Some bits and pieces and a new WIP

 I have a few finishes. 

Daughter 1's drawstring bag. 

 Bunting for my birthday. 

 The fabrics a maybe a little Kidstonque for my liking but the daughters told me I had to make it like that. 

My new WIP. I think I need to change the layout. There maybe some seem ripping going on later.

Well what can I say?

I have no excuses really for not blogging other than I didn't feel I had a lot to share sewing wise. The other stuff in my life kind of got in the way of sewing. Hate it when that happens but sometimes sewing has to take a backseat.

I did finish my sew serendipity skirt and it's a great fit. No photos as yet.

Today I finished this little drawstring bag.

 It is very cute. My nine year old loves it.

Just as well because I made it for her. She can take her suntan lotion and sunhat to school in it and leave it on her peg. 

The 10 year old needs one too of course. Her will be more green/turquoise. Better get on with that and some real paid work as well. 

More pictures soon I hope. 

Another shoe bag

 I hadn't got round to showing these yet. Well what can I say about it other than it is another drawstring bag.

I am not sure you can tell easily from the pictures but the fabric is lots of little panda bears. It's by Timeless treasures and is called Mini Pandas. I did have something else in mind for this fabric but I had quite a lot. There was a funny mark at the beginning of the bolt, so the shop let me have an extra 10cm or for free.

Tomorrow I hope to show you more of shirt quilt mark2.

Nothing left.

 Mr Frederica sometimes worries that I buy too much fabric. He is worried, or so he claims, that our house does not have the structural integrity to take the weight of all the fabric. He was therefore very pleased that I have used up the entire 50cm of this pretty flowery print.

Technically it hasn't left the house and the weight issue therefore is not gone but he hasn't worked that out yet. Please don't enlighten him.

As mentioned previously Daughters 1 and 2 are now at a new school. At this new school there are outdoor shoes and indoor shoes. The outdoor shoes need a shoe bag. Daughter 1 told me this on Thursday, so I had quite a lot of notice. Daughter 1 made the felt flower for me to pretty up her bag. (on the accuquilt) 

Daughter 2 however forgot that she too needs a shoe bag. She only told me when I was half way through making this bag. Guess what I'll be doing tonight. 

The remaining meadow print fabric was used to make this little cushion. Daughter 1 did the cross stitch and used the sewing machine to sew it together. With my help. I am not letting her lose on my Pfaff without supervision. Although I didn't supervise her closely enough. She managed to drop the feed dogs and found sewing rather tricky. After making the acquaintance of the un-picker and a lengthy sermon on why you don't press buttons without may say so, the cushion was completed.
She is very proud of her work and so am I. She has poor eyesight and not stereo vision; as a result she is rather clumsy. I hope this cushion gives her more confidence to tackle other crafty projects.

I am off to choose fabrics from the stash for daughter 2. Have a good rest of Sunday.

Finally found my sewing machine

 I finally managed to get some sewing done. Who would have thought that school can be that busy? Daughter 1 now has a new PE bag. Bit late for this year but all ready to go for next school year.

 I was lucky and got the last bit of cord in this colour. I did think black would be more chic but at 9 chic is not important.

 I also made these little 6 inch star blocks. They are so small and cute.

 I photographed it with this coin for size comparison.

Daughter 1 (off sick today) thought that the coin was not that useful, only British people will know what size a 10 pence coin is. I conceded that this is a fair point. The i-phone was chosen as an internationally recognised standard instead. Hope to have more little stars soon. 

I want to keep the sewing momentum up and get as much done as possible before both daughters break up for the holidays. I like having them home but never get much done with them around.

This week's finishes.

This week has been a good week for finishes. There was the new summer dress. 

Then I made two drawstring bags for my friend's little ballerinas. 

 Their mother chose the fabric. It's suitably pink for her youngest but I think the eldest ballerina was after purple. 

 I got the impression that the older girls at ballet wear purple, so she needed a purple bag. Alas our local haberdashery did not have purple ballet fabric. I have sewn in their name tags, so that should at least help them to pick up the right bag. 

