Bit quiet around here isn’t it?!
This is the problem with making lots of presents for Christmas – you then can’t show off photos of them online because you never know quite who’s reading!
I also have a whole heap of half finished things and things that need photos taken of them, so I forsee a flurry of posts when I upload pictures to the computer, and another load once Christmas presents have been opened and they’re no longer secret.
I will return 🙂
I've paused in the recent bag making to tackle the toddler milestone that is toilet training!
And so I found myself in need of some kind of waterproof mat to use in the buggy or on the bus or train to contain any little accidents.
I had all the materials I needed from making other things recently, so measured the buggy as a starting point and away I went!
I used this pretty cotton for the top – fish and whales are quite popular in our house at the moment, so he has an added incentive to want to keep them dry.
Inside is bamboo fleece to absorb any little accidents, a layer of PUL to make it waterproof, and it's backed in fleece.
Here it is all finished and ready to go 🙂
OK, so this one isn't so new as I've made one before, right back when I learnt to crochet at the start of the year (see here), but I've just finished another one, and it is a bag, so I figure I can add it to my bag list 🙂
This one is for my niece's birthday in a few weeks time. She saw the one I made my sister and requested one of her own for her birthday.
It's actually a little bit smaller than the original. I misread the pattern at the very beginning so there were fewer stitches in each round, but since it's for a little person anyway we'll just pretend that I did that on purpose!
One finished owl bag ready to wrap and post 🙂
Another bag finished today – I think that puts me about a third of the way through my bag to-do list!
This bag has been on my list to make for over a year, when I bought the pattern and the material, and I finally dug it out of the cupboard last week to finish it.
This is another Made by Rae pattern. The original pattern is available free here, and there is also a larger version with a license to sell the bags that you can buy on the site too. This one that I have made is the larger version. The fabric is a Michael Miller print which I bought from an etsy seller.
I made mine with a zip rather than a magnetic clasp (which is what is in the instructions). I’m likely to lose everything in it when I inadvertently turn it upside down without a zip! To put the zip in I used an online tutorial I found here.
I made the buttons to go on the front using some of the material from the lining and a button covering tool:
The inside is spotty, with a little pocket – because you can never have too many pockets!
And this is it from the outside, all finished 🙂
I told you there’d be more bags didn’t I 🙂
I’ve discovered that for all those people that you don’t know what to buy – a bag is just right!
This one I made for my Mother-In-Law’s birthday. It comes from a pattern shop I found on etsy.
I’m quite impressed with how this one turned out. It’s my first attempt with a zip – so the first time I’ve experimented with the zipper foot on my sewing machine!
Let’s have a look at it:
It has a long strap secured to nice shiny silver D-rings.
It has boxed corners at the bottom.
It has not one zip, but two – one on the top for the main compartment and one into a pocket on the front.
Doesn’t it look cool?! I like it so much I’m going to make myself one – after I finish the long list of other bags on my list! I may end up with quite a bag collection if I carry on like this…
I’ve got a long list of bags to make on my to-do list. This was the very first one I’ve made (that’s sewn, I did make the crochet owl bag a while back) but is likely to be first of many bag posts 🙂
I made this bag for my Mum’s birthday (which was yesterday, so it’s safe to post photos now!). I used the Showoff Bag PDF Sewing Pattern which can be purchased from Made by Rae. It took me ages walking round the fabric shop to pick a fabric I though would look good for the big bottom panel, and decided on this pretty bird fabric. The top panel needs to be a thicker material than cotton really and cord was all I had in the cupboard at home. I compared the birdie fabric with lots of colours and the green was the best match, so it’s bright but looks quite good!!
Inside I put a pocket on both sides, and the top is quite simple as it doesn’t have any zip or snap closure.
I learnt quite a few new things along the way: what a baste stitch is, how to box the corners, and that actually, bags aren’t as hard to make as I’d got them down to be 🙂
So here it is, my first bag!
Still an owl, but in a different form, I’ve made a crochet Hootabelle hat 🙂
I’ve never made a hat before but always liked the style of these owly ones, so just picked the colours to match our favourite TV owl friend Hootabelle!
The pattern I bought from etsy from the Inner Hooker. It was pretty easy to follow and I’m pleased with how it turned out 🙂
Now to decide what colour to make one for W …
I’ve been busy making more owls, production line stylee. I’ve had eyes, wings, hearts and toes galore piling up ready to be sewn on. These three are all done (just one for my niece left to finish off).
I do really like owls, but after the last one I think I’ll be glad not to have any more people to make one for! Although I’ve not left owls completely, just a different kind – see next post!
The links to the pattern are all in my original post here 🙂
Off to finish the next owl …
Wow!
I've heard people talking plenty about this thing called a walking foot, but I've never really understood what it did or thought seriously about getting one, until now.
Starting making quilts and listening to others talking about how they're going to quilt the tops of theirs made me start looking at what my sewing machine feet are really all for. I had a good play on the machine trying them all out along with all the different stitches that it can do and then started browsing the internet to find out what other feet were out there. There I found a quilters pack of feet on ebay which I snapped up. It gave me 4 new feet, and one of them was the walking foot above.
I've been making some bunting (very slowly, I've had so many problems making it that it gets put to one side until I feel up to giving it another go!) and the latest problem was the tape along the top was not flat once it had been sewn on and looked generally rubbish. I decided to give it one more go, this time with the walking foot (it's first outing on the sewing machine) and could not believe the difference! Look how flat and proper it looks now:
I was about to say it's my new favourite foot, but I've also been playing with the one that does free motion which is rather cool too, so I'll have to go with 'I love my sewing machine'! 😀
It’s been a long time coming, but finally, I’ve finished my blanket 🙂
I started this one for a charity project – Hook Up With The Crafty Bums. You can read more about it on the Crafty Bums blog, or join in the chat and see photos of other blankets so far on the Hook Up Facebook page.
It was a good excuse to try out the crochet diagonal pattern I’d been given a link to. It’s on a French blog but translated into English here. It’s actually pretty easy once you get started as you’re doing the same thing over and over til you get to the middle and then decreasing the same over and over until you get to the end. The worst bit is towards the centre. The rows get really long and it gets really tedious, and it feels like it will never end. It’s a bit like a steam train chugging up a really steep hill and towards the top it goes so slowly it almost stops, but then when you reach the top it starts to go faster and faster until you get to the end!
Changing colour every row also leads to a lot of ends. A lot! So to save me sewing in millions of ends I was left with I chose to add a border instead that did the job for me.
I’m glad it’s finally finished and I’m looking forward to seeing it alongside all the other pretty blankets donated 🙂