Another Small Project

 I wanted a hand sewing project recently, wanted to use this 'Creativity takes courage' quote by Henri Matisse (and shared with my by my lovely cousin, when I was telling him how hard I found it to cut into the story book that I'd been embellishing), and wanted to make something for Benta.

It all came together in this simple pouch which is large enough to take A4 sheets. 

I wasn't sure about the Riley Blake zig zag for the inside and lining (its bold!), but I really struggled to find something that would even half-way go with the batik on the outside.

Hope that you like it, Benta!

More Bunting

 I'm sure that only a few weeks ago I declared that I'd never make any more bunting!

Hard to believe that I'm already making it again!

 My daughter has set up a business to sell reusable fabric gift bags and gift wraps - based on the Japanese idea of furoshiki.  She has her own web site FabWraps.co.uk but on Sunday 29th September will have her first real life stall at a Pamper Evening in Twickenham.  If you live locally (and are 18+ and female) please do come along - it's free to come in and should be fun.

She wanted to have bunting for her stall, so asked for my help in making it.  The fabrics are all from her business stash - beautiful, aren't they?

I'm sure to come back to tell you more about this, as I'm so proud of the ideas behind her business and how she's getting on with it.  In the meantime I hope that she has a lot of fun running the stall on the 29th!

Back to School Project

 A couple of fast projects this week.  With my DD's going back to school / off to college, packed lunches once more became part of our regular routine.

It was time for me to step up and reduce our single use plastic by making re-usable sandwich wrappers.

 I used a square of fabric 12" square, and lined it with an 11.5" square of iron on vinyl. 

Then I turned the hemmed the edge.  On one wrap I turned it over twice, but the corners were very bulky.  One the second one I used a pinking cutter along the edges and then just turned it over once.  Time will tell which is the most robust!

Then I added velcro - the soft strip across the outside fabric, and the hook strip down the inside of the opposite corner.

The result is a sandwich wrapper with enough variation allowed to accept a close wrap on lots of different bread sizes.

We've used them twice now and the girls seem happy with them.

Next we need to decide how to tackle wrapping a couple of biscuits or a peice of cake, which are also a frequent part of their lunches....!

Final story book embellishment

 I went back to this page - knowing that it needed something else - and added the stitched rainbow shape.  Such a simple thing, but I really feel that the page is improved by it.

 This page has metallic finish card with buttonhole stitch (double on the final cloud) secured with beads.

Then I added a line of chain stitch in the squishy mud....

The final page!
A paper circle with sunrays of stitching both on the circle and outside it.

At the bottom of the page beaded lines showing the puddles getting smaller and smaller.

I didn't extend the story.  I didn't change the story.  I did have to find my courage in order to cut and stitch into a perfectly reasonable book.

It was an adventure.  I'm 'sorry not sorry' that it's finished!

On to other projects now!