Winter Sewing

I think sewing is one of the best things to do when the weather is bad.  Perhaps if I could knit or crochet, I would choose one of those as a cold-weather craft (if only for the curling-up-on-the-sofa factor) but for me sewing wins every time.  It helps that my sewing room is one of the warmest rooms in the house - although I tend to flit between the sewing room and living room as then I can have a full-size ironing board out and do my cutting on the dining table!  I do use a mini ironing table in the sewing room too (really very handy depending on the size of the project).

Let loose with the iron...

Keira (my 10-year-old sewing apprentice/granddaughter, above) has been making a tote bag with the fabric I got recently from Abakhan.  She loved the butterflies print (as I knew she would) although my favourite was the retro turquoise cotton print.

Keira was really proud of her first-ever handmade bag!

She even helped design it.

The photos are pretty dreadful - sorry! - it was an after-school project and the daylight had gone by the time we got to the photo stage.

I used some of the leftovers in a tiny project...

I wanted to leave the edges unfinished - I'm after an informal look - so I feel like it needs a wash to fray the edges before it gets its ta-dah kind of moment.  I'm thinking maybe I'll do it as a tutorial soon.

Abakhan on Pinterest

Pinterest is something you could lose days to, it really is. They'd be enjoyable days though!

Abakhan Fabrics has recently joined Pinterest and has launched a competition on there.

If you can't see the instructions in the above image, here's what you do:

1. Open a Pinterest account (if you don't already have one)

2. Follow AbakhanFabrics on Pinterest

3. Create a board called #AbakhanFabrics

4. Pin at least 10 items from abakhan.co.uk that you'd like to use and tag with #AbakhanFabrics

5. Tweet the link to your board to @AbakhanFabrics on Twitter

6. Email the URL of your board to pinterest@abakhan.co.uk and tell them what you'd make from your pinned goodies

The competition launches today - happy pinning!  Four lucky winners will win £20 of Abakhan vouchers!  Good luck!!

Fabrics and Craft Supplies Giveaway!

Oh wow...I'm getting so excited by all these giveaways this week!  I'm hosting a different giveaway every day this week, Monday to Friday, so do pop back for more!

Today, I'm pleased to be teaming up with Abakhan who are offering 3 vouchers, effectively tripling your chances of winning!  Each voucher is for £20 and if you are one of the lucky winners you can spend your voucher on whatever you like from their website.

strawberry fabric from Abakhan

I have plans for this fabric ...
it might be cold right now but I'm thinking summer picnics!

Abakhan have long been one of my favourite fabric shops (I love that I'm close enough for a special trip every so often to their North Wales branch) but they don't just sell fabrics.  There's a whole lot in the way of craft supplies too: if knitting, felting, crochet, beading or jewellery-making just happens to be your thing, you'll probably find something you love!

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning a £20 voucher is this:

Leave a comment on this post, telling me what you would make if you won.

It's that simple!

What are you waiting for?  Pop over to Abakhan for a browse and some inspiration, and pop back here to leave your comment.

Winners will be drawn Thursday 31st January at noon UK time and announced on this blog soon afterwards.

This particular giveaway is only open to people in the UK.  Check here for yesterday's giveaway if you missed it - and don't forget to pop back tomorrow for another!

Learning to Sew

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you'll know that I am teaching my 10-year-old granddaughter to sew.  She's a really enthusiastic student (I hope that enthusiasm translates to school subjects too!) but we've had problems fitting "lessons" into a schedule - especially with Christmas being so busy.  Still, all that's over for another year!

Keira can sew in a reasonably straight line using my machine and has made a few things already - she is justifiably quite proud of her makes.  We're moving onto bags (at her request) and this is where Abakhan comes in.  They have a huge range of fabrics, so...

I've ordered this gorgeous retro turquoise fabric which was kind of my starting point.  Then I noticed this cute butterfly fabric picked up some of the same colours:

and the lilac gingham might tie it all together. Pretty much everything is reduced at the moment, too!

