Elephant Make Up Bag

Been trying to get myself a little organised on the birthday presents front, a few ladies I call friends will be getting fabric goodies for their presents this year....

I started with the smallest fabric make as it can be the most frustrating to get right, pesky zips never sew in quite how I want them the first time...

Saw this elephant fabric as a fat quarter at a craft show and just had to have it, made this make up bag/pouch from it and still have loads left over, think I can squeeze another 2 pouches out of it too :)

 

Love the bright colours of the fabric and the lining fabric inside is a coordinating red flowery patterned fabric...forgot to sew one of my homemade labels in before I sewed the lining together so I shall have to handstitch it in before I give the pouch away as a present...

Next up is a few tote bags for friends and perhaps matching make up pouches too...

Plenty of Purses

 There's been lots of purse orders over the last few months, certainly kept me busy!

 Black lace with hot pink cotton lining

Midnight blue lace with silver satin lining and hot pink lace with silver satin lining

These cute ones are doubling up as prayer pouches too.

In July I completed a Hen Do order where everyone got a purse with a personalised hen night label inside. The wedding colourscheme was midnight blue and ivory so I used that for the purses. This is the Bride's purse, she got the full size purse with scissor zipper pull as she's a hairdresser.

The rest of the hens got the smaller size purses which still fit in a pair of reading glasses or credit cards, keys and lippy.

Ivory lace with midnight blue satin lining

Smaller version of the brides purse, midnight blue lace with ivory satin lining

And here's the completed Hen Do order all together

Gift Exchange Time Again

So once again I've been a terrible blogger I know but finishing my degree kinda took over life... but now..... IT'S OVER !!!!!!! Back to blogging and crafting freely once again :)
To get myself back into the swing of things I signed up for the Gift Exchange over at Craftaholics Annonymous which I've done before, but this time there's a twist the person I'm making for doesn't make something for me, somebody totally different does so it's a bit more of a surprise for everyone!   My partner told me she liked bold prints, buttons and vintage things, with purses bags and scarves being on her list of loves.... so I've made her a zipper pouch using vintage butterfly print fabric with black satin lining and a flower brooch made with some vintage trim... all from a vintage retro fair last summer. fingers crossed she likes them and they arrive safely soon :) 

    

Guest Post Nifty Thrifty Things

And here's the post I shared on friday over at Nifty Thrifty Things

Hi my names Steph and I post over at Southern Fairy Designs. I'm an aircraft mechanic, glider pilot and crafter... polar opposites I know but it keeps me ahppy and that's what really counts. I make jewellery, bags, home decor, celebration items (flags and bunting), brooches and recently I've started making some clothes for myself.
One of my favourite pieces of clothing I've made is the top in the photo below. I made it to take away on holiday, if you want to see what happened the day I wore it to Gibraltar then click the photo below.

To see the details of the projects below then just click on the photos.
Another of my favourite makes recently is this lace flower necklace... yes I've lived in it, hence it being in 2 photos in this post and many more across my blog

This cupcake pouch is my new jewellery bag for when we go travelling... been making these as presents for friends and family... in the last few weeks I've been making these for customer orders, plenty of lovely fabrics sat in my drawer waiting to be turned into many more pouches.

Then there's what seems to be the most popular post I have ever put on my blog... My Anthro Power Of 3 necklace knockoff  tutorial... which well over 6 months after I posted it is still receiving 100's of hits every week.

Thanks for taking the time to have a read and I do hope you stop by and visiti my blog some time soon :) And thanks to Vanessa for letting me post on her blog!

 

Cupcake Makeup Bag

 This week I've been starting to play with some of the fab crafty bits that 2 of my friends donated to me, yup they gave me a shed load of stuff for free! Got a heat gun and heat embossing goodies which have been used for the birthday cards for the upcoming birthdays... and then my other friend gave me a box of fabric pieces and more card making supplies...

So project 1 with the new fabric pieces is a makeup bag for me with my favourite bit of fabric from the parcel.... Cupcakes! And a super cute dusky pink dotty fabric for the lining that also came in the parcel.

 These little bags have been pretty popular, made several now as presents for friends and family, had a few order enquiries about them for christmas... and after all that I didn't actually have one to call my own.. so I had to make one and had to do it before too many people ordered cupcake ones and there would no fabric left for me.. a little selfish I know but I really wanted one to show off myself as something that I had made!

 Isn't the cupcake print just totally awesome though, nearly good enough to eat!

Had to take a photo so you could see how cute the lining is too and how well it goes with the cupcake outer fabric! This beauty now lives proudly ion my bag for me to show everyone whenever they ask for a lipbalm or nail file :)

Handmade Gift Exchange

A couple months ago I decided I was going to take part in Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Gift Exchange. My partner was a lovely Scottish lady called LeeAnn from View From The Hamster Wheel, we chatted away via email about things and I learnt that she too doesn't own a posh slr camera just a point and shoot digi camera like me and she's scared of sewing zips into projects...

So with these thoughts in mind I decided to make her a zipper pouch/make up bag and a strap for her digicam.

The zipper pouch is made from a pale pink 7" zipper, white cotton lining and the funky pink print jersey... I actually bought too much of this fabric in overestimating how much I'd need so now I've got some for me to use in the future too :) Sewing this took some patience I had no idea how frustrating it is to sew jersey! I even finished off the zipper ends after seeing some easy tutorials to make the zipper look finished.
The camera strap is a funky red/pink floral pattern material a bit like a scarf... it actually came from my emergency stash of offcuts that Mum sent me from her last fabric shop trip.. while making this one I realised how quick and easy they were and made myself one out of an old scarf, but I'll show you that another day.

I'm glad LeeAnn likes her gifts and I'm glad I had such a lovely partner for my first swap, I shall have to play again next time!

Tomorrow I'll do a post on the gifts LeeAnn sent me

Make up Bag Mk 2

Here's make up bag mk2.. well actually it was mk1 I did it before mum's zipper make up bag but never got round to blogging it.. this one's mine and seems to be getting multipurposed, it's the perfect size for a make up bag or a small clutch for a night out.

I made it using Amie from Kitty Cats and Airplanes tutorial that she posted over on Better Life Bags back in January (here's the tutorial link).

I made the size dimensions suit me a little better than the original as my poor blackberry would have never fitted in with my purse or camera lol. I just love the chunky black button I found in my stash to seal the bag, think it's off an old coat I threw out years ago actually. Ok so the sewing isn't perfect but it was the first project I had a proper crack at when I bought the new sewing machine... I'm just chuffed that I made such a good job of the button hole, never done that before!

Zipper Make-Up Bag

Tuesday was my mum's birthday, so I thought today I'd share with you the zipper make-up I made her as her present. I found the tutorial for making this over at See Kate Sew. Mum was so impressed with ehrs that I'll be making more for her to give as gifts to her friends for their birthdays. Good thing I have a plethora of fabrics in many colours and patterns stashed away to amke some different ones in.
So this one is made from black lace, with a white silky layer behind it and then a silky thick, deep purple layer as the liner, which she can easily flip out to wipe out any mess without turning the whole bag inside out. quick, simple and mum loved it, what can I ask for?