26 Feb 2011

Sophie Ellis-Bextor!!!!!

Something rather exciting has happened to me recently and I've been dying to tell you. And now that it's official I can! Woooooo!

Sophie Ellis-Bextor owns one of my clutch bags!!!

She was pretty big when I was at university. I have fond memories of dancing to 'Murder on the Dancefloor' and now the beautiful woman herself owns one of my bags ... and not only that she has one of my necklaces too!!! There's something very satisfying about someone so stylish owning something I made.

20 Feb 2011

Tweed Messenger Bag

It's been a while since I last blogged and this is the reason why ...I've been making this for my sister. It looks fairly straight forward for the picture but believe me it's got so many fancy pockets inside it's nearly untrue. She had quite a specific list of requirements ... it had to look right with each and every coat she owns, it had to hold her laptop and keep it in a snug position yet not look like it contained a laptop, she needed an internal pocket for this, that and the other and even more this and thats, it needed a zip to keep everything in, it needed a flap and it needed to be able to be worn on the shoulder and across the body too. She also wanted a separate pouch for her laptop to stop it getting scratched whilst not in use or in the bag.

So... I picked the tweed check as it has the colours she normally wears to work and I managed to find a really cute lining fabric with little flowers on it. I measured up her laptop and made it a pouch and a special harness inside the bag to keep it in position. On the harness is a pocket for her phone and memory stick. There is another pocket the same size on the otherside for her keys and purse and also a pocket with dividers for her hundreds of pens. The zip top was a learning curve but a very valuable one, I normally avoid zips but was determined to overcome my fear of them ... and I have. The strap is adjustable too.

She is well chuffed with it, so am I. I find working with tweed really satisfying. I love it!

5 Feb 2011

Grey clutch

Here, as promised, is another project that has been half finished since before the birth of LB. I finished it the other day and finally had chance to get the flower brooch made last night and today. I used my new bigshot die cutting machine to get the shape for the flowers. It gives a really crisp neat cut and is alot quicker than cutting out by hand. What I like about putting brooches as embellishments on bags is that the customer can place it wherever they like on the bag or can remove it completely and wear it on their favourite jacket.The clutch is a gorgeous grey woollen tweed with a scarlet lining. I love this colour combination, infact I do seem to having a bit of a thing about red at the moment don't I? The brooch is made from black felt, scarlet leatherette and a lovely oversized shiney black button.

Hope you like it!
xx

2 Feb 2011

Busy Bee

I've been trying to finish off a few half finished projects the last week or so. Here is my first offering. It's a knotted shoulder bag in a cream fabric with a black velvety flocked brocade pattern. I just love this fabric teamed with the scarlet lining and grosgrain ribbon. I'm tempted to make a little heart brooch to affix to it in honor of Valentine's Day which is fast approaching! Just like all my other bags it has an internal pocket made from the same fabric as the outer.
Please let me know what you think ...