A metre each of all this all comes in - even with interfacing - at under £15.  I expect we'll each get a lined tote bag from it, and even accounting for internal and external pockets, there will be fabric left over for other projects (purses, key rings, phone pouches, maybe?).  It's all a little bit girlier than my usual style, but I suspect it's exactly the right level of girliness for Keira!

I must admit, the fabrics all feel very summery and I think that working on something like this when the days are short and cold gives you that feeling of looking forward to a lovely summer (even if the reality can be a bit of a wet let-down here in the UK!).

This is part of Abakhan's monthly £15 challenge, and Abakhan are kindly supplying this fabric.  I can't wait - fortunately their delivery times are pretty quick.

The Beach Huts Bag

I think I figured that this bag might possess magical properties.  I thought when it was finished, the rain would stop and summer would finally stop being so shy.

 I think maybe I was wrong.

However, I do love the bag and it helps me remember that we're in July and not November, even if the weather hasn't quite worked it out yet.

It fits quite a lot of parcels in.  The parcel at the top of the photo has a square 14" (35 cm) canvas inside it, so it's quite roomy.

I might make a second bag for overflow and smaller parcels.  I should have planned this better, as I used up all the leftover fabric to make cushions.  I got a blue check cushion and a red stripe cushion from the bag fabric and the beach huts cushion was made from scraps from this project and others.

I also made a keyring (although I think it needs a run through a washing machine to fray the edges and shabby the whole thing up a little!)

Back to the bag...

I made plenty of internal pockets.  This may be the last time they're ever empty.

And there's a big external pocket too

which will work well for stuffing magazines in for flicking through on the beach on days off (well, a girl can dream can't she?) as I think this would make an excellent beach bag.  In fact, it would make a better beach bag than a taking-parcels-to-the-post-office-and-shopping-afterwards bag, which is what I made it for.

I used a Tesco bag as my size template, although I wish I'd made the handles slightly longer for over-the-shoulder wearing (much better for beach bags, I think).

I do like the slouchiness of the bag - it's two layers of cotton, so has a very nice feel.

Look at the depth of the bag - lots of room.

I like those buttons on the strap!  I was a bit worried about whether this stap would work - ideally, I would've picked cotton webbing but there was only acrylic webbing available.  I needn't have worried, it has a nice soft feel to it and makes an excellent substitute (not harsh to the touch like some synthetic webbings).

I like the beach huts on the front and the red stripe was just perfect for this project. 

The fabrics for this bag were kindly supplied by Abakhan as part of their £15 budget challenge.  I think I did rather well out of my £15 this month: a bag, three cushions and my little keyring.  Do pop over to Abakhan - you may be surprised at just how far your money can go.

Yes, there are still a few scraps left.  They may make a surprise appearance again somewhere soon.

P.S.  Sorry, I know I promised to post this on Tuesday and today is Wednesday.  There's not really any excuse, except Tuesday turned into one of those days when time disappears far too quickly and important stuff pops up needing to be done.  But there was also some excellent news, which I will share once I know more!

Hello, New Fabric!

It's always exciting when a parcel arrives in the post isn't it?

This one got lost along the way and spent a day or two hanging out with the people who live next-door-but-one.  Ironically, they were out when it arrived and it was left in a plantpot in their back garden (I was probably in at the time).

Still, it got here in one piece . . .

and this is what I chose for my next £15 budget challenge from Abakhan: a metre each of contrasting fabric, buttons, webbing and a magnetic fastener.  I'll be making a beach bag/shopping bag - with beach huts on the front (that's what inspired the red and white stripe!).  OK, so there's way too many buttons for this project but they'll certainly not go unused for long!  I'm adding a little bit of fabric from my stash, but probably not much.

The real purpose of this bag will be as my post office bag.  The post office run is a daily one here and most of my shopping bags are a bit too small to be useful so I'm usually to be seen carrying an outsize Tesco bag.

I'd think I'd rather have one with beach huts on!

The Laptop/Art Bag that Thinks it's a Travel Bag

I made this bag as part of Abakhan's £15 budget challenge.

Abakhan kindly provided me with £15 worth of materials (which rather confusingly ended up being a bit more - my fault, I confuse easily!) and I made this bag.  To be fair, I added some plain calico from my own stash to make the fabrics go further, a great ploy when you're on a budget.  The buttons were all from my own button box too.  I chose some lovely fabrics from Abakan - the leaf and stripe are actually heavy cotton curtain fabric - perfect for bag making!  As per usual, they arrived promptly.

Because everything was 100% cotton and I wanted this bag to be machine washable, everything had a whizz in the washing machine before I started.  It softened the cotton up beautifully. 

I wanted a bag that would safely house my laptop but into which I could stuff lots of other things too - a travel bag or weekend bag, if you like, although it may well end up being called the Agnes bag (more about that here) after my Mum.

I wanted to make this bag as a tutorial or pattern, but I'm not yet fully happy with the way the central pocket joins up to the rest of the bag - it works, but it's a bit on the fiddly side and I think there's got to be an easier way to do this!

 I've also decided the laptop pocket needs a closure: buttons and loops or Velcro are options, but I might go back to my original plan of a simple zip.  I abandoned the zip idea because of the over-complicated central pocket join. So, this bag, while I'm going to really enjoy using it, is really the practice-run/learning curve for another, super-improved bag.  I shall need a break and some thinking space before I tackle version two though!

this join is the bit I'm not happy with - where the centre pocket joins the rest of the bag

Despite a few niggles, there are some things I really love about this bag:

• The soft, natural scrunchiness.  The fact its main outer part is made from two layers of heavy but soft cotton makes it feel just lovely: very soft and quite squishy.

• The cosiness.  The internal pockets are padded (the idea of those is to help protect the laptop in the middle pocket) which makes the bag even softer and squishier with quite a luxurious feel.

• The colours.  I love pale duck-egg blue with red and white and it's nodding at the patriotic too in this Jubilee/Olympics year.

• The pockets - there are so many of them! The Kindle pocket is (sensibly, I think) next to my glasses pocket (yay, an actual pocket for my glasses - I'm always losing them!), the zip pocket will fit my pencils, pens and even a 12" ruler.  Oh joy (I'm easily pleased!).  Pockets either side of the laptop pocket will fit an A4 sketchpad and an even bigger pad, too.

zip pocket for pencils pens and even a 12" ruler

• It can be used even when I don't want to take my laptop along - the bag works as a travel bag or weekend bag and doesn't look at all like a laptop bag, which I like.  In a darkish corner of my mind, I imagine that travelling with what obviously looks like a laptop bag might just make you a target for muggers, if there just happens to be any hanging about looking for their next victim. I'd guess the muggers wouldn't look twice at my squishy fabric concoction!  Maybe this is just me, and is a legacy of many years working in prison education.  However, I feel quite safe sharing the information that this bag might house my laptop when I'm travelling, because muggers surely don't read craft blogs.  

For extra security the bag can be worn cross-body!

• The buttons on the front.  When I design something, I don't always have it all mapped out at the start.  In fact, I'm quite bad at that, and usually make things up as I go along - it's the same when I'm painting.  This button heart was a last-minute addition and I love it!

 So, if you're inpired to make a bag using these fabrics, you'll find the Leaf pattern (Covent Garden) and the stripe (Metro Stripe) on the curtain fabrics pages at Abakhan and the dotty fabric I used is on the cotton prints pages. They all come in other colourways too.  Usefully, Abakhan also sells wadding, zips and buttons so you may get everything you need in one place and delivery is quick (well, it certainly always has been for me).

There are loads of bag patterns on Craftsy, so you may find one you like (or can adapt) on there.  Meanwhile, I will at some point polish this design up a bit before I offer it you as a pattern or tutorial!

As modelled by my lovely daughter and granddaughter...

 So, Mum, can I get in on this modelling lark too?

Lovely, let's lean against this wall and pretend we're waiting for a train.

OK, I've had enough now.  Let's go.

P.S. I'd love at some point to offer this as a pattern or tutorial, so I'd love feedback from others who might use a bag like this:

• what would you like to see in a laptop/travel bag?

• what bits do you like/not like about this bag?

• what would you need to house in a bag like this?

As usual, please do leave a comment - I'd love to read your feedback.