Adventure Bag

I've done more changing of This into That this week.

My eldest daughter is going through an Indiana Jones phase, we re-enact the scene with the descending stone and the hat most mornings at school... with her book bag and the school gate.

Inspired by adventures and a place to collect treasures, I'd been looking for a brown leather messenger bag.

I'd been searching charity shops, of course.  I didn't find one, but I did find this....

Isn't it hideous? The lining is polyester, but the outer is genuine leather. £5. Couldn't wait to take my scissors to it...

I kind of worked by eye, using what pieces I could to make up a simple messenger shape. The shoulders, which were a bizarre snakeskin effect leather, could not not find a place though..

Lots of tea helped the process along. I copied the shape I'd sewn in a beige linen, and attached to the bag using the "right sides together leave a gap and turn it through" method.

A couple of notes:

I have a Teflon foot and I used it when sewing directly on to the leather. But once I forgot, and it didn't make a massive difference. This leather was very soft so that may have helped. I've heard putting tissue paper between the foot and the leather helps if you don't have a Teflon foot.

I used a long stitch length. 3.5 or 4. It's looks nice and the leather seems to be held together strongly.

I bought a meter of pelmet facing and cut three pieces just smaller that the bag pieces and the flap piece. I sort of just fitted them in when sewing the lining and the bag together. I think this bag would be far too floppy without them.

The bag has a phone pocket and pen loops. Perfect for today's modern adventuress. I added them before I sewed the lining into the bag.

Hardware: the buckle on the strap was from my vintage stash. I had trouble finding D hooks big enough for the strap I wanted to use. I needed approx 50mm. Couldn't find them. I got these from a children's belt I bought in Oxfam for 79p. 

What essentials would you pack for an adventure?

Adventures in spray painting

I've recently armed myself with several cans of spray enamel paint, and I am loving it. Loving it I tell you!
Not much is escaping the spray fest: old metal boxes, the heating vents in our house, the letterbox.

This ring:



...which I spray painted, set with a piece of an old star map... And the promptly lost...

My favourite revamp though is this...


A cheap, battery operated carriage clock from a car boot sale. I took everything apart, and coated it liberally in satin black. The face got covered with more of the star map (there's still some left, and I love it, so I anticipate this will not be the last star-related craft..), and the hands were spray painted with chrome.





..to this!
It makes the tiniest click each time the weights change direction.

KCWC Day 2 - Cutting Out

This is as far as I got this evening....



My children decided neither of them wanted to go to bed, and we're up and downstairs like small, cheeky yoyos. I'm surprised I got this done!

The fabric has a repeating flower design, and really I should have given much more thought to matching sides and flower placement on pieces. However, I'd bought the entire remaining length of this roll, and I'm not sure there was enough here to be that creative in my cutting.

Here's what I had left:



Just scraps. Hopefully it'll look ok when sewn up.....

KCWC Spring 2012 - Day 1

I've been mulling over what to do this week. E asked for a summer coat (because V has one!) and I was planning on doing that. I was going to use the leftover fabric from V's coat and was debating whether to use another vintage coat pattern I had in my stash, or really challenge myself and attempt to draft her a coat from scratch...

Then at the last minute - actually on day 1 of the challenge - I changed all that and went out and bought new fabric and a pattern.




Actually, I bought quite a bit of fabric! Well, in for a penny....
The beige linen on the bottom is what I have planned for the coat, possibly with the red spots for a lining (the pattern doesn't include a lining - I'd have to wing it, that would be my challenge for the week).
The three folded pieces above that are potential skirts, E has a definite hole in her wardrobe which needs to filled by summer skirts. Let's see if I get time..
(The screwed up stuff on the right is "remnants". Who doesn't need more remnants, right?)



The pattern is McCalls M5743. A little uninspiring in fleece on the picture, but could be lovely in a linen for summer. I'm making view D: long, ruffle sleeves, with a collar.
I've traced the pattern, and cut it out, and that I think will do for tonight...

Scrap Patch Bag

I made a bag... I should have been packing for my hols, but I did this instead.



Here it is in our holiday house - I did get packed eventually...


The outside is upholstery samples from the Scrap Store. I liked the rough edges...


So, after I cut the patches to size I rewashed and tumble dried them.


I sewed them wrong sides together to keep the fray. I used the final size of the patchwork bit to size the rest of the bag. The top blue fabric is from my stash and the leather handles are made from leather sample squares I picked up for 25p from a charity shop.


