Beginning production

Three years ago when our middle son married I volunteered to make bags for each of my daughter-in-law's bridesmaids, so when our eldest son got engaged last year naturally I volunteered to do the same again. The wedding is this week so you might imagine that I would have had the bags all done and dusted a long time ago, sadly you would be wrong! As is my usual, I have been working right up to the wire on these.

To get back into the swing of things, bag making wise, I decided that the first bag made should be the one requested by my daughter-in-law, who bought this frame and picked out some fabrics from my stash.

The fabric is a Kona solid, but I have no idea which one!

The interior fabric is Fox Field by Tula Pink and was perfect for the owner of this little chap :)

There was talk of having him as the ring bearer, but it was decided that he couldn't be trusted to keep focused on hopping down the aisle of the church when there was all that tempting greenery around :)

One down, only seven more to go!

High Rollers and Fashionistas

Yesterday the Rolls Royce Ghost Club from the UK came to town as part of their Nordic and Baltic tour. Fortunately it was a glorious day when they pulled up in formation outside Riga City Hall. It was very funny to see so many grown men unashamedly drooling! Here's a flavour of what they were drooling over!

And

This little lady attracted the most attention!

Today is the last day for submitting entries to Sew Sweetness' Purse Palooza, so true to form I swithered about whether to make the Fashionista bag from Lisa Lam's Bag-Making Bible, which is on my 12 WIP's in 2012 list, in time to submit. Yesterday I decided to go for it. Nothing like a deadline to concentrate the mind!

I have already made two of these bags, both of which I gave to my daughter-in-law, so had decided that the next one was definitely for me. I had even bought the perfect bright pink wool fabric for the bag a long time ago on a trip to Tallinn, so I have had very little excuse not to have it completed before now.

Once I started making the bag I remembered why I had been putting it off for so long! The first step in making the bag is to construct both sets of handles and although the shoulder length handle with the chain is fairly straightforward to sew, getting the chain cut and attached is another story. The instructions tell you to cut the chain to the desired length, an action I have found impossible to do on my own in the past. Fortunately, our local ironmongers at home has a very willing owner who is happy to cut my chains with his professional-looking wire cutters as often as I need, so I have gathered a store of them for just such an occasion. The instructions also tell you to open the chain links to attach them to the D-rings on the end of the strap, another action I found impossible to do, so my solution was to attach a split ring to the end of the chain, which then attaches to the D-ring.

The short handle provides a whole different set of problems. To attach the bolt hook to the end of the piped handle you need to sew 8 layers of fabric whilst trying to avoid hitting the top of the bolt hook with your machine needle, not for the faint-hearted that is for sure! It took several attempts is all I am admitting to :)

Actually once the handles are sorted, the rest of the bag is fairly straightforward, even fitting the twist-turn lock and inserting a zipped inner pocket is pain-free compared to grappling with 8 layers of fabric. Although I did need to grit my teeth, cross my fingers and hope for the best when cutting into my already sewn bag flap to attach the front part of the lock and then again to fit the eyelets for the short handle.

Finishing this bag also means that I can shift another project off of my waiting list and on to the completed list, which is very nice, and it is this month's finish for 12 WIP's in 2012!

So here is how my list is looking now

Completed projects

• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart, Orange and Reindeer cushions
• Orphan Block needle roll, Pieced Arc Tea towel, Purse and Padded Hangers Tutorial
• Sunflower and Sew Happy QAL quilt
• Play mini-quilt challenge quilt 
• Patchwork Block, Dragon and Fashionista Bags

Ongoing

• 6 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted
• 8 Zakka-style SAL projects completed
• First border of teatime quilt completed
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 12 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (on schedule)  
• Yellow rainbow cushion waiting to be appliqued 
• In the Bag Ugly Fabric challenge fabrics arrived waiting for inspiration!
• 4 Summer Quilt Bee blocks completed
• 1 Star of Africa Bee block completed

Waiting

• Indigo and violet rainbow cushions
• Last block of Sampler quilt
• Amy Butler bag
• Christmas mini quilts

There is a bit of a logjam in that ongoing list I think, will have to work on that soon.

