Two More Floppy Hobos

I didn't work today, so had some spare time on my hands. I have a bit of different satiny type materials that just never seems to get smaller..... so I decided to make some more floppy hobos.

I really need to go do some housework now, it has been sadly neglected over the last few days :)

Bag for Sis

What a lovely day it was today at my sisters, after the hour drive there....

Aircon on, lunch with Sophia and my niece, cut out three bags, then she said she wanted a bag made out of a silk kimono so we cut that out as well, after giving her the quickest lesson ever in building a website.

Then another hour drive home, its great thinking and planning time :) Did a quick bit of pruning in the gardening for half an hour then went and made Sophia's bag. I couldn't quite get the handle right as she didn't want any interfacing in it, hopefully she will still be happy with it

Better Off Working in the Heat

Yesterday was 37C, but I still managed to get two bags done, I found it easier to deal with the heat working and taking my mind of it. I did split the day up though and stayed out of the sewing room between two and six. I also made the dress I wanted to make, it took a lot of manoeuvring to fit the pattern on, but with a bit of perseverance I managed it, though it does have a seam down the front, but its only a house dress, so not a big deal, I love the material and it looks great.
Today it is going to be 39C so I am going to head over to my sisters and enjoy her aircon :)

Made with a lovely black and white swirl pattern and a apricot lining.

 

Skirts And All

Had a nice today, traced a couple of patterns onto plain interfacing, got two bags done, though I did keep going after S had left, it was pretty hot in the sewing room so had to get out between two and five o'clock.  We even managed to take up two of S's skirts that was a bit too long, one of them a beautiful burgundy pattern, that she decided she doesn't want any more, I am going to try and make a sleeveless dress out of.

There is a dark apricoty mini hobo and a striped green tote with dark green lining, same colours as a market bag done before.

New Pattern Conquered

Tried out a new pattern over the weekend, it was made a bit different from what I have been doing, but after a few confused moments finally got it.

My sister ordered it and was meant to be a carry bag with a zip, but she wanted a long thin strap and no zip, so had to alter things a tiny bit. It also turned out much bigger than we thought it would, so had to scale the pattern pieces down a bit after it was mostly sewn.

Change of Labels

Well there has been a change of plans on the labels, I needed to wash my bag the other day.... and the label came out blank ~oops

So I decided that I would get some iron ons instead, its cheating I know, but .... I'm being slack - it worked out pretty cheap $24 for 80 labels, they came in the mail today and I am pretty pleased with them, though a tad glossy, but for the price I have no cause to complain. I got them from Label Kingdom, its a family business so feel better supporting them than a large company... trying to justify them already :)

Too Hot for Sewing

Not much done this week as it's been 37C degrees, way too hot to be in the sewing room. The room gets the full afternoon sun, I went down to Bunnings today and got a fan to make it bearable in there, I will test it out tonight....

I did get another pattern during the week though, so I will need to trace it, as I hate using paper patterns.

My Daughter's Bag

Here is the bag that my daughter picked the material for, she wanted something that would scrunch up very small - she loved it when she saw it.

It was a bit of a pain to sew! satin outside and a very thin see-through stretch for the lining, and a gathered handle, so I am really glad she liked it.

Went material hunting again and spent my budget in the first shop - what a nice easy trip that was

Wow! Another Great Sewing Day

Had some extra time today, so I got stuck in and got 3 more bags done.

There are two mini hobos with long handle and twin pockets and S's second bag - a tote with two twin pockets inside, there is also a close up of the material as its really nice, but hard to see in the full pic

My daughter came around today and matched up some materials that would suit the younger generation, so I am looking forward to getting to them soon.

Pepparkaka

Nothing to do with bags at all, but we had our annual pepparkaka (gingerbread) bake day on Saturday. We make enough for all the family so finished up with about 400! There were five and half of us, me and my grown kids, my sister and her two younger kids and one of their friends, her youngest is the half  :) she just ate lots of dough and watched movies. We so look forward to the day, but by the time its over we don't want to see any more pepparkaka dough for another 12 months, but a great day had by all.

Here is a sample of some of the cutters my daughter bought for this year, now I just need to post some to my mum and other sister.

A Productive Friday

Finally got back into the swing of things :)

I spent Thursday afternoon cutting out, and S came around on Friday and ironed on all the interfacing, made up the handles and got the pockets ready. So I have about 8 waiting to be sewn now.

We got two completed, a spotty hobo for S with purple lining (not sure why the purple is not showing up in the photo) its a lovely contrast, with two double pockets inside, and a blue and white tote with one double pocket inside

My sister SophiArtWork is going down to the Denmark markets in January, so we want to get up a bit of stock, as she offered to take some with her. Thank You!!!!!

Finally - Flea Market Bags

Finally got around to some sewing - not the perfect day for sewing and ironing though, 35C!!!
But I managed to get two done of the six I cut out yesterday.
We went to around the recycled shops yesterday and got an array of materials.

The first is pink and black with a light pink lining, then green striped with a darker green lining, both have a double pocket inside and a single on the outside.

    

 

New Shelving

Still no sewing projects, but I did get my hands on two second hand Ikea shelves, so have spent the weekend setting up those. I didn't have much shelving before, and with all the materials we have acquired, I needed to be a bit more organised, I'm a bit of an organisational nut - a place for everything and everything in its place. So I am much happier now :)

The first pic is of the transition - piled everything in the middle and took out the old shelves.... the shelves came this morning, so have organised one of the shelves, and sewed up some netting curtains to hopefully keep the dust out, the other will have to wait to another day.

 

Another Week of Nothing

Can't believe its another week gone by with no new bags!
I have had a tooth infrection all week, so of to the dentist today to have it pulled :(
Such a shame work interferes with hobbies.

