Sunday Sewing and small blog meet.

 I have been stupidly busy this week. There has been an Advent Assembly to attend, then the traffic on the A34 was so bad one day that I might as well not have bothered trying to go anywhere. (the diversions were the route I take to pick up the daughters). I volunteered to help at the Christmas Fayre, so that was three days of not seeing my beloved Pfaff.

 Today however I found my sewing machine. The daughters did their homework on the table I was sewing at. Not always the easiest way to sew. I used my cute Japanese fabrics to make some purses for a Craft evening I am attending.

 I love this super cute box corner pouch. You can get so much in them. I thought it would make a great little first aid pack.

 I think you need to be cold hearted to not love these little girls in Kimono.

 I just need to find a popper stud for the purse on the right.

Daughter 2 "needs" one of the kimono girl purses. I don't see her need as much as she does. But they are lovely.

I am linking to Lily's Small blog meet. Hope you all have a great first Advent Sunday.

Trying to get ready.

It's been a little frantic. I have made a Greek chiton (tunic) for the youngest daughter. All right that wasn't particularly tough. After all it is only a sheet with the sides sewn up and a hem.

 The hair do was more complicated. Lots of hair spray and lots of pins later this is what I came up with.

 The full length photos didn't work out. She is too aware that I am taking pictures and then poses. But Look! She is cross stitching and she can even thread the needle herself. OK not all the crosses go in the same direction and some a slightly different size. However this is her first cross stitch kit and I think she is doing very well.

I converted a gold or should that be base metal with a gold finish necklace into Greek jewellery for her.  All in all not too shabby and her teacher was pleased with the "project homework". Surely teachers must know it's the parents? 

The older child is in a school play this year and is a cook in a Victorian workhouse. Yes, that's right they are doing Oliver Twist but we are not allowed to call it that. Something to do with copyright. 

I have converted some old clothes of mine to  make her outfit. It is a scary moment when you realise that your old petticoat is in fact older than the "woman" who teaches your child. Maybe I am just old. 

I made some earphone purses for friends' children for Christmas. I found the pattern for these in Making magazine. They still need some key rings and some chocolate coins, then job can be ticked of my list.

I aslo made a couple of other things for people but they know my blog address, so no pictures yet.

Of course there are always more things that I need to make but this will have to be it for a little while. We have guests coming to stay next week and I am sure I have mentioned before housework is not my strong suit. So, with that in mind, I am off to find the Dyson.

What to do with items that didn't sell at the craft fair?

 I have been wondering what to do with the things I made for the craft fair but didn't sell.

Some have been claimed by the daughters (two cushions and a bag). My mother has a new bag. I think there may well be some friends who will be getting bags for Christmas, so they will go to good homes.

 There are quite a few little purses left over. I did ask the parent committee at the daughters' school if I could sell them at the Christmas bazaar (for a fee of course) but apparently the Christmas bazaar will not have stalls this year.

I have decided to open an Etsy shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/MadebyFrederica.

I hope people will like the purses.

Custom orders

Did mention that we had some requests for custom orders? Yes, I can understand your groans I am getting a little repetitive aren't I?
I will carry on regardless though.

I love the chilli pepper fabric. I think it looks quite chic.

 Little pink purse with flap. My pink daughter is very reluctant to let this one leave the house.

 Shopping bag with internal zip. I am rather proud of this one. I like the fabric choice I hope the customer will too.

Always slightly tricky when the remit is : black with zip and something striking. Fingers crossed.

Stock take

 I did a stock take yesterday. I was trying to work out how much I would hve to take to the craft fair. yesterday's tally was 4 tote bags,

 4 small quilts,

one cushion and

 21 purses of different styles and sizes.

Not enough clearly for a two day fair. I phoned friend Anna. She told me to relax she has things to sell too and we have till the 13th to make things. As in remember this is a two people venture.

Not withstanding the reassuring words of my friend I do still worry. However my mother will come to rescue. Her hobby is making necklaces and bracelets. When she heard about Anna and my plan she offered to let us sell her necklaces. She has too many to wear and even giving them to daughter and daughter in law and granddaughters she has too many.

So this week I will be finishing the Stripes quilt and making more tote bags and cushions.

Fingers crossed.

Fresh sewing day

I thought I hadn't done that much in July because paid work kicked off and the summer hols started.

 I made lots of little purses to give away to people. I also made two pencil cases for special more deserving teachers. I seem to have misplaced the pictures of those though.

 Little wallets made using a pattern bought at quilt taffy's Etsy shop.

 Husband has a "man" version, which is on a business trip with him as we speak.

I made two of these blocks using a tutorial on Lilly's quilts.

I finished Kaleidoscope baby quilt and a cushion for my mother. I also started a dress for Darling daughter but that is still a WIP and did some work on Monochrome quilt.

Well must get on with some report writing before I take the girls to the farm.
I am linking this to the small blog meet.

Little wallet

Yesterday in the post came an envelope from Quilttaffy with a pattern for a little wallet. Super quick delivery and super easy to follow pattern.

 I made two little wallets today after a quick trip to my local haberdasher to buy some snappy poppy buttons. They cost a princely sum of 8p each.

 As you can see the wallets have been acquired by the daughters. They are perfect for carrying around connect four counters.

 Or real paper money in the case of this purse. Oma and Opa have been round to read reports today and they decided that they were worth some money.

I am afraid that on Monday the money will go to the toy shop and will become Fillies.

Finished coin purses

 I finished a load of coin purses. They measure 5.5 inch by 3.5 inch when finished. Well, there abouts. Some are slightly smaller because that was the size scrap I had left over. Most have been re-homed to my mother's house.

 She liked the nautical ones. All of the above are with her.

 She was less keen on these. In fact she only took the all black one and the one with the Russian dolls.

And Daughter 2 claimed the pink one of these.

Now I have learned some things while making these:
1) Do NOT forget to leave the zip part open before sewing up the sides. A slightly silly mistake that will make it difficult to turn the purse right way out.

2) Do NOT open the zip too far. This can either lead to the zip head being stuck under the needle (not good this will break the needle of your sewing machine) or the if you are using a zip that is slightly too long and you trim up later the zip can end up stuck on the wrong side of your stitching.

I should probably mention that I got the idea for the purses from Noodlehead's tutorial.

I need to finish sewing binding on the red brick quilt. I hope to have a sunny day (well dry at least) day this week to be able to the some pictures.

More

More zippy purses. Sorry for the poor picture quality but the light here is not too good at the moment. I will try and take some better pictures but waiting for better light might mean June :-) .

Purses and pencil cases

 I seem to be doing lots of little things at the moment. I have 3 quilts to quilt and one black and white one to finish. Instead I am procrastinating. Not completely though.  You can just see a little peak of a quilt waiting by the machine.

 For the end of term the girls asked me to make pencil cases for their teachers, so I started doing that.

Also my mother asked me to make 10 zippy purses for her to keep her necklaces in (mother makes jewllery as  a hobby). So I have cut lots of fabric this week for making purses. Now I am just waiting for the zips.

I hope to have finished one quilt by next Friday maybe (fingers crossed two).

I am linking to Crazy Mom quilts Friday finish.

Coin purse

Red purse. Matches the red nail varnish

 The daughters liked my pencil case but that is mine. I am however a soft touch and they look at me with their big blue eyes and I like making thinks. They have got coin purses. Ideal for tuck money

Youngest with her funky purse.

 I used noodlehead's tutorial. I changed it a little as the girls wanted slightly smaller purses. The final purse is 3" by 5.5".

inspecting the name label. Thank goodness it is the right name.

 Daughter 2 likes the spotty lining. I stitched their names in, to prevent loss at school.

Made by label

I had some labels printed by Mommie made it. I think they turned out really well. My eldest likes the labels because if I make little purses for her friends they won't be able to claim their mummy made it.