Friday 24 July 2015

Making a Patchwork Drawstring Bag

I made a drawstring bag out of patchwork for my daughter.  She loves everything that is cute.
The fabric was a charm pack from Riley Blake called Snapshots.  A charm pack is a number, in this case 32, of coordinating fabrics in squares which are 5" x 5".  I cut them into quarters giving me 4 squares of each fabric which were 2.5".  I then arranged them and sewed them together to make 6 squares wide and 7 squares high.





I then quilted it with a pink fabric on the reverse and quilted 0.25" from each side of a seam.  This is my favourite quilting for squares.  I should branch out and do more lines or something.  I have done stippling but I haven't done it for ages.  




 I them made the other side of the bag.  I just made it from 4 large squares I sewed together and I put a tube on the tops of both sides to take the drawstrings.  On the 'front' this left a raw edge inside I hand sewed ribbon on to hide it.  I used linings which were from the same range of fabrics.  I have no idea what the fabrics are but I think they are Japanese.

My 'tube' for the drawstring on each side.

The lining fabrics.

The ribbon I sewed on by hand to hide the horrible raw edge when I sewed the tube on the quilted side.

To finish the bad I sewed the sides right sides together and made the bottom corners rounded. I cut off the excess fabric, turned it the right way out and sewed a line of stitching around the edge of the bag to wide the raw edge inside the bag and just finish it off nicely.


The inside showing the contrasting linings which are the same as the 'back'.  
Lastly I used some green ribbon I had lying around to make the drawstrings.  I love this bag!  My daughter does too and she has suggested she uses it as her library bag at school.  So she must like it!







Saturday 18 July 2015

Visit to Liberty Of London

On Saturday 4th July I was lucky enough to be in London on my own with some time to myself to do what I wanted.  This is pretty rare because although I am English and grew up quite near London, I now live in Sydney, Australia and hadn't been to London at all in over 10 years!
I got off the tube at Oxford Circus and was going to Hamleys Toy Shop when I decided to take a tiny detour off Regents Street to the iconic Liberty Department Store.
It is an absolutely stunning shop inside and out.   I went to haberdashery on the 3rd floor.  I stealthily took photos, risking life and limb for you dear reader.
I share with you the few I have which I hope give you a taste until you are next in the great capital.



Jars of liberty fabric covered buttons, £11.95 for not very many....

Beautiful kits!


Beautiful Fabric Display

Buttons

A stags head of course!

Yum
So I had a lovely time feasting my eyes on all the goodies.  I even bought some fabric!  They did have some precuts but not very many.  They had some hexagons and some 2.5" squares.  I got 36 squares for £9.95 in a pack.  Mine are pink and they appeared to have that or all different colours in one pack.  The hexagons were £14.95 for 30.  I nearly bought that but managed to control myself.  I will let you know what I make with the squares soon!