Bags

I think making bags is my faviouite thing, ever!

I needed a new all-purpose bag for work and college, so it needed to be spacious and easy to carry!

Here is what I came up with...

 I used a linnen/cotton blend fabric for the exterior and a lightweight floral cotton for the lining. I also ironed fusible fleece to the back of the exterior fabric to create some rigidity and strength.

Exterior fabric purchased at : The Eternal Maker, Chichester (£14 per metre)

Lining fabric purchased at : C+H fabrics (around £6 per metre)

Fusible fleece purchased at : The Eternal Maker, Chichister (but this is widely available in other shops too) (£11 per metre)

 Ooooh...and it's reversible!!

It has proven to be very useful! I was really pleased with the finished bag and it might be my faviourite so far...?
 But here are a few of my other faviourites...

 Messenger style bag, with panel
If you look closely you will notice that the characters on the panel are acting out the 'Emperors robes'.
I'm not sure if the characters are pigs or little naked men.
Either way I thought it was suitably wierd!

I love an Echino selvedge <3

so I left it as a feature on this bag

This reversible tote bag was made out of a boys T-shirt and long sleeved top that were purchased from Tesco in the sale! So the total cost of the bag was £3!!!

Its a really useful sized bag for books etc. and its strechy so can fit lots in too!

 Anohter bargain bag story...

I found this PVC coated fabric in the bargain bin at Falcon fabrics in Chichester, and I got over 2 metres of it for £2!!
This was all very exiting so I had to make a bag right away!
I thought a backpack would be most appropriate.

The Rabbit is irrelevant but I thought she looked cute!

 

I have been working on some step by step bag tutorials I could post here so hopefully they should be on here within the next few weeks. I was thinking of a Laundry bag and reversible tote??

My faviourite finds-July

Every month I plan to post a few of my faviourite finds; this will include faviourite fashion, fabric and textiles techniques.
July has come to an end...So here are my July faviourite finds!

Fabric: I had trouble choosing one faviourite fabric, but I managed to narrow it down to two!
They both have a vintage theme; featuring old postcards and text.
I havn't decided yet what I am going to make with them as they are only very small pieces?? (roughly 25cm by 45cm (one fat-eighth)) I thought perhaps a purse or small bag-I need to do this fabric justice!
As soon as I find a project for them I will post it!

Fabrics from Eternal maker, Chichester

 £7.50 for 4 pieces this size

printed on linnen

Japanese design

Fashion: I found these really retro shoes! My faviourite part was that they were also on sale and I only paid £9 for them!!

Shoes from Topshop

 £9!!!

Textiles technique: freehand machine embroidery

Ever since I discovered this technique I have used it soo much!

 I love it <3

Its not as tricky as it appears!
You can allways experiment with the sewing machine if you are feeling brave but there are courses where you can learn how to do this from a proffesional!!
I highly recommend Lara sparks Embroidery who runs courses from her home in Worthing and also sells her work online.

http://www.larasparks-embroidery.co.uk/

Here is an amazing embroidery of Brighton Pavillon in a frame, but she also embroiders cushions and brooches etc.

I have been trying to develop my own embroidery; experimenting with different stitch effects and writing.
I found this great fabric which had lines from an excercise book printed onto it!

I embroidered a little 'TO DO LIST' for my eight year old brother.

It was really tricky as the lines were so close together (less the 1/4 inch apart)  but I think it turned out okay!

Fabric by Moda, purchased at Eternal Maker, Chichester
£11 per metre

Photograph(s):

I took this picture at my local beach, I liked the composition and the seaweed hanging form the wood.

This is one of my guinea-pigs!! Its not a technically brilliant photograph, but it's really cute!!

This is littley, it's not very visable in this photo but she has a crest and whenever she goes outside I like to put a daisy in it!

 Thank you Littley for being my model! <3

Bunting and washline cards

Okay! So I was going to start my blog at the begginning of July but have been way too busy, so I have a bit of catching up to do. July is allways a busy month as I have lots of friends with brithdays then. I wanted to create some cards that were really different so I thought I would add stitch and fabric! I'm loving summery bunting at the moment so that was my inspiration for these. They were so simple to make;
I started by chosing some fabrics (this was a good oportunity to raide my scraps box) and cut lots of little triangles which I stuck onto the card. I then used freehand machine embroidery to stich the bunting string on, but you can just as easily use a normal straight stitch for this!

I was really happy with the results!

I wanted to develop this a bit more so I created a couple in the same style with a clothes line design.
This was using the same technique, but was a little more tricky.

I added a bird and worm to this design- Originally the bird was going to be eating the worm, but I felt sad for the worm so I decided that they are actually having a little chat or a kiss <3

Back of the card