hellooooooooo

hi everyone, long time, no post!  life has been crazy busy, sadly not much sewing but way too many hours at work and some house renovations haven't left me much time to be creative.

i did manage to take a short holiday and attend Grampians Textures, i was lucky enough to be able to do the 4 day bag making workshop with Nicole Mallalieu (the genius behind You Sew Girl).  i picked up some great tips and techniques for designing and making bags that look professional (handmade as opposed to homemade).  thanks to Nicole i think i have finally conquered my fear of zippers!

a couple of photos of the bag that i designed, drafted the pattern for then made (just a couple of little things to finish off and it will be ready to use)...

wishing everyone a slightly belated happy st. patricks day (and happy birthday to me!)

 

Fun with zips and ribbon

earlier in the week i found a wonderful new (to me) website, Craft Passion, it has some great tutorials.  i fell in love with the zip pouches

mum and i spent a couple of hours this afternoon stitching away. making Zip-its...they are a little fiddly, and the instructions could do with a little tweaking to make a couple of steps clearer, but mum and i muddled on through...

if you decide to make this bag, here are a couple of tips...
- use 21" of ribbon with a 20" zipper (and i would suggest using ribbon that is 5/8" wide)
- leave 1" of ribbon loose (unsewn) before the starting dot.  this gives you enough ribbon to tuck in and get a neat finish.
- don't sew your ribbon close to the zipper teeth (leave a gap, as shown in the photo above), mum found out the hard way that not doing so will give you a very small bag!

The Heidi bag

i was lucky enough to be chosen to be a pattern tester for Julie's new bag pattern (the Heidi bag).  it was a fun little bag and only took me an afternoon to whip up... the instructions were clear and i think that a confident beginner would be able to make it

i LOVE the cute little pleats on the exterior of the bag (they are a little bit hard to see in the photo - sorry)...

 

i did make a couple of little alterations to the bag, i like to personalise any bag that i make...
- i used a contrast band on the lining because i didn't want to risk my pale lining fabric showing next to the exterior contrast band
- i added a loop/clip to the inside of the bag so that i have somewhere to attach my keys (i HATE loosing my keys in the bottom of my bag!!)
- i used a twin line of straight stitching to secure my bag handle because my satin stitch looked horrible

the pattern includes instructions for some interior pockets...

my key loop/clip...

and the bag handle - the photo is a bit wobbly, because i was holding the bag with one hand and taking the photo with the other!!

Edited to add - the fabric i used on the exterior of my bag is called "Japonais Mum" by Ron Jebran for Print Concepts Inc. #4000

There's a new mystery quilt...

Ann is hosting another New Year's Eve mystery quilt at Fabricaholicsanonymous.  i LOVE Ann's mystery quilts, so i am really looking forward to this one (my 3rd NYE mystery with Ann)

i have a personal rule for mystery quilts - if i want to join in, i need to find all of the fabric required in my stash!  so this morning i printed out the NYE mystery quilt requirements list and searched my stash for the perfect group of fabrics:

FOCUS - colored squares
POP - yellow glitter
BACKGROUND - white with little colored dots
MEDIUM - aqua

i also found the courage to finally add the purse feet to my  multi-tasker tote - they were a bit fiddly, but i am really happy that i put them in

Almost done

well, here is my almost completed multi-tasker tote - i just have to pluck up the courage to put the bag feet on and i am done!

i ended up making a different flower to decorate the bag (tutorial is here), i decided to make the petals 2 sided (so they wouldn't be too floppy and to help with durability).  i simply cut twice as many petals as directed and fused them together with some light weight fusible webbing.  yet again, my photos don't do it justice - it is cute!!

Multi-tasker Tote

i spent today working on my "multi-tasker tote" by Anna Maria, it's been cut out for a while and i finally started sewing it last sunday.

i used a laminated cotton on the exterior of the bag and regular cotton fabric for the pockets and interior.  the laminated cotton was a pleasure to sew (i bought a nice new non-slip foot for my sewing machine) and it is so lovely and soft

it's nearly done, just the finishing touches left - a button on a pocket, a cute flower to pin on the front, some bag feet to add and sew up the turning hole.

it's a cute bag but the instructions aren't as good as i am used to (i wouldn't recommend the pattern to a beginner), i am glad that i have made a few bags or i would have been lost!!

i added:
- a zipped pocket to the inside
- a button closure to the patch pocket
- a magnetic closure to the top
- some metal bag feet
- a cute flower pin to decorate the outside (still in the process of being made!)

i also used a different method to add the bag floor (this tutorial is the one that i used) the bag pattern directed me to iron the peltex (bag floor) to the lining and exterior, i wasn't confident that this method would be durable in the long term.  the method shown in this tutorial just looks a bit more durable/practical

will post photos as soon as it is finished!

Bits and Bobs

A little bit of everything in this post!

The zygo cactus that I inherited when my Granny died early last year is thriving.  I re-potted it, gave it a light trim and fertilized it, it has been growing nicely but I was starting to worry that it was never going to flower.  But look at this photo, my little zygo is covered in flower buds.  Thanks Granny!

I stepped out of the car the other day and was greeted with these cute little guys on my fence....

And lastly, proof that I have been working on making that multi-tasker tote that I wrote about not long ago...