We did manage to meet up quickly today though to discuss what will be done next, and we will be doing smaller handbags next week.

Sharlene also wants to be selfish so she is going hunting for material today to make her Tote and Hobo bags, I'm looking forward to seeing the material.

For Me

I wanted to get back into the sewing, but decided to be totally selfish, and make a set for myself. I really like the Tote and Hobo bags, they are great for everyday use, so I made one of each, and since burgundy is my fav colour... with a black and white flower pattern lining, and lots of big pockets. The tote and the hobo has four large pockets inside and one outside on the tote,

Busy couple of weeks and no bags!

What a busy couple of weeks we have had.
Last week we went down south for a few days, which of course was during our sewing days :)
This week S is moving house, so another non productive week.
Hopefully next week will be back on track again.

Label Making

I found this great tutorial on printing your own labels at: If I Only Had Chocolate so after trialing a few different materials, and jamming the printer! ... oops... I finally found a suitable one and here is the result. Now I must be off to bed, I couldn't stop till I had it mastered, should never had started so late, its 1am and I have to get up for work at 5!!!

Fridays Bags

I have finally managed to get some time to upload the photos of the bags I made on Friday :)
The first one is a blue diamond pattern Hobo Bag with a dark blue lining with two twin pockets on the inside and then the red with pink and red with black Tote bags with one pocket on the outside, and one twin on the inside.

Long day Friday

Got to do some more sewing yesterday, made two bags of the materials we cut out last week. Also got halfway through two others.

It is so much easier doing a pattern the second or third time around, having worked out the glitches and making small changes that will make the bag look better.

There were lots of breaks with phone calls and taxi service for my son, so didn't get out of the sewing room till around six!! I will post the photos tomorrow hopefully.

A Halt in the Process

I got organised to sew the bags we cut out yesterday, ironed on all the interfacing, then realised that I don't have the right colour thread for them, will have to go to Textile Traders tomorrow :( now to find something else to do...

Saturday get together.

Well we got together yesterday for a couple of hours and decided to cut out some bags. We ended up cutting out 2 Hobo Bags in a nice blue patterned material with a dark blue lining and also cut out 2 Tote bags in red, with pink and white flowery pattern as contrast. They should look very nice when put together.
Now its up to M to sew them up.
I do the nice easy things like cutting the patterns out and Moral support lol.
Will get together on Friday and probably cut some more or help finish the 4 we cut out yesterday.

Black Velvet Hobo

A friend brought over a long velvet top with long sleeves that she wanted me to make a hobo bag out of, we used an old black satin kimono with gorgeous intricate Chinese embroidery on it for the lining. The sleeves were just long enough to cut the handles out of - though we had to have a join in it, and the bag cut out of the body. I have tried taking photos of the lining, but with it being black, with black embroidery it doesn't show up in the photo unfortunately. I put two pockets inside, and she is so happy with it.

Zebra Tote Bag

Since I had bought extra Zebra print, I made a zebra and black Tote with black lining with a inside twin pocket, this was also very easy to make and looks great.

Zebra Hobo Bag

Family members have put in orders for bags, so there will be lots of bags for Christmas :)

My niece wanted a Zebra Hobo bag with black lining and one inside pocket, these are so easy to make, you can cut and sew one in a few hours. I had to buy the material for this one, as there is no knowing when I would find the right recycled material. I am hoping I wont need to do that too often.

Patterns

I currently have three patterns with 5 bags on each one, so I spent 5 never ending days tracing and cutting out all the patterns onto interfacing, by the 4th day I was so over it all, but knew it would be worth it to get it finished. Now that it is finished I am wrapped, it makes life so much easier not to have one piece for multiple bags, so I can cut out various bags at the same time, and it is so much easier to work with than paper.

Orange Bag

Here is the second bag made from leftover material from a skirt I had made. It was hard to find a contrast material that matched well, but I finally found some, I was so excited when I was able to find something to match. Again this has 4 pockets, as I think pockets are the best thing :) 2 on the outside and 2 on the inside lining. It is hard to see the contrast, but I have used it for the bottom, handle inserts, pocket border, facing and the tab.

Getting a focus on what we are going to make

We caught up do discuss what we want to make, and tools needed to make life easier for us both. And came up with lots of ideas besides bags, we want to make varios types of storage items, not just bags, so we have a long list including

• door/ wall hangers
• laundry hampers
• wardrobe space savers
• organiser rolls for crafts etc
• caddys

To get started I made this door hanger for my niece

Finding Material For the First Bag

When we decided to make recycled bags, we went to buy some patterns, basic threads and interfacing. Then the searching began, it is so exciting going into a shop not knowing if any great material will be found or not or any material at all for that matter

On my first visit I found a 2m piece of purple corduroy and a bag full of smaller pieces in a variety of colours and textures, I was so excited in getting home and experience bag making.

When I turned the material over I realised that the wrong side was burgundy (my favourite colour) so I used the wrong side as the right side :)

Taking things slowly to make sure I didn't miss anything, as well as fitting around work, family etc it took 3 days to complete. There were a few errors and I was not happy with how the bottom of the bag turned out so I will change the pattern for future use. But overall I was very happy with it. It has two handles but I think I will make the next one with one longer handle.It has 2 pockets on the outside, and 2 more on sateen lining, I love pockets!, and a Velcro tab fastener. I had so much fun making this bag, I can see myself getting hooked very easily :D

I did have to unpick the top seam as I had somehow put the handles on the wrong way, and I though I was being so careful :)

Here is the finished bag - it was very hard to see the coulour as it is so dark, so I needed to use a stronger flash as well to see some of the detail.