The lining is made from an old shirt of S's. I used the cuff for a phone holder. It also has pen loops!


And an interior zip pocket.

Materials Used:
Scraps from ScrapStore: Approx 30p
Top: from stash
Lining: free (S was going to throw it away)
Handles: 25p
Interfacing: Approx £1
Zip: from stash
Total Cost: £1.55

Pattern: improvised

Odhams P570 Childs Dress, Hat and Coat

It's finished!




Materials Used:
Large piece of blue linen-ish fabric, from a jumble sale. Approx 50p
Country Living teatowel, for contrast. Free, came with a hamper I got as a Christmas present.
Thread. Coats Duet. John Lewis. £1.20
Buttons. Red shell flowers. 3@55p each.
The first part of this went relatively easily, managed to get fronts and backs together OK, and sleeves in. I serged all my edges before sewing on the linen as it frayed super-easily. Assembling the fronts was really enjoyable, even though I felt like I was changing bobbins over every 5 mins for the contrast stitching.
The interfacing and the collar completely stumped me. Being a vintage pattern, the instructions implied a level of knowledge I clearly didn't have. I spent the first evening pinning and repinning and head scratching as I tried to figure out the puzzle.




I have no idea how I got to this point. Somewhere in the repinning it just came together, so I sewed!
I'm really pleased with it. V is (a small) 1 and a half and the pattern was sized for 2years, so she's got room to grow into it this during Summer/Autumn.
Modifications:
I had a red teatowel I wanted to use as contrast, so I top stitched the bodice pieces in red.
I added a back half lining from the same blue fabric, as I wanted to put a label in. I edged this piece with homemade "bias" (it was straight) tape from the teatowel.
I did make a pocket for the front, lined with the teatowel and top stitched in red, but it didn't look right so I ditched it.
I didn't understand the pattern and thought the facing (cut from the teatowel) would be on show. It wasn't, it was meant to be hidden under the front. I rolled the edge slightly and topstitched it so it looked a little like piping.
I used the contrast under the collar too.

Vintage Childs Coat pt1

I made it this far relatively easily yesterday. Then I stalled...
Buttonholes! Facings! Collars!



This is going to need a cup of tea and some thinking time....

Sewing Kids Clothes

With all the plans for sewing clothes for the girls swirling around my head, I've signed up for Elsie Marley's kids clothes week. I'll be away on the weekend for my nieces birthday but I'll make it work somehow. Hopefully there'll be buttons to handsew by then...

Sign ups are at Elsie Marley here

I'm still intending to do some sewing before then. V needs a summer coat and I thought I'd try to make one. With this unexpectedly summery weather I've washed all my fabric and line dried it...



And I'm ready to cut out. Straight from a simple shift dress to a vintage, no marking on the pattern, child's coat? I'm jumping in feet first....

It's about time I started this up again...

Here's a recent make.
Denim dress with button placket. I got the pattern from drawing round the pieces of a Clothkits shift dress, size 6, before I made it up.



The fabric was half price at Boyes because it had a fault line. I didn't use this piece for the dress, so no worries there! I have now hemmed the dress, since this photo was taken.




Here's the back. I used a vintage souvenir scarf from Australia for the lining and appliqués. I basically just bondawebbed them on and scribbled over the top with my machine needle.




And here's the lining. Can you see the koala peeking out.

Notes for next time.
Although this dress is a size 6 and E IS 6, there's very little room for growth here. I'd drop the armholes a little as they seemed a bit tight, and also lengthen it a bit in the bottom.

Vintage Bazaar

On Sunday afternoon we went to a vintage bazaar. Jo opened her beautiful home and garden to visitors and every available space was covered in vintage treasures to peruse and purchase.

..And an open garden to wander round, with spaces to sit and drink tea and eat cake


....perfect for Mummies


....Not always a 5 year olds idea of fun


..... So I gave her the camera and let her play




.....And I enjoyed the results when we got home
All photos by E. Age 5 and a half.

Raffle Winner Announced

We printed out all the comments and put them in a large jar. My 5 year old was very excited about this. We had talked about why we were having a raffle and she had helped to put together the raffle prize, but now she was just excited about the drama of picking a winner.



