A bag for myself

Slightly wierd proportions so I've kept this one for myself. Made out of The Huswife's old jeans, I love the ripped bit.

More to come

I haven't posted much recently, but that doesn't mean there's nothing going on! I have been playing around with material and making a few bits and pieces but just haven't had the time to take piccys and get them up here. I will do soon though as I'm about to go onto a 4 day week, and I rather suspect I'll be using that day off in pursuit of sewing excellence!

My lack of knowledge about material is causing some problems - ie what goes together, how they reacte in different conditions and I've bought material that (I thought) was nice, only to find out when it's home that it's pretty dire and I've got metres of the stuff. Hey ho. You live and learn.

Making things for people can be a tad stressful

My lovely Big Sis asked me to make a bag for friend. Open brief. Scary. So I made two and this is the one that has been chosen. I'm still sort of in experimentation mode, so I tried some new things - gathering along the middle, a magnetic closure and I think it has turned out well. I hope Big Sis likes it, and I hope it cheers her friend up.

Latest midnight maraudings

Forcing myself to do samples is paying off. Because it can be really bloody frustrating when things don't work, but at least it's on a sample rather than on a bag. Loving the red lines thing, but the silk is totally stretching so I need to find a way to keep it stable. One of those ring things - but are they made big enough I wonder?

Upping the scale

I enlarged my Amy Butler pattern to see if it scaled it up nicely. I think the proportions still hold out which is great, but at this size it's fairly floppy and I have no idea how to attach that bag firming plastic stuff and still be able to sew it. Hmmm. Time to buy another pattern I think that includes instructions. And also, it's clearly time to bite the bullet and get to grips with zips because a bag like this needs one otherwise all my belongings will be whipped away the second I get on the tube!

The glasses case that never was

Wanted to try out a bit of quilting using type as seen at the V&A exhibition. Then when it was done thought I'd turn it into a glasses case for The Magnificent Mum. But I rushed it, it went all cock eyed, so now Mum is just going to get this sample as a "thank you for having us to stay at Easter" instead. Typeface is Gotham (perfect, solid, modern, I heart it). Learnings? Quilting takes bleedin' ages.

The fountain of all knowledge

This is the Magnificent Mum. In her sewing room. Which is totally crammed full of interesting things and little boxes of stuff and colours and books and sewing machines and jelly rolls and fat quarters. I am insanely jealous of the space and all the wonderful things in it.



She gave me a masterclass in how to put zips in and do understitching. We had a bit of mother/daughter argy bargy but we came out alive and still friends. What a brilliant Mum.