Elephant brief

I've been so busy I've not had a chance to show you what I've been making. Last week I got the chance to make another custom order :) yipppeee. You all know these are my favourite types of order (although any type is pretty awesome too).

For this one the brief was 'elephant fabric'....the fabric was picked after some online searches by the lovely lady that placed the order, which for one of her friends. After rummaging around in my stash I found this gorgeous yellow polka dot cotton and some pink polka dot ribbon. I think its very cheery and made me smile as I was packaging it up.

My worktable is full to the brim at the moment, lots of mid progress projects, cant wait to show you what I've been making.

Something for Rachel...

Even though I have a very structured 'To do' list I'm always moving things around and adding little bits here and there. I had two items on the list and without even noticing I had completed both tasks by finishing one :) BONUS!! The two tasks were:

1. To make a birthday gift

2. To  design a new shaped purse (as I was never happy with the original)

I wanted to make a purse for Rachel for her birthday and wanted to make it extra special as it was also a thank you for the fantastic sewing machine mat she made me. So I took the pattern of this purse, which is very lovely but I always knew I could make it prettier and more in keeping with the rest of the bagladee range.

Grabbed some scrap paper a pencil and my trusty grader square (which is the grand old age of 11 years old. I have to say that for a triangle piece of perspex it is along side my most treasured possession of my sewing machine) and got to work adjusting the pattern.

I'm a great believer that everyone has a gift, whether that be being a musician, singer, mother, healer, artist, scientist...you get the picture. Well I've never been that great at academic things, I got by at school with maths etc, but I always excelled at the more creative stuff. English, Arts and languages were my best subjects. But I honestly think my gift is that I can take a piece of paper and a pencil and draw my own patterns from scratch (to be honest I hate following commercial patterns because I enjoy the process of discovery when creating my own).

After one attempt this is what I came up with, it was exactly how I pictured it in my mind and I'm pleased as punch at how it turned out.

I love the fact it is more rounded and mimics the style of the clutch bag and has even more room inside than the previous design. All the time I was making this purse all I kept thinking was "will Rachel like it?" I used the button fabric as she had commented how pretty it was when she made me the sewing machine mat.
Thankfully she did and you can read her post here.

After I'd added the bow and rhinestone flower it dawned on me that I had just created the new shape purse that I'd wanted!!! And to boot made a very pretty present for a very special friend :D I know my gift of "being able to create my own creations from scratch" is not life changing or amazing, but I love it and love the fact that I can put a smile on someones face even if it is just for half an hour. Its still worth it!

Just whizzing past

....as I have a super busy afternoon ahead. Purse to start and finish to post tomorrow, hand sewing of something new to finish (if you follow me on Twitter you might have seen these yesterday?), a mission to find some buttons, a 'mission statement' to write and a tidy up in what I think used to be my studio, it seems to be disguising itself as a rubbish dump :D

Bye bye kitty bag...

This week I said goodbye to this sweet little bag and matching purse. Its travelling all the way to Australia, Sydney to be more specific to a lovely lady called Jennifer **wave**. Jennifer even said she would display some of my postcards on the notice board in their staff room.....which just happens to be the Sydney Opera House, how exciting!!!!

This is my first ever sale to Aussie land and I hope it wont be the last.

Today I have spent most of the day filling and sanding, prepping the walls ready for painting tomorrow. I had the very tedious job of trimming all the tape from the beams, which took forever....but was so worth it once you could see the lovely treated wood against the pale pink walls. (Cant wait for you to be finished my lovely little den).