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. 

Hoops, bags and bees.... WIP Wednesday on a Saturday

One of the hazards of this time of year is that sewing in the evenings after the kids are gone to bed means that the light is rubbish for photos. So today, I took advantage of the lovely bright sunny day to take some pictures of my work in progress.

I have a few different projects that I'm working on at the moment, which is nice, because only having one or two projects on the go at any time is not good for my sewing energy, I've realised. The busier I am, in terms of the number of sewing projects and the deadlines, the more inspired I am.  So this week my plan is to get moving again on another few quilt WIPs that totally stalled over this summer. But for now, this is my WIP list.

First up - Project Rachel's room. I've been slowly but surely decluttering the stuff stored in Miss Rachel's room (the peril of being the 3rd child and occupying the "spare room") to turn into a more girlie, fun space for her now that she is old enough to toddle round and play on the floor in there with her toys.

The head of her cot (and in future her bed) is placed in a shallow alcove, and its a perfect space for a  display of hoops to decorate it.I had some hoops, and filled them with lovely fabric prints I had - the unicorn is my favourite. I have lots more to do - I'm waiting on more hoops to arrive, and then, I couldn't resist ordering the princess print from FFA for one of them (although given the time its taking to arrive I suspect that the lovely people in customs may have snaffled it as it arrived in the country from the USA along with some lovely other bits I ordered.)

I'm also working on an embroidery hoop for her too. I got this as a custom design from Lilipopo, isn't it lovely? Can't wait to get it finished. I was short a few colours, in particular reds and blues, so now have restocked ready to tackle that toadstool!

I'm also working on 2 other embroidery projects, both intended as Christmas decorations this year. One is the Lilipopo stitchalong, which uses a lovely free download pattern of a winter girl. I decided to follow one of the suggested colour schemes for this one, so that it would be nice and relaxing with no decisions to be made, and so glad I did. I'm close enough to keeping up with the stitchalong, but you'd easily catch up with it if you still wanted to join in.

The other is the carol singers embroidery I started last year but had to abandon after my eyes started to protest. Hoping to get this moving again and finished will in time for Christmas.

My sidekick tote is moving along well. I didn't have woven interfacing so I used the regular fusible stuff and forgot how it creases up a bit after sewing. Need to go over that pocket with a very hot iron and try and sort out those creases. I'm also waiting for more of theWallflowers fabric to arrive for the strap for this (in the same package as the FFA). Sigh. Think I will get the zipper and lining done tomorrow and then its just a waiting game before I can finish it.

I am shamefully behind with my Modern Irish Bee blocks. I finally managed one for Anna, but I need to get my ass in gear and get the rest done. I do love her crazy scrapy block though - I think the idea to place the fussy-cut "centre" off centre was a bit inspired really.

Lastly, I have my charms cut for another baby boy quilt, this one for my sister in law's brand new nephew. I'm a bit behind with this one, as he arrived a few weeks ago but its ok, because being a newlywed, she is off on honeymoon :-) and I will have it done before she gets back.