Minion Tote Bag - Update

Here is the finished product:

Seems to be getting a lot of positive feedback.  But I'm not completely happy with it.  The curved seam at the top is more angled than curved and the front and back top doesn't align.  I'm also not happy with the eyes - all the zigzag stitches look a bit messy for my taste.

I have learned from these mistakes and I think I know how to get round at least some of the issues. I think making the eyes from felt will avoid the need for zigzag stitches.  Although I'm still not sure how to make the top of the bag curved!

The Start of Something Big?

I decided to give selling on Etsy a try.  So I timed how long it took to put together a simple tote bag.  The one below took 2 hours. However I did make a few mistakes putting the handles on which resulted in having to undo a few seams.  So I reckon I could get this time down to less than 90 minutes.

Searching through Etsy, plain tote bags seem to be priced around £10 and ones with a mixture of patterns are a bit more.  I've priced this initially at £15 which may prove to be a bit much, but I'm going to give it some time.

Here is the link to my Etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AuntyLinzi?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Watch this space!

Minion Tote

The ease of my first attempt at a tote bag has inspired me to have a go at a few more.  I'm planning on creating one from the bag of fabrics as a thank you to the lady who gave me the bag.  Also, I have decided to go slightly off-piste and create a minion tote bag for my little niece.

Breaking this down, this project is perhaps a tad ambitious!  But here goes......

The main bulk of the bag will be the yellow of the minion body with a bottom section in the blue of the dungarees.  I will also do the straps in the same yellow.

The dungarees have a patch pocket on the front which has a black spot on it with a blue 'G'.  This was my first problem.  Not having any black felt to hand, I had to make the black circle from cotton fabric and I just couldn't get the circle right.  In the end I decided just to cut the circle without a hem allowance and then used a zig-zag stitch round the edge of the circle directly onto the patch.  I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

Doing the eyes is going to be time consuming! Lots of zig-zag stitches!!!!

This is a work in progress - more posts to follow.

Tote Bag

I decided to make myself a little tote bag - there are many tutorials online, but this is the one I chose to follow.

http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/05/how-to-sew-a-stylish-tote-bag-tutorial/

Using this as a learning curve, I decided to have a go at doing french seams.  Overkill for something on this scale, but as all the seams are straight I thought this would be an easy place to try this out.  I was delighted at how easy this way and at the results!!!

Final product:

Cushion Covers

In my bag of fabric goodies, my Mum had spotted some fat quarters in colours she really liked and so I made them into a couple of cushion covers for her

These really didn't take much time at all.

Crochet Needle Role

My second project was to do a needle roll to hold my increasing collection of crochet needles.  I cut a rectangle for the outside fabric, and slightly smaller rectangles of wadding and inner fabrics.  I used the larger rectangle to fold over some edging onto the inner lining.  I sewed along the hems twice and then added an insert to the bottom half which I sewed onto the roll using a number of straight lines to create pockets for the needles.

Quite pleased with how this turned out given that it didn't really take that long - maybe an hour or so max.

It's given me an idea to do another roll this time for all the new threads that I've bought for my new machine.  Just need to figure out how I can include the bobbins!  Think I need to get some elastic first.

First Sewing Projects!

I spent the whole day today in the house working on my first sewing projects.

The first  project was a patchwork door stop.  I didn't really have a pattern for this, although I looked at a few online patterns nothing really grabbed me so I used a bit of them all.

I started with the patchwork square and added a black border.  I then created the back panel and side borders and handle.  Leaving a small seam open at the back, I created a small insert which I can fill with gravel.  On top of this I will use toy stuffing so the overall weight isn't too much.

Finished article!

The Sewing Machine

As a Christmas present for 2013, my Mum bought my a sewing machine and here she is!

I can't wait to get started.  Luckily one of my friends' Mother in law was clearing out her house and had decided not to do any more quilting so I have inherited a HUGE bag of material.

The Original Baby Blanket!

This is where it all started.  My first nephew was Josh was born in 2005 and I wanted to do something special for his birth.  I remembered a blanket from when my brothers and I were little.  It turned out that my Aunty Morag had crocheted the blanket and still had the book with the pattern!

The instructions looked easy enough, but from what I can remember (some 9 years later!), I struggled to start the pattern.  At the time I didn't know whether the baby was a boy or a girl, so I had decided to do two blankets a pink / white and a blue / white blanket.  Josh duly appeared in August and received the blue / white blanket.  Doing the blanket was hard work, but everyone loved it.

Since that first blanket, I estimate that I've made about another 20 blankets, one even going trans-atlantic to a colleague on a New York team I was working with.  When my sister in law fell pregnant again, I still had the original pink blanket and only had to make another blue one.  I kinda like that my first niece and nephew got my first two blankets.

One of the best things about making the blankets is that it can be done anywhere.  My husband and I have a hobby that means we spend a lot of time in the car.  My blankets are my constant companion in the passenger seat :-)

This is a picture of a finished blanket - unfortunately not the first one!