Tomorrow's posts in the Let's get Acquainted Blog Hop are from

July 12

    Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade 

    Marti from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks

Rebecca has been posting tutorials this month for her Christmas in July series, so I am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with tomorrow and Marti has a giveaway running on her blog at the moment, so both are definitely worth checking out. 

Linking up to  Purse Palooza , Sunday Showcase,  WIP Wednesday  and We did it Wednesday. 

 

A jumble of June projects

I am beginning to like putting together a Mosaic at the end of each month, when I think I haven't actually finished much in a month it is a pleasant surprise to find that, actually, I have been busier than I thought!

The makes this month are a motley selection, and probably a good indication of my "butterfly" tendencies of flitting from one project to another :)

Lots of little projects have fitted in with the travelling we have been doing recently, so portable projects like the crochet flowers and Dorset buttons have fitted the bill. I am most pleased with finishing the Campervan doorstop as it has been many months in the making, it is just a pity that the reason for making it, for youngest son's flat at University, has now disappeared with his graduation a couple of weeks ago! Still, a finish is a finish.

We have no travel plans for the next few weeks, so I am hoping to get stuck into some bigger projects and maybe even finish off the NY Beauty QAL blocks that are haunting the cupboard!

If you have missed any posts in the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop check out the great tutorials here This week's posts in the Blog Hop will be from:

July 3

Di from Willowbeck Designs

Jennifer from Knotted Thread

July 5

Sarah from Sarah Lou

Catherine from Knotted Cotton

 

I have seen sneak peeks of a couple of the projects being lined up and can't wait to see them revealed in all their glory. My post for the Blog Hop is due at the end of the month so I need to get cracking on my post and project for that too, so the NYB blocks might not see the light of day after all :)

Linking up to Fresh Sewing Day

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Dragon bags deconstructed and reconstructed

Although I managed to polish of most of my BOM's in the early part of this month, I somehow left my June project for 12 WIP's in 2012  until the last minute. So I have been sneaking in some sewing (and seam ripping) time in the last couple of days to try and get this in before June disappears.

Last year I wanted to make a special bag to have at my son's wedding, and when I saw u-handbag's Big 'n Beautiful Betty pattern I knew that this was it.  Finding the perfect fabric was not quite so easy, the bag had to match my purple outfit and I wanted the fabric to be extra-special. (I actually ended up with 3 outfits to choose from, all purple, but we'll not go into that now!) On a late night internet trawl I found an Alexander Henry fabric that fitted the bill perfectly, but as it was an old line it took some weeks to track down a large enough piece for my bag.

With the pattern and fabric I set to. I have made several purse frame bags from u-handbag kits and patterns so although this was by far the biggest frame purse I had attempted, I didn't think it would be any more difficult than the previous ones.

Well that frill along the top gave me all sorts of grief! I have always struggled a bit with the final stage of gluing the bag into the frame, but with a frill to complicate matters it took even longer, so that it was not finished in time :( As you can see, I did finish the bag, but after the first use I noticed that the frame and the bag were beginning to part company, so put the whole thing away resolving to sort it out sometime.

Well that time was this month, sorting out this bag was one of my 12 WIP's for 2012 and I hoped, the only one that I could feasibly finish in time for the looming end of June. So, I set to with scissors and brute strength to wrestle the bag from the remainder of the frame, no easy task given that the point of the glue is that it will withstand the very thing I was trying to do!

After a lot of tugging and pulling I managed to separate them both, where I discovered that my original gluing had been less than even, which was I suspect the reason that I had problems in the first place. So with the bag deconstructed I set about recycling the fabric to create another bag, using my favourite Kyoko Frilled Pouch pattern from u-handbag. Most of the fabric in the new bag was recycled from the old, except for the exterior bag base, which needed a small piece of the leftover fabric from the original bag.

Now that the bag is completed and (fingers crossed!) unlikely to fall apart, all I need is another wedding to go to :)

Unlike large parts of the UK, the weather here in Riga would be ideal for a wedding and there would be no shortage of flowers as these stalls at the Central Market show.

If we only had somewhere to put them we would be investing heavily in these hanging baskets and potted plants!

Another finish to tick off the list by the skin of my teeth! I shall definitely try not to leave it to the last minute next month.

Linking up to 12 WIP's in 2012 and Purse Palooza and Threading My Way features