She gave them a very good swish and a swirl, then with her eyes closed, she pulled out her winner:



Sweatereyes! You are our winner (not sure why the photo is sideways), Congratulations!



Thank you all so much for buying the raffle tickets.
Sweatereyes - I'll be dropping you an email!

Japan Quake Appeal - RAFFLE NOW CLOSED

**Thankyou for your generosity. Raffle is now closed. Winner announced soon!**

Reclaimed crafty bits and spring treats!

Hi

I wanted to do something for the Japan Quake Appeal, in conjunction with Jo's Blog, but as I'm not sure anyone in blogland would actually WANT any of my crafts, I've decided to put together a selection of vintage/reclaimed crafty bits and a few treats. This package is put together with Spring in mind. New growth and renewal. Good Luck to Japan.

Here's a breakdown of what's included:

Vintage pillowcase in a flower design, yellow/mustard colour

Two pieces of 20cmx20cm felt

Assorted buttons

Spools of yellow and green thread

A spool of silver lurex thread, suitable for sewing, or knitting/crocheting in with yarn for extra twinkle.

Ribbons in mint green, white and gold

A vintage buckle with a pearly sheen

A vintage yellow plastic thimble

Package of tiny blue/green seed beads

Small test tube of yellow sequins in different shapes

Card of sewing needles, assorted sizes and uses.

Dylon "Golden Yellow" dye, instructions included

A few more sewing things:

Piece of linen or cotton (approx 60cmx40cm) with vintage embroidery transfer printed on half.

Two pretty pieces of fabric (approx 25cmx25cm) from a sample book (has two holes punched near the top from when it was in the book). These have a flower/leaf/branch design, one is green/brown colours, the other is mustard/grey

Piece of cream leather (approx 25cmx20cm) from a sample book (has two holes punched near the top from when it was in the book)

Two 4.5yard skeins of "Sheba" vintage rayon thread, one in light green, one in mid-spring green

One skein of DMC embroidery thread in cream

Two skeins of Clark's embroidery thread in light and mid green.

Small vintage booklet with embroidery stitches

Length of cream lace.

Small pincushion made by me from a tiny "Bless this House" cup.

Here's a closeup:

Some yarny bits:

Plastic flower loom

Small skeins of sample yarns to play with straightaway! Mustard, ochre, dark green, and green mix sock yarn

Small (tiny?) skein of pure silk, spun and plied by me on a drop spindle. I'm a learner! This is a little.... rustic :)

Vintage plastic knitting needles (Robinoid size 13 and Millwards size 11)

Some treats:

Three English breakfast and three Lady Grey teabags from Twinings (well, if it's good enough for Stephen Fry...)

Sunny yellow plastic bead necklace

Two Cadbury's creme eggs (I can substitute for other British sweeties if you live somewhere hot)

Sterling Silver Bird and Cloud Rings made by Tuareg nomads from Plumo. Unworn. They sent the wrong size, these are SMALL! (Review here)

Here's a close up of the rings. They're lovely. My chubby-hand loss is your gain :)

Here's a link to the full picture set on Flickr, incase the photos mess up here.

Here's how to enter:

Each raffle entry must be a donation of £5 ($8 ish).

This is open internationally, I will post anywhere. PayPal should convert your currency to £GBP for you.

To enter, go to Global Giving and make a £5 donation, when you have done it come back to this post and leave a comment with your receipt number and you must also leave a valid email address, you can write the address in the format of mymailname 'at' hotmail 'dot' com.

You may enter as many times as you like but each time you need a new receipt number. For help with the donation you can refer to this post on Jo's blog.

Raffle closes at 12.00noon GMT 26th March.

If you make a mistake or forget to add you email address please delete the first comment and re-write it.

The raffle held on this blog is in no way affiliated with Global Giving, that's just our chosen method of getting the funds safely to the affected area.

Hand spinning

I've been dabbling in hand spinning on a drop spindle. So far I've only produced two vaguely usable things:

Minty green silk

This is a really small skein, possibly only enough for a brooch.



I can't remember where this roving came from. It's been on my drop spindle for ages, and I only just got around to finishing it.

Don't look to closely, I kept getting my clockwise and anti mixed up when spinning AND plying. It's all over the place. But I think it's knitable


And here's my next project....

Roving from Woolie Bullie via the Phat Fiber Chinese New Year sampler box. But first, I'm going to draw some helpful reminder arrows on my drop spindle....