Hurray! She's finished!!!

Pattern: Isabeau tote Started: June 22nd 2006 Finished: August 24th 2006 Yarn: Rowan all seasons cotton in Misty, a little over 4 balls Lining Fabric: white cotton was used as an interface and pink etsuko furaya fabric from reprodepot was used for the actual lining. Modifications: sewed plastic mesh onto the bottom of the bag and inside the front and back panels. I'm really happy with how this turned out. The pattern was great and I learned a lot of new stuff from doing it...how to crochet a seam, making buttonholes, sewing a lining, etc. The reason it took so long was that sewing the interface, plastic, and lining into the bag sucked up a lot of time. Here's a closeup of the lining (sorry its a little blurry):

And since it was really hard to get a decent picture of the inside, here's a pic of the fabric before it was sewn:

I'm particularly proud of the lining since doing it almost killed me. My sewing experience is limited to what I learned in girl scouts and 8th grade Home Ec (during which I made a stuffed mallard...the beak fell off one week later) so I really had no idea of how to cut the fabric to the correct proportions or what stitch would be best. I just used the bag as a template (as the pattern said to do) and backstitched it together. Its not perfect in the inside but its good enough for me!!

And here's a little close up of the button. I got this at Tender Buttons in downtown Chicago....I have never seen so many buttons in one place in my life. They have an amazing selection, its a good place to check out.

So now I'm moving on to the clapotis (which it seems like everyone but me has made)....it's a bit daunting but I'm excited to get started since the lion and lamb yarn is so soft and pretty :) However I need to do some major apartment cleaning before I do anything else since we're having a little dinner party here tomorrow, so there probably will be no casting on until Sunday.