The Bag Ladies strike again

Every girl wants a new bag in the Spring. Mine is All About Anna, an easy to follow pattern by Stephanie of Loft Creations. This generous lady gifted her European friends in the Bag Club (very, very unofficial!) with this pattern, and now we finally found time to make our versions. Be sure to check what  Melanie and Simone have made with it.

It took me a long time to pick the perfect fabrics for this bag. These are the fabrics I bought recently at a Handicraft Fair, with the bag in mind.

Here is a picture from four years ago, showing my loot from another Craft Fair. I have only been touching and folding the middle four fabrics, but decided to cut them for the new bag. Just a little nib at the edge, 1½" wide!

I took Melanie's challenge before she even wrote about it here (way at the end of the long post). Your loveliest fabrics are worth a life away from the cupboard! Give them a chance! See here, I needed just tiny bits of the pretty fabrics, and still have lots left for the really, absolutely perfect project for them. I just happened to have the perfect vintage button for the bag too.

Inside pocket.

And finally the back. The main fabric is coffee brown linen.

Thank you Stephanie for this nice pattern, and thank you Bag Ladies for the deadline and for making the bag with me. This time we didn't need each others' help for solving problems, as there weren't any. The bag is perfect size for me, it will hold everything I carry around plus a magazine, a water bottle or even my camera. I can carry it on my shoulder and have both hands free.

In the evenings I have been knitting tiny beanies for preemie babies. I still have some yellow baby wool and I want to try another pattern too. The preemie blanket is knitted using a 100 g ball of baby yarn. I started in one corner and added in the middle of the row so the blanket would be square whenever I ran out of yarn.

Finally a picture of the guy who lost the battle and his tail feathers. He didn't want to show his face, which is quite understandable. The other guy has tail feathers almost 20 inches long, and four ladies. But I like happy ends, and so do you, so we can all be happy that Mr. No Tail has a big, good looking lady of his own. And he will have a perfect tail by the end of the summer.

Final Stash Use Report for 2011 & PIPS 2012

In 2011, like in many years before it, I have been trying to reduce my stash of fabrics by sewing more and buying less new fabrics. After every month I counted how much I had bought after all, and calculated how much I had used. My numbers for December are 4.8 m bought new fabrics, and 3.25 m used. Six months of the whole year were "positive" for me, I used more fabric than I bought. But the closing of my favourite fabric shop meant a disaster for my good intentions: I bought 19 m of fabrics when the discount sale started, and when the prices dropped to 70 % off the original in June, I bought 25.4 m more. No way could I sew so many quilts! In the following five months I controlled myself and only bought 1.85 m in all. Still the final figures for 2011 are

       Bought: 71.7 m

       Used:    66.1 m

Luckily I have decided not to count the fabrics finding their way to me from other sources than shops.

I hope others made better results! Buying new fabrics is fun, but when the stash is growing in an uncontrollable way (fabrics pouring in from other people's cupboards, attics and boxes), all I can do is try to be more productive and find projects where I can use the fabrics hiding in my boxes and containers. Challenges are the best medicine for this problem, and Stephanie from Loft Creations has a very nice challenge called PIPS:

Jump to Stephanie's post about the challenge by clicking the sewing machine and read all about it. No signing in is needed, just join the fun and show your Projects In Process when you have finished them. I can think of a few right now that really needed dusting off, but I have also joined Melanie and others in making Lynette Anderson's Scandinavian Christmas BOM. I hope to find suitable fabrics in my stash for it.

Here is something I made in December:

A light shopping bag for DD, using a bit from the same old curtain I used for my own Bag Club bag in the Autumn:

 

Yesterday we had finally some snow, more than just cover the grass, so it is beginning to look like winter. With the snow missing, I have enjoyed white Christmas flowers, these lovely scented hyacinths

and my first ever Christmas Rose (Helleborus):

With the flowers I wish you all a Happy New Year 2012, filled with energy and good projects!

Autumn bag and Stash use report for September

This week I have been suffering from a crushed down computer syndrome and the situation is still going on. Mr. K offered me his laptop so I have been able to read and send emails, but this poor thing is slow and constantly having internet troubles. Therefore I have not been able to visit your blogs. On the other hand, I have had more time with my sewing machine.

The Bag Club, Melanie, Simone and I, have been working on an Autumn bag. Melanie and I kept to the original plan of making a more complicated pattern from our book The Bag Making Bible, and Simone wanted to finish a big bag she had been working on. The Organiser Bag inludes details like a gusset, several interior pockets, a harness for a laptop, and an adjustable strap. These were all very clearly explained in the book and not too difficult to sew. The final touch was my big headache: the flap is closed by two twist-locks. Cutting the holes for the buttonhole metal parts was SCARY! The bag flap had many layers like exterior fabric, interfacing and lining and heavy interlining , and I had to be so careful not to cut the hole too big. Next time will be easier. Melanie can tell, as she has already made two of these bags. You can get to her blog from the link Houseelf Doings in my sidebar, she has great pictures of her bags there, and more.

