Satchel Loving

Monday Monday. Ah most people dread this day; back in work, up early. I however can never wait for this day of the week to come round again. Although it is a day of work for me too, I work from home and get to spend the whole day sewing.

Today has been no exception.

I've made a couple of satchels out of offcuts of leather than were kindly donated from Alys the Pocket Pirate. I also raided the big bag of old pillowcases and vintage sheets. Here's what I came up with!

I have a bag of vintage buckles that my grandmother had given me a few years ago and have never used them on a project up until now. I think this is a good use though. I also added rivets to the holes for the buckles so the leather doesn't take all the wear and tear of use.

Inside I added a small pocket and the front is lined with a contrasting fabric on all of the bags.
 

 

 

 

I think this last one is my favourite. I'm totally smitten with this buckle and I also quilted the fabric on the front.

I haven't yet made straps for all of them. I've added loops so it will be easy too but haven't yet decided what to use. I'm not sure the gold chain I have will match but I don't have enough leather to make straps. I will hunt something out I'm sure!!

Bank Holiday Handbag Making

Ah Easter Monday, two days off in a row so of course I have itchy sewing fingers!  We had a lovely relaxing day yesterday with lots of lazing round watching films and then eating tasty food round at Ma and Pa's with a full house of family. Today however I was feeling inspired to make something new. 

I don't know about you but I spend a lot of time perusing through pretty things on pinterest. I keep seeing lots of things that inspire me to make stuff and today I followed through on my vision.

I'd seen a lovely example of a folded over clutch-esque thing.

I'd picked up a beautiful green leather offcut the last time I was at recreate picking up things for a class I was teaching and knew that if it lived in the stash pile it would one day get used for something fun ;)

I picked a few complimentary fabrics and a contrast zip and spent this morning sewing away. I started off by adding a heart applique using a sweet pink and red polka dot fabric.

I then overlocked all the edges of the fabrics that would fray as i wanted it to be quite hard waring.

I added a top stitch to the zipper seams to give them added strength. I find it means that the fabric doesn't catch in the zip when you're using it too.

I used a magnetic snap to keep the bag folded over  when closed

 

As I was stitching around the outside layers I also added a loop on each side so I could attach a handle. I have a huge reel of gold chain and thought that it complimented the green of the leather quite well.

I quite like the black and white gingham lining.

There are definitely a few tweaks I'm planning when I make some more but for now I really can't decide whether to keep this one for myself or to put it in the shop......

Record Bowls Ahoy!

So I've had a pile of old records for a few years now. They were given to me by an old window cleaner on the promise I would use them in a creative way. Most of them are, fortunately for me, LPs that no one will ever really take the time to listen to again. I definitely couldn't have done this to any decent records I love the sound of vinyl.

I went trawling through on-line tutorials to see what method seemed best (there are so many different ways of doing this!) and ended up going with the picture below. Big ovenproof round dish, record, small oven proof dish!!

I originally set the oven quite high as per internet instructions but quickly discovered I needed it much lower. I'm not sure if this is because we have a gas oven not an electric one. I ended up having most success at around Gas Mark 4 for about 2 minutes, then it was floppy enough to have sunk into the dish and you can play around with the shape of the folds. I don't know whether I have no feeling for heat in my hands but i was able to touch and mould the vinyl with my bare fingers; I obviously used gloves for the dishes!! I unfortunately lost the first two to playing around with temperatures; as it was too hot the edges began to bubble and looked gnarly; you can see it in the picture.

When i did get the hang of it, it was really fun to see all the different shapes that formed, each one is definitely unique.

 

I've popped them in the shop, I thought they'd make good Christmas prezzies.

 

Love the Weekend!

Ah this weekend is definitely a good one! My gorgeous sister and family are down visiting from London, it's my friend Becca's birthday and all systems are go at CFQ!!

I had fun picking a new outfit out from my rail of clothes for my display mannequin this morning. I've gone with one of my handmade tops, a cute sailor collar and some revamped shorts! What do you think?? I know its the end of October but it's warm inside!

Yesterday I thought it would be fun to get the ol' spray paint out and re-do a frame that I've had kicking round the house for ages. It was a gordy gold and not very appealing; much better now!

I made a birthday handbag for Rebecca too! Craftster have some awesome tutorials on making things and I used this one as a guide for the bag. I cut up a beautiful old pillowcase and found some plain bright cotton for the lining.

Also at CFQ this week I revamped a lamp with a couple of pretty braids and I painted a few arrows on the door showing people the way!

Come say hello!

Printing Signs and Patches

Today I have spent the whole day at the PrintHaus making fun things for the new shop!

I wanted to print a sign to go on the wall in the shop and I've been wanting to make sew on patches with some fun drawings on for ages; I was fed up with only being able to get band patches!

This is me making my film work ready to go onto my screen. I would normally print my images from the computer onto acetate so I don't have to keep drawing things over again but as the sign is so big I thought it would be easier to scale it up myself.

I can't get enough of purple at the moment so decided to print the text in a lovely rich shade that I mixed up myself. I thought it would compliment the colours of the patterned fabric that I wanted to use. I'm planning on stitching it up and finishing it in the morning so will post more pics when it's finished!

In between all this sign making I also printed a tonne of patches! As I was using waterbased inks I thought I'd take advantage of only being able to do about 4 prints before the ink started drying in the screen and change colours!

So tonight is filled with cutting them all out with the pinkin shears! Oh I lead an exciting life haha!