Birthday Bags

As promised, here is what I have made my twin sisters for their 21st birthday...

From Birthday Bags

I am so pleased with how they have turned out, despite the fact I was still sewing them the morning of their birthday!
The black and yellow bag is from the Amy Butler Weekender Bag pattern. I bought this pattern ages ago and have been dying to make it but just hadn't found the right material. When I found the retro looking Malena fabric from Ikea I knew it would be absolutely perfect and it goes so well with the sunshine yellow trim, handles and lining.

From Amy Butler Weekender Bag

I never could have imagined how long this bag would take to make and how difficult parts of it were. There are so many layers to sew through and sewing piping round curved corners was a nightmare. I never broke a needle once though and it only started to blunt towards the end, I am so proud of my little sewing machine! I have already forgotten the pain of stabbing my self with pins several thousand times and can't wait to make this bag again, this time for myself. I just have to find the perfect fabric.

The nautical bag was a pattern design I drafted myself, using this gorgeous EZ Canvas Bag from Kinies as my inspiration. Although this was a simpler design than the Weekender Bag, working out the measurements and the design of the bag meant that it took just as long to make and is just as beautiful (if I do say so myself). I love this summery design and will definitely make it again (if I can remember how!)

From Birthday Bags

More pictures of the finished bags and the Amy Butler Weekender Bag in progress can be found on my Picasa page.

All quiet on the blog front

I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing, I keep telling myself I'm too busy to write things down but truth is I just forgot or am lazy with it. However, while I haven't been blogging, I have been extremely busy with all sorts of creating and making!

First off I decided to try my hand at print making. I got a beautiful book for my birthday called Printing By Hand by Lena Corwin which is amazing. It covers block printing, stencilling and screen printing. I have done screen printing in the past at college but haven't quite got the space or supplies at home to give it a go yet, so I decided to start with block printing instead. I had somehow got it into my head that I wanted to create a wood block for printing my tomato silhouette which was so much more difficult and time consuming than I could ever have imagined. I used an old wood scrap from the garage and a dremel to "carve" the shape. The actual wood block looks great, I wish it printed as good as it looked. Maybe I need to use something other than paint to print with, ink maybe... Any suggestions?

Anyhow, since carving wood blocks proved a nightmare I have decided to use foam instead. Cutting foam into the required shape and gluing it onto a backing is soooooooo much easier and prints so much better too. I've been printing little bits of fabric with fabric paint and would love to do something more extravagant, having been inspired by the beautiful block prints of Galbraith & Paul but I have been distracted by bigger projects...

Numero one: I have been asked to make a wedding dress!!! Eeeek! Since finishing a short part time dressmaking course at the local uni, I am blatantly now a supreme expert on creating amazing pieces of couture for the most important day of peoples lives... Not. But I am more than willing to give it a go. More on that in a later post.

Numero two: My twin sisters are turning 21 this weekend, so instead of buying them meaningless gifts I have decided to make them presents that hopefully they will actually like and be more personal than yet another silver key. I can't say too much about it since they will probably read this but I will post the finished goods next week!