23 Oct 2010

Latest Make - Pink Bag

Finally got round to photographing my latest bag, the first of it's type. It's in pink and black (obviously!) upholstery fabric with a woven leather effect handle. The flower corsage with leather leaves can be pinned in any position the owner desires - even on their lapel! It will be added to my Belovedly website and Folksy and Misi shops soon. Watch this space for more in this style.



16 Oct 2010

Latest Bags

Well, I've finished 2 bags today that have been on the go for too long to mention!

The first one is a carpet bag, my first ever one, I even made the handles myself. So as you can imagine it was a very steep learning curve. I started off by using a pattern and then ditched the pattern once I understood how to construct a bag of this type - this usually happens when I use patterns! I didn't like the way it sat and it seemed far too wide for my liking, so I changed the proportions and the shaping. It also originally had a seam along the bottom which seemed pointless to me so I altered that too. Anyway after alot of other changes that I wont bore you with the bag no longer resembles the original pattern and I'm really happy with it...




The other bag was more straight forward to finish as I've been making these knotted bags for a
while now. I love the flowery yellow fabric in this one, it reminds me of the curtains that my mum used to have up in her sewing room when I was little...




13 Oct 2010

Now you see it - Now you don't

Well I browsed through my sewing books and realised I was in desperate need of a sewing machine cover. I love my machine, it's a Bernina Nova 900 and is very purdy. I don't really want to cover it up, but it permanently lives on one side of the dining room table and we eat on the other so for it's own sake it needs to be covered up now that our son is well practised in throwing food!



I couldn't be bothered to read the instructions or even to look at the patterns provided - really - how hard can it be? Not very is the answer. So I measured up, picked the fabric from my stash and set to it. I cut the fabric out on the floor instead of on the table as when I had a scan on Monday (I'm 35 weeks pregnant) they said the baby was in a very bad position and to try spending some time on all fours to try to get it moved, so it was an ideal time to do some multi-tasking!
I sewed it all up in no time at all and then decided I wanted bias binding round the bottom, but not the scratchy shop bought stuff, I wanted to make my own. I couldn't find a bias binding tape maker locally but found this amazing tutorial on how to make some myself without the need for one - and yes, it really does work :D
So here is the finished cover ...



Really pleased with it and am feeling the need to make metres and metres of pretty bias binding now that I know how!

Ali xx

10 Oct 2010



Welcome to my new blog :¬) not really sure what to do now I'm here but I'm sure I'll learn the ropes quickly enough! I've had a very busy time recently having spent the last few weeks photographing and uploading my recent makes, updating my misi and folksy stores and then this last week has been spent on my own sparkly new website which went live yesterday! And so far it's had good reactions -Phew!



Now that all the computer geekery is out of the way I feel at a bit of a loose end so am going to spend the rest of the evening going through my sewing books and magazines searching for the next project. Will update you with what I pick to make and it's outcome tomorrow and the following days.

Ali xx