Texta (Crayon) Roll

I wanted to make a little something extra to put with a birthday present I had bought for one of M's best friends. I left it completely until the last minute (this morning!) but remembered seeing a tutorial on the lovely Emma's blog that I have been wanting to try (thanks for sharing the tute Emma!)

I've made a texta/crayon roll before but this tutorial looked even quicker.

I am happy with how it turned out however I didn't like seeing the stitching on the back of the roll (since you just turn up the bottom part to make the pocket and stitch through that to make the texta/crayon pockets). I love the bias edging so will try modifying the way the roll is put together and come up with my own version. I used 1 layer of whisper weft interfacing and found it worked perfectly to give the roll the tiniest bit of body. Previously the interfacing I've used has made the roll much too stiff. I like rolls with the fold down top flap which ensures the texta's stay put. I don't see the point (at all!) of the rolls that don't have the top flap??

I'm happy with how it turned out and with the cute little notebook, I think it was a nice little extra pressie to go with the main present.

FWIW mum's seem to love these as presents for their kids. I'm not sure if they just haven't seen them before but whenever I've given them as presents, the mum's genuinely have the most fabulous reaction, it's great :)

On with the pics...

Unrolled without texta's (had to do a dash to the shops to buy a packet)

Back of the roll. See the stitching of all the pockets? I will modify it so that this is hidden next time

Unrolled with top flap down

Rolled up, filled with texta's and sitting on top of the cute little notebook

Some little dresses

I love making these dresses. I plan to try and make a few to sell, here are the first 3.

And this is the dress I think I have actually fallen in love with, a gorgeous fabric combo of blue and brown.

The next 3 dresses I'm currently cutting out and sewing have already been sold, I can't wait to show everyone what they look like!

I'm not sure what the best way is to go about selling things....facebook, via my blog, etsy...?

I don't want to conquer the world or anything, especially with a new baby on the way, however selling on a small scale would be perfect.

Tote Bags

Two of these bags were made on the weekend, the fireman bag for my little man and the hedgehog bag is for Miss C's birthday this weekend.

The pink one was made a few weeks ago for miss M to use as a library bag. The interior was fabric I had second thoughts of using halfway through my swap piece so really the bag was halfway made already.

I'm much happier with the fireman and hedgehog bags because the lining is interfaced whereas the pink bag has the exterior fabric interfaced and you can see the bubbling (un-smoothness if that is a word!) on it.

I am completely in love with the hedgehog fabric matched with the red dotty fabric, which kind of just *happened* as I was sorting through my stash. I wasn't too fussed with the hedgehog fabric (which I bought ages ago) but the further along I got with the bag, the more I fell in love and now I wish I had more.

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.