Making the Tower Crossbody Bag

Making the Tower Crossbody Bag

Hi there and a little unexpected post that has slipped in between the upheaval in things here. We had expected our house move to go through any day and I was almost packing boxes and then the chain broke at the other end and everything is suddenly on hold again. It is unsettling and disappointing and infuriating and for a few days I was so fed up, I couldn’t settle to anything. But there is nothing like a little bag making and embroidery to calm things down and in sorting out my stash in the sewing room I had come across the last bit of a beautiful piece of raspberry coloured wool fabric that I had brought back from Stockholm.

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Making the Triple Threat Briefcase by Sew Sweetness (or my explorer bag)

Making the Triple Threat Briefcase by Sew Sweetness (or my explorer bag)

Well…. I hardly know where to start or how to contain my excitement about this one! It’s a WOW project and superb pattern. Bag making is something I enjoy once or twice a year - sometimes for someone else as a gift and sometimes I am motivated by what might be just really useful for myself. This is definitely the latter - it isn’t going anywhere!

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Review : Crimson & Clover Train Case by Sew Sweetness

Review : Crimson & Clover Train Case by Sew Sweetness

Hi everyone and welcome to the sewing room in 2020. New Years Resolutions….mmmm…..well, like most people, I never struggle to make them, but can I actually keep them, this is the question. This year, one of my resolutions is to use up some of my fabric stash. I sometimes wonder what on earth I am doing with so much fabric - I would have to live three lives concurrently to have any chance of using it all up and how tragic would it be not to use it - I love all of it. So I pulled down a plastic box from on top of my cupboard and inside were some remnants of home decorating fabrics. One of them was this really beautiful piece of silk taffeta fabric, which had been carefully folded and stored in tissue paper. It was one of the those lucky finds in a bucket somewhere long ago and has been periodically taken out of it’s hiding place, lovingly stroked but then put away because I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It has gorgeous floral brush strokes and pops of embroidery to highlight the flowers and has a sheen and exoticness all of its own.

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Making Amy Butler's Weekender Bag

Making Amy Butler's Weekender Bag

A while ago (actually 4 years to be precise) I made a ‘Weekender’ Bag from Amy Butler’s pattern. It was not an easy make, especially for someone like me who had never used piping before and is not all that comfortable with zips. It actually turned out remarkably well and I have used it plenty. It is not brilliant though and I have often thought about making another one …. with hindsight. Recently I saw on Instagram, a beautiful version made by ‘a.crafty.fox’ and was suddenly inspired to try again - helped by the fact that I am just finishing up my second ‘Shoreham’ quilt, I had a million scraps left over and figured the two were a match made in heaven….or is it hell.

So here we go again - a text print weekender bag…..take 2.

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