Sweet Fabric:
handmade

I try really hard to be a thoughtful consumer.

I buy just about all my own clothes in Op Shops & I've been really good about not accumulating extra "stuff".

But every now & then, something comes along that a girl simply must have.

This little person was peering out at me from a glass cabinet last week. I confess, my heart skipped a beat when I saw her. She made me think of my Grandma. Then I imagined her maker & the careful selection of felt & stitching & it made my heart ache a little more.

Her price tag was face down.

I don't know about you but I always take this as a bad-antique-shop-sign. I did a couple of laps around the antique shop & kept coming back to her. I strained my neck & squinted my eyes to read her price tag.... I was sure that she was $95. Too much, but the ache in my heart made me ask to see her anyway.

Antique shop owners in nice suburbs obviously don't value craft too highly. $12 & she's mine.

This bag gifted to a dear friend.

She changes her mind a lot.

Constructed from upholstery samples.

Twisted cord closure.

I'm getting such a lot of pleasure from the bag making. I enjoy the thinking, the planning, the making of the story board (maybe more than the actual bag making) and ultimately the construction.

See the beginnings here

Constructed from vintage fabric from a suit (extremely stylish). All other materials were thrifted.

& happy 30th birthday

My nice list is a very long one.

We've got busy kids so that means there are lots of gym coach & swimming teacher types who need a little something.

This is what I'm gifting this year.

Morning Fresh Tissane
A beautiful blend of calico & soap. This tea bag is designed to be left steeping in the shower with the soap inside. Flavour & performance improves overtime. A joy for the eye & the senses this blend will invigorate & revitalise.

The best part about this tea bag is that it can be filled with all those otherwise useless endy bits of soap.

Product currently being tested by me.

This girl is trying something similar for her washing machine & I'm bursting to hear the results.

&
Giveaway.

This bag was made as a long overdue birthday gift for a very special friend. She's been waiting patiently & I'm finally ready to gift it.

You might remember the fabric. Selvedge notes: Robert Kaufman(?) Screen Print 3855 Boomerang Beat. One of my best op shop finds ever!

All components of this bag were purchased from various op shops. The embroidery floss came from my stash.

I know I've banged on before about how much pleasure this sort of crafting gives me, but honestly it's true.

I really want to keep this for myself - she's going to have a fight on her hands.

PS: Yesterday's post was supposed to say that my gorgeous sister made an entire pillowcase wardrobe for her sweet as anything little girl. I was also going to say how proud I was of her & how thrilled I was to have given her a hand...

Sorry about the total abandonment of the post...sometimes the heart wins.

Edited to add:

A few people asked about the how. I'm really sorry but I'm not ready to share my process. It's very much a work in progress & a pretty organic sort of construction. There's no pattern cut. I just get all the materials together & go for it. Maybe one day, but not yet. I hope that's OK.

The original was inspired by a bag made entirely of leather strapping by Danny Seo (which I've tried to find via Google & can't), as well as these tooled leather bags which my mum had in the 70s.

I will leave you with a quote from my hero found via his interview with Victoria Everman.

"The simple truth is that I think of what I want, then use what I've got on hand to make it".
Justin "Scrappers" Morrison

I've thought about this daily since I read the interview.

Elsie found the Danny Seo bag. Thank you Elsie.

We made these hand pieced hexagon shaped pincushions a few weeks ago at Brown Owls. They are a great way to use up scraps or tiny samples of favourite fabrics. Not surprisingly, I've used vintage pillowcase fabric for this.

The original project came from a vintage children's craft book, "How to make and do 100 new things". If you ever spot a copy in an Op Shop or second hand bookshop buy it - it's pure gold!

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Tutorial as a slide show (best viewed at full screen via my Slideshare). You can just click & stitch, click & stitch.

It's been a while since I've used powerpoint & I can tell you there was much swearing. But I think well worth the effort in the end.

Download this kootoyoo how to... as a PDF (including templates).

Thank you to my crafty kick in the pants. You're ace!

See all my click & stitch make a pincushion projects.
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but I like to mix things up & in my "mum uniform" I can't really pull off a brooch.

This gorgeous resin bird brooch is made by the clever boy half of this dynamic duo.

PS: It's really hard to take a pic of the back of your own head.

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