By Alice | Published:
May 6, 2010
I made myself a new wallet, it is BIG though so technically it might count as a clutch bag. I like to keep all my important stuff together (cards, iPhone, cash) as then I only have to keep my eye on one thing and can transfer everything from bag to bag easily together.
The cotton flower fabric is from the Nippori Fabric Town area in Tokyo. The piece around the middle is from my inherited fabric stash, it was a belt of some sort. The zip was also from my archives so I think it is quite old, I was wondering if using a metal vintage zip was the best idea (will it break sooner?) but I wanted to try it out.
There are three pockets, two which are open and the one at the back closes with a zip. I put a layer of felt underneath the outside layer of fabric and the front pocket to give it extra stiffness and also to provide some padding. It took a little bit of thinking to work out as I wanted to make it from one long strip of fabric and to have the seams hidden, not to just have flat rectangles that are sewed together. I made a paper prototype to check I had everything straight in my mind and when it came to the actual fabric I hand sewed it together with a loose running stitch before committing with the sewing machine.
The inside. I did think about having a magnetic closure or velcro or buttons for the main flap but decided against it as I wanted to keep it as streamlined as possible.
And filled.
This is me showing it to Beep ;) You can get more of an idea of the size from this picture (she is a normal cat size).
By Alice | Published:
March 7, 2010
I made Elizabeth David’s Chocolate Almond Cake for my sister’s birthday lunch. It is flourless so gluten-free. When I was Googling for the recipe I found it on this pretty cookery blog. I used their doubling-up method. Very delicious, I will make this again.
I gave my sister Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours
and made her this ‘R’ brooch from felt. It’s nice giving my sister gifts as I feel we are on the same wavelength so give each other things that we would like.
By Alice | Published:
January 27, 2010
This is what I made with the remainder of the fabric. It is a little drawstring bag for the small bike bits and pieces that I either need to carry around in the bottom of my bag when I park my bike, or keep together in my house ready to grab when I am out the door. This little bag is handy to stop everything from getting lost or dropped.
I had made that little black bike with the button wheels ages ago as a test run for a bike I sewed onto some cushions for my mother so it was no bother to sew it on here.
Also posted in Cycling, Sewing |
By Alice | Published:
January 25, 2010
I used the fabric from Liberty to make two cushions. I also made something with the leftover fabric which I’ll show later. A bright addition to our sofa (seen before here – the cats still hate me hoovering).
I made them in the envelope style and held together the opening at the back with two small cream bows on each. If the cats get into attacking these too much I will replace them with poppers but I like the bow look with this fabric. The fabric felt a bit too light for zips (also this is quicker and cheaper than having to find two zips of the right size!).
Btw I keep the longer lengths of ribbon that I have wrapped around a cardboard roll, I like to think I’m channeling ‘Martha‘ on a tiny scrappy scale :)
Also posted in Sewing, The house |
By Alice | Published:
January 3, 2010
I made a felt chain decoration using these instructions from Purl Bee. I have seen something similar done before with paper too. It was easy to do and quite therapeutic to cut out the circles. I imagine this would look fantastic with only two or three colours, if I do it again I would possibly try my favourite combo of red and white. I am not sure where to hang the finished article, I think I will put it away and use it as part of our Christmas decorations next year.
Also posted in Decorations |
