Goodies Galore!!! Like Mother, Like Daughter

Hi again.

This is going to be a fairly long post so I suggest before you sit down to read it that you grab a cup of your favourite drink and then come back and relax.

It was about a couple of weeks ago that I went to stay with my daughter for a few days. They have to be the most exhausting days I've ever had. What with visiting the doctors for my routine checks, going to the craft fair to sell our things and then all the shopping we did not to mention that I took some orders whilst I was there and was sewing like crazy to finish them. I've only shown you my share, my daughter bought loads too.

Remember I did a post HERE about the wallets and fabric baskets I made. Well the day after I arrived we got up at 5am to leave the house at 6am to be ready to set up at the craft fair. My daughter took loads of her things and I took mine. We were there till about 4pm and some of my wallets sold but the fabric baskets didn't although they attracted lots of attention. My daughter on the other hand had an excellent day. I'm so proud of her. The large wallets in the photo below are her work along with matching fabric earrings and rings you can see at the back.

She also works in a little shop a couple of days a week run by a young lady who loves all things vintage and had said I could put the remainder of my things there to sell. Good move becasue the fabric baskets all went the first day except for one and that one too has sold now. I got permission from the girl to take photos of her shop to post on my blog so I could share them with you. The shops name is Olive.

Panta who owns the shop also makes some gorgeous boxes, magazine racks, wooden key holders, like the one on the left on the wall, the front has a hinged door that opens up to hang your keys, little wooden chest of draws, trays and mirrors. So pretty.

You can see her things better in this photo. Isn't that little sewing machine so cute. The wallets at the front are my daughter and mine. Hers are the larger ones and on the left bottom corner there are watches with long fabric straps which are also made by my daughter. They go like hotcakes. 

Here is some of Panta's work.

See the little red polkadot fabric basket in the picture below. That was the last one that was left that I was telling you about.

These are some of the wallets my daughter sells in the shop and a few of the things that I make too. You might recognize some from previous posts.

In the shop there's also a selection of gift boxes and jewelery made by Panta.

It was from this little shop that my daughter saw a box before I arrived and bought it for me. It's the blue one in the photo below. I was absolutely delighted with it so ordered the pink pen holder from Panta which she kindly made in time for when I left. I'm going to be redoing my sewing room very soon in the future and it's going to be pink and blue inspired by these two purchases.

Now I had decided on the colour scheme I was on the look out for other things to add to my room and came across these two polkadot dishes that I wanted for keeping pins at the side of each of my sewing machines.

I just couldn't resist the green bag which I use to keep my tiny scissors and seam ripper.
Now I'm on the look out for curtain fabric to match my new goodies. Not as easy as I thought as I can't get the right colour pink.

I mentioned that I took an order while I was away and was busy sewing. These hearts were for the 'Olive' shop and I also had eighteen cushions made up in the same fabrics as the hearts but forgot to take photos of those. The fabrics were provided by Panta the shop owner and she also told me where I could buy them. Wait till you see what I bought. LOLL You may wonder why all the excitement but you see for those of you that don't know I live in the Middle East and can't get hold of these kinds of fabrics so when she told me about them I was bursting with excitement.

The red ones are made from felt.

 

Finally my purchases. Thirteen meters of fabric. I went over my budged and my daughter had to practically drag me out of the shop. She wouldn't let me check out any others after I bought these or else I'd have emptied my bank account LOLLL

The ones that got me really excited though were the three cupcake fabrics below and I also loved the hexi fabric. The blue one in the top right hand photo below has an apron print on it. So pretty and the quality is gorgeous. Ladies that do quilting abroad are so lucky to have these kind of fabrics. I won't be making anything to sell from these fabrics. They're just for me LOL

I also found felt sold by the meter and in every colour of the rainbow but just bought red and green. I must have been thinking of Christmas. I also bought reels of ribbon and lace and the acrylic colours my daughter gave me from when she was at uni.

Another thing I needed was zips. I bought 100 9" zips and 50 21" zips. One thing I would have loved to find but couldn't were the lace zips I've been seeing alot of on the web lately.

These I didn't buy, my daughter had them in her stash and gave them to me. Isn't it wonderful having a daughter who shares the same work and interests. The colour of the plain one didn't come out very well, it's should be a light greenish yellow, a bit like the colour of English mustard.

