I think I'm in love with this bag

Made it for The Magnificent Mum for her birthday after the disaster that was the pleating effort. But by golly, it made me realise that sometimes, it's good to cock things up because you'll no doubt end up doing something better!



I had been to the V&A exhibition about Quilts and just felt so totally inspired afterwards that I stayed up way past my bedtime to make it. I loved making it, I can't stop thinking about it, I must be losing my mind.

Warped pleating wierdness

Turns out the material was too stretchy for turned pleats but I persevered and made the bag anyway. Totally wonky and chunky and generally a bit of a failure! But am loving the zesty green against the dark grey.

Material experiments

Recently, The Magnificent Mum came to stay with us for a while. She bought me a box of sewing delights that included some seriously mind bending books on material manipulation. I'm going to try and make sense of some of it and try out the techniques - in the meantime, here are some recent experiments with a bit of folding and what not. (They may or may not feature in a birthday present for The Magnificent Mum, she's been known to have a snoop on this blog from time to time...)

Happy birthday little sis!

Now this one, I want to keep. Great pattern from Amy Butler, a few modifications (longer handles so it fits nicely over the arm) and I really really do love the whole denim stitching thing. Fast turning into my signature piece. Hope little sis likes it, if not, I'm having it back!

Starting from scratch again

So I'm admitting (more to myself that anything) that I'm not going to be able to work everything out first time. Thus, for little sis's birthday bag, I'm going to 'make' my own fabric (yes, using the old jeans!) but use a bought pattern. That way I'm not totally wimping out on the old innovation front. This is what the material is going to look like:


And I found a pattern here at u-handbag by Amy Butler that is simple enough for me to do, but will hopefully help me to learn about the ins and outs of bag making as well. There seems to be a pretty active flickr pool of people showing off the stuff they've made with her patterns and they're looking good!

A handbag that's *okay* but not brilliant

This bag business is a lot harder than I thought. Didn't know what size to make it so went for 'night out fits your lippy, purse and mobile & not much else' size, but now it's made it has wierd proportions. The material types look a bit clunky next to each other (the cream one is more to my taste) and the blue is a bit mental. BUT, the buttons are awesome and I worked out how to make it reversible and hand finish it without it showing. So, all in all, it's ok, but it doesn't make me want to keep it for myself because I love it so, and therefore it won't be making its way to lil sis. Back to the drawing board...

My new favourite brand - Cloth House London

I mean, just look at the packaging - what's not to love? Great store, lovely helpful staff who didn't mind me asking stupid questions, cute little button envelope thingy, and screen printed logo on old Indian newspapers for bags and business cards. Oh and I can get there and back in a lunch hour. Brilliant. (I spied they sell neoprene. Cue hyperventilation) Cloth House London

Highly illegal material purchasing

So I've gone and broken my own rule of not buying any material until I've used all my old jeans and clothes and what not that's lying around. But, but, but it's little sister's birthday coming up and I fancy having a crack at a tote bag that I saw on The Beauty is in the Detail (such lovely stuff, go and have a look). And lets face it, much as sis loves me I'm sure she doesn't want my knackered old jeans as a present. So somehow I have to work out a pattern as obviously it'll need a lining and a pocket thing for keys, and maybe one for her purse and oooh should it fit all her school work in or be a fancy bag for Saturday shopping, and maybe it should be personalised with her initials or..or ...hmmm, simples.