My 1st Nicole Mallalieu Bag

I was petrified of this bag pattern (the flap totally freaked me out) which I bought back in September and had worked myself up about for 2 months LOL. In the end, with some encouragement from Emma and me repeating to myself that it's only a 1 flower difficulty rating, I started on the bag as a secret santa present for a special cyber friend.

Overall I am happy with the finished bag.

There was no heavy weight interfacing in the shop on the day so I went with shapewell which is very stiff. I'm hoping the bag will relax a little with use.

I wanted to make the strap adjustable but couldn't source a slide buckle in time.

I could only find bronze rings which I love and think match the bag but when I finished I wanted to add a twist turn lock to keep the flap down and could not for the life of me find one anywhere in Melbourne. I had no time to order online so had to use the only one I eventually found by pure luck, which was unfortunately silver.

I originally wanted to use a magnetic catch but I think I missed the step where I was meant to insert it into the flap before stitching it to the bag?? By the time I realised, I was finished and there was no way I was unpicking which is why I thought a twist turn lock would be good, if only I could have found a bronze one :(

I was scared to chop into my bag to insert the lock but all was good and I'm happy with how it looks.

Because of the shapewell, I went a bit nuts trying to iron the bag after turning it inside out (the right way) and was devastated to see that I melted some stitching. At least that's what I think happened? Has anyone ever had disintegrating stitches before? I could have cried!

I also made a matching tissue holder.











and the disintegrating stitches!

Christmas Caroline Dress

I had to make something Christmas-y so with not much time left at all, I made this Caroline Dress for M last night.

She wore it to the hairdressers this morning, here she is in her dress with her new short do.



Before we left



We're off to see Santa tomorrow so I'm trying to finish a pair of Little Explorers for the boy in some red dotty trim, Christmas-y without being OTT. Both new items of clothing will be worn for the Chrissy pic if there are no food/drink disasters between getting dressed and making it to Santa.

Goodie Bags

Miss M, my beautiful, sweet, funny, smart, kind, light of my life daughter turned 6 this week. She had such a lovely birthday and today she had a party.

A month or so ago I started playing around making yoyo's and as I kept making them I thought they would be perfect for M's party bags. It was good to just plod along and make them when I had some spare time here and there.

Then, a few nights ago, I thought it would be great to actually make the party bags. A while back I picked up a bag of 8" long zippers for 50c at the op shop so the whole idea was based on those zips. Since I already had plenty of fabric and had a tute in mind that I wanted to try, it all made sense.

The bags aren't perfect, my zip ends don't quite push up and out enough, I would love to know what the secret is to get them looking better. Otherwise, I was really happy with how they all turned out.

Each pouch had contrast lining





The yoyo's have grown on me, the more I made the better my fabric and button matching became. I sewed the yoyo's to the hairclips in 3 different places to be triple sure they were nice and secure. Annoying and boring (hate hand sewing) but worth it.



I really wanted to give M's friends something sweet and special to say thank you for her lovely gifts. I didn't want any plastic type toys in the bags either and hope the girls will wear their clips and use their pouches. They actually look a lot like pencil cases and are a great size for all sorts of things - hair ties, ribbons, texta's....

Here are the goodies we put in each bag



The ties on the zips were a last minute decision, I thought it would help smaller fingers open the pouches and I also liked the dash of contrast colour it gives each bag.



Happy birthday to my gorgeous girl!

Before the party....


and after the party (looking a little overwhelmed!)

Handmade Kids Giveaway

Lots of generous giveaways happening atm!

Handmade Kids are having a mega Christmas giveaway with boy or girl packs up for grabs. Lots of beautiful items in each pack, I am eyeing off the boys goodies. Good luck!