Sewing Swap - What I Received

Yay!! I got home from my busy morning out to find a parcel waiting for me!! It was a couple of days late, but it was worth it :)

This is what was waiting for me!

There's a beautiful facewasher on the left - I LOVE this fabric, I keep looking at it and wanting to buy it, but didn't know what to do with it. Now I don't need to lol. J will love using this at bath time. He is right into his animals (maybe b/c he's been to the zoo seven times this year?!?) so it is sure to be a hit.

Here's a shot of the 6 coasters (sorry not the best photo but I wanted to blog straight away). They are all reversible and as it so happens I think both sides will look great on our table.

To encourage J to put his glass on the table (as opposed to tipping it on the floor or throwing the whole thing overboard!) we introduced coasters a while back. It has worked a treat, indeed now if he doesn't have one at his seat he will point at the table and say 'coaster, coaster'. So we use coasters all the time. Only, to date we have been using some plastic Winnie-the-Pooh ones. So these are a massive improvement!!

Thank you so much Kelly :)

Sewing Swap - What I Made

I recently participated in a sewing swap on EB. It was a great swap as each person listed three or four things that they would love to receive. My partner had a bag as one of her options. So I decided to be brave and go for it! Here is how it turned out :)

Showing the inside. Sorry the photo is the wrong way, don't know why but blogger seems to have turned it...

LOL I have no idea what Blogger is doing to my photos!

My Dinner Plate

LOL, first post in how long, and it's a pic of a dinnerplate?!? It's for the EB Sewing Swap, some people wanting to make coasters are asking for colour schemes so I thought I'd pop this in here just in case one of them was my partner. If it was - Hi! I'm not fussy, and I'll love anything :)

P.S. I started a new (private) blog today and in the process I selected to use a newer way of editing/formatting blog entries. It is SO much easier. You may see more of me as a result :)

EB Bag Swap - What I Got!!

Have a look at what I was lucky enough to unwrap!! This came courtesy of Anna from Tillytom Designs. The parcel was beautifully wrapped in a gorgeous purple fabric with silver circles that I just love - still trying to decide what to do with it. I didn't get a photo of it all wrapped up because, well, I was too keen to open it!

The wonderful bag and the two bonus surprises - a purse and a matching hairtie and clip set!

Loaded and ready to go! Inside and out...

Here is the bag ready to go to out to a party - the black and red thing is my ring sling, then there's a drawstring bag with a cloth nappy, handtowel (used as a change mat), facewasher in it. The little purse is sitting there. You can just make out the orange button on the right-hand side which is on a big pocket that wraps around - the pocket has a spare pair of pants and a couple more cloth nappies in it. On the left at the top of the bag you can see a white zip - that pocket has DH's wallet. Then there's a couple of little pocket which have my phone and a little book for DS. Then there's the outside pockets!! Photo on the right shows these - DS's drink bottle in the left one and mine in the right one.

One feature of the bag that I really appreciate is the little elasticised key holder. This is very convenient and should mean I will no longer be dropping my keys all the time.

The bonus purse is great - it easily holds my phone, wallet, lip gloss, with room for a couple of other things. This is handy as it means this items can live in the purse and if I'm going out on my own (very rare but it does happen) then I can just grab the purse and go.

To see some more expert pics, have a look here at the photos Anna took before she sent it!

P.S massive apologies to Anna for taking so long to blog, me and blogger have *not* been getting along.

EB Bag Swap - What I Sent

Front of the bag

Five or so weeks ago I took the plunge and signed up for the EB bag swap. This is the third swap I've been in, but only the second that required me to sew!

Front of the bag with the flap opened - you can just make out the side pocket and the two along the front - all are hook and loop closing

I spent so long looking for fabric and a pattern. Eventually I decided upon this tutorial. My recipient doesn't have kids in nappies any more but still has three young kids. The design doesn't shout 'nappy bag' and is very functional as an every day bag for a busy mum.

The inside showing just how roomy it is. Note that according to the tute the inner pockets were supposed to be done in the same fabric as the lining, but I quite like it this way!

The tute was great, easy to understand and I am SO happy with how this bag came together. It is by far the biggest sewing project I have undertaken, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to pull it off, but I did! I am very glad I joined in this swap as it pushed me to do things that I would've otherwise have put off learning

forever.

New skills mastered (well, perhaps mastered is going a bit far...): zips, pockets, pockets with zips, pockets with elastic.

I am very tempted to make another one of these bags for myself, and possibly as gifts.

The back of the bag - you can just see the full-width zip creating a very large pocket perfect for paperwork etc.

Here are some questions I answered on EB as part of the swap wrap-up

Who I sewed for GetShakey

Type of bag nappy/messenger bag

Pattern details: online tutorial - http://amingledyarn.wordpress.com/gallery/tutorial-hip-mama-diaper-bag/

What fabric/other materials I used:
The outer and lining fabrics were both quilters cotton that I purchased from Spotlight. I can't remember the name...

Information I want to share with regard to construction or sizing?

The only problem I ran into with the construction was that I used quilters cotton rather than the oilcloth that the tute used. As a result, the elastic on the inner pockets pulls the lining in as the fabric isn't structured enough to support it. I did interface the lining piece that has the two pocket in it, but I don't think it made much of a difference. The piece that has three pockets, I used a longer piece of elastic than recommended, and I think next time I would go longer again.

What I'd do differently next time
Two things: include a key ring and make the shoulder strap adjustable so it can be more easily worn across the body if need be.

Pin-cushion Swap

I picked up my pin-cushion from the post-office on Wednesday after a bit of a mix-up with the addy. I was so excited to get it that I couldn't wait till I got home to open, hence I have no pic of it all wrapped up nice and pretty.

But here's a pic of the actual pin-cushion :)



I love it. I really like the fabric, simple colours, a pretty design. Thank you so much to Roxys at http://for-rainydays.blogspot.com/

I made a little something for Beebeejaybee (http://bbjbsewing.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/eb-pincussion-swap-take-2/). I'm really happy how it turned out, I'd never made a pin-cushion like these ones before. I used my fave fabric which BBJB used as a clue as to who made them as I forgot to add in a card. Hope you get a lot of use out of them!

Habby Swap

I feel so bad that it has taken me so long to post about this. Over on EB I recently participated in my first swap. The idea was to buy a bunch of haberdashery for your recipient.

I was so excited to receive my parcel in the post. My DH hid it from me to remove any temptation. I had had a really rough week and I must say that opening the parcel was pretty much the only highlight. You could say it came at the right time for me. Anyway, what did I get? Here are a couple of pics:





I love the little organiser, I would have been happy to get that and the mag! But the organiser (in my favourite colour, no less) was full of goodies. There were buttons, piping, elastic, strap adjusters for when I make my first bag, thread, safety pins and more. The mag is great, I never buy them so I keep pouring over this one. It has got so many inspiring photos in it. I have decided to make the memory card game for DS's next birthday. I figure if I start now, I may get it done in time!

Oh, and there was also a bunch of fabrics, including some from the Very Hungry Caterpillar. These will make great feature pockets on some pants for DS. I am yet to buy designer fabrics, so another luxury for me :) Thank you so much to Estherp (http://redinoz.blogspot.com/) for this lovely gift. I will be back for more swaps.

Oh, and I nearly forgot. I sent off a little package to Ingrid (you can see pics here: http://lottielulu.blogspot.com/2009/02/haby-swap.html). I must say I was nervous as she creates amazing things and I so didn't know what to get her. I decided on using my fave fabric as a bit of a theme and built it up from there. Ingrid says she liked it, so I am very glad.