For My Mum

I made a swimming bag for my mum for Mother's Day. She exercises regularly at a local hydrotherapy pool, and, as all swimmers know, one's bag can get very musty. I had seen bags made from mesh around the place, so I thought I'd have a go at using some thick mesh from the hardware store called "Pet Mesh" or "Paw Proof" - really should have got some to keep Miss Maggie from scratching our screens .... anyway,
I based the shape on the Beach Bag pattern.
The bag had a zippered gusset as a closure.
Since it wasn't lined - which would defeat the purpose of the mesh - I covered the raw edges with Satin Bias Tape. I used some great Prints Charming fabric as the feature print. I used the walking foot on my machine and it easily coped with this thick plastic mesh - I used a regular needle.
I attached a zippered pocket to the front of the bag and left the back plain. I used Vilene H 640 (Pellon) to give some body to the back of the print fabric. The base black fabric was a thick canvas. She really liked it!!! Happy Mother's Day Mum!!

In a Nutshell

Here's a rundown of what I've been up to ....... Had a couple of days in Sydney ....

Here is Sydney's favourite little one (only 106kg of pure CUTE!)

In the shot of me in Sydney, I'm wearing a Clothkits skirt ....

The pattern is printed on the fabric - the print is designed especially for the skirt shape - just cut and sew ....

Applying glue ready for foils ...

Dyeing ... This was from one of my workshops during the holidays ....

I played with a new product - "Texture Magic" it shrinks up by 30% with steam ..

It gives a puffy wrinkly effect ....

This is Angelina Film with some Angelina Fibres and bits and pieces added ...

This is a corset made from Angelina Fibres ...

From one extreme to the other ... here is Dobbert .....

Here is a favourite of mine - it's a Curved Flat Bag made using real wool felt with Needle Punched wool and silk bits added using the Needle Punch attachment on my Bernina ...

Lined with hand dyed fabric ..

I covered a small journal and have been playing around with some simple tote shapes and fabric combinations ...

Some with drawstrings ....

Who loves Lucy?

I printed this via the inkjet printer .....

This is a Belle bag - except the plastic handles are all wrong - too large for this bag ...

This City Bag used a textured panel - a piece of Kimono fabric attached to Texture Magic and shrunk up ...

I really need to work on a better way to photograph bags .... I could have at least Brasso -ed the tap!

More funny shaped bags ...

I also made a belt - printed the design via the inkjet, and fused on some Lamifix Gloss ...

And that's about it!

Pursenality Plus!

Firstly I must confess that I "borrowed" that clever title from a book I recently borrowed about knitting bags and then felting them - it's a great book. However, this blog is about some smaller purses .....

These little zippered purses are ultra cute, use minimal fabric and would make great little gifts....

I used this great tutorial to make the Oil Cloth Purses ......

I got the oil cloth locally at Patchwork and Coffee on Main at Boolaroo. This collection of 30cm cuts cost about $18 Australian - which I think is very reasonable considering you only need very small amounts for each purse (7.5 by 5 inch)...

The purses aren't lined as the fabric is unlikely to fray being all plasticy ....

For the other purses I used NicoleM's Coin Purse Pattern.

These purses really need Pellon Fusible Wadding to maintain a nice shape - the grey Japanese Fabric Purse is only interfaced and it is not nearly as happy as the others ....

It goes without saying that this is an excellent little pattern- with accurate and detailed instructions - you really can't go wrong ....

Sorry I don't know the name of this fabric ......

This is my fave .... I used Vintage (there's THAT word again!) Japanese Kimono fabric that I've had for quite some time - they are perfect for this project as they often come in random sizes which is hard to find a use for (other than fondling and drooling) ....

Love the silver ....

Here is Prints Charming - perfect for embroidery ......

One of Nikki's great little pattern suggestions is to trace the pattern onto template plastic. Super easy to cut around with the rotary cutter and no fiddling and fussing with paper - that girl's a genius (with a great pursenality!) - couldn't resist!
Sew, you wanna make some???? I can show you how ..... if you live in Newcastle, Central Coast or the outer Southern Suburbs (ie Sydney) come along to my studio for lesson ... I also stock Nicole's Patterns if you want to save on postage and packaging. Contact me via my website.

Quillow Talk

I am organising some School Holiday Sewing Workshops for the April school hols. One of the projects is a Quillow ....... This is a Quillow .... It's a quilt that folds into a pillow!

More Prints Charming ..... Just love it - not only visually but tactilly (if that's a word?) - this fabric is soft and lovely - no other way to describe it - a couple of the pieces I used are their hand printed panels that I bought at the Finders Keepers Markets in Sydney - the rocket on the pillow is one such panel ....

So, here is how it folds - this green fabric is the backing ... I quilt tied the layers altogether ...

That funny shape is the running stitch around the "pillow" - so you place the quilt on a flat surface, with the pillow opening "up" - that's where the handles are ... you then fold the quilt longways to the middle and tuck the first bit into the pillow - oh dear, I knew this would be complicated, and I think another photo of that stage may help - but stay with me ...

Fold the remaining length into thirds ... heading down to the pillow ... and tuck it into the pillow.

Here is a close up of the groovy rocket - you can't really see the running stitch, (because I'm so perfectly neat) because it's dark blue on black ...
I followed the instructions from here ..... (I did alter the dimensions and attached the handles) go on, give it a go! When it's unfolded you can slip your footsies into the pillow for some extra cosy warmth.

Princess' Charming Indeed!

I just had the BEST day ... Sunday I went to Sydney, to 2 Young St Annandale to do a screen printing workshop at Prints Charming.

The lovely Kirsten and Cath gave us an intro into what they do. And a demo of how they do it. And then we were free to print. We used paper to cut shapes. Stuck them to a screen..

And before I knew it there where hearts a flutter...

If you haven't seen their work, you should really have a look - they are so clever and fresh - their fabric is just lovely lovely to feel - it has a sateen finish.

Their shop and studio is alive with colour and cool ideas ...

I really admire textiles people who have had the guts to put their heart and soul into their work, and are successful! And not only that, they are willing to share their story and expertise ...

Here are some of the other ladies prints - so cute - from a child's actual drawing ..

Very effective ... we all had very different ideas ..

WOW - From a child's actual drawing ....

Mine is simple, and I'm very happy with it .....

Watch this space to see what I end up making out of it ..

I also bought some lovely lovely real 100% Linen and some bright happy embroidery threads.

So, all in all, a great creative day out! Thankyou Princess' Charming!