My finished pleated and pocketed bag!

I'm so pleased with how this came out! It's taken me about 6 hours, I guess; maybe a little more. And it's almost 1.30am right now. But I had to finish it! Here's some photos and I'll link to the tutorial later:

One side:

The other side, with the reclaimed dress fabric:

The inside, showing pockets on each side (yes, pockets!) made from the same fabric as the outside.

Bag project

I've decided the next project will be a bag, and I'm going to reclaim some fabric from a kid's dress for part of it - that's my next job!

Editing to add a few photos of my progress so far - excited as it's coming together well! Too late to continue tonight, so tomorrow is "learn how to use interfacing for the first time" day, plus I need to figure out how to make pockets to go inside :-)

First is the material I have reclaimed from a dress:

Next we have the bag, inside out, where I have attached the top contrast strip:

And here it is, showing part of the other side and my lining/interfacing underneath, ready to be assembled tomorrow:

A quiet few days

It's been a craft-quiet few days at home, although I have been browsing pinterest for inspiration. I'm going to be going through all my fabric over the weekend and see what I fancy making next.

Any suggestions for the next project?

My first clothing alteration!

It had to happen at some point... I needed to alter some clothes! The largest small one had ruined her shirt cuffs so I decided to turn her long sleeved shirt into a short sleeved one. It actually turned out ok, but it's awkward as Hell! I used one of her current short sleeved shirts to check length/hem etc

Patchwork placemats

Here's some placemats I put together this evening, using fabric samples and donated pieces of material, along with my trusty fleece blanket as batting! Thanks to this tutorial here.

I definitely need to get some interfacing as this will be much easier to manage than the fleece.

I think a full set of these, plus matching coasters, could make nice gifts :-)

Here's both of them together:

Here's the back:

Here's a closer shot of the patchwork:

Coasters!

I've managed to braid and sew 1 sock yarn coaster this evening, along with playing around with some free samples of fabric I received to make another "normal" style coaster. This was pretty easy to do, except for the fact that I sewed the material together in the wrong order to start with, meaning I had to unpick! Plus, I learnt NOT to start sewing in a corner, but to start mid edge; that way, you don't have tiny wisps of fabric poking up in the corner when you come to finish up.... I'll get it right next time!

Anyway, here's a pic of the 2 coasters I made tonight. The 1st one has a plain back. I'd like to add a back to the braided one, but I don't really know where to start.... it's too thick to go under the sewing machine foot!

Odd sock project update

Ball #2 complete. That is all.

Odd sock project

I have a large box of odd socks, and thought I really ought be able to make something out of them - something that is not sock puppets! I have been pondering it for a day or so, and realised I could probably cut them so that they ended up as strips of fabric. My plan is to turn them all into strips, then turn them into a braided rag rug!

I'm following the tutorial here, but mine will have a twist as it'll be made out of socks :-) It'll probably take me a while to have enough strips to make a decent sized rug but I've made a start.

You can see in the photo some of the stripy socks from my "stash", plus a ball of sock strips which I have joined together.

Project #2

So I fancied something a bit quicker tonight, for satisfaction purposes, and I found this quick phone "snug" tutorial over on Squidoo. It took me about 40 minutes in total, and that's longer than it should have as I made the seam allowances too large on the first go, meaning I had to unpick! I finished it off and my phone only just fits, so I think I will have a go at making another. Also I'm not too happy with how the seam came out on one side so practice will hopefully make perfect :-)

PS It's the same fabric I used for the kindle cover as that's what I had to hand!

My finished patchwork Kindle cover

So I decided not to do the top stitching (Elizabeth from the blog mentioned below suggested kindly that it would not matter) - I added a button from my random collection (must get some more) and it's done! I've added a couple of pics below - sadly I do not have a Kindle; this is a gift for my mum!

I used some scraps I had, plus an old fleece for the batting, then I even had a go at basic quilting... It all went a little wonky, but I got there in the end!