Saddlebags

     I really seem to have almost a mental block about making saddlebags. I made my pattern a lot of years ago, know exactly how to make them (and manage to mess up at least one step every time I work on some, lol), and they are not especially hard to make. They just have a lot of steps. I think that is what gets me. One of the steps is taking out the doll iron and ironing tiny pieces so they will fold and lay nicely when I put everything together. I have now meant to do the ironing on these 4 sets of bags for 3 days. It still hasn't happened. I still think I can talk myself into finishing them. Maybe. Soon. 

      I really do not like making saddlebags, though I imagine you have probably picked up on that by now. These 4 sets I am trying to work will likely be the only saddlebags offered at my next live sale. And I am switching things up a little bit. These will be extra large, complete sets. I will have the usual set of saddlebags with the included water bottles, but they will also include the saddle bag "stuff" (the miniatures that can go inside) and I am also making the matching pommel bags to go with them. The pommel bags are faked, nothing opens. I just can't bring myself to try to make the tiny bags that work. But that will keep the costs of the sets down a little bit. They will still be more expensive than the plain set of bags that comes with just the water bottles, but I am trying to keep the overall cost down as much as I can and still be at least sort of fair to myself. It's hard, I really don't like making these. 

      Since these sets are going to be super limited I went with colors that are usually pretty popular. I will have pink, black, lime green, and blue. I was going to do purple (instead of what, I don't know) but I couldn't find any solid purple fabric in my stash. Until I cleaned and sorted my fabric drawer the other day. I guess I should have cleaned sooner. I doubt I will go back and make a purple set. I am still not even sure I can make myself finish these. But it really is my plan. 

     As a reminder my live sale will be on August 15th at 2:00 pm eastern on my Facebook studio page. A few days before the sale there will be a full catalog of available items posted here on the blog, with prices. The group photos I will show in the blog photos will be the groups that items will go up in on sale day. During the sale the photos will go up on my Facebook studio page at specific times (I will even publish a schedule if I can handle it) with claim numbers posted on the photo. All you have to do is comment the number of the item you want and be the first to claim (by commenting the item number) for that item. It's that easy. Photos will be scheduled so everyone will have access to them at the same time, there are no delays for slow internet. As each photo goes live you will only be allowed to claim one item per group (so per photo) for the first 5-10 minutes (I haven't decided yet) that the group is offered. This will give more people a chance to claim an item they want. After the first interval, or when the next group is posted, any unclaimed items will then be up for grabs if someone who already claimed wants to make a further claim from the same group. This works, I have done it on a small scale and people seemed to really like it. I may also take a leaf out of Stephanie Blaylock's sales book and put a heart emoji on whoever gets the claimed item, so they know they got it. Though I will also be announcing it during the live sale (which you clearly don't actually have to watch to claim things, but they are fun so grab an extra device, split your screen, whatever you have to do). I will keep on posting these details and reminders and will do a dedicated post sooner or later to fully and exhaustively explain how this sale will work. I am trying to make everything as fair as possible for everyone.