Bag Making and a Day Out

Last week I mentioned that I had finished another handbag and was about to list it on Etsy, well I did that although I am still not sure if it is the best place to get seen these days. You are something of a drop in the ocean of handmade sellers out there.  Anyway on it went and I am really pleased that I used up my last piece of the Paris fabric in this handbag.  I made a skirt in this about five years ago that I still wear, then it went into another bag that belongs to a friend of mine.  Later still it made up some of the hexagons in my lap quilt it can be seen here.

So it was only ever a metre of fabric but I really do try and use all that I can and that makes me happy that there is very little waste.  Here is the bag, all elements of this particular bag are recycled including the strap, I saved that years ago from a different bag.

Oops I just realized I bought the D ring on the front and the black ribbon new, I did make the little tassel.  I am very fond of these at the moment so every future bag may have a tassel :)

So the back is the same apart from the tassel, the fabric is in the style of an old newspaper.

Anyone recognise the fabric inside leftover from a dress I made a few weeks ago?

After pottering away with that on Friday I had a sewing free day Saturday as we  visited my sister in law at Bridlington for her fiftieth birthday.  She had rented a hut on the sea front and was having a get together there, it was a lovely day in terms of seeing people but the weather was not so good, grey cloud, wind and rain.  All week the forecast had been good for Saturday too, oh well she has the hut for the week so they have been enjoying it for the last couple of days too with better weather. 

While we were there, it was the Steampunk meeting and a classic cars event so plenty to see.  However we only went for the afternoon but we did have a look around and I managed to get a few photographs.

This camper was amazing, such a lot of work had gone into it and the couple (I presume the owners) in the photograph looking like pirates were posing for shots for hours.  I couldn't get any closer as there were so many trying to take pictures I didn't want to get in the way.   A lot of people had gone to great  effort over their costumes.

Inside the Bridlington Spa it was mainly stalls selling the Steampunk type of clothing but there were a few others with accessories I managed to find myself this...

I decided to wear it immediately and then someone said to me 'out of all that stuff in there did you manage to find the one thing with a sewing machine on?'  Ha! probably yes, it was calling to me. 

My husband found these lamps interesting...

Outside the Bridlington Spa were the classic cars, you really don't realise how big they are until you get up close.  We are so used to seeing the cars in films but can you imagine the costs of running one on fuel over here.

So it was a nice afternoon and a good chance to get to see family who are living in Bridlington now, also my sister in law had a bigger turnout to her party than she expected so that was nice.

That's all for now I am off to cook the dinner and finish piecing together a free print off pattern.

Etsy Shop Here

A Mock Jumpsuit

This week I have been putting together this outfit for a Minerva post, I had intended to make a jumpsuit but do you know what I don't feel there is any need for my top to be connected to my bottom garments ;). really it just makes it such a pain when you need to pay a visit that I decided separates give the same effect without the hassle if they match.

I will give a peek here but I am saving the full post for Minerva Crafts . I enjoyed  making this as I didn't set myself the task to do it all in one day as I sometimes do.  When I do that any interruptions to my sewing are annoying  and I wanted to avoid that.  Instead I chose to do a bit each day over a few days.

My son very kindly rook the photo's for me and this saved me messing about with the tripod, this was just as well because it was very windy.   I know I will be more inclined to wear this as it is easy to get in and out of.

Today I have done some hand bag sewing, I have just finished that about twenty minutes ago and will share it once I have uploaded the photo's to Etsy. In an attempt to be more aware of marketing I have been reading this...

I get the idea however I am already on all the social media it suggests, I don't really have much of a following as I don't follow hundreds of people myself.  If you do that how on earth do you ever get anything done. I would rather  follow crafters that I am interested in, food design and stuff like that and then I can enjoy what pops up rather than scrolling, how do you all feel about this? I do understand that it is an important tool.  So there I am no business woman I guess but if I follow you, you can be sure I actually read your content!

In other reading I have just finished 'People in the Room'  by Norah Lange.  I have to say this book was not for me, it never really went anywhere and I kept at it as I was waiting for some revelation that never came.  Has anyone else read this and if so what are your thoughts?

We have also started watching a new drama this week called 'Undercover' and this one is in Flemish (subtitled) we are quite enjoying it.  It is quite amusing that there was a time when my husband didn't watch anything with subtitles  and now that is most of what we watch.. I think it gives so much more variety and you get to know which genres you like from where.  We find a lot on Netflix and BBC4 More 4 are good too.

Scrap Busting T-Shirt

This make today was a bit spur of the moment, I started looking through my odd scraps of fabric to design a new bag and then saw a charity shop t-shirt I bought for the fabric and another scrap in the same colours.  I instantly thought they should go together to make a new item and set about cutting up the t-shirt.  It has been in that cupboard for about a year and a half, I remember thinking what did I buy this for? Well again it was another thing  just waiting for inspiration, I have to say I love the work of Marlies Witjes at Made by Liesl. She is always finding inventive ways to use up every last bit of fabric and her bomber jackets are a work of art!  So this little project today was inspired by her work.

It is all jersey fabric so it will be comfy to wear, I do find I end up wearing the jersey items more than anything after all we all want to be comfortable.  The piece on the pocket is scuba from a dress I made a while ago.  I am so pleased with result I have been having another look to see what else can be cobbled together but nothing else is jumping out in the same way.  Also a lot of the bits I have clash or would be too busy together.

The make was easy I just cut the bottom off  the  existing charity shop t-shirt  then cut up the sides as well.  I lay the top part on the fabric to make the shape for the top half of the t-shirt and just cut grown on cap sleeves.

As you can see here the top of the original t-shirt was a bit fussy, it also had a tie that went around the waist.

When I have the top part cut I always fold it in half to check it is the same on both sides, I also had to do a bit of trimming on the bottom so that the pattern was level.  The pocket I just guessed and cut a shape, I hemmed that first then pinned it on before stitching it to the shirt front.

I almost forgot to mention that I made some binding for the neck with another bit of leftover jersey, I cut that so the embossed strip was laying horizontal not lengthways in the biding pieces.  The idea was it would be folded to the wrong side but it looked good showing so I topstitched it to stand up.

A good fun make I think and a bit of reuse, recycle in there too.  I will have to get to that bag idea later.

One thing I have decided in light of reading Atomic Habits is that I will have set days for blogging. After a bit of thought I have decided on Tuesday and Friday starting this week, I know that because I have committed to it I am more inclined to stick to it.  There was also a comment that James Clear made about his own  blog and that was to just show up and post, and also that often he would put off because he didn't feel things were perfect but the act of getting something out there keeps the momentum going.  He worded it better than that but you get the  idea, I'm not sure how this works when on holiday but I will deal with that at the time.