Japanese folded purses

A new little project.

We made these in our patchwork group, The Golden Lions, in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The pattern is not mine, in fact I don't know where the lady found it. So I don't know if it is protected and can't give a reference. That's why I will just show you the photos of my project.

 Maybe I can still tell you that you start with 2 squares of fabric, sew them together and turn them right side out. Slip stitch the opening closed. Then it's a question of folding and sewing by hand.
It's a very enjoyable little project, although I find that it is difficult to guess the finished size from the beginning squares.

Maybe I could try with a rectangle, or an hexagon ! with paper first then on fabric. That would be fun.

So thanks for reading me, and if you know the source of this pattern and could drop me a line, I would be very grateful.

Pascale.

Cupcake purses

This is oil cloth (in french toile ciree), bought at Laura Asley.
I cut it to keep the size of the cupcakes on each little purse. These will be useful for the girls, they can take some money to school to buy some tuck.
I also made a long pencil case in this fabric, need to find the photo. DD3 is using it already so it's not looking so new anymore.
I could make more and sell them, get on a kind or roll. But only for a while.

Pink Union Jack purse

This little purse on the theme of the Union Jack, the British flag, is all pink ! It was a request from DD1 to be used at school and keep her dinner money.
I made it some time ago but had lost the pictures on the computer.
In real life it doesn't look so pristine any more, but is still very much loved.

I had seen things similar in the shops, so the idea is not original, and I thought I could make one myself. It proved  a little more complicated than I thought, but I've done it.

After the front panel was done, I sewed the zip together with the front, back and lining. The rest is easier, although I am not always happy with the ends of the zips. The sides go a bit round, and I don't know what to do about it.

I made it on holidays in France, and it reminds me of a lovely quiet time.

DD3 new dog bag and pencil case

I saw this fabric at the Malvern show (more about this later) in May, and had to buy it for DD3 who is so fond of dogs. We don't have any because I am busy enough with the family and the house. But we had the fabric.I didn't use a pattern for this one, just used the 50 cm of fabric that I bought. There are 2 inside pockets. It is lined and quilted all over, including the strap. That detail was very important for DD3.With the bits left over I sewed a pencil case with a zip. I used the same lining fabric which comes from Ikea.

Here you have a view of the inside of the bag, with embroidery (by machine) on the top of the pockets.

DD3 wanted a big bag to put all her notebooks for school. We discussed the size, depth, pockets, lining fabric, and she is very pleased with the result. Apparently her friends are amazed that I can do THAT...They mean not buy it ready made.

Blue rabbits in my house

This is another big gap in my blogging. I do have things to show you, but not much time to sit in front of the computer.

So here are 2 at the same time.

The first comes from the book "Zakka Sewing" by Therese Laskey and Chika Mori, and is a pencil case in the shape of a rabbit.
The lining inside doesn't follow the shape outside. Very cute isn't it ?

The second one was much simpler, for a friend who had a little boy.

A rabbit to keep my card

You can see that I had a bit of time during the Easter holidays.

I made this little purse to hold my credit card, and replace the ugly, boring, plastic one I had before.

My only slight worry is that the snap fastener might need to be resewn at some point. Of course I can't use a magnetic fastener because of the nature of the credit card.

The pattern comes from a book I really enjoy at the moment, called "Zakka Sewing, 25 japanese projects for the household" by Therese Laskey and Chika Mori.

The meaning of Zakka is "household good" in Japanese, and the projects were made by 25 different japanese designers. Luckily it is all in english, no need to translate. You will see other projects from this book soon.

The black and white fabrics are a bit different from my usual choices. Interesting. And I'm glad I've made something for myself and am using it. Otherwise I have a tendency to make things that are so nice that I don't use them. Or I use them as presents, hopefully to people who will enjoy them.

I'm trying to change that as I have so much pleasure in using things homemade.

Tilda little purses

I made these 3 little purses, all lined and closed with a white pop up, before Christmas.

The 2 brown ones have gone to a friend and as a secret present in my quilting group, the Golden Lion Quilters.

I still have the light green one, made with some japanese fabric.

They are all a bigger version of the smaller one I made in a blue and white fabric, see more information here.

Cat purse

This is a small project I started and finished yesterday. It is for my friend Chris who has 2 cats, and for whom I made a bag with the same fabric. I'm not sure if she still uses the bag, but she can use this on its own.

It is lined in a beige fabric, and I have used a thin wadding, plus my little label of course.

I am working on different things but they are either not finished yet, or I need somebody to help me to take a good photo. I'll show them soon.

