Sunday Stash - Secret Store Unveiled

I took a little trip to Spotlight early last week.  I needed to get some backing fabric for a customer's quilt order, and I miraculously came out with only that and a metre of shot cotton.  Shocking, I know!  On my drive home, I made a split decision to turn down a road I know leads me to a "little" habby store - because I needed to get a few zippers for cushion backs.  Now, I've been going to this store for a few years now.  My Mum directed me there and I can still remember my first venture - walking in and standing there like a stunned mullet.

Set in a smallish warehouse, amongst a small industrial area, this store stocks anything and everything you would EVER need to fulfill your crafting needs!  Rows and rows of crap amazing stuff, from diamontes to stickers and tulle to buttons.  It's friggin awesome!  Apart from the fact it gives me a minor anxiety attack every time I walk in, it's brilliant.

Anyway, I usually only pop in and head directly to their little packs of 60cm zippers, and sometimes venture over to their elastic spools.  This time, however, I decided to ask the lady counting diamontes whether they had any metal zips?  "I'm sure we do" she says, and I follow her to the far end of the store.  To this......

Just a few of the random tubs of awesomeness to be found.  I spent the next 20 minutes fossicking through them all to find just a few I thought could be useful......

Ahemmmmm.........  I may have just gotten a tad carried away?  This carrying away may have occurred when I realised they had a 40% off everything sale!  Cha-ching!  Soooo, for what it's worth, this is what I left with:

41 zips of all lengths - mostly metal.

30 metres of elastic

10 magnetic snaps (because now I know how to use them, every bag I ever make will have one)

2 kids craft packs

All for the bargain basement price of.........................  $28!  Cha-ching Cha-ching!!!

And you know what?  Even at full price, this would have been a super bargain!

So, do you want to know where my secret little store is?  Theo's Discount Craft Store is located in Macquarie Place, Boronia.  For those of you in Melbourne - head East of the city towards the Dandenongs.  It is just past the intersection of Dorset Road and Mountain Highway.  And it is well worth the trip!  I do believe they are having another sale in October.  Mark it in your diaries!

Ps.  This is not a sponsored post - I just wanted to share the habby love!

Pss.  HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

I'm linking up - You can too!

My Super Tote!

In keeping with the 2014 theme of "throw lots of balls up in the air and juggle them", I started yet another project the other day, and finished it at late-o'clock last night!  It's my Super Tote!  Now, to be honest, I'd worked myself up a bit about the Super Tote.  I had put it in the "this is going to be difficult" basket and was a little bit scared.  But I'm here to tell you - it's actually relatively easy!  Once you get past all. the. cutting. out.

As you can see, I used my beautiful Cotton + Steel canvas for the outer sections.  I adore the tones in it, the green is actually a really subtle shade.  I kept changing my mind about what to use for the main sections - I had some shot cotton that was in the running, but in the end I went with denim.  I found a few metres of it in the bottom of my shelves, and when I got it out and looked at how dark it was, I remembered a tip from one of the girls at the Sit n Sew day I went to!  Emma from For My Little Monster uses her denim INSIDE OUT!!!!  Bingo!  This front section is also a big old pocket - with another magnetic snap!

Once I sorted those main parts out, I had to work out which prints to use for the million other sections!  This bag pattern is proof that you don't necessarily need to order fat quarter bundles or larger of fabric collections.  You see, I have a fat eighth bundle of Cotton + Steel (in two of the ranges), and from a fat eighth you can get the recessed zipper pieces and the inner pocket pieces!  Yeh!  So I chose my favourite colour for the recessed zipper - coral.  LOVE this print.  The zipper was super easy to do - except for the part where I chose to use a chunky metal zipper.  Please note - metal zipper + hot iron = ouch.  Angie from GnomeAngel had told me of this before, and I was being reallllly careful, but no.  Ouch.  Anyway, I got it done!

The lining of the bag is the Butterfly print I used for my 241 Tote.

And the gorgeous little pockets on either sides are yummy turquoise prints.  I'm not sure if you have picked the little mistake I have made with the gusset?  Hmmmmmm.......... well, when I was pulling the bag all the way back out the right way, I realised I had sewn the gusset lining in with the dark side of the denim!  Whoops!  Moving right along.......  Constructing the bag was relatively straight forward.  If you've made any sort of lined bag before, you will be able to work it out - promise.  If you haven't made a bag before, you may want to read the instructions through a few times and really wrap your head around them.  When I was attaching the lining to the recessed zipper sections, it took me a few minutes to realise why it's called "recessed"...... derrrr.....because it sits lower in to the bag!

And the handles.  Sigh.  I would be devastated to know if people are actually NOT using the selvedges from these fabric ranges!  They are really something special, with gorgeous little quotes on them  "Leap and the net will appear".  Love!

So, a review of sorts.  I freakin love this pattern!  For the interfacing I used a reasonably heavy weight iron on wadding from Spotlight.  It is not a stiff interfacing - because I don't like my bags to be stiff.  But having said that, I think next time I make one, I will put a slightly stiffer interfacing on the gusset, to give the sides and bottom of the bag a little extra oomph.  Stitching the final topstitching around the top of the bag was a little bit of an effort.  The thickness, especially at the sides of the bag, was reasonably tricky to get through the machine.

