Phew! What a busy day!

First I took pictures of the bag I made my sister before posting it off to her as it was too late and dark when I finished it last night.  Sadly it doesn't stand up without anything in it as I didn't put interfacing in it, only a solid bottom, but don't you just love that print?

Bag lying flat, on the top left is the glass bead with white ribbon to use as a zip pull

Me holding the toiletry bag up to show the height, sneaky peek of Fizz in the background

Lining of the bag showing my label!

This was a bit of a nightmare to make as just as I thought I'd finished it I realised I'd done the corners at the bottom wrong and had to do some head scratching to get it to work.  It's done now and I'm pretty pleased with it, just hope she likes it!

Next I moved onto pimping my pumps!  See how I'm down with the young hip lingo?? ;)  Anyway, here's my revamped shoes:

Revamped shoes, aren't they cute?

I've taken the bows off the front and put them on the back of the shoes as think it's sweet

I've put three shell buttons on the front of each shoe in place of the bows, they're shiny

I like what I've done but wonder if I need to do a bit more to them, any suggestions?

Then I went to town to meet a Sew Weekly Sewing Circle buddy Marie and we went shopping for sewing things and talked lots!  Can't wait for the London meet up now!

Here's my finds for the day:

Taken the plunge and got self cover buttons for the Liverpool tunic dress

Vintage embroidered ribbon/sash that I can't wait to put on a dress it's just so pretty with the butterflies and the chrysanthemums

Close up of the embroidery

Was told by the shop owner this is from a 1920's silk dress.  Thinking of making it into a cute summer top.

So I was supposed to find some chocolate brown cord for a skirt but there was none to be found so this is what I came home with, slightly different...  I'm thinking I'll have to order it online as the usual suspects don't have any at the moment, it must be the most popular colour.

Hope you've had a fun and productive day!

Bias Tape Bag Make Over

After making the birthday present bag and it going down a treat posted here I thought I'd make one for myself, this time adding a zip as I thought I'd be adventurous!  I'd treated myself to some fat quarters in Amy Butler fabric, if you haven't seen her patterns please look her up as they're so bright and cheery they gladden my heart, and thought I'd make myself a bag from one of them.  I made the Prudent Baby pattern larger and added an extra pleat and inserted a 20cm zipper to the lining before sewing the lining and outer together.  If you look closely the zipper isn't quite centre but I'm happy with it as it's only the third zipper I've ever put in anything!

I'm just really glad my charity shop find sewing machine, that my mother-in-law found for £5 came with all the different feet to do fun and essential stuff!  I've still not tried the embroidery one or the leather one as I'm too skint to splash out on leather!  I also like to hand embroider as I've been learning from the lovely Sublime Stitching.

Anyhoo...I digress, here's a picture of my lovely bag to which I added a few brooches and made a little flower out of the left over bias tape and put a few sequins with it too as everything should have a bit of sparkle, I am a magpie you know!

Fizz wanted in on the action, thankfully I got the pictures before she tried to curl up on the bag

Here's the zipper open, I didn't have a yellow zip but like the bright colours together so don't mind

Then because I thought that wasn't adventurous enough and because I'd found a large scrap of what I can only describe as 'stiffner' as I don't know the proper name, I decided to make a flat bottomed bag with this stuff in to keep the shape.  It's like hessian but a few layers glued together so it's sturdy, answers on a post card please!  The only thing was because I was concentrating so much on getting the bottom right, and it's a little wonky, I completely forgot to put a zip in! D'oh!  It's ok though as I've got to make another four as they're all Christmas presents and shall post about them in more detail on the crafty Christmas club blog so maybe I'll get it all right by the fifth one!

As you can tell Fizz is an attention seeker

Here's the flat bottom of the bag

Busy Busy Busy

It's my boyfriend's brother's girlfriend's birthday (say that ten times fast) this month so decided as we couldn't think of what to get her to make her a handbag.  I wanted to make one like on Prudent Baby: Beginner's Bias Tape Bag with Free Downloadable Pattern
but I forgot to print out the pattern so I had to do it from memory, think it turned out just fine - take a look.  I added a fastening with a button and loop and can't decide whether to put a corsage on it or not...hmmm

I also made a feather headband for her, I cut two tear shapes from felt and then sewed on feathers in three layers.  I sewed the two pieces of felt together around the headband and then glued a sparkle to the bottom of the feathers to add an extra bit of glitz!  It's a bit tropical in colour but I think it's fun and made another for myself too as I just couldn't resist!

Well, I would show you the photos but the lovely Fizz has decided that the laptop case which holds the cable to transfer the pictures from the camera is her new bed.  As soon as she gets up I'll grab the cable, but as cats tend to sleep for about 20hrs per day I'm thinking my chances of getting the cable tonight are slim to nil.