100 posts and a giveaway!

I've been preparing (rather inefficiently) for this post for a while now. However, I do have something to show for it, even if it's not quite complete! To celebrate making it to 100 posts, and to thank you for joining me for the ride, I'm giving away a string bag, made by me, from Louet Euroflax Linen in Caribbean. (The colour is a lovely rich, bright blue that my photography skills don't do justice!) If I can find a couple of spare hours over the next week, I may actually have a finished bag by the time the giveaway closes. Ahem.

I'm really quite amazed that I've made it this far. My usual journalling efforts peter out after a few weeks at best, so this really is a significant achievement for me. I suspect it's related to the interactive nature of blogging, and that I've met so many lovely people out there in blogland that I'm motivated to keep going. It's also very nice to have a record of all the projects I've worked on and completed over the last few months!

So thank you! Thank you for commenting to let me know you're there, and thank you for letting me get to know you a bit better. To enter, just leave a comment on this post. I will close the giveaway at 7.30pm (Melbourne time) on Tuesday, 16 March.

P.S. I will post anywhere!

take a peek...

Happy dances are happening in this house today!

my creative space

Looky, looky!

Hang on, don't get too excited, it's not finished. But if you don't look inside, you'd think so, wouldn't you ;-)

Aside from the fact that I put the strap on inside out (I'm NOT fixing it, it's webbing: the slide is just on the inside rather than the outside. Oops.), I'm pretty impressed that I can follow instructions well enough to turn out something that might actually work the way it's supposed to! All I need to do now is the lining. And then it's finished! Actually, it's so close that I'm really itching to start something else....but no, I will be disciplined and finish this first!?! Maybe even by the end of the weekend....

Go on a creativity tour at Kirsty's place...

A clothkit!

A few weeks ago a parcel arrived in the mail from Lark containing a very nifty package!

Inside was a clothkit, which includes everything you need to make a particularly cute pinafore.

It includes the fabric, some lovely lining fabric, buttons, cotton, instructions, and even some tags.

The best bit is that the pattern is printed directly onto the fabric, which will hopefully eliminate some of the cutting 'challenges' I seem to have ;-)

I still probably need to find some decent scissors though. Any suggestions for what I should be looking for?

P.S. The bag is still going: straps were attached today (the right way now, after putting one on wrongly at first - need to pay closer attention to the instructions...), and the flap is nearly ready to be attached to the body. Yay for (slow) progress!

cut-o-phobia

One of the things on my list of things to do this week is 'start the bag'. Of course, there are a few things that need to happen before the bag can be started.

So, I've washed the fabric. This is a good thing, because the brown drill I'm using for the outside of the bag ran everywhere when I washed it, so hopefully now when the bag gets wet it wont make quite such a big mess of the lovely lining! I still need to iron the fabric, but that will be good for some mindless meditation sometime soon :-)

The next pre-start job is to extend and trace the pattern. I worked out that if I make a 4cm fold in my greaseproof paper and keep the fold at right angles to the pattern when I trace it, it will give me an extra 8cm in width. My brain must have some functionality, because I've actually tried this bit and it worked!

Finally, before I can really start the bag, I need to cut out the pattern. And here lies the problem. The number of deep breaths required to cut out the PATTERN does not bode well for cutting the FABRIC!! Avoidance of cutting fabric is one of the reasons I rarely get anything done - the idea is there but cutting fabric is generally required to put the idea into practice. Arrrggghh!!

Right then. If exposure is an effective treatment for phobias, by the time i've finished this bag I should be cured! Take a deep breath. And another one....

satchel dreaming

Husby needs a carry case for his new Macbook. Enthused (possibly overly optimistically) about my newfound sewing prowess, and skeptical about the environmental benefits of an inexpensive polymer case, I volunteered to make him a bag myself!?! As one of my most consistent character traits is that I have lots of ideas that rarely get seen through, he's a little bit concerned he may never see the promised satchel. Not an unreasonable concern given my track record ;-). So, I'm implementing the currently somewhat successful theory that if I tell YOU about it, we'll be seeing some action soonish!

Last week, I bought Nicole Mallalieu's Large Tote & Satchel pattern, which just needs to be stretched a few centimetres to fit a small Macbook. The pattern is from Nicole's beginner range, so should be just right for my (limited) abilities!

I also received some delicious fabric in the post last week that will be perfect for the bag lining, and meets with Husby's approval (a challenging prospect, but very important!). It's Ink & Spindle's Delft in Deep Red by Hollabee, and is really lovely :-). All I need to do now is get some heavy duty fabric for the outside of the bag, read the instructions about 10 times, and then I can start!

And now for the deadline commitment thing: It will be finished by the end of September at the latest (hopefully significantly before)!!