I used my walking foot through the entire process (except for the zipper installation).  This made sewing through the layers a little easier.  I used a regular machine needle, because I didn't have a denim one, but I'm thinking next time I shall invest in a denim needle :)  I also used Aurifil 50 weight thread in #2000 - a beautiful golden colour.  I'm thinking a 40 weight thread would be good in future.

All in all - the big thumbs up from me!  I can see many, many more of these in my future.  You can buy the Super Tote pattern by Noodlehead HERE.

I'm linking up - You can too!

PS. This is sort of kind of me sewing along with Sewvivor.  You HAVE to head over to see all the fabulous entries this week for the bag challenge HERE.  And if you're feeling patriotic - remember to vote for our two Aussie girls - Angie and Crystal!

Moonlit 241 Tote

A few weeks back, I asked my IG peeps for bag pattern suggestions.  There was an overwhelming majority happy to recommend both the 241 Tote and Super Tote by Noodlehead.  A few days ago, I finally bit the bullet and bought BOTH patterns!  I then also stopped past Spotlight and got some extra bag making supplies and was ready to rumble!

I'm pleased to say I have finished the 241 Tote today!  And I'm a very happy camper....

 

Even though I was expecting a canvas butterfly print from Cotton + Steel's new range, I still went ahead and used the quilting cotton that arrived.  And I'm so glad I did!  I love the combination of the denim blue butterflies and coral arrows.  Yummo!

 

The side panels and lining throughout the bag are Essex Linen.  It contrasts perfectly with the other prints.  I purchased chunky metal jean zippers for the front.....a first here.  What I didn't think about was the fact you can't cut the ends off if you want to make them a bit shorter, like regular dress zips.  Whoops!  So I had to sew a wider berth around the top and bottom of each zip.  I love the look of them.

 

I used Aurifil #5002 - a beautiful shade of coral - for all of the top stitching.  You know coral is my favourite colour right?

 

And probably my favourite part of the bag - the handle.  I don't know how anyone could bare to part with these fabulous selvedges?  I couldn't!  The instructions direct you to cut a piece of fabric 6" x 26" for the handle, so I cut the selvedge off at 2.5", then 4.5" of the linen.  Cut the linen in half length ways and inserted the selvedge between them.  I had to sew the edge of the selvedge on TOP of the linen on one side, so as not to lose any of the text.  I freakin love it!

 

Another first - magnetic snaps!  Never used them before, but I can now see them becoming a regular fixture on my bags!  So easy!?!?!?  I also love the little slip pocket on the inside - you can never have too many pockets in a bag.

 

Speaking of pockets..... The leaf print from Wee Wander co-ordinates divinely with the arrows.  Winning.

So - overall a very fabulous bag!  The only thing I WILL do differently when I make my next one (and undoubtedly many more after that) would be to upsize the pattern a little.  But for me, it's actually the perfect handbag size.  

Great, easy to follow pattern, with plenty of instructions.  I used a dressmaking interfacing - sort of like spiderweb weave - and it was enough structure as I don't like "stiff" bags.  I think if you added some batting to it, it would be ok also.

Next stop - the Super Tote!  You can find the 241 Tote Pattern HERE.

Sweet Pouch Swap Finale!

I returned home yesterday from four days away to a lovely email from my new friend Barbara in Germany.  She received her Sweet Pouch Swap package!  So now, I can show you what was made and sent....

 

I took quite some time deciding what I would actually make for Barbara.  I realllllllly wanted to use one of my decorative zips, but was struggling to work out how.  In the end, I just pulled a Tim Gunn and "made it work"!  I opened up my beloved scrap bag of Notting Hill and got to work....

 

I wanted to incorporate quilting in some way, seeing as though it is what I most love to do.  So I made a teeny tiny little disappearing nine patch.  I think the finished dimensions of the patch was around three inches!  I finished off this side with Aurifil #1100 with some straight lines echoing the patch.

 

And of course there had to be paper piecing too!  I used another of Kristy's Quiet Play patterns to piece together a "B" and then whacked the free motion foot on and wrote the recipient's name.  I love how the Aurifil #1100 hot pink shimmers against the denim!  To finish, I used #2810 to do some wavey lines across, with a little loop randomly placed.

 

Then once it was ready to send off, I filled it as much as possible with some iconic Australian chocolate and lollies!  Tim tams, Furry Friends, Fizz Wizz and Natural Confectionary Company!  Yummo!

Not long after drafting this blog post, there was a ring at my doorbell - and my package arrived from Barbara!

 

I absolutely love the zippered pouch she made for me, and the embroidered quote is just perfect.  She also included two of my favourite Terrain prints - how divine!  I've already started on the chocolate.....

 

I LOVE her tags!

