Kanzashi flowers - filth wizardry style !

Thanks to this fantastic craft blog  filthwizardry we made some cute kanzashi flowers to alleviate this boring rainy [and cold] Boxing Day and to brighten the house.

our kitchen towel was the wrong kind :( and sagged

but the baby wipe ones were UNREAL

 

I had to do me a frangipanni - even though its rainy and cold - it is supposed to be summer after all

Still have to finish these off with beads/buttons in the centre as they are damp and I just couldnt wait to share.  Get out there and make some.  But use the filthwizardry tip and staple without the extra fold - I mean this is a quick kids craft.  This tip makes the whole process quick and problem free!

We had great fun, and I can see myself making heaps of the frangipannis and making a garland.

YAY

Bring on the sunshine

l
x

Day bag by Nicole Mallalieu

I love Nicole's patterns, I love her site (full of tips, techniques, things to buy...) and I love her blog.

Latest pattern I bought was the Day Bag because I wanted to learn the zip technique.   She suggests making the bag first without the zip and then tackling the zip because its tricky.  OK I'm good for that.

Bought some fabric for outside and lining but couldnt decide which was for which so got 1.1 metres of each (pattern recommends 70 cms fabric / 40cms lining). Spotlight cutter was generous and I ended up with a little over 1.2 each.

Copied the pattern onto interfacing:

Pinned pattern to fabric only to find I could fit all the pieces I needed for 2 bags at the 65 centimetre mark. So just HAD to make use of the rest by pinning out the pattern again.  Got 4 bags out of the two lengths!  Because of my frugal fabric use I couldn't do the pattern variation with the flap, and only one of the bags gets to have the zippered gusset.  The scraps that I have left don't leave any room for mistakes.  Lucky I'm a confident person!

The first thing I did before I started was to calibrate my machine to her unique 13mm seam allowance.
I traced the edge and seam line onto interfacing and worked it into my machine until I got a spot that I could line up with and give me a consistent allowance.

 

Then I made the bag!

 

 

Its cute cute cute.

Next time I'd...

*  Make sure I put the zip the other way around because you have to open it right to left rather than left to right.

* Put the feature ring on the right hand side of the strap on the front of the bag, so its at the front when the bag is slung over my right shoulder.


Both these hiccups are my silly mistakes, but it does pay to stop and think a bit instead of going bang bang bang, oops.

and I think I'll try with pellon next time.

Bag pattern and instructions get full marks though, its a great shape and size, and there were no head scratching moments at all in the construction process.

Thanks Nicole, you're the best !!

l

The u-handbag competition

Having a lot of fun with entries for this competition.  You have to send your photo of a bit of extreme sewing.

There have been loads of very creative interpretations of the theme.

C'mon win a sewing machine !!

The competition is here:

http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2009/12/win-a-sewing-machine-the-uhandbag-holiday-giveaway.html

We've submitted three photos.  You can enter as many times as you like.  Must put your photo in the flickr group and must comment on the post.  GO FOR IT!

our pix are: