I have a few things, that I made primarily last year, and never showed you here. I’m going to make up for that, because quite frankly, I want to, and also I count on being able to rediscover the things I made earlier in here, on the blog.
This messenger bag was something that I made previously in a different combination of fabrics – the messenger bag from mmmcrafts - and yay to her for putting the tutorial out there for all of us to benefit from!
This one was made for my mother’s birthday, and I love this fabric combination. The main fabric is babycord with small flowers and the lining is Nicey Jane Lindy Leaf in the blue colourway. The trim is Michael Miller bias tape. As you can see I made a small lined pouch to go with it.
A year ago, I made a quilt for Frida. With two girls in the house, making one quilt isn’t going to get me a long way, so of course, there had to be a second one.
For this one as well, I used a charm pack from Moda, and I cannot remember the name of it. I do like this one, but I personally like Frida’s quilt a little better than this one – it has more warmth to it. All the sources that taught me the techniques, are found in the previous quilt post.
Next up was my bridal purse.
It’s made from the same silk that I used to make the corsage of my bridal dress, and I used the same pale blue fine silk lining as well. I used a frame and pattern from U-handbag – The Easy Peasy Purse - you’ll find it about one third down the page. And I used a tutorial of her’s as well – “Purse frames demystified” as well as a YouTube tutorial that shows a woman attaching the frame to a purse – see it here. It’s always a matter of checking out the different sources of information and finding my own way of doing it, but I didn’t find it too difficult. Also, it was just right for our big day.
Now, another thing I made for the wedding was the dresses for the three little bridesmaids – Ronja, Frida, and my niece Marlinde. At the time of the wedding they were 3, 4, and 7 years old, and I wanted the dresses to have different colours but the same style. I decided to go with an Ottobre pattern, #25 from 3/2010, the Chopin Dress. I used thai silk from this Danish online shop, where I received great service. I sent her an e-mail, asking if I could have samples, and I received an envelope with samples of the different silks I was looking at and a kind response. So anyway, the lining fabric is the same as what I used for the wedding dress and the purse – the softest silk from a fabric shop in New York, brought home by my good friend Karen for the wedding dress project specifically. I changed a few things in the pattern – I wasn’t crazy about the roses on the belt, so I put miniature fabric roses instead to add a detail. Also, I added dusty, greyish tulle on the inside of the skirt, to give it more fullness. I did this by making a tulle skirt that was just a few centimeters longer than the main skirt with lots of ruffled tulle at the bottom, and then sewing it into the dress at the waist line, between the main fabric and the lining.
The girls loved the dresses, fortunately, and though this is not a dress a girl wears many times (if more than one at all…), it was worth the effort. I believe actually, that Frida will be wearing her’s in a few days for the end of season dance at the dance school – for that purpose, the dress should do just fine. (Check out pictures from last year’s end of season dance here.)
Next project was actually something that came out of a bloggers meetup. I haven’t done much hand sewing - ever, and it has been a choice not to. At the meetups however, everyone is always doing something with their hands – knitting, crocheting, sewing, or something else. So I thought, I’d give it a try, just to see what happened.
A pillow for Frida’s room is what happened – and actually one that she seems to appreciate immensely for some reason. The front, of course is patchwork, and the back an overlap closing to make it possible to wash the cover – see below.
Quite a nice project, that I just might try my hands on again, when I have the time to spare.
Finally, two minor projects, that I have made recently. A small purse for make up for myself (same pattern as the bridal purse), and pencil cases for the girls.
The pencil cases are based on the Perfect Box Pouch tutorial on Make It Modern. Other tutorials I have used, and some that I haven’t yet – are found here.
That’s it for the no-shows – now I think most of what I’ve made is on the blog, for me or anyone else to (re-)discover.
