24 Hour Leather Hobo

I have a new dress to wear to a Christmas function tomorrow night, but it has come to my attention that it doesn't go with any of my bags. So I'm going to have a bash at making a "You Sew, Girl!" Hobo bag from some leather that I have been saving for such an occasion. Can it be done?

Linking up with more Creative Peeps over here.

24. Where Angels fear to tread...

There is only one person I know who would be brave enough to design shoes this tiny. They were actually easier to put together than I expected. You will have to come back later to see who they are for...

Check out some more Creative People over here.

Magnificent Mice

I stumbled across this really cute pattern whilst browsing the internet last week and I was so excited by it, I snapped it up right away. The pattern is called Brave Mouse Aviators and is a downloadable pattern by Bustle & Sew. I would love to make them using some lovely wool fabric like in the pattern, but I don't have any so I'm making mine with some wool felt instead. I'll come back and let you know how it all goes when I'm done.

Want to see what other crafty people are doing this week? Head over and visit Our Creative Spaces to have a sticky beak.

I'm having a hat-sew-along during the month of September. If you would like to make a hat during the month of September, you can find my sign-up post here.

Sketchy Plans

I thought I lost my sketchbook earlier today. Luckily I found it, because I had a few little ideas I wanted to sketch. I find sometimes, when I sketch or write down an idea, it leads to other ideas. Do you have a sketchbook? How do you manage your ideas? Would you like to check out some more creativity?

My Creative Space, Spoonflower and Fabric Design

I have been playing around a little with Inkscape lately, with a view to designing some fabric. I have so many ideas I'm not sure where to start, so I've been flitting back and forth, trying out new things. I have found these Inkscape tutorials to be a really good starting point. There are heaps of nifty little tricks you can learn which will help to reduce beginner frustration. I should add that if you are not familiar with Inkscape, it is an open-source, vector drawing program, similar to Illustrator. The best part, Open Source = FREE! It also runs on Linux, Apple and Windows.



Once I get my fabric designs all worked out and I am happy with them, I plan to get them digitally printed by Spoonflower. Spoonflower is an awesome business who custom print fabric. You can get your designs printed on different types and weights of fabric. It is only $1 to get a swatch booklet of the different fabric types, and $1 to get the colour guide, also printed on fabric. There is also a much larger colour guide, with lots more colours, that you can get printed on a yard of fabric for $18.

Have you ever wanted to design yor own fabric? What sort of designs would you do, or like to see someone else do? Have you already designed your own fabric? Do you have any advice for me, or others who are just at the beginning of their fabric designing journey?

Would you like to see what everyone else is up to in their Creative Spaces this week?

Kid's Clothes Week - Day 3

As well as pulling zipper teeth yesterday, I was busy working on these jeans for Liam. The cut-out jeans have been sitting in my UFO pile for months, I really hope they will be big enough! I am hoping to get them finished today. I think all the tricky bits are done.



I have been well and truly exceeding my "at least one hour a day" working on kids clothes, as part of the  KCWC , but I have been getting a lot done. It's good to be able to focus on one area at a time. Perhaps I should pencil into my calendar some of my own week-long focus challenges? Like perhaps a "clothes for me" week?

I am still working on this  (it's the same denim as the jeans)



and this



...and will report back later when these are complete!  

If you would like to see what some other crafty people are up to this week, pop on over to Our Creative Spaces and click away.

Variagated Concentric Circles

I've started using some of the variagated thread that I bought at the AQC, last weekend. Here's a little taste of what is to come. Of course, this kind of stitching allows lots of thinking time, so I am getting lots of new ideas while I am stitching away on this. More should be revealed next week...

Following along with Our Creative Spaces.

Tangled

I was hoping to get started on this today, to match the other one. Something I can do whilst keeping an eye on the kids, or sitting in front of the TV, or maybe on the train on the way to and from the AQC this weekend.



But then things got a bit messy.....

Joining in with Our Creative Spaces.

My Creative Space - Sunny Works in Progress

I'm enjoying sitting at the machine with the window open in this beautiful weather. I decided that it was high time I pulled these two UFOs (unfinished objects) out and turn them into WIPs (work in progress). They are from when I went to a Don't Look Now workshop.



Once a UFO is being worked on again, it is no longer a UFO, it is a WIP.



Before I do any quilting, I always check my tension and do a little practice on my practise sandwich.



I think I may need to make a new practice sandwich soon, as this one is getting a little full.



Does anyone else over-lap their practices like this?

See who else is playing along with Our Creative Spaces over here.

My Creative Space - Getting closer to Leather City

I'm working on my red leather City bag today. I've had some interesting stops along the way. I broke a needle. I've had trouble with skipped stitches. I ran out of bobbin thread, half-way along a seam.... but it's coming together, and I am mostly happy with it. I have a strap that I'm pretty pleased with and the Ink & Spindle fabric that I have chosen to compliment the leather seems to be working out to be a nice match.

I have discovered that leather and double-sided tape really work well together, however, I'm not sure my machine likes it very much. Since the skipped stitches occurred right after the broken needle, I don't think it was blunt or bent (the usual reason for skipped stitches). I noticed the needle was a bit gummy, cleaned it up and it's all good again so I'm guessing that was the cause.

