Grommet Bag

I've signed up to a class in May to make a Grommet Bag at my local sewing store (Sew Creative). I'm currently umm-ing and ah-ing over what material to choose for the bag. Here are some pictures I've collect online so far.



I was also thinking perhaps I should use Japanese inspired prints (so that I have a bag to match by riduclous collection of Dogstar). I tend to like wearing black, reds and greys so thought these prints might look good!

Amy Butler's Sun Surf Halter

I've been desperate to extend my quilting skills to dressmaking and was prompted along the other day when a bunch of Amy Butler patterns caught my eye while I was material browsing in John Lewis. I purchased quite a few of them but thought I'd start off with the easy Sun Surf Halter.

I have never made any clothes before (except for a pair of very baggy pants I made in sewing class in year 7 under the direction of a rather cranky teacher that used to throw chairs at us) so thought I would buy some cheap plain cotton first to practise on.

I learned a few things (like remember to buy matching thread for your machine, try to stitch in a straight line, and having the sewing machine and iron plugged into the same socket so you have to keep switching is a big pain). I also think I will make a much smaller size next time.

I'm very much looking forward to being able to wear this to the beach!

Finished Barrels of Fun

This was my second quilt and everything went a lot faster than my first quilt despite the fact that this was a much bigger quilt. I used polyester for the batting and do admit that it's a bit of a pain to work with. In my first quilt I used cotton and it sandwiched a lot better than the polyester and was a lot easier to feed through the machine and quilt.

I was in a bit of a rush to get this one finished so that our guests had something to sleep under so I didn't do that much quilting. I absolutely despise the sandwiching and quilting part of the process (up to attaching the binding which I love to do by hand in front of some BBC romance) so I may or may not quilt some more of it in the future.

Overall I'm super pleased with myself for finishing it so quickly and I just love the colours and the pattern. It cheers the room up nicely and I'm sure our future guests will be happy to have something to sleep under.