sewing marathon

ok, so yesterday I was super excited that I could spend most of the day sewing. I cut out tons of things, paired various fabrics together, and created a pattern for a purse that's been in my head for a few weeks. I'd love to keep this baby, but I have several more in other color combinations cut out and ready to be sewn, so maybe I'll keep one of those.

It took me about 8 hours to make, but that was due to designing and creating the pattern, writing instructions for myself as I was doing it, so I could have the future ones go smoothly. Like do this part before you do this part, to make life easier. I think I will make the sides shorter in the ones to follow, so the zipper has more room to lay when it's closed. I abhor installing zippers, but when I actually start doing it, it's really not that big of a deal. Jeez, you mean I have to change the foot on my sewing machine~ gah! So hopefully the next one I make will be more like 3 hours instead of 8 or 9. I haven't been carving out time for working out this week either, and even though I've been sick, and even lost my voice for 2 days, I still feel guilty.
I can't wait for spring break though, so I can have a few more sewing marathon days. This is just one of the fabric stacks I have set aside for the new shop:

I'm so in love with the black and white damask print that I used for the purse, but it was originally purchased for some of the couture children's clothing for the new shop. I'm probably going to have to invest in a serger within the next couple of weeks, because there are some designs that will have rows and rows of ruffles, and it's just not practical to have to turn the raw edges of each ruffle down twice, not to mention all of the other wondrous things that a serger can do that I don't even know about. It will be nice to not always have to do french seams on everything.