Presents for Little Boys

I made eight of these for my sons and nephews for Christmas. Actually, I lie. I made seven, the eighth one (which is brown) is sitting in my to-do pile. I was up until 4am on Christmas morning finishing these off.

Apart from the applique on the front, all the other stitching was done on the industrial machine. I used my regular machine for the appliqué as the industrial machine only does straight stitch.

The main fabric is corduroy from my stash, and the appliqué fabric was a freebie from Retro Mummy. I used the eyelets that came in the packet with my eyelet pliers. They aren't flash, but they were fine for this job as the back of the eyelet is not visible.

I used one long length of fabric and folded it in the middle to make the bottom edge of the bag. (I know this means that half of the corduroy has its nap the wrong way, but I don't think it really matters). The sides are done with French seams. The cord on these two bags were the handles from a dress shop bag. I actually bought some extra cord from Spotlight to do the others.

The bags were a hit. My Dad didn't really get why they were so popular until we explained that they each had a couple of match-box cars inside. (Tee-hee!) The idea is that the bags are to be used to store matchbox cars as my kids and their cousins have an awful lot between them and they all sink to the bottom of the toy box.

A Well Received Christmas Gift

I spent a few late nights in the lead up to Christmas working on this hat for my partner, Maxx.

He loves his new red fedora (I know, it looks pink in the picture, but it is actually red.) The pattern is from Nicole Mallalieu, and the fabric I bought the last of what was on the roll from Brunswick fabrics.

It was kind of fun sneaking around to finish this on time. The kids weren't playing along very well and most afternoons, one or both of them were avoiding their naps. So it was off to the sewing room, where I worked on other things until Maxx went to bed, and then switched over to his hat once the coast was clear. There was much cleaning away of scraps, and another project was started in similar fabric to cover my tracks.

I finally finished the hat at 5:30 pm on Christmas Eve. I still need to add a hatband, but it will happen in good time.

Strapped!

Thanks to the magic of sewing, my friend's dress, which was once strapless, now has straps!

Hi Kez, *waves* I hope your concert went well yesterday!

Sunday Stash

Cogsmo,
originally uploaded by Liam's Mummy.

I bought the top half of this from GJ's who currently have a sale on, I think it ends Monday or Tuesday, so if you want to save, you should get in fast! I was a bit early for the sale, but saw this fabric when I visited there a couple of weeks ago, and as I have been wanting this stuff for ages, I had to get some.

I then made a plan, which meant (as any good sewing plan does) that I would need to get some more fabric. I was very lucky to get in on the Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) sale and bought the bottom three from The Quilter's Studio. I must say, I was very impressed with their service. I ordered my fabric on Saturday morning (still Friday over there) and it was here Thursday!! I got 4.5 yards, which actually measured closer to 4.5 metres, and including postage, it cost me $50 altogether. It would have cost me around $100 to buy it here (that's if I could find it!).

More Sunday Stashes here.

Wordless Weekend

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