Swap - What I Made

As per usual I left my swap item til the last minute, which coincidentally was the same time as I started to experience my first ever bout of morning sickness - blergh! What's with that...third time lucky??

So I wasn't too keen to make a start on my swap piece and admittedly it became a little rushed towards the end but I hear that my swap partner was happy to receive a bag for her hand sewing and has been using it. I put some goodies in the bag too, a quick unpick, some thread cutters, hem gauge thingymajig, folding scissors and a needle nest (a magnetic case for her needles) hopefully things she can keep in the bag for her hand sewing.

My partner requested modern country/romantic fabric which threw me a little and this is what I ended up with (after a million fabric changes, even whilst halfway through making the bag. I hate being so indecisive.)









*I have just noticed that these pics are before the bag went through the machine so there were no pen lines on the bag when I sent it off!*

I used this tute here, how beautiful is the Hushabye fabric range!

The tute says to sew 3 pockets into the outside part and after doing that on 1 side I decided to only do 2 pockets on the other side because they were so small I could hardly get my hand into them.

Swap - What I Received

Our latest swap involved listing 3 things you would like to receive and our swap partners were left to choose which item to make. I was so excited this morning and as soon as M was awake we decided to open my present. M knew all about the swap as I had been explaining to her why I was making a present for someone I didn't know and I think she was just as excited as me! Thank you to my swap partner Bec for the fabulous goodies I received.

Off to a good start...I spy chocolate!!


A superhero cape!! One very excited little boy kept saying "I can fly, I can fly!" It has his initial on one side...


...and a lightening bolt on the other. I love the fabric, it's perfect cape material.


Hanging out on the floor this morning wearing his new cape


I have been wanting one of these for ages!! A beautiful Make It Perfect versatile wrap skirt. I love the fabric Bec has chosen for my skirt - gorgeous! I first saw this fabric on Mel's blog and love the colourway Bec used. She was so thoughtful and even included a button in case I need to make a size adjustment. There was also some velcro to adjust the neck size of the cape if need be, thanks Bec.

My beautiful skirt!


M claimed the chocolate as hers and was happy with the 1 piece I gave her and I've hidden the rest in the fridge for later.

Thank you so much Bec, I love everything you made and you have done a fabulous job. I feel very lucky to have received 2 things from my list. The overlocked edges of the skirt are even in coordinating thread and thank you so much for the extra item in the parcel too that I have deliberately not blogged about but am really appreciative of.

Art Smock

I modified the Kwik Sew pattern that I used to make M's doggy dress up suit to make this art smock. I am pleased with how it turned out however it is much too halloween-ish for my liking. M chose the purple stars but we didn't have enough for the whole smock so I used the orange aswell.



Don't you love this pose!

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!