What's happening in your Creative Space?

My Creative Space - Leather City, Here I Come!

In case you have come here from Our Creative Spaces and haven't been here since last week, you might not have seen that I finished my red leather spec case,



and I also finished my bag.



My plan now, is to make the same bag in LEATHER! My original plan was just to do the whole thing in leather, but seeing my denim one with the Ink & Spindle fabric, I want to achieve a similar look with the leather one...



I have some more plans, down the line to mix these two up as well....



If anyone was wondering, I get my leather from NSW Leather Co in Collingwood, and I get my bag patterns and shiny-bits from Nicole Mallalieu Design.



You can see more Creative Spaces, over here, and you can join in with the Blogtoberfestivities over here.

My Creative Space - On my way to "Leather City"

I'm working myself up to making a leather City Bag. I have a small project from Nikki's book cut out and ready to go. Once I have made that, I plan to make a City Bag in Denim, with a bit of Ink & Spindle to make it more exciting, and then... then I will do the leather bag that I have been planning to do for ages.

What's happening in your Creative Space this week?

My Creative Space - A Frilling Pattern!

I have always admired this Bettsy Kingston Baby Ruffle Pants pattern. I had not realised however, that it was available in PDF format.



Of course, once I realised this, it didn't take me long to buy it. By the next day, I was tracing and cutting out and putting together these lovely bloomers.



I even took the time to work out how to use a ruffling foot. Which is a good thing, because now I can make more of them, faster!



It's a bit of a scary looking device, isn't it?



I recommend downloading and having a read of this tutorial from You Can Make This, and for that extra bit of confidence, I watched this YouTube clip.



You can check out more creative spaces over here and don't forget to enter my giveaway over here.

My Creative Space - Little Red Riding Hood

I'm working on another Oliver + S Puppet Show outfit (previous outfits), this time in some Kokka Trefle, Little Red Riding Hood, and a lovely red print I picked up at Amitie. I'm hoping to get it completed before the weekend, without over-exerting myself, as I am also fighting a lurgy that I seem to have caught from Liam. Sharing is caring.

Later I hope to gather up enough courage to chop into some lovely red leather from NSW Leather Co.

What's happening in your Creative Space?

My Creative Space - Hexagons

I've been enjoying this lovely weather. Considering it is still meant to be Winter here, it is so lovely and warm. I can't wait until Spring is here for real.



Today, whilst looking for something else (which I still didn't find), I found my little hexagon kit from retromummy from last year's Sew It Together.



So I've been sitting here, by the open door, enjoying the warm, fresh breeze and stitching some hexagons.

Check out some more Creative Spaces.

My Creative Space - Happy Birthday to Me!!

Look what I got for my birthday from my clever, clever man! This wonderful screen-printing set arrived in my creative space recently, and today, I finally had a bit of a play with it.

So far I have discovered that inkjet transparencies have a right side and a wrong side, and my printer has a transparency setting. I am still playing around with getting the exposure right when making the screen, so no actual screen-printing yet, but I will definitely be back to let you know when I do.

You can check out more Creative Spaces over here.

My Creative Space - Sharp!

I'm working on this at the moment. The pattern is the Glam Purse, the latest pattern from Nicole Mallalieu. I must admit, it looks a bit scary right now with all those sharp pins!

What are you working on at the moment? You can find other Creative Spaces over at Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space - the Boys Get Creative

They say that play-dough is good for releasing tension and aggression. We haven't really played with play-dough much lately, because Noah tends to eat it. I did kinder duty last week, and took Noah and Amelie along with me. When I saw Noah playing with the play dough and not eating it, I decided to make some more for home. The recipe is on the side of the Cream of Tarter packet, or you can get the recipe here.

 

He still has a little trouble resisting...

Ok, so I guess you're wondering about the hats? They are from this morning's story-time session at the library. The theme was ducks. After the story, the kids do a craft activity.

Liam did his all by himself. Inspired by Picasso!




I also recently discovered that our local newspaper sells end-rolls of paper, so I grabbed a couple of those last week as well. Good fun for the kids, and also, if I need to draft a pattern...



To see more Creative Spaces, visit Kirsty at Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space - a dash of pink knitting

A couple of weeks ago, I had a lovely blogger friend come and visit me and meet my new baby, Amélie. We enjoyed some *Roast Pumpkin and Basil Fritatta for lunch and I was left with these lovely balls of wool to knit something for Amélie with. I'm trying out something with a bit of a fancy edge, but I'm not sure if it's going to work well with the variegated yarn - we'll see how it goes....

for more creative spaces, visit Kirsty.

*I may come back and post the recipe for that some time

My Creative Space - Fabric paint

When I was making the pincushion for the swap, I used some of our hobby paints to paint the stand. Whist looking for those, I managed to find a tin full of fabric paints that I had forgotten I had, from years ago. I haven't tested them yet - hopefully they are all still okay.

On the weekend, I managed to get them all (the old ones and the new ones) in the one place. I also cut out six t-shirts for Liam using some fabrics from my stash. Today I started making freezer paper stencils so that I can make the t-shirts more interesting.

To see what other people are doing in their creative spaces, visit Kirsty.