Bag tester

I love testing patterns. It is a lovely way to get challenged and to learn something. I was already lucky to test the messanger bag for Katy and this time I had the chance to make my own travel bag. Did you also see so many quilter travel handmade? I was so jaleous but could never get over my fear and get started. Testing is a good way to finally just do it.

A long time ago I got myself 2m of London-Map fabric and never really found the right way to use it. I did use scraps of it but 2m is quite huge. We have a London trip planed in April so this was the oppertunity I was looking for to finally use at least half of it.

no, there is no picture without her

The pattern was straight forward and with the template how to get the most out of the fabric it was easy peasy. The only problem here is to get the supplies but it worked out fine at the end. I had to change the snaps on the front to magnetic snaps but this is just a little tiny adaption ...

There are so many pockets and I love it. There is nothing more terrible than searching in the bag. Pockets and zips, so many places to loose my stuff! Only the key can he chained in the ring ...

I love to carry the bag over my shoulder but sometimes it is handy to use handles. Now I have both and if I do not want the long strap any more, I can just unclip it.

I am so happy that I could test the pattern and make my trip to London in style. I am pretty sure I will never get lost there again :) Thank you Katy and good luck with the pattern! It was fun and I am so lucky to have my own Katy-Traveller-Bag!

Pouches are the best birthday gifts

It is always hard to find a present for the birthday child especially as they already have everything they want. I made a little pouch for birthday girl last week and it looks like she is happy with it. So I thought it might be a good idea to make two more. The first one for a girl getting 12 so she needs one that is slightly bigger. My son chose fabrics and style (Noodle head) and I was the lucky one putting it together.

It might have been a mistake to promise to fill this with sweets but I had to keep it. Even if I chose to make the medium size it is really huge. The tutorial was great and it was really easy sewing.

He really chose a fun fabric. For the zipper end I tried to fussy cut one of the gorgeous prints. When I was finished I realised it might have been a good idea to put a snap at the end but it was to late. I did not want to ruin the bag again as usually the snaps are not so easy to attach. Next time ... maybe!

Last I put on a charm on the zip and than I was done ready to go sweet shopping :)

Linking up with Finish it up Friday

A Fairly Bucket Bag for my girl

It was not long ago the I spoted a cute bag on the SewMamaSew  blog. Last year I got myself a slightly thicker fabric with the London map and I knew this one would be perfect to make a bag. I chose different patterns since than but non really suited me but when I saw the Fairly Bucket Bag I knew that is the one.

On my trip to Belfast I had a stop in different craft shops and got myself eyelits for this bag. I was sure that I have rings in my stash and sliders but I could not find them anymore. Even running into the shop in town did not solve this problem. I used left overs from an other bag which I cut up and collected the usable parts.

I used one of those stoppers for the cord so I can really pull it tight and it stays there. I have lots of them from making an other bag ages ago. They came in handy today.

Do you ever change a pattern? I think I do this all the time and call it adapting the pattern to my use. There is a inside zip in the pattern but I wanted to have little pockets on the other one too. Just to put a phone or a pen in. I also added a magnetic button for the pocket. Just in case as I throw everything in the bag. The strip has one of those openers as well so I can take it off quite fast if I need to (I like to carry a bag diagonal over the chest)

This bag is really great and the tutorial is straight forward. It has a good size and with the two layers (I used two heavy fabrics and left the lining out) it has a good body. My girl came home from school and already took it for herself so I have to make the bag with the London fabrics again.

February is gone ..

I feel like I have done nothing in February than making "nerdquilt". Don't get me wrong, it was amazing. I love it! I made my own pattern,  did an awful lot of calculating, a huge number of seams, even paper piecing the root as all the other options did not work and much more! But I love this baby! It is the second night walking into his room seeing him snuggled in this comfy blanked with a little grin.
So this is what February in sewing looks like:

I also made some bee blocks and there is at least one block missing (first thing to be done on Monday morning) but I am happy!

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Blogmotivation

I can not believe it is already 2 weeks that I wrote my last blog post. I really have to kick myself more and as I read this week: it is not always about showing finished projects - the progress can be shown as well. As the last two weeks have been full with dancing. No! I did not start Irish Dancing but some might know that one of my girl is dancing. So last Saturday, when Rugby was cancelled, we drove to Claregalway and spent the morning in a sticky hall watching her and a friend dancing. I had my sewing with me but only did some stitches.

This one is slowly growing. Very slowly! I do not know what this is going to be but there is still lots of fabric left from the Nordica bundle so I keep going. On Saturday I took this with me again but this time I did not even touch it. I was neatly buried in my bag but I was not happy with my girls dancing bag the last week so I tried to make her a new one.

I chose to make her the the bag I found in the Modern Quilting Magazin. I am so  happy that Sara has the tutorial on her blog as there was a terrible cutting mistake in the magazin. With her instructions on the blog it was easy to follow the steps. When I did the trial run for Katy on her "Whole Lotta bag" (did you see the sew along?) I learned a lot about bag making. The best part this week was, I had all the supplies now at home and could make some changes to the bag.

The only thing I did not have was the handles and to be honest, I did not want to spent so much money to order them (Ireland is terrible in supplies). So I chose to make them out of linen but it is filled with bag webbing. This gives it a nice stiffness and hopefully it makes it stronger.

I also love pockets. The pattern did not have enough for me and I like to put things fast in a side pocket. So I had to add an other one on each the side. This is one "work in progress" as you can see the button is still missing.

The pocket on the other side can not be closed. To make it a little bit bigger it is filled with a rubber band. It holds my sunglasses quite tight. The last change I made is a grid in the bottom and bag feet. Hope this keeps the water away a little more.
I might use this pattern for my London bag as well but I need to make more changes.

The fabrics are mostly the ones my girl chose when we were in town shopping or on a market. Some of them are from the Japanese Charm Swap and the rest I got in a rainbow charm swap. Now I need an other one of these to get the missing colors again.


Linking up with Monday Morning Star Count 2014/.