A Fairy for my little Fairy

Last year I asked Kate to do me a custom embroidery design for my baby girl. I wanted a fairy chilling out under a toadstool. Naturally, she came through for me and I got a lovely pattern from her. But I ran into some problems with my eyes which impacted on my ability to do detailed work and had to put the stitching on hold for a few months.

But I finally was able to get moving on it in the last few weeks and I really love her. In the pattern she is reading a book and this is so appropriate for my littlest lady who adores her books; she sits on my knee every evening after dinner and we read all her books together. Then she moves over to sit on her daddy's knee and reads them all again! Even better,  Rachel is obsessed with her little fairy figures inherited from her big sister and her toadstool fairy house, she plays with them every day -they're the first thing she goes to when she comes downstairs every morning. I really love how this embroidery reflects her in so many ways, without it having set out to do so because it was done long before we knew these were things she would come to love. I can't wait to put it up on her wall.

Sidekick Tote, yay!

I finished my sidekick tote last week and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I love the finishing touches in this pattern.

I used Wallflowers fabric by Allison Harris, and coordinated with a Bella solid which is a salmon-y pink colour - a classic case of the colour on the screen being very different to the actual colour. I thought I was buying a delicate pink, and this salmon pink would not be my favourite shade by a long mile. But it works well as a contrasting colour and trim, and the grey balances it out nicely. The pocket is from Violet Craft's Waterfront Park, a print I love, and it coordinates nicely with the Wallflowers.

I was a bit disappointed with the finish of the interfacing - neither of my local stores have had woven fusible for the longest time, so I used some of the regular fusible stuff I found in my stash and needed to use up. But I find the regular fusible much harder to work with, it just seems to give a crinkly finish no matter what I do with it, and that's most visible on the pocket. But a bit of use seems to have eased it out a little bit.

I meant to put a key loop on the inside, and another pocket, but I totally forgot. But that's ok, because this is my weekend bag so I tend not to carry the same amount of crap with me as I do in my big work bag. I really love the strap on this - I added extra length to it as I'm tall and I like a cross body bag.

This was my first time doing a recessed zipper. I love how it looks. It took me quite a few goes to get the sides meeting up evenly where the zipper comes away from the fabric at the end, but I kept at it and eventually matched them up on the 4th or 5th try.

 

I thought this pattern was well written and (essential for me!) it had plenty of pictures to help me follow the instructions. I definitely think that I would put a 2nd one together very quickly, having made it once and may just have to do that.