Remember I made a pencil case for daughter 1? Guess what? Daughter 2 needed one too. I do like the little animals she has chosen. Good news, it was from the stash, so fabric reduction is still on track. 

And I made a square pouch for myself. 

Now for boring sewing. Husband has a hole in his trouser pocket...  I have been putting it off. Better fix it.

A more productive half term than I had thought.

I had hoped to get more done than I did but all in all not too bad. I made a new drawstring bag for PE lessons. The fabric is so cute. Love the little ladybirds.

  A nice box corner pouch for my mother. You can make one too using Noodlehead's tutorial. Mother wants it to store her pliers in. No, I didn't really think this was strange. She makes jewellery, so that explains it. 

And a pencil case for daughter 1. I took the liberty of using some left over water proof fabric from her swim bag. After all pen do leak sometimes. 

Dress making hasn't progressed as well as I had hoped. That is what my table looks like right at this moment. some math homework, toys, a trivet and some cat food. The cat food is on there because the children were trying to lure the cat away from baby birds. Of course they didn't then return it to the kitchen. That would be helpful. 

I have managed to overlock the dress pieces and the lining pieces. Probably not the Great British Sewing Bee way but I like to cheat. It works for me, so there. Sorry getting that out of my system. 

Bring on Monday when the hordes return to school and I can get some serious sewing done.  

Swim bag 2 finished or should that be PE?

 Well here it is with white cord. There may be a little whiff of halloween about the fabric.

It is already in use. Dirty PE kit was brought home yesterday and loaded into the new bag. New clean bag with dirty stuff went back to school this morning. I did try to wash the dirty kit but "the weather isn't good enough to have it dry before tomorrow". I do have a drier but I wasn't going to argue.

In other news; The scrappy trip quilt has all 48 blocks but I can't find a layout I like. I need a floor that is clean and big enough to use. Part of me is tempted to go to my parents' house. They have a huge table that I steal for basting quilts. I am sure it would be big enough for trying to figure out the layout. Technically my living room floor is big enough but the small black dog is far too helpful. I don't fancy chasing after her to get my quilt squares back.

The goth quilt has been quilted. I hope to finish it over the weekend.

I had better do some ironing. It was lovely weather this weekend so I did lots of washing and line drying. Unfortunately I have lots to iron now.

WIP Wednesday - Swim bag 2

 As I explained earlier Daughter 2 now NEEDS a swim bag. She does not have swimming lessons right now.

 So four rectangles were cut. 50cm by 40cm.

 

 This is how far I have gotten. The grey cord I had in mind for the bag was rejected. It needs to be white. Bag can wait  because Daughter 2 wants to make Paverlova. (I know it's Pavlova but she pronounces it with an er in the middle)

Meringue is waiting for the whipped cream and berries. Shame that husband doesn't like it. More for us. 

Other WIPs:

Goth Quilt finish quilting and bind.

Scrappy trips sew together the last 6 blocks 

Blue green quilt still needs basting and quilting. 

I am hoping to do some scrappy trip blocks after daughters are in bed. Tomorrow I am going to a cosmetics party (think tuppa ware but then different), so probably won't get a chance then. 

Linking to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday. 

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons can commence again. The eldest daughter has a new swim bag. I should maybe not have given her free choice of the fabric cupboard. Daughter 1 chose a rather nice Cath Kidston fabric I was saving. Not sure for what I was saving it but I was. It was a remnant according to the Cath Kidston shop. I don't call 1.4m by 1.7m a remnant but seeing as they were selling it for £5/metre I didn't argue.
I added a waterproof lining, reused the cords of the old bag and hey presto.

 I think some photos of the making process might have been helpful. But don't fear she also needs a new PE bag (Hello Kitty is so "Infants") and daughter 2 needs a swim bag and a PE bag because obviously there can be no bias.

The eyelets presented a small problem. Above is exhibit A. I blame the pictorial instructions on the back. I believe Pym could have done a better job. 

As you can see the eyelets were inserted successfully in the end.

More drawstring bags soon.