Here is my bag:

There should be a picture but I'm not sure whether you can see it. I'll download it again later when/if the good computer will be good again. Anyway, the exterior fabric is from linen curtains from my childhood, and the bag front is an upholstery fabric. The lining is a brown fabric handed down to me from someone in the family. This makes the bag made completely from stash. For my statistics I estimate I have used about 1.3 m fabrics in all for this (exterior and lining). Other September sewings took 0.8 m for the last PIF gifts I made for Kaite, who signed in later, and some other minor projects.The gifts are now on their way to Heather, Barbara and Kaite. Pictures will follow when the ladies have received their mail. This all adds up to 2.1 m fabrics used, and nothing bought!

This time I can't put in any links or photos in the normal way, but I hope to have the computer problems solved as soon as possible and visit your blogs again.

Bag Club strikes again

After having made our own versions of the Mary Jane bag pattern Stephanie from Loft Creations so generously sent us in June, we decided to order a new pattern from her and make a different bag each for our next project. In fact we are gathering strength to start a demanding project from The Bag Making Bible for the Autumn, and wanted to relax with a well written, easy pattern during the Summer.  "We" are the unofficial European Bag club, Bag Ladies: Simone (now an official Supreme for Stephanie's patterns), Melanie and I.

I decided to make the sweet little Hailee Bag, as I had bought some giant rick rack a long time ago and wanted to finally use it. Within two hours from ordering I had the pattern downloaded and printed, in spite of the time difference.

To my stash I went, and in honour of Stephanie I wanted to use polka dots. Mine are naturally brown; the brown on white from a piece of farbric from my sister P, and the bigger dots on brown are from a sleeve I had from my mother's stash. I don't know what happened to the rest of the dress, but I was happy to have the sleeve. Maybe she cut two left sleeves at first? It was a short one, so I made a seam in the bottom middle of the strips.

The solid dark brown is from the last one of Mr. K's slimmed shirts with long pointed collars from the 70's, and the lighter brown is a scrap from a charity shop.

The lining is from my father's shirt, and the biggest remnant of the dotty sleeve made a tiny pocket for keys or lipstick. Just my style: recycled fabrics all from my stash, nothing needed to be bought.

My sister Maija was here on a short holiday and she liked the bag so much that I gave it to her. The sleeve could have been from her dress, these are her colours as well as mine. This was a fun little bag, very easy to make. The fabrics make all the difference: If you look at Stephanie's Hailee Bags, they are sweet as candy, and my bag could make you think about coffee and cappuccino!

I wonder what Simone and Melanie have put together. Will there be a West Linn bag? It was the first of Stephanie's patterns I used after I won it and a charm pack from her giveaway in 2009.

I used unbleached linen for the solid colour. This is a very practical bag.

Maybe they are fond of Dresden plates and made a Ladyfingers bag? Some day I'm going to make one for myself using my father's old ties for the fingers. This one was a Christmas gift to DS1's girlfriend last Christmas.

They will not be making a Modern Mary Jane, as this was the bag we all just made in June. I can carry my A4 papers in this along with a smaller folder, notebook, tissue pouch, make-up pouch and wallet.

There is of course the Loft Tote, like this one I got from Candace for my birthday in the Spring. She is also a Supreme pattern tester.

This is a perfect bag for someone who needs to carry more than a wallet and keys in her handbag. Like me. It is deep enough to keep my things safe and there is room for some shopping as well. I think Stephanie has designed a bag for every lady, and it is easy to add pockets and details if you feel like it. If you pop over to Simone in Holland and Melanie in England you will see more of Stephanie's (Ohio, USA) bags in different styles. They will be showing their newest bags today too. These patterns and some more by Stephanie are available from Loft Creations in PDF form and you can get them today, if you want to try making one of these bags.

Mary Jane, the antique version

The unofficial European Bag Lady Club is launching today their newest bag. This time we have made the Modern Mary Jane bag by Loft Creations. Simone won the pattern in Stephanie's giveaway (you can see three version in this link!), and Stephanie was so generous that she sent the pattern as a gift to Melanie and me so we could all make this nice and useful bag as a "Bag of the Month". Simone already made one version using the kit she won, but today we'll see her second Modern Mary Jane.

I decided to use an old, stained tablecloth with torn hemstich and a hole.

This is my Antique Mary Jane:

I used the best part of the tablecloth for the panel, and cut the remaining embroideries for the squares around it, adding some colours of the stitcheries for fun. Inside I added a zippered pocket:

I remembered I had a vintage button from Stephanie, and the size and colour were just perfect for the bag.

This is the backside. I had some old linen for the back panel and the handles.

Finally a closer look at the front. Many of the embroideries are worn from use and washing, so this has been a well-loved tablecloth. I'm happy to give it a new life.

Thank you Stephanie, this was a nice and easy pattern. I like roomy bags with something special, just like this one. Now everyone, pop in to see what Simone and Melanie have put together!

