Confession time

I have recently come to the crushing realization that I am a messy sewer, a VERY messy sewer. To cut down on time when making bags, I do all the cutting for a number of bags all at once (it took me a while to work out that that would be more time efficient than cutting and making each bag individually) and after each cut, each trim, I sweep the off cuts onto the floor. It is only a tiny scrap of fabric after all.

But cutting 10 bags at once? The fabric, the interfacing? It all builds up. And then there are all the threads. Loads of them. All on the floor. I've heard of thread catchers (i know I should make one) but it's the immediate cleanness of the table that I like, and I can't see the floor when I'm sewing, so I only realise how messy the floor is when I finish the projects. Oops.

I'd love to know how you sew. Do you clean up as you go, or leave it all to the end?

New bags

Having dabbled in making bags with some old curtains I bought from a charity shop, I thought it was time I used some nicer fabric. And i found the perfect Miss Polly style fabric from Dragonfly Fabrics, an internet site that I spend far too much time on, ogling all the lovely designs they have. And so I made this bag with fabric from the Westfallenstoffe range.

I like the design of the bag, but I can't decide on the brooch. Satin or fabric? I might make both and see which sells the best.

I have a lot of work to do before my first fair at Easter - bags, brooches and headscarfs (pics of them soon) 

Little Satin Brooches

As some of you may know, I dabble in loads of different crafts and love them all. And I've taken up textiles and fabric and sewing and all things sewing related and am hooked completely. I bought some satin to line some bags I will be making soon, but i snipped off a few corners and made these little satin brooches.

They are so easy to make, but also so pretty. I added a few freshwater pearls from my bead stash and a little fabric flower was born!

I'll post a tutorial soon xx

Playing around with Picmonkey

My lovely soapy friend, Denice, published a tutorial on her blog about how to make a blog banner using  PicMonkey and I was hooked and still am. Her tutorial is so well written that even I could follow it with no problems at all.

Picmonkey is such a fantastic tool to use to make banners, collages, logos .... endless fun.

So, the logo at the top of the blog was via picmonkey, but I also had a play around with some images to make a collage of some photos I have. Here's the first one, and I am pretty happy with it (the staging of the products is another issue but I'll work on that).

Here is the image with no filter:

but here is the same collage with a filter - Nostferatu Dawn which I absolutely love.

You can see that the tones are warmer, and the sparkles are just that bit more sparkly. I also added some text, but this was me playing around yet again.

I can see that picmonkey will be a great way for me to get distracted from actual work, it's that addictive.

If you want to try some fancy collages, blog banners or logos, picmonkey is the site for you.

First post

The first post with little to say, but at least it makes the page look less empty.