Palooza with a bag that she made again from the book, and here is her version (she made some wonderful handmade handles and they look fabulous!):

The book is broken up into months of the year, with two “selfish sewing” projects for each month. They include bags, clothing, etc.

Here’s one of my favorite projects from the book, the Painter’s Clutch by Sarah Markos. I just love the simple lines and the thriftiness of using paint-stirring sticks for the handles. Really cute!

Another of my favorites is the Quilting Bee Dress by Caroline Fairbanks-Critchfield, which is a dress that can be made with quilting cottons. It has a casing at the waist for a drawstring tie, and pretty bias trim on the neckline and sleeves.

The thing I like best about this book is that they are all relatively quick sewing projects, which will leave you the pretty timely thrill of having a finished project in an evening (or what have you). Sometimes we all just need a bit of instant gratification with a beautiful yet quick project! If you liked some of these projects, I encourage you to give Just For You a look!

So now for the goodies! I have a couple of ways for you to win a prize. First of all, you can visit the Sew Can She site to win enough fabric for 4 projects…that giveaway is located right here.

Secondly, Stash Books is generously giving away one copy of the book to one of my readers (U.S. winner will receive hard copy, international will win ecopy). For a chance to win, leave a comment on this blog post and tell me what your favorite ‘selfish sewing’ project is (something fun for yourself). Giveaway ends Friday, November 28th.

And lastly, here are the other stops on the blog tour for Just For You…click on any of the thumb nails to take you to another stop on the hop!

This giveaway is now closed. The winner is Christina Wang.

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