pixel.crafty.blog

I don't think my recipient checks blogs (at least I hope not) so here is the replacement for my TNN keyring swapee.. the first one was near identical but never turned up :(

This made a nice project for this week where I'm basically stuck to a chair, can't talk, eat or sleep.

Just a wee something to carry crap around for work. No pattern, just winged it. Inner fabric is all "POW" and "ZAP" not to mention "BIFFO"

4 months, 1.5 kilograms of buttons and many, many swear words later, I give you:

"Cute As A Button"

Inspired by a bag which I saw in a museum (which had a panel of about 30 buttons on the side), this thing took on a life of its own! I don't recommend trying to replicate unless you want to lose your sanity

1. Cut out pieces A, B and C. Cut both A pieces in half top to bottom evenly to make 4 pieces. You should have the following pieces:

2. Take 2 opposite pieces of A and a piece of B and pin them together to make one large piece.

3. At this point I overlock them all together and have allowed for approx 1 cm on each side for a seam.

4. Do the same with the other side.

5. You may want to press them at this point to flatten out the seams, which makes it easier for applying the fusible interfacing.

6. Cut the interfacing out a little larger than the piece to allow for some shrinkage when you apply the iron.

7. Iron briefly all over to adhere the interfacing, then trim off the excess and press well and along the edges.

8. Now you should have 2 reasonably stiff pieces. It is useful at this point to use these as the stencil for the lining. Cut 2 pieces of D from your lining fabric and set aside.

9. Pin the 2 stiff pieces right sides together, and sew along the bottom.

10. Once you have sewn along the bottom, you can sew along the sides.

11. Now you need to box in the bottom corners as so, and sew along them.

You should now hopefully have something that looks like this.

It is helpful at this point to take a break to do something like make a cup of tea, or in my case remove the half a cupcake which has been ground into the carpet by a 2 year old.

12. Now you need to piece the lining together like you did in step 9 with the other pieces.

13. You should be able to sit the lining inside the stiff outer like so. If you can, great! You’re doing well.

14. Fold down the outside rim of the bag to make a nice even crease – this makes it easier when seaming the top. I find it helpful to pin these down too.

15. Do the same on the opposite side with the lining and pin together.

16. Now for the straps. You should have 2 pieces of fabric left over (C) from when you did your cutting. These need to be turned into tubes, so you need to get cracking on the overlocker again. Fold over and sew into a tube, and then along one end so you can turn them right way out.

17. Turning is always better when done with a purple knitting needle.

18. I like to topstitch the straps at this point to make them look nicer, though you could just give them a jolly good iron and they should be OK.

19. Feed the straps in to the top of the bag and pin them in place. Make sure they are even on each side!

20. Now for the really fun bit – top stitching. You might want to take a deep breath before you do this. Top stitch around the top of the bag, running back over where the straps join a couple of times to make them nice and secure.

21. Last steps! Now the last thing is to attach the snaps. I use a snap press with resin snaps, but you could use a button or manually attach snaps, or however you want to do it. I find this the easiest way.

DONE! Voila, you now have a beautiful Frankenbag. Make sure you tell anyone who compliments you where you got the tute from :)

New bags I made last night. These are a bit different. Cotton outer with a suedecloth lining.

Based loosely on the Dotted Dream bag pattern from Ottobre, these bags got created! I just winged it for the most part :)

They're a cotton quilt fabric on the outside with a tough cord on the inside and a reinforcing layer in the middle to keep them upright. The wallets match and snap into the inside of the bag for security :)

I learned HEAPS making these, and now that I know what I'm doing, look forward to making a whole bunch of them!

Inspired by Nurse Nancy, I whipped this up for Sophie's 2nd birthday. Word on the street is that it went down well!

Using heat transfer paper co-oped through The Nappy Network, whipped these up yesterday.

I'm not 100% happy with it, but it's my first time designing from scratch so I guess I shouldn't complain.

For wee Leo :)