My little cup of tea,

This is my last portable project, started on the ferry bringing us back from Le Havre, France, at Easter. The journey was over 5 hours so I had plenty of time, nothing else really to do on a ferry, and no restriction about scissors or needles like on planes.

This was made almost all the way by hand in consequence, except yesterday when I finished it with my machine.

This is my second one, the first one having been given away, as soon as it was finished. But this new one so far I wish to keep.

I know if I was to do another one, it would be wider and not so tall, so that you could easily reach what is at the bottom. We'll see if it happens.

So this little purse is hand quilted, with a zip, a label on the pull that says "TEA", and completely lined.

Oh and the real tea cup is one of ours and comes from Russia. I bought it for my husband when we were still living in France, but we don't use it so much now. Just mugs most of the time.

A little mishap

This didn't end up as it was supposed to.

I really like it, but I intended to make a sewing purse for my niece and it is way too big. I started thinking that she would need space for some long scissors, and to keep her projects in, so I aimed a bit big.

It is only when I had done all the quilting, put the zip in and started to sew the sides that I thought maybe it wouldn't be that small.

I bought her, yes sorry there wasn't enough time to do another one, something else and filled it with goodies, including a pink needle holder . She loved it so everything is well.

I am keeping this purse/big bag, how to call it, and will use it to store fabric near my sewing table, and protect it from the light. I love the finished product, bright colours.

These photos show you the fabrics used. A fat quarter of the purple with flowers wasn't enough, so I added some pink for the bottom of the case. I quilted it with a grid on point as you can see on the second photo.

I then put the zip between the 2 ends of my piece and sandwiched it with the lining. There is a seam before and after the zip to go down the sides.

The lining at this point is a rectangle the same size as the top.

On the right is a view of the inside at this point.

Now take your project right side out, fold it and put a pin to mark the middle of the bottom, and then the middle of the sides, ie the point folded when the 2 previous ones meet.

Decide how big you want your fold to be, which will decide of the height of your case; draw a 45degree angle between the pin in the middle of the sides and the fold (see photo to understand). Sew the four corners, and then the seam in the middle. Cut the surplus fabric from the angles.

For the lining sew the sides together with the zip in the middle. measure the width of the case and draw on the lining. And following the photo pinch the angles, draw a line, sew and cut the spare corners.

On the second side of the lining, leave the first seam open so that you can turn all of the case out.

After doing that slip stitch closed.

Little purses

My kitchen is nearly finished, Steffen has left the house, and we just need to decide on which colour to paint the walls. I am slowly washing everything that needs to go back in the cupboards, because of the dust during the work. We managed to fill a few boxes with stuff for charity.

So I should be back to more sewing, finally.

I must say that it has been snowing here in the south of England, not much but it is very cold outside, so no running for me at the moment, that would be too dangerous.

Here you can see our back garden, with the swing and the trampoline, and the door of the rabbit hutch open. I think the rabbit is hiding somewhere under a bush, to keep warm. He is very good and follows us around outside, and is always eager to come back for his food at the end of the day.

I haven't got a camera as DH took it to immortalise the scenery today, but I can show you things done before, like these 2 little purses made for my Mum and my sister for Christmas, to match their bags from this summer, all Ikea fabric, I just used what was left.

I kept them flat so they take less space in a bag. Not lined so they are very simple to make.

My sister's sewing purse

Now that she has received it I can show you my sister's present. I made her a little purse for all her sewing things. The fabric is from Kaffe Fassett, and I quilted around each little circle, the design of the zippered purse is from this book from Tilda.

Then I made her a little pincushion, 2 circles sewn together and some embroidery thread to perfect the shape.

The needle holder comes from another book from Tilda, and in fact I have made 2 now

One is closed with one of the fimo buttons I made a little while ago, the other is closed with a popper, and is for my niece.

I must explain here that after I prepared all this for Marianne, she rang me to say her daughter, my god-daughter would like to receive a sewing kit, and she thought it would be a good idea if I made her one as she had seen us sewing together. I was just stopping myself from laughing on the phone. So I kept my secret and made another pouch, but it was way too big (I'll keep it for another post or this will be too long).

So there are 2 needle holders, and then I bought some ribbon and with my sewing machine I embroidered their names on it and attached them to the scissors.

You can see the name Aurore on the red scissors. I also bought some very cute felt for her to play with, she is only 7.

They both received some needles, pins and a measuring tape, plus some pink thread, fabric and ribbon for my niece. I think they both loved it, and I had great fun making all this.