Handmade Monday Week 8 - Bags, Fabrics and Cushions

Welcome to week 8 of Handmade Monday run by Wendy of 1stUniqueGifts. I feel quite a sense of achievement to still be joining in with the challenge of weekly blogging and still being spurred into keeping up with my sewing because of it.
Have to admit failure on The March Hares listing club on Folksy though, managing only to list for 5 days of the month!!!! Maybe try again in April!!
So this week was a positive sales week for me. If you popped by earlier in the week you will know i did a fair on Tuesday at Blooms Garden centre in Rugby and did really well. 4 bags sold and i now have 5 on order so a lot of sewing going on in the evenings after work at the moment.
Before doing anything new this week i finished off a bag i had been making from some left over William Morris fabric i had from a customers order earlier in the year.
As yet i havent put flowers on the front as i'm not sure they will look as good on this fabric and am wondering whether to try a small bow instead. As that bag was finally finished i visited The Bramble Patch and spent rather a lot on fabric!! It probably is a much dearer way of making things when i only buy by the quarter but it means i can always keep fresh with different designs and colours rather than mass producing the same product all the time and getting bored by what i do.
So i got some more dotty and daisy fabric but also some blue, red and even pink corduroy.

Preparation is the boring part so i cut, pinned and sewed darts in all of them at the same time, and also the linings.

Then the best bit, sewing them together!!

So that's the bases done and next job this week is to do all the pelmets.

As well taking all my new stock to the fairs last week i took some of my old stuff as well and put on at a bargain price just to destash.

Among these items were the bolster cushions i made a couple of years back for kids. Filled with small polyester beads they are brilliant cushions for kids, especially on long car journeys.

And i did well and sold half a dozen and even had a lady asking if i could make her one in chicken fabric, which i have!!

Now to clear up the mess on the floor!!!

Thanks for popping by and dont forget to pop by 1stUniqueGifts blog and see what other clever crafters have been up to this week.

Until Next Time.

xxx

Handmade Monday

Welcome to my first Handmade Monday which is a new, regular feature that has been set up and organised by the lovely Wendy of 1stUniqueGifts http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog/
If you are a regular of my blog you may remember i purchased a lovely campervan plaque from Wendy during the summer and i am a massive admirer of the work she does.
So the idea is that each participant makes something new each week and shows it off on a monday on their blog. They can also show things that maybe they are working on or even lovely photos of how messy their craft area is!!!!!
Everyone will have a link in their post back to Wendy so you can pop by and see what she is up to and while you visit her blog you may want to check out the links she has to all the other participants.
Hopefully that was all understood!!
So for my makes this week i'm incredibly proud to show off my first ever bag. My sister bought me the kit from my favourite fabric shop The Bramble Patch for christmas .
I started it a week ago and did bits here and there. Finally, after rushing out for more cotton, i sewed the last piece in place yesterday morning.

I made a mistake sewing up the pelmet so i made one of my favourite fabric flowers with a gorgeous metal heart button to cover the mistake up and was really pleased with the result.

And to finish off and accessorise this lovely practical phone case in matching material.

I love the bag so much that i will be attempting more very soon to maybe add to my new folksy shop CottonsAndDreams.

Looking forward to doing this all again next Monday.

Until then

xx

End Of Year Blog

Well the end of 2010 is now approaching and time to reflect on the year and look forward to new challenges for the New Year.
I started the year with hopes and dreams of opening a shop with my friend and end it with that dream gone but replaced with dreams of new ventures but on a smaller scale.
The best thing i did at the beginning of the year was to sign up to the uk craft forum. Through that site over the past year i have learnt so much, passed on advice, attended new craft fairs and above all met some lovely new friends.
During the final month of the year i have been busy experimenting in some new fields of sewing.
My cousin asked me to make some draught excluders for her house. Not something i have made before although not something that is really difficult. She was really pleased with them and has asked if i will make her a bench cushion in the New Year.
Material was purchased from my favourite shop The Bramble Patch.

My favourite challenge for the month was to create a secret santa present for Silverthistle from the craft forum. I didn't manage to find out too much personal information about her other than 4 kids and living in Scotland and loves beads!!

So i put together this gingerbread man garland representing her and her husband in tartan clothes and their 4 children. I was chuffed with the final results especially with the red beads inbetween as they were my 1st experiment with fimo clay.

Stocking fillers were high on my list of makes this month also and i am really pleased with these pen/pencil cases i designed. They are so handy in your handbag and no more routing around in the bottom of your bag for a pen!

I am enjoying the idea of puting different patterned material together at the moment.

I will also be able to personalise these in the future as i seem to have mastered lettering on my sewing machine as you will discover further down the page.

Was rather choked when i opened my own secret santa present on christmas day from Samigail (alias Fiona) on the craft forum. She had taken the time to read my blog and make 3 presents representing my recent decorating of the bathroom, my love of teddies and the fact that i cook for a living.

So personal and will definately be hung with pride.

You can find more plaques on fionas website here .

And finally another twist on gingerbread men for this year.

As you know i work as a cook and for the week before christmas we have a 3 course christmas menu and usually serve around 350 customers. It's always the hardest week of the year so for a laugh this year i made the 10 main staff badges with nicknames.

I am so pleased i have now mastered lettering on my machine and it's definately a new direction for next year with many ideas for personalising my crafts.

So there we are, the end of yet another year.

Looking forward to next year with many new ventures and dreams to explore.

Happy New Year to you all and see you in 2011 xx

Fabric Flower Brooch

I am still using up all my material scraps and, this week, was asked by a lady at work if i could make her a fabric flower brooch for her new pink coat. She gave me one of the spare buttons so i could match colours but unfortuntely none of my scraps were the right colour. What a lovely excuse for a trip to my favourite fabric shop!!
If you have never been to The Bramble Patch in Weedon, Northants it's well worth a visit. For me it's one of those shops that i could stand in the middle of and drift off into my dreams, i love it. They also do many quilting classes in the rear of the building and the staff are so helpful.
So finally i picked 2 fat quarters of material that would match my button. And 2 totally extremes of design i think as well. The flowers look classy whilst the dots are a bit more mad and adventurous.
So i got to work as soon as i got home. If you recall ,from one of my earlier posts in the year, the tutorial for this brooch can be found on folksy tutorial page
and is really quite a simple but effective make.
Below are the final products and she decided to keep both. They match the coat colour well.


Until next time xx