Little things to sell

I'm hoping to take part in a craft fair before Christmas, so figured I'd better start sewing to make some stock. These are the results over 2 days.

 I made 4 coasters with fruit fabric. They were fat 8th already used a bit on another project.

 And then I made 4 peg bags with wooden hangers, child size from Dunelm.

That's a beginning for a stall. I know I need to make many more projects, but I reckon that small and inexpensive things will sell better than a small quilt for example.

Wish me luck.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

A bag for my bags

I needed something to sort all the plastic bags from the supermarket. we reuse them for shopping, as bin liners, or to carry shoes, etc.. and they were lost in the middle of bigger bags. I did a purge at the same time as I started using this one.

 I wanted a little embellishment so printed the letters, reversed on interfacing which was then ironed on the wrong side of my flowery blue fabric. I used a zigzag stitch to secure everything.

 The design is pretty simple, it's a rectangle with seams turned under at the top and bottom. You chose the size that you would like.

 I ZigZaged over the elastic and that was a mistake, because it's not tight enough. You don't want the bags to fall out. It would be better to make a channel and pass the elastic in that. You could tighten it more.

And finally I chose to not make a loop at the top. I wanted to be able to knot my bag to something.

It is now in use, hidden in a cupboard.

At home we are having some dryers for the walls, following some flooding from the bathroom upstairs. They are really noisy and we have to leave them on as much as possible during the next 2 weeks; there are 8 big machines all together. Luckily I'm going for a walk with friends this afternoon, a welcome break.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

I'm back in the sewing room, and made a cushion cover

After the summer holidays and going away 3 weeks in France (lucky me, we went to see our families), having the girls at home for 6 weeks, which I enjoy very much although my time seems to disappear faster, and after some flooding from the bathroom upstairs on the level below, lots of appointments with insurance people...I'm finally back in my sewing room for some sewing.

Front, in the sun

I am not showing you something super exciting, just a block we did at my patchwork group, and I used that to make a cushion cover. they seem to wear out quickly in this house, or maybe it's the same for everybody.

Front in the shade

So the Golden Lion Quilters had their first meeting on Wednesday night, and we made the Attic Window. I realised that it was a first for me, although I knew the shape and had a good idea on how to make one.
My homework is done, 4 blocks put together with a border and the cushion pad is reused.

The pieced back

 I made a mistake when cutting the long rectangles for the windows, with a 45 degree angle, and cut them an inch too short. So decided to sew them together and use them in the back, and make what is called a french plait (how appropriate as I'm french!). The bands on the sides are matching the front so that there isn't an obvious change of colour on the side seams.

 The zip is cancelled under a fold of fabric. I was given some long pink ones, so not the right colour here. You could easily make a similar cover with 4 fat quarters, and have some fabric left.

There was even some sun this afternoon when I took the photo. How lucky.
The bright colours are to remind me of the summer, although there wasn't much of a summer here in England. Quite disappointing.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.