And this is the first linen to ever enter my home - can you believe?  It may just have kicked off a new obsession.....uh-ohhhh......  You can visit Barbara's blog HERE to get the low-down on how and why she put my package together - so utterly thoughtful xxx

The "For Pleat's Sake" Bag - Tips & Zippered Pocket Tutorial.

Thank you so much to everyone for your lovely comments on my Secret Santa gift reveal!  It killed me to keep it a secret for so long!  As promised, I've put together some tips for sewing it together, sort of like a review I guess!  I've also done a little tutorial on how to put a zippered pocket in.  So brace yourself for lots of photos…..

First things first - You can find the tutorial for this bag HERE.  It really is quite a simple bag to make, once you wrap your head around it!  To be perfectly honest, it took me many hours to get past the first step of getting the pleats done. And I ended up doing it differently to the tutorial, because the measurements just weren't adding up.  Now whether that is because of my lack of mathematical genius, or whether the measurements really just weren't right - You can be the judge of that!  I found the photos and measurements really hard to work out.  So this is what I did (after many times of measuring, pinning, un-pinning, re-measuring etc etc)…...

I ended up going with five pleats instead of six.  I measured the middle point of the bag pieces, and then measured 1/2" for each of the pleats.

This is how I do my pleats.  Clockwise L-R:  Find the middle point and pin.  Fold the fabric over right sides together with the pin being at the fold.  Pin the measurement for the pleat, in this case 1/2".  Fold the fabric back over to show the right side and pin the pleat down.

I then press the pleats well and depending how big they are, I will sometimes pin them further down the pleat also.  I followed the other measurements in the tutorial to a tee, in terms of how far down to sew them etc.  Because my pleats were different measurements, it altered the bag measurements when finished - but it was only by a little!

NOW - moving on to another little tip that I like to see visually…..

The tutorial gives good instructions on how to make a flat bottom for the bag, however, one thing I wanted to see, was this.  I find it quite fiddly to match up the seams, but if you can peek inside the bag and visually match up the seams, and run your finger along it, you can pin it on the outside to ensure it's still matching!

And pin that sucker down ready for measuring, sewing and then cutting.

PUTTING IN A ZIPPERED POCKET - I'm not re-inventing the wheel here, in fact, I used a tutorial from the pattern I bought to make my camera bag, which you can find HERE.  The one difference is that this time I used a decorative zipper…..

So once I'd sewn the pleats in to my bag panels, I then set about putting the pocket in.  First thing to do was find another co-ordinating fabric and cut it to size - I cut it 12" x 16".  My zip is 9" long. (I had to cut a second piece of fabric as the one pictured above wasn't wide enough!)

On the wrong side of the zipper pocket, I measured down 9" and marked a line, then another line 1/2" under that.  Then measure 1" in on either side and mark the lines to make a long rectangle.

Place your pocket fabric right side facing down on to the bag panel, centre it.  Also measure approximately 1 1/2" down from the top to where your top line will sit.

Pin in place.

Now you sew over the long rectangle that has been marked, making sure to backstitch at both the beginning and end.

Mark a line through the centre of your rectangle, and two diagonal lines like above.

And using sharp scissors, cut along those lines - being very careful not the cut the stitching.

You then need to pull the pocket fabric through the hole to the other side.

Giving you a neat opening.  Press firmly and neatly.

You then take your zip and place it over the top of the opening, pinning in place.  Sew around the zipper, making sure to catch the fabric underneath…..

And sewing over both ends of the zip.  If you're not using a decorative zip, you just need to sew the zip to the other side of the pocket, with the zip showing through.

Lastly, you bring the pocket fabric right sides together and sew all the way around, creating the pocket. (You don't sew the pocket on to the bag panel!) This will now sit in between the outer bag and lining.

And one last little tip for the construction of this bag.  And I am finding it very difficult to articulate this!  When it comes to sewing the lining and bag together, I had to unpick the side sections a couple of times and come up with a different way to do it.  Once again, I think more photos would have helped.

To start it off, you need to line up the V sections at the side.  But because of the bulkiness of it, it wouldn't turn through nicely for me, which was frustrating!

So I had to start off the stitching here a little differently.  I actually sewed straight across about half an inch at this section.

Like this.  And then line up the rest of the bag as per the tutorial and sew all the way around, just leaving the opening at the bottom.  I found it turned out relatively neatly this way!

^^^^^^^^^^  For those sections up there at the sides ^^^^^^^^^

And just because the tutorial doesn't mention this, to close up the opening on the bottom of the lining, just tuck the seam allowance inside and press….

Then sew along the bottom of the lining around 1/4" in.  This makes for a nice neat finish on the inside of your bag!

The tutorial also only calls for you to top stitch around the sides of the bag, however I chose to top stitch around the top also.

One last thing.  The bag handles.  The tutorial suggests where to buy them, but they are UK based.  I found some HERE on Etsy, shipped from Asia, and they are fab.  Not leather, but a great finish!

And there you have it!  I really do hope that all of this makes sense, and is helpful is you choose to make yourself one of these fabulous bags!  I have put one on my to do list - for myself!