And she also gave me some of her scraps.

And that's it. Only other thing I didn't mention I bought was loads of white fabric in the top left hand corner of the photo below under the dark green one my daughter gave me and a pot of blackboard paint that I can't wait to start using.

Phew!!!! Did you manage to stay with me to the end. I should have taken my own advice and brought a cup of tea with me before I sat to write this post. Thanks for hanging in there.

I'm busy making things for the Olive Shop and my daughter will hopefully come in about three weeks time so I can hand them over to her. It will also be near my birthday and she has promised to buy me more fabric like the ones I showed you. I can hardly wait.

You probably won't hear form me for a few days until further test patterns are released. Did I hear a sigh of relief. LOLL

Thanks again for stopping by. I had so much fun sharing this post with you and hope you enjoyed it too.

Happy Sewing until the next time.

~ Maria ~

The Mississippi Bag

I'm back again with yet another bag that I made a few days ago but had to go onto the blogging queue. Today I'm going to show you The Mississippi Bag I made.

It was back in August when I came across Sarah Goodall's bag patterns at Numbskull Patterns and did a post about it HERE. I begged her to let me be one of her testers and she agreed. Sarah also let me choose one of her patterns to try out before I started testing and I chose this one.
Isn't it a beautiful design. When I first saw the pattern I kind of sighed and thought 'no photos'. I'm a visual sewer so love loads of colourful photos of the steps but as I read on and then started making the bag was really surprised at how well written the pattern was. All the instructions are in perfect order with clear digital illustrations and what I really loved is that there's a pattern piece for every part of the bag, even the strap which I hate having to measure out. Another thing I liked about the pattern was that each step flowed into the next, there was no making a certain part of the bag and then putting it to one side to use again later on.

There are two version to the bag, you can choose to quilt it as I did or leave it plain. Sarah's bag is quilted in a cross over line design and there is a free download on instructions on how to do that too. I chose to do mine in wavy lines becasue I'm lazy and couldn't be bothered to be accurate doing the cross over lines but I'm really pleased with the result.
Under the main flap that has a button closure there is a slip pocket with a another flap and button closure. I have a press at home so made these fabric buttons to match the bag.

 If you wanted you could put this slip pocket onto the back of the bag.

 I love the wavy quilting and will be using this more often.

I take awful photos of the inside of bags. This bag has a large slip pocket inside and you can't see from the photos but it's the exact same shape as the slip pocket and main flap as the outside of the bag. 

Today I finished testing my first bag for Sarah and it's another beauty. I'll be able to show you that one as soon as all the testers have finished making the bag and the pattern is released.

I've still got a few more things to show you but have to wait for pattern releases on those so tomorrow I'll be back her again, are you sick of the sight of me yet LOLL, to show you what I bought while I was away visiting my daughter.

Hope you'll be back
Happy Sewing

~ Maria ~

The Spectrum Tote Pattern Review

Yet another bag to show you. This one is The Spectrum Tote by Sarah Gido at Cozy Nest Design.

About three days before I was leaving to visit my daughter Sarah asked who would like to test this bag. Too late to start testing a bag so I'm doing a review of the pattern. I did get it finished before I left but that's becasue I wasn't having to check the pattern for any possible errors. Sarah's inspiration came from a set of paint samples.

Here's mine.

As soon as I saw the pattern I fell in love with it. This was the perfect bag for me becasue it was a bag, of course, but it was also pieced like a quilt.

I thought I'd have to measure out all the pieces as in quilting but Sarah took care of everything, each piece had it's own pattern but before I could start cutting out the pieces I had to stick all the pattern sheets together and ended up with this. Quite a lot hey, but then it is a large tote measuring 18W x 15H (26" with handles) x 4"D
There are 33 pages of instructions, pattern sheets and cutting labels so you don't get anything mixed up and if you're worried about doing bias binding for the handle, no need to be becasue Sarah has even included pattern pieces for that too. So nothing to calculate just cut it out and sew it up. Couldn't be easier.

Although Sarah's bag wasn't quilted I decided I wanted to do mine with straight lines. Some of the testers also quilted theirs. I quilted each piece slightly different.

I wanted a smaller hook for the key chain but it was the only one I had. There's no chance of loosing keys in this large tote.

