Fortune favours the brave

Bumped into our mate Ju on Wells beach last weekend and she's taking the plunge and opening her own studio/giftshop. She has kindly asked me to make a few bits and pieces to sell which is very exciting, but in the meantime I thought she'd better have a new pencil case. Because darlings, when we start new school we need brand new pencils, rubber and ruler don't we? So this little project got me into the world of fusible fleece lining stuff, and my very first zip. Ahhh, bless.



Good luck Ju, go get 'em!

Now that's more like it

No rushing. Redoing dodgy bits. And voila...

OK, not sewing related but includes ribbon

The lovely granny (Cat) from across the way on my estate was gobsmacked when I said we were growing tomatoes on our little balcony. Thus, we left this on her doorstep this morning as she wasn't in. Hope she's not gone on her hols cos she's going to return to a mouldy cup of goo otherwise. Cute pressie though, no?

Learning patience

As I'm now on my sixth? Seventh? ipad cover I've been getting all wound up about things going wrong. Angry that a seam isn't straight, or a piece doesn't quite fit, or a label is wonky. If we're going to sell these puppies, in my mind, they have to be perfect. Not slightly dodgy home made but brilliantly handmade. But last night (as I unpicked some velcro) it dawned on me that it's just like my day job work. A design I do for a website or app never gets signed off straight away, there are always modifications and adjustments to make, so why would it be any different for sewing? I know it's not a world changing realisation, but it helped me from throwing a major wobbly last night. So I'm going to be taking my time over them and not get cross if I need to redo bits because they're not perfect first time. It was a light bulb moment for me. Efforts in = results out. If I take it slowly and concentrate, then the work will be good.

Something not technology related

Thought it was time to make something other than an ipad cover. And thus, a little summer dress for god daughter Poppy has been whipped up. Found a lovely pattern and instructions at Prudent Baby (don't you just love the crafty sharing that occurs on the old interweb?). And how gorgeous did it turn out? Even I got a little bit gooey about it and I'm the least broody person on the planet. And modelled by my very own cheeky monkey.

This little lot should keep me out of mischief for a while

Met some lovely, lovely assistants in The Cloth House. Sewing people really do seem so jolly and helpful and all a bit bonkers in the right sort of way. A brilliant morning mooching around Berwick Street.

Now that's what I call packaging

For my first bona fide commission for an ipad cover I decided to go a little bit bonkers on the packaging. Initials of the recipient using the offcuts of material, sewn onto brown paper, ipad cover then sewn into the brown paper sandwich. A bit of pinking sheer action round the edge and voila! I think it's bloody lovely and adds a bit of drama and theatre to the opening experience. You know, how Apple do with their products. Except this is the some what more low-fi craft version. Nice. Hope he likes it.

Now it gets exciting

Haven't done anything with the leather yet. But dreampt about it all last night. Am knackered. Going to make Sarah's fella a book jacket thing with a leather claspy whatnot, and worked it all out when I really should have been working on my deep sleep state (or whatever its called). Anyhoo, THESE arrived today - for the not-so-secret top secret ipad cover project. And, AND, a proper bona fide stranger wants a cover. Joy!

Leather. The final frontier.

Well, possibly not. But an interesting challenge never-the-less. Saw a big bag of leather offcuts outside a shop for a tenner in Totnes when I was there recently and thought, "What the heck. Why not?" And then, THEN, was having a quick rummage through some papers and bits from The Magnificent Mum and there was an ancient photocopy about How To Sew Leather. And so it has been arranged by the gods for me to be in possession of leather and instructions all at the same time. Lets see what comes of it.

The Sarah bag.

Oh, lovely Sarah Lee. She has 1) Just had her second gorgeous baby 2) Just moved house 3) Inherited an aga that she's not entirely sure how to use 4) Just survived a week without hubby in new house with 2 kids, no sleep and aforementioned aga. Oh and she's hitting the big four zero this weekend. So here we are, an utterly impractical shopping bag for her to hang over the buggie, to be filled with plastic tat, organic veggies and lollies with no wrapper on. Hurrah for impractical 40th birthday pressies!

The Best Nanny In The World

Her name is Claudia. She rocks. And it's her birthday on Saturday. So I made this tote for her super quickly last night, into the wee small hours. She loves it. Bless. And I quite like the format, you can't really see here but it's nice and long with a square bottom and you could easily fit all sorts of things in it. But the pattern I made for it seemed enormous, but then when it was all sewn up it was a lot more discreet.


And yes, everything I make right now is going to feature that fabulous red silk until it is gone (75 quid/metre = ouch, but I did it get it half price in the John Lewis sale = BARGAIN!)

The third way

A third and final pattern and it fits like a glove :-). I love, love, love this material and so now it's time to get myself some lovely high end fabrics and get the old production line going.