Tutorial for a little zippy bag.......

I bought a fat quarter of this lovely Japanese fabric and decided to make two little make-up bags with it; at the same time putting into practise recently acquired skills of working with zips.

Needs one 15cm zip, two pieces of cat fabric 15cm x 16cm (because there is a right-side up for the fabric, otherwise a piece of fabric 15cm x 30cm) and one piece of fabric for the lining, 15cm x 30cm.

 With the two short sides of the fabric, right sides together with the zip puller facing the lining, sew with zipper foot on the machine.

Sew the other side in the same manner.

Sew the sides leaving a few centimetres of the lining open, turn to the right side and sew up the opening in the lining.

Turn back to wrong side and sew across each side as shown.  Zigzag across the trimmed seam.

Turn to right side and you have finished.   If you want to put a pull-tag in as I have then this should be done at the same time as the sides are sown together.

Lovely Liberty

I bought a bag of Liberty Tana lawn scraps from Ebay a couple of years ago for the princely sum of £3 and started to make a quilt – of course there wasn’t enough so I bought some other bits of Liberty and when I had finished my quilt I had a bigger bag of scraps than when I started.  

Then came the wedding in September, “aah” I thought, I can use the scraps to make a marriage quilt for the lovely couple.     Not having a long time it has to be a simple quilt so I have chosen to make a “Grandmother’s Garden”; simple but hand sewn so very time consuming.  
Starting with the hexagons; this is the place to go to print off hexagons of any size for paper piecing http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/   - mine are 3cm.

Cut a lot of hexagons paper pieces and then fabric hexagons with a quarter inch seam, like this...

The scraps are a right mixture – can anybody name all the patterns – so I chose a cream fabric to bring them all together.

Then I made one of these…….

…..and then two of these …..

……and some more of these…….

…. and then start sewing them together like this.

So far so good but a long way to go yet.   I have three months to get it finished, it must be possible.  Watch this space.

Spangled bobbins......!!!!

I learned to make bobbin lace a long time ago but the time it takes to make means that it has taken a back seat lately and patchwork has taken its place.  However, occasionally I am asked to take it along when my sewing club members are exhibiting their work and it always attracts attention.   It seems very romantic with its beautiful spangled bobbins and delicate, intricate lace.   It's good for me because I am inspired  to make lace again and keep my hand in.   Here is my cushion and some of the lace I've made.