A Handmade Christmas

Now that Christmas has been and gone, the gifts have been unwrapped and live with their new owners, I can finally reveal some of the secret sewing I had been doing, that I hadn't been able to show on here.  First up two gifts for my sister:

•  a large fabric bowl, for all her fabric scraps.   Now this is a big bowl, at least 8 or 9" high ( yes I forgot to take note of the dimensions when I made it) I used the pattern from Nova as a basis and just made my own size. The paper pieced word comes from here.  Lots of bright cheery fabrics for this.
• A Sew Together Bag - lots of scraps including Bonnie & Camille, Heather Bailey and Carolyn Friedlander.  The inside is lined with a fabric from Heather Bailey's Up Parasol range, and inside pockets in a minty dot.
• Finally a pouch for my Mum - she is travelling to Europe next year, and wanted a pouch to put in her day bag.  I had the perfect lining fabric and then filled the pouch with some little goodies for travellers, like ear plugs, lip balm, hand cream, tissues etc.

What did you make for Christmas gifts?

Weekending

My weekend included:

• Happy mail - receiving my fabric basket from Kristel, for the 4S Swap.  I have filled it already with fabric scraps.  Love how it looks on my sewing table.
• A little more stitching on  that other swap  work in progress
• Piling all my newly received requests from the library on my bedside table. It makes it hard to get up in the morning when there is a good book to read.
• Beginning the cutting of 80 1.5"x2.5: rectangles, and 160  1.5"x1.5" squares, for the next border of my New York Beauty swap project
• Dinner at our house with friends we haven't seen for a while.

Hoping you all have enjoyed a fabulous weekend too.

Weekending - The Sewing Edition

 

 

 

It was a long weekend here in New Zealand, so I made the most of the opportunity to finish some sewing projects.

• First up is a fabric basket for another swap I have joined in.  Made from various scraps of text, solids, linen and Denyse Schmidt fabrics, using this tutorial. It was a nice easy pattern to sew, though I think I will use heavy weight interfacing on the lining next time I make this pattern.

• This weeks PackPatch themes were: I was born in the ...,  and I would have liked to be in the ... Because I was born in the 70's, I picked paisley and green.  I remember a lot of brown and orange from that time too.  I would have liked to be in the 50's, I loved the full skirts, with big floral prints and twin sets.  Not so keen on the horn rim glasses I would have needed though.

• And my big TA DA moment - I finished my 241 Tote.  I did rows of vertical hand quilting on the centre panels in a natural linen coloured thread.  The side pockets are shot cotton in a silvery grey, with AMH Social Climber as the feature side panel.  The lining and strap are a charcoal shot cotton.  For extra strength in the strap, I also added a strip of upholstery weight cotton ticking in the middle before 6 rows of top stitching.  On the whole I am pretty pleased with how it has turned out.  Sewing the curved panels was not an easy task, and I wasn't happy with how my top stitching along the centre panels and pockets looked, so after unpicking it, I decided to omit it. I would make this again, but I would probably not do a quilted centre panel.

What did you create this weekend?

Fabric Bowl

 

 

I have favourited a few of these fabric bowls on Flickr, so I finally succumbed,  and bought  the pattern
from Nova at  a cuppa and a catch up.

This pattern is very clear in its instructions and photos - I had no problems making the bowl - lots of interfacing and some pellon in it for stiffening.  I made the 5" bowl, the red poppy panel is from Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill range and the lining is  from Riley Blake. A few rows of hand stitching for decoration and it's completed.  It is meant to be another wet weekend, so  I think that I will make another couple and have them lined up behind my sewing machine for scraps, selvages and  larger offcuts.

What are you making this weekend?

Sent & Received

I have recently taken part in a couple of swaps through Flickr.  Yesterday was very exciting, there were two parcels for me in the letterbox. Firstly I received this lovely bright summery fabric basket and goodies from Kelli.  They will definitely brighten up my sewing desk.

 

 This is what I sent my partner Karri.

The other parcel contained my mug rug - however I was extremely spoiled and received four beautiful mug rugs from Jera.

My partner hasn't received hers as yet - but this is what I made and sent to her.

I have had a lot of fun taking part in these swaps.  It is so nice to receive mail that is a surprise and isn't bills or junk mail.