As a writer, your hands are one of your most valuable tools. The images that appear in your mind won’t translate to paper without being written down. This is where your hands come in; floating over the keyboard, gripping that expensive French fountain pen, or scribbling notes on scrap paper using a pencil stub. They […]
Good panel and gusset layout is critical for getting the most bags from the least amount of yardage. You start by choosing your size panels as they determine how much fabric you will end up using. I always use 13-by-15-inch panels. With their corresponding gusset, they made a nice size bag that isn’t too large […]
Today’s CIA is replaced with my account of the York Book Expo 2017. This was our third appearance at the Expo, and unlike the first year, when I forgot the table banner, or last year, when I screwed up our cookie plan, this one went off without a hitch. The expo was moved from the […]
If today is Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017, then we’ll be at the York Book Expo 2017 from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Wisehaven Event Center on Prospect Road on the eastern side of York. We’ll be at booth 22 on the lower floor. This is the third year we’ve done the event with […]
KKR’s latest column talks about subsidiary rights, but her discussion of how she was scammed by a major agency reminds me of a lesson you can’t teach too often when judging literary agents: Whenever you’re dealing with someone you don’t personally know, be cautious. Trust, but verify. In fact, “trust, but verify” is useful when […]
Cloth grocery bags have two costs. The first is your time so you want to be as efficient as possible in making them. The second is the fabric. When buying cloth grocery bag material, you want to look for something sturdy. Start with wovens. Knits generally have too much stretch for grocery bags. If the […]
This is the last step. You will be sewing down straps, first the front panel and then the back panel, finishing each bag in turn. I sew each strap down as a single, continuous stitch line, never removing the needle from the strap or cutting the thread until the bag strap is complete. This means […]
This is one question that we’re taught to answer, whether it’s formulating the idea for a book or marketing a book that’s already published: Who is your audience and how do you find readers for your books? It’s not an easy question to answer. You want answers that work for you, which means you have […]
Now we’re sewing bag straps. The first step is to pin the straps to the bags. You will need the stack of bags, your collection of straps, pins, and your spacers and bag insert. If you want to insert a horizontal fabric tag indicating you made the grocery bag, you’ll need them too. I place […]