U-handblog

And the 2 winners of Knitspeak are...

Yes, very late in announcing the winners of this draw, but I do have a sick note. 

Okeydoke, so there were 43 entries (1 of which was a duplicate that I deleted), leaving me with 42 entries.  Today the Random Number Picker (so you can blame it; it's nothing to with me!) chose the number 9 & 20

So will Lyndsey-Jane who wrote:

"I'm pretty excited about giving all the handmade bags and make-up bags I've been making (and some have yet to make) but of all of them it will probably be the Amy Butler Frenchy Bag, made with Amy Butler fabric for my best mate. I've not actually made it yet as I'm still waiting on one of the fabrics, but I'm excited about making it and know she's gonna love it."

and Ia who wrote:

"My husband who is notoriously difficult to give things to is getting a book on behaviour of 30 common garden birds. Perfect gift, I think, for once. Next year maybe a knitted sweater if I'm one of the lucky ones.

Will you both please step forward and send me your mailing address?

Hopeