So while I'm waiting for my fabric swatches to arrive in the mail, I thought I'd tell you about the pattern I've chosen for my bag. At first I thought about making my own pattern for the handbag. I like my current bag, so with a few mods I could make up a pretty good pattern. But I quickly realised that I would have to make at least 1 prototype, probably more and that it ...
Sewing
Printing Fabric Labels Follow Up
It's been about 6 months since I had my fabric labels printed with Spoonflower, so I thought I'd do a follow up to show you how they look today. You can see my original post here, but basically I made up a logo and had it printed onto some quilting cotton*. The tricky thing I did was print them on the bias (at 45°), the idea being that I wont need to press the edges under ...
I Spy Bag Toy
I've made up a couple of these and they come together quickly. The tricky part for me, was trying to find all the little toys and trinkets to put inside. So, rather than posting a full tutorial on how to make one, I thought I'd tell you about where to look for the little trinkets. If you came here hoping for a tutorial, then here is a link to one on Homemade by Jill ...
Build-a-Bag: Let’s Start at the Very Beginning
I've been wanting to make my own handbag for a long time. Not to do things by halves, I thought it would be pretty cool to make the fabric for it as well. I thought I'd do a mini series showing you the whole process from designing my fabric, all the way to the finished bag...it could take a while. So here's Part One: Designing the fabric! Thanks to Spoonflower, us regular ...
Hello, Lover!
It's my 30th Birthday tomorrow and my totally awesome hubby said I could get a new sewing machine!! Happy Birthday to Me! There's nothing wrong with my old one, but I've outgrown it and there were some features I wished it had.I taught myself to sew on my Mum's old Pfaff when I was about 10, and I've always wanted to go back to a Pfaff. I never knew there were so many cool ...
Fold over Cuffs for Footies or Mittens – Tutorial
During the cold Winter months, I like putting Roman in footed pyjamas. I know his toes will stay nice and warm. I get cold feet so I feel like he will too. Now that he's in a size 2, they're hard to come by. He has a pair with fold over cuffs that are genius, so I've been studying them. Luckily, it's really easy to add them to a pair of pyjama pants so that any pair can have ...
Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter!
I have a strange attraction to things that are possibly so ugly I think they're amazing! I have a pair of embroidered shoes that definitely fit this category and I have a feeling this coat is one of those things, but no one is game to tell me. The making of this coat was a 'meant to be' moment. A friend of mine gave me some old woollen blankets and there was something about ...
Pimp my Sheet – Stamped Bed Sheets
I made fitted sheets for Roman's cot (tutorial here) from an old bed sheet, but decided they're a bit plain and boring. To jazz them up (jazz is a dorky word isn't it?) I stamped a design onto them. This project was fun and easy and I'm so pleased with the result. Because it's a bed/cot sheet, I went with a sleepy theme, using ZZZ as my outline and filling it with the word ...
Make your own Rice Heat Pack
We don't live in the coldest of climates, but I'm one of those people who is always cold, so a heat pack comes in handy. This heat pack is based on the one in The Crafty Minx, a lovely book I have full of simple, crafty and recycling ideas. It's great for headaches or a stiff neck and is even nice cooled and put over your eyes on a stressful day. Heat packs are quick and ...
Reusable Cotton tea bags
Ok, so you probably think I'm mad - reusable tea bags?? Bear with me though. My cup of tea usually ends up with lots of tea bits in it, and I have to leave the last mouthful or two. The diffuser/tea ball I have does a terrible job of keeping the tea in. My tea press isn't much better. In the middle of the night when I should have been sleeping I wondered if anyone has made ...
KCWC – Part 3
Kids Clothes Week Challenge is indeed over, but I just couldn't handle having the hooded vest unfinished, so finish it I did!What an awful project! Everything that was wrong with it was all my fault, but it worked out all right in the end. As mentioned in my previous KCWC post, the fabric is a lycra blend so loves to stretch, which made sewing the zip in a nightmare. I ended up ...
KCWC – Part 2
It's been a very busy week and I've had a lot of fun, but I think I'll be quite happy to have a holiday from my sewing machine for a bit. Today we decided to go for a drive out to the country, so I didn't get to do any sewing today and sadly I didn't get to finish the hoodie vest, but I'm surprised with the amount I did get done. Roman had lots of fun running around in the park ...