A while ago Stephanie told a sad story about an empty robin's nest in her garden, so I thought I could cheer you up with these pictures. We have three couples of pied flycatchers (ficedula hypoleuca) in our birdhouses, and they are all busy feeding their young babies.

I just read that the babies eat about 15,000 insects during their 16 days in the nest, so we should be really grateful for the mama and papa birds. Above is the mama bringing a mouthful to the babies, and below  the papa looking for new prey.



Have a nice Midsummer!

Stash use report for May

This has been a productive month after all. I have used lots of fabrics (5.3 m in May) from my stash to make the QAYG blocks I have already shown in my last post, but I wanted to use the too short bits as well, and started making crumble blocks to clear the sewing table. I tried to use colour themes for the blocks:

I even used tiny triangles to make squares to start a block:

Sometimes there were no matching fabrics long enough for the last 6½" side, so I pieced them too:

At the end of the project I noticed I was trying to make log cabin blocks with no system at all.

Finally I had my blocks, packed the remaining scraps in the plastic bag and looked under my desk: No bits wider than 1" in the waste!

I estimate the blocks used up about 1.5 m fabric. Hip hurrah! The Raggedy  Friends Quilt took about 3.7 m; I have been working on it since last July, but not counted the fabrics until now that it is finished.

I used 2.7 m for a jacket and lining, and 0.9 m for a slip, and gave away 0.7 m fabric for the Bag Club ladies, which is also counted as using my stash. This means that 14.8 m of fabrics have stopped being in my stash! On the other hand, I have only bought 2.2 m new fabrics, balancing very well the ugly results of April. Now I can feel relaxed and think about the fabric store selling all fabrics for 40 % off, as there is not much time left.


I waited for the apple trees to look like whipped cream again to take a lovely picture, but before I could really see the blossoms, white petals were blowing in the wind! I hope it was warm enough for the bees to fly so there will be apples in September.

In October Mr. K and I planted some Phlox Subulata on the slope facing the street.

They survived the Winter very well and are blooming now!

The narcissi are blooming for the first time in their new place, last year they just made buds.



Today is the first day of Summer, and at my time it meant the beginning of a three month summer vacation. Have a happy Summer, holiday or not!

Stash use report for April

Oh this was a bad month! I didn't finish any bigger projects, just a pincushion, a tissue holder and a pair of potholders, for which I used about 15 cm of fabric scrabs all together. The fabrics are all from my stash, and the potholder fabrics are all recycled, so this is naturally a good thing. Both have a 9-patch, so they qualify for Anne Marie's challenge, even when they are just a tiny project. I took the photo before the last binding was sewn on the reverse.

My only other finish, the Bag Club reversible bucket bag took about 1 m of the three fabrics all together, and that is all I managed to sew in April.

The other side of my statistics shows very big figures. The fabric store I usually use is closing business and selling all fabrics with a 30 % discount, and I have bought something every week. Big pieces of fabric, to make backings, and lovely pieces that have been too expensive until now. Can you believe it: 19 m in all. (I wrote it small so you would not notice how much it was.) Soon there are no nice fabrics left in her shop, so I don't need to buy them any longer. And I hope to get at my Raggedy and Friends quilt this month; it only requires quilting and binding, and then I can count all the fabric I have used for it since last Summer. I'm also working on a jacket for myself, and a slip for a dress, so I think things will look better for May.

I hope you have had better results than I for your using your stash and (not) buying fabrics in April.

Bag Reveal and Spring News

April is almost gone and spring is finally here. This was the last bit of snow in our yard this week:

The aspen are letting their furry tails fly in the fresh spring wind - and soon the lawn will be full of them to be raked away.

The willows are in full bloom, their yellow colour can be seen from far. I hope you are not allergic!

The birch are ready to start spreading their pollen after a few warm days, and the tiny leaves will remain "mouse's ears" only for a short time. You can notice them growing by each day. Heavy rain is falling as I write, and it will make nature greener in no time. The temperature has cooled down to below 10 C (50F) which is normal for this time of the year.

Christmas hyacinths of last winter or the year before; I have thrown the bulbs in our  garden compost heap in the winter and now they surprised me with new flowers.

Chive has survived the winter very well in my vegetable bed.

And so has the parsley.

Today is the day to show the first bag of our little European Bag Club. Melanie, Simone, Suzie and I decided to make a bag from the same pattern for May Day, and we used Lisa Lam's book The Bag Making Bible. This is the pattern on the cover picture, a reversible bucket bag.

I have shown my fabrics earlier, and this is how I used them. I added a plastic hose inside the handle.

To make things easier, I joined the ends before sewing the bias binding on the top edge of the bag. The polka dotty side has a pocket for my train ticket.

This is the checkered side. My button is smaller than in the pattern because a) I couldn't get a 4 cm self-cover button, and b) because for some reason I made the button loop shorter than instructed.

    

The bag was very easy to make because the instructions were clear and easy to follow. I'm looking forward to the next Bag Club project! Have you visited the other participants already?