My Christmas presents to myself.

A few weeks ago i completed a tote bag and sent it off to its new home. I liked the pattern and design that much that I wanted to make one for myself. I had bought two pieces of fabric at the same time with one for me, the fabric was on sale for $5 a metre, very good price as it was quilting fabric, anyway I bought half a metre of each. (usually around $18/20 a metre)

There seemed to be quite a bit of fabric left over so I made a shopping bag to go inside the tote and I covered a book as well, which will also be used/carried in the tote.

I didn't have enough black to cut the handles for the tote on the basis so it has the bicycle fabric for handles. The shopping bag has black handles which was cut on the straight and it has rounded corners at the bottom. i did have to piece to pieces together to get enough to cover the book/dairy, a couple of the wheels are a little elongated but from a half a metre of fabric, it was good value. i think there is enough scraps to make a coin purse as well. I love the colours and as this is the only bag i will be taking on our trip, it will get a lot of use. 

Spotlight Visit

I wore a new top the other day and I really liked the style so I paid a visit to Spotlight to buy a pattern that was similar. I haven't made myself anything for awhile but I do have plenty of fabric.

These are the patterns that I bought, two for me and two kids ones. A friend of mine makes kids pjs for a charity and I have thought that I could do that as well, but I didn't have a suitable pattern.

Oops, I did buy some fabric as well (they did have a sale on!) and I promised myself that I would make the pieces up as soon as possible.

This morning I washed the fabric (I always wash it before cutting in to it) and cut out the patterns while they were drying.

Patterns always look daunting at first so much paper. It is a multi sized pattern and I decided to go for the medium size which is for seven to eight year old, I can easily go one size smaller or one larger.

I selected this one to make first.

Yay, finished just before the footy started. I do have to sew buttons and button holes but that means changing things on my sewing machine so will do all the button holes at the one time. I hope to make another couple of pairs before I start on my tops next weekend. My challenge is to have all four new pieces of material made up before next term starts, that gives me three weeks.

20% off

That is a good marketing ploy/trick call it what you want. I am a member of Spotlight, it was free to join so I did a few years ago. Spotlight sells homewares and all things to do with fabric/materials. Membership gives me a small percentage off what I buy in store when I produce my card and I am sent their brochure every couple of months.

The last one I received had a scratch card on the front, probably about nine panels to scratch and reveal a number underneath, get three the same and that was how much would be given off the next purchase provided it was in the next two weeks.

My first three I scratched showed up 20% on each one, yippee! think of all the things I could buy and get 20% off. What a bargain! Hang on a minute, I did not need or want anything, I am trying to reduce the things in the house and the stash of fabric in my sewing so why on earth would I go and buy more? Yep, that's right so I can get that discount!

Good sense prevailed and I didn't go shopping and card now has expired but I'm sure that others would be drawn in.

Make mend and reuse

On our last trip out in the caravan, we spent more time in the evenings sitting in the van on the seats because it was dark and cold earlier.

I found the seats got very hard very quickly and suggested that we buy some new foam for the seats. The van being a 1974 or 76 model and I am sure the seats have not been upgraded in all that time.

We took one cushion down to Clark Rubber to compare and also to see if they could supply it Yep they could and would cut it to size if we gave them the measurements.

The foam on the left is the old one and does look worse for wear As I have recovered the seats only last year, I wanted to be able to use the same materials and I didn't want to have to buy more so had to take the covers off carefully so that they could be reused. Luckily I had made them like a slip cover and had laced the back with strong cotton so that it would "give" when people sat on it, making it easy to remove.

The green foam on the right is the new stuff and I wanted to completely cover that before putting on the outer cover.

The one on the left has been covered, I used fabric that has been in my stash for several years. I actually bought this to make a skirt and jacket. It is a pale pink and I never wear that colour, probably one of the reasons it was still in my stash. It is gabardine so easy to work with but quite sturdy, very suitable for seats covers. To make it fit snugly, I sewed up three sides and with Warren we "dressed" the foam and then I hand sewed the ends closed. My fingers were quite sore for a couple of days after from pushing and pulling the needle through the material.

The one of the right is the final result. We now have four seats,three making up the lounge/dining area and one (the one above) will fill on top of a table if we ever want to make it into a double/single bed.

Before we did have three smaller pieces but they moved a fair bit but this one is made to fit. I did had to put a seam down the middle to get enough from the three to make one big cover.

Warren will use the old foam for practice at archery.  

My own design.

