Felt and Fabric

I ordered some stuff to make some tote bags - I'm playing around with ideas for my etsy shop that I'd like to open in November.

I ordered some organic cotton from Funky Fabrix, and some beautiful felt from Winterwood. I bought the commercially dyed felt, but may try some hand dyed felt next time, it looks gorgeous.

I've been struggling with a cold for the last couple of days, but today I bought a desk. We don't have a car, but the shop let us borrow a trolley, which we used to wheel the flat pack boxes home. I then spent the whole afternoon building the desk, while The Boy baked banana bran muffins! I've started putting all my crafting supplies on the desk, but will work more on that tomorrow.

Tonight I think it will be an early night, I hate feeling all stuffed up!

I love it!

Okay, I'm a bit behind, I've made a dress that I am so pleased with, and actually wore to the races, have done some more on my maxi-dress, and made a new camera cover.

I WILL blog about all these soon, with pics and details. But this is just a quick post about new Echino fabric! It really is my favourite, I love the colours and designs.

Check it out at Phat Fabric.

Wouldn't this be a gorgeous skirt?

Tote Bag

I sewed this tote bag out of the gorgeous Echino fabric. I absolutely love this fabric - the colours, the texture (it feels coarser, like linen), and the graphics, especially the tiger.

This bag will be used for all the stuff that doesn't fit in my handbag! I always need an extra bag for work, to put in my book, lunch, and travel mug of coffee.

I also put a little pocket in, for my weekly train ticket. For the pattern, I just traced the size of my tote bag I already use, and sewed it up. I used some plain pink cotton I had as lining - this fabic is from my university days, I wore it as a toga at a toga party! I finally found another use for it!

My Package Arrives!

Today my order from Kelani Fabric arrived. It is the first time I've ordered fabric online, and I'm really pleased. The fabrics are beautiful, and I've already been busy sewing with one of them...

Camera Cozy

Today I finished the camera cozy I started a couple of weeks ago. I used this tutorial from Sew Mad. Although it wasn't too difficult, there were a few bits that I didnt understand, and took a while to work out. But finally, it is finished!





I used some quilting cotton that I bought from Spotlight for the outside, and the good ol' apron fabric for the lining.

Overall, I'm fairly pleased, I think this was a step up in my sewing skills. A few things I would change for next time:

1. Use thinner batting if possible
2. Make the closing flap longer (mine isn't long enough, and you can see the velcro)



I've also been working on Bobble Blue, the sweater I'm knitting. I was happily knitting away, thinking about how I should get back to knitting more, especially as I'm now at the stage where I can usually follow the pattern without having to stop and check how to do things all the time. And then, of course, I had to do buttonholes, which I've never done before. I tried to follow the instructions in the Interweave glossary, but it looks wrong the way I'm doing it, so I might look in my other books tomorrow.

Fabric Inspiration

I went to Miranda Lincraft today, they were having a sale with 50% off all fabric and dress patterns. It was the first time I'd been there since I bought my sewing machine.

All I ended up buying was a dress pattern. The fabric was so... uninspiring.

This evening I spent some time looking online, and found some amazing Australian sites selling beautiful fabrics.

Duckcloth

Kelani Fabric

Calico and Ivy

These all had such gorgeous designs - this is what I've been looking for!

Kitchen

Here are the gifts I made for my sister.





The Apron is made with the same pattern I used to make The Boy's, and the oven mit is from a book I got for Christmas - Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing. It's a great book with lots of lovely, simple projects.

Water Bottle Carrier

We had a really busy Christmas and New Year, so today I took advantage of my free time, and made a water bottle carrier today, using this tutorial at Pink Chalk Studio

I had bought a new Sigg water bottle, and have wanted to make a cover for it since stumbling on that website.

It was relatively quick and easy, I used bits from the apron I made my sister, and other scraps from bag linings.

The handle is made out of a trimming I found at my local fabric store, which is where I also bought the main fabric.

I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out.