Makes

I know I’ve been quiet recently and have missed a couple of Monday and Friday postings... *hangs head in shame*

I thought I’d share some pictures of what I have been filling my time with…

But first – here’s the 2^nd attempt at purse making, which turned out a LOT better than the first. I made a glasses case for my Dad for his birthday out of tie silk.

Okay, here are some skirts that I made following an on-line tutorial. Well, I say ‘following’ – the first one proved that the tutorial wasn’t right for me so I hacked bits off it here and there and then used it to make a better pattern for the other two.

Originally I was going to make a dress with this fabric, but I think the pattern is a little much for that.

How gorgeous is this fabric? I’ve had it stashed for years but I always knew it wanted to be a skirt. It’s called “Erte revisited” I think.

This pink seersucker I’ve also had for years. I was going to make a bias cut wrap skirt from it, but didn’t have enough.

This is a cover for our patio table that I made with some cute Russian Doll print PVC. It came in the day before I went to the shop – fate!

I’ve got a bit left over – the long strip cut off the bottom to make it the right length so about 3 metres by 30cm – any suggestions? It’s fairly light-weight.

I just love this Ikea fabric. I bought it last year to make a throw-over for our footstool and made sure I got some extra as well. I know most people would say that purple and orange clash, but I don’t see that as a bad thing! I might have enough of this fabric left to make a couple of little cushions, too.

And also, in true make do and mend fashion, these cushion covers were made for a friend out of one of her favourite duvet covers. She’s having a garden party and wanted some cushions to be strewn around the lawn. She asked me to make 2 small and 2 large and anything else I could get out of it. I think I did a pretty good job of maximising the fabric – I used the snap closures already on the duvet for two of the cushions and then managed to squeeze another two large cushions out of the duvet. Each pillowcase made one small cushion. The remnants won’t go to waste either, as I’m going to stuff them with polyfill and make some little random shaped cushions, too.

Sewing was always my first love – in fact, I only took up crochet because I didn’t have the room for my sewing machine! – But although I have slowed down on the crochet front, I haven’t quite ground to a standstill. Look at these cutey booties I was practising this weekend – I do love tiny shoes!

...And before you ask, no I am not pregnant! I just know several ladies who are. :)

(Mis)adventures in Purse Making!

…or “what I have learned this weekend”

I have a bit of a thing about purses. (Also bags, shoes, hats, coats, make-up, Momiji, stationery… but now we are talking about purses!) On an average day I have 3 purses with me – money/general, excess cards and ‘savings’ (which is where I keep money saved to pay for my Spanish lessons and my dog classes). Before I switched to a smaller handbag I also had a coin purse too! On any given day this number can increase if I fancy carrying more make-up, money for a different purpose, or just another purse!

I had an idea for a line of coin purses and glasses cases but absolutely no idea how to go about making them. Good old Google to the rescue! I found this site U-Handbag, which sells everything you might want for making bags and also has a good selection of really useful and well put-together tutorials with pictures – and they’re FREE!!

So, I ordered some coin purse frames from a fellow folksy seller HollieLollie Supplies. I also got the Gutermann HT2 glue recommended by the tutorials. When the glue arrived last week I set aside this weekend to have a go.

The tutorial was so good that I figured it would be a doddle and was a teeny bit smug about it I think. Never a good way to be! It went pretty well at the beginning. I chose a groovy owl print cotton from my stash. I designed a pattern following the instructions, cut out all my pieces and stitched them together following the directions. So far; so good. At this stage it looked pretty impressive…

Then I came to the point to start gluing and I learned a few things.

1) When it says ‘be generous’ it probably doesn’t mean ‘use half a tube’

2) When squeezing the glue – it keeps coming out for a long time afterwards and is really gloopy!

3) Ventilate the room really well as the glue is really strong smelling and gave me a headache

4) Don’t cut corners – check the seam allowances or it might not fit in the frame properly

5) No really, don’t cut corners – even though you hate ironing, it really does help to press the seams properly.

6) Everyone makes mistakes – the trick is to laugh and learn.

After this I made a somewhat more successful attempt, which I’m afraid I can’t show here yet as it turned out well enough to be a gift, but I will post a picture once the recipient has received it!

I’ve ordered some more frames and I’m hoping that with a bit more practice I will improve! I’ve got next week off work, so I’m going to spend a couple of days sewing and see what occurs! I want to make myself a skirt as well, but I think I’ve caught up on all my trouser-shortening, button replacing chores now!

As it is Monday and I missed out on Momiji Monday last week (because I was so busy trouser-shortening and button-replacing) I am tagging a Momiji on to the end of this post to make up for it.

This one is Dreaming - I thought that was apt! Dreaming is from Generation 2. She likes quantum mechanics, Las Vegas and surprises!

Sundays are my favourite days for dreaming. a big stretch and then some tea!