Little make-up bag

Hello

Today I'd like to show you a make-up bag I made using WhoopsieDaisy Designs at my sewing class near Horam.  I go every Monday morning and we have so much fun.  Sharon Gammon is such a good teacher.

The top of the bag (the pink bit) uses a material called faux leather, which I bought from Debbie Shore on the Crafters' Companion website.  It comes in various colours and I must admit I love using it.  I plan on using it to make some handbags soon, so watch this space.   The bottom part and the lining are made from Tilda fat quarters.  

The faux leather is really soft and feels just like leather.  It is also very easy to sew with as the back is just like normal fabric.  It can be ironed (but only on the wrong side) and treated just like ordinary cotton.

The bag has a zip and Sharon shows how easy it is to insert a zip into a bag.  The pleat in the bag, both inside and outside, allows you to put much more into the bag than you would think as it expands.  

I really enjoyed sewing this bag and I have already made a couple more, one of which my eldest grand-daughter 'snaffled' for her make-up!  

This one I made for my friend Sue and I think she was pleased with it; she certainly said she was!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Cuddly Bear

Hello

Here's another Whoopsiedaisy Design that the talented Sharon Gammon has designed.  

My younger son and his wife were expecting their first baby last November and I wanted to make something to welcome my seventh grandchild (!) into the world.

Sharon designed this lovely bear with his snuggle blanket as well.  As we didn't know the sex of the baby I had to go for neutral colours and I was struggling to find neutral fabric that co-ordinated in the local fabric shops when lo and behold, Debbie Shore came on Create & Craft and had this matching fat quarters set,  There are six different fat quarters all in neutral colours.  Perfect!  I decided to do teddy in patchwork too but I could have done it all in one piece of fabric. He is stuffed with toy stuffing and is lovely and squidgy!

I also used Minkie fabric for the front of the ears, his little nose which is heart shaped and the bottoms of his feet.

The blanket is quite straight forward although it took a while to work out where to put the squares!  The picture makes the blanket look a bit creased, but I promise it wasn't.  It was lovely and smooth!  I sewed the blocks together and then put a border around it. I backed the quilt in the lovely 'bobbly' Minkie, which I got from the wonderful Pumpkin Patch in Hailsham, East Sussex and also brought it round to do the edges too.  I then quilted along the seams of each square, sewing right through to the backing.  Sharon is a expert at putting quilts together and she helped enormously, showing us every step of the way, with the binding and quilting which is not as easy as it looks!!

Here are the two together.  Don't they look smart?  My son and daughter-in-law were very pleased and I don't think they were being polite!  They had a little boy called Rory and the quilt and teddy sit proudly on his little crib!  Brilliant.  Thank you Sharon.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Door stops

Hello

I first saw Debbie Shore when she was demonstrating on Create and Craft.  She always made everything look so easy and she would make items in the hour, which I found very interesting!

One of the items made by Debbie Shore was a door stop in the shape of a cube, made with hessian and decorated with various ribbons.

This was one of my first efforts which I gave to my son and daughter-in-law.  As you can see its just decorated with different types of ribbons and some appliqué, anything you want.  

This was was made for my daughter and son-in-law.  Their colour scheme has green and purple in it and my son-in-law is a bit of a Goth (I think that's how you describe it) and likes skulls etc. but you can see how different it looks.

When my son and daughter-in-law were married, the people at whose premises were used were so helpful and kind that my son and daughter-in-law wanted a little present to give them to say thank you so they asked me to make an appropriate coloured door stop.  This was the end result.  Apparently they were over the moon about it, so I was glad.

To stuff the door stop I used ordinary toy stuffing and weighted it down with a rice envelope in the base.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x