Festival of bags

I love to give hand made gifts to people, but I do get a bit stressed out at the thought that they may not like them. I've been looking around for some nice gifts to make for 5 year old girls. I'd thought of the pencil rolls and they're nice, but whenever I've given them as a gift, the recipient has been less than enthusiastic!

But I've had three birthday parties this month and I was wracking my brains for present ideas. So when I saw this tutorial, on Living My Sweet Life's blog I suspected I might be onto a winner! I bought some very very pretty fabric from the wonderful Peppermint Stitches and away I went.

I made a couple of modifications. I didn't do the applique, because

a. I am lazy
and
b. I can't do applique.

I didn't double over the pocket, I just hemmed it. This was because I didn't have quite enough material to double it over, so I did a 4 by 10.5 inch pocket with a hem.

The other difference was that I put the pocket on both sides of the bag (which is why I didn't have enough material for the pocket!)

I also used interfacing, because I had a bunch lying around that I wanted to use up. I don't know if that made any difference to the bag. It certainly gave me a lot of grief!

I also did the strap differently, mainly because I couldn't inside out the strap, I'm too uncoordinated. Whenever I try to inside out things, I end up ripping the sewing! Instead, I cut two 21 by 1 inch pieces of my main fabric and two 21 by 1 inch pieces of my lining material. I turned each long edge in and ironed, then I put one strap of main together with one strap of the lining material and top-stitched along each long edge.

I've made 4 - one for each of the birthday girls and one for my daughter. I think they're really nice - I'm planning on making one more for my son and another for myself, to put my knitting and crochet in. I just have to work out which is my favourite!

Sew-sew

Lots of crafting lately, not a lot of blogging!

I have been knitting, crocheting and sewing. Projects on the go include, a reversible toy for a friend's baby, a shrug for myself, a bag with crayon holder pockets and I'm sure there is more - but true to form, I can't remember any more!

Ages ago, I made a mini nappy bag for a friend's baby shower. It's from One Yard Wonders - which is a pretty cool book.

It looked pretty easy, so of course I left it till the last minute. What I didn't realise was that the change mat was actually sewn into the bag - so assembly was a little trickier (ok a lot trickier) than I thought it would be! It turned out ok in the end.

Nice little gift though. I need some practice with using interfacing, I got into quite a lot of bother with the interfacing in this project. Kept having to rip it off and start again!

Flutterbye

I get a bit confused sometimes. Recently, I spent a couple of weeks crocheting a dragonfly, only to discover that it was in fact a butterfly! Never mind, it is cute...

The butterfly is for a friend's new baby. It was fairly easy, but took a bit of time as there are lots of pieces in this. It's from Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts!: Amigurumi which has loads of lovely little projects in it.

In other news, I sewed sheet bag for Mr McGillicuddy. The poor little fellow has been going to childcare with his sheets in a crusty old grocery bag and we can't have that! I haven't ever sewn a drawstring bag before and because I'm lazy, and always in too much of a hurry, I kind of made it up as I went along. It turned out ok - the drawstring part is a little dodgy, but it works.

Listen

This week, I have three new song obsessions.

Slow Show - by The National

Sunset Mirage by Ghostwood

Pumped up Kicks by Foster the People

Project busting #1

I think that this project busting is going to take me some time.....

I finished one thing last week! Huzzah!

I'm a big fan of Yarnydays blog - I think she has awesome taste and her projects are just great. I've made a sweater of hers before and it turned out so nicely -










so when I saw this post - I just had to try to make a scarf like it. The pattern is originally from this blog which also has a lot of absolutely gorgeous crafting on it. A good friend of mine had a birthday coming up and I thought she'd love this!

Anyway, I picked some red wool from Bendigo woollen mills and started crocheting. The pattern is great - really pretty and also quite easy - my favourite combination!

I was concerned that I wouldn't have enough wool, but figured I could always order more. But the Queensland floods sent my life somewhat out of kilter (we weren't directly affected, but couldn't go to work/daycare etc for a while and had flood refugees staying with us). So I didn't end up ordering more wool in time. Instead, I decided to turn it into a bag!

I sewed a bag out of denim with a cotton lining and a zipper. I then sewed it into the scarf - voila!

Starters vs Finishers

Are you a starter or a finisher?

I am definitely a starter!! I have so many half finished projects - I love to start a new project, but don't often finish them, unless there is a deadline like a birthday party.

Anyway, I have decided that this week is finishing week - I'm going to finish all those half finished things lying around the house - so stay tuned for some crafting action!

If anyone cares to join me, leave a comment and then a link to your project busting posts - I'd love to see what everyone else is finishing!

The shrug

I crocheted a shrug! My ravelry link is here.

To be honest, I'm not sure if it is a shrug or a bolero - I always get the two confused!

My mother in law asked if I could make her a shrug - we looked through some patterns together and she decided on one of the Drops studio patterns. You can find the pattern here.

I was too lazy to do the flower edging properly. Instead, I just did the first layer of petals - and instead of doing many separate flowers and then sewing them together, I made them in one string - because I HATE sewing the ends in!!

All in all I think it turned out pretty well! A huge relief because it took a fair bit of time to make, would have been very sad if it had been a disaster.