I didn't get good photos of the inside of my bag but there's a large zipper pocket on one side and two really cute rounded slip pockets on the other. I just did the zipper pocket. The bag also has a magnetic snap main closure.

The pattern is really easy to follow with digital diagrams to help you put it together but what I really like about it is there are links to online tutorials showing step by step photos of how to make the zipper pocket, boxing the corners and inserting a magnetic snap.
The testers did a great job of their bags and came up with so many colour and fabric combinations from plain to florals. It's big enough to take shopping to hide your fabric purchases LOLL or can even be used as a beach bag. This bag offers so many opportunities to put your own stamp on it. I definitely recommend making it. This was originally going to be mine but when my daughter saw it, it stayed with her. Good excuse to make another one though.

To see the testers bags go HERE and you can buy the pattern HERE.

You probably think I don't have anything more to post about. Well it's a busy month and tomorrow I'll be showing you yet another bag I made a few days ago. Today I completed another test bag which I'll share as soon as the pattern is releases and I still have to post about my trip away and all the lovely things I bought. So keep checking back.

Thanks to Sarah Gido for letting me do a pattern review and just in case you're wondering I'm not affiliated to Cosy Nest Designs the only thing I get out of it is a free pattern and loads of fun sewing it up.

Happy Sewing

~ Maria ~

Necessary Cluch Wallet #8 A Gift For A Friend

My friend Samantha Hussey is expecting a baby girl any time now and she's been very quiet today so for all I know she could be in labor.
Some time ago I saw her mention that she'd love a Necessary Clutch Wallet that she could use across the body. I had been wondering what to send as a gift for her new baby daughter and suddenly thought I'd make the wallet for her instead.

I figured baby Elvis would be getting loads of gifts and poor mum would hardly get any. Such a shame after all the hard work of pregnancy and finally delivery so I decided a gift for Samantha would be better. I made the wallet over 2 weeks ago but had to wait until it arrived in Wales and not England like I wrote on the parcel. The postman was probably not too pleased LOLL

This is the eighth Necessary Clutch Wallet I've made but the first one with a strap and it happens to be my favourite one of them all.

I love the pretty floral fabric, very feminine. It had to be pink becasue she's having a girl.

I love this wallet design and never tire of making it. I really need to make one for myself.

 It has so much room for all the bits and pieces that you carry. Loads of space for cards, cash, lipstick, keys and even your cell phone.

Janelle has a tutorial for adding a long strap or a small one to use as a wristlet. The tutorial is different to how I made mine. Can you believe there's a FB group for this wallet and it was on there that I saw this way of doing the strap.

I highly recommend this wallet, if you would like to make one you can buy the Necessary Clutch Wallet HERE and Janelle also stocks bag supplies and hardware.

Keep checking back as I still have loads more to show you.

Happy Sewing

~ Maria ~

Drawstring Sling Bag

Before I went away to visit my daughter this bag came in for testing. I didn't have time to make it before leaving so yesterday quickly started making it.

The Drawstring Sling Bag is designed by Gary Fletcher at Fashion Clique. This bag was really easy and quick to make up with endless possibilities. Check out the other testers bags HERE they all look great and very individual. The bag features a roomy interior, draw string closure and a magnetic clasp and flap. The finished dimensions are approx. 11" H x 10" W x 8" D.There were no pockets inside so I added a couple of slip pockets to hold my cell phone. You could add a zipper pocket if you wanted to.

My bag is pretty plain so I decided to do some wavy quilting on it. I love how it turned out.

This is the underside of the bag.

I made the drawstring red to match the stitching on the flap. I think it brightens it up a bit.

The pattern uses bias binding around the top of the bag which is a nice feature but I wanted to make mine quicker so used the turn inside out method by leaving a gap in the lining seam.

This is the first time I've installed eyelets and was surprised at how easy it was.

This is a great bag for a confident beginner. As you can see there is only one seam at the back and if you're worried about getting the oval bottom to fit the body of the bag then don't becasue the pieces fit perfectly.

This is the first bag pattern released on Gary's new site HERE and if you'd like a copy there is 10% discount. Just use this code 10off to get your discount.

Thanks for dropping by and hope you'll come back tomorrow when I'll be showing you yet another bag.

Happy Sewing

~ Maria ~