Coasters

Another birthday present! No tutorial for this one. I just selected the fabric and got started!

The solid brown fabric is from a whole stash of cotton fabrics I bought over at eBay, the patterned ones are from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain line.
In between the two fabric layers there is a nice batting.

Bag Swap – I proudly present…

So, here it is. The bag I received from Katherine as part of the recent bag swap. Isn’t it lovely?

And Katherine even generously included a sewing pattern! It’s Amy Butler’s Field Bag & Tote. I had been eyeing this pattern for quite some time and am really looking forward to making one of those bags!

Another fabric necklace

This time quite a bit longer, to wrap around the neck once or twice =)

I used one of my favourite fabrics, one of those that has been lying around for quite some time as I never got the chance to make the top out of it that I was planning to do. (I am still at the muslin-testing stage.) It’s once again from Ikea – the blue Josefin variety this time.

Oh, and of course this necklace was once again inspired by Amy Butler’s fabric necklace.

Fabric Necklace

A project I long had an eye on, was Amy Butler’s Fabric Necklace, a free pattern that is available from her homepage. It looked so nice and easy! And I can now tell you: it is!

I finished my first fabric necklace, using a fabric I bought from Ebay for 1.- € (and that’s for 5(!) meters of it).

I altered the pattern a little bit. Instead of first cutting rectangles from the fabric and then cutting the bias strips from it, I cut the strips directly from the fabric, as it seemed like a waste of fabric to do otherwise.

Also, I used wooden beads instead of the Styrofoam balls. As I only had 3/4” ones instead of 1” ones, I had to adapt the pattern accordingly so the fabric still fit around them quite tightly. (I used a 3/4” seam instead of a 1/2” one to sew together the bias tube.)

But, all in all, I think it’s a very nice project. Quick and easy, and nice to look at too. I might just make the next one a lot longer, so I can wrap it around my neck two times. =)

Finally, a magnetic closure

After going on hiatus with my sewing projects because of uni & all the stuff that generally has to be done (e.g. securing a topic for my thesis – yes, it’s done, I am going to start it this summer!!), finally an update.

Thanks for all your comments and tips. They inspired me to change the one thing that I really didn’t like about my finished Birdie Sling: the missing magnetic closure.

I opened up the gap I had sewn closed on the interior of the bag (the one used to pull the bag through to turn the right side out). This way I could also access the inside of the magnetic snaps and add their backs. It worked fine! Now I’ve finally got my magnetic snap!

P.S.: All this was possible, because I actually had been too lazy to topstitch the lower side of the bands…

Amy Butler Patterns

I just purchased on Ebay two patterns by Amy Butler – the Swing Bag and the Betty Shopper.

Two more bags for me to sew =)

I’m really looking forward to them arriving. I’ll post a picture as soon as I’ve got them in my hands. And then it’s time for fabric chasing action. I see another trip to Ikea coming along