As I don't usually sew very much for myself now, I sew and knit for a charity. Some of the things that they use a lot of, is tampons. The charity is mainly for women who have left their homes for some reason. I had bought some tampons to send the last time that I sent a box but in the end it didnt fit in. I was left with this box and of course I ended up with pieces of materials from other projects. Too big to throw out but really too small to make clothes or anything.

I had made book covers for the same charity using up some materials. A book cover takes two pieces about 18 inches X 10 inches. I find inches n this case easier to work with and my tape measure has inches on one side and cms on the other.

I didn't even measure these, I just used a piece of paper for a pattern, then cut two pieces of fabric and sewed together then folded up and stitched the "pocket" and then stitched the top over, that was stitched to keep it down and then I sewed a button on to give a bit of weight and interest. The group prefers things that can become a person's own, so I don't make anything that is the same, buttons and trimmed make them different to each other.

Bits left over went in the bin, there was very little left. The pouches hold four tampons and I made ten yesterday. Handy to put in a pocket or handbag and enough for a day trip out

Shoe bags

One of my challenges is to reduce my stash of fabric and I do have several tubs of material in my sewing room. Earlier in the year I made book covers and Japanese knot bags, both were a lot of fun to make and I donated them to charity, therefore using up some fabric.

I rarely make anything for myself to wear anymore, one because its takes so long and two because its actually cheaper to buy ready made.

A girl friend of mine was mentioning a few weeks ago that she hates packing her shoes in plastic bags when they travel anywhere and suggested shoe bags would be a good thing.

As they will be travelling back to their home country soon after being away for a fair time and having two seasons of clothes and of course shoes, I wanted to make some shoe bags for her and her hubby.

No real idea of how to make one at first but I used the design of the Knot bag and cut out a circle by running a pen around a plate that I have and thought it would be an ideal size. Next I measured around the circle as I needed that much material to join and then finally I looked at the length of the bag. Some of the first ones were a bit big so I cut them down in size, bag was finished by sewing a piece of cord in at the top making it a drawstring.

I used up some fabric and even found two difference colours of cord, goodness knows what I bought them for or when. I have made about a dozen bags and I packed a postage bag with seven or eight and posted off to my friend, should arrive in a few days. I will make a couple more for us to use with we travel.

French seams

What do you know, I remembered and used something that I was taught quite a few years ago, almost fifty if my maths is right.

A few weeks ago, I decided to make myself a pair of shortie pjs. i had a nice piece of fabric that was suitable in colours that I like, mauve and pinks and blues, it was a mishmash of colours but it worked. I had to be a bit inventive in cutting out as again I had bought the fabric because I liked it not with any plan in mind at the time so it really wasn't quite enough.

Because of the type of fabric, some of the seams pulled out and others unravelled after a couple of washes. While they was nice and I had spent time and effort to make it, it was going to take much more time and effort to mend and fix, I binned them.

Sometimes I can let things go and other times I am determined to make something work, this was an other time, so next time I was at Spotlight I bought some more silky type fabric suitable for night wear. I figured that I had to make the seams stronger so that they didn't pull out of the stitches.

Light Bulb moment. Wayyyy way back when I was at High School and learning dressmaking we did have a small unit about French Seams that could and should be used for light material.

I proceeded to cut out the pattern leaving extra on the seams so that I could execute French seams, so far so good for the top. I aim to finish it and the shorts today and have photos later.

A french seam is sewing the wrong sides together at first and then turning and sew another seam on top enclosing the first seam.

The material that I chose was in the bargain bin and therefore cheaper, I wanted one and a half metres I thought would be enough however if I bought the whole roll or what was left on the roll, it was 50% off, not one to pass up a discount and there was only three and a half metres left, I bought the lot. I will make kids boxers for the excess for the charity that I support, the fabric is dark blue with small polka dots

My holiday challenge

I set myself a challenge for the holidays and as my work week starts to tomorrow, I guess it is the finish of the challenge.

I wanted to make one item per day out of my stash of materials, I did go and buy some patterns, I wanted one but as they were on sale for $5 I bought several.

There are three pop over jumper, two had been made/knitted but not sewn up and there was a pair of pants waiting for hems, I have included those.

Tally is seven pairs of long pants, three silk pjs, four pairs of shorts, five dresses and one jacket (this was an UFO) and the three knitted pop overs, one I knitted at night and it not in the picture so I think that is 23 items. Another dress is half done but will not be finishing it until the weekend. 

A good challenge and one that I enjoyed and I have emptied one of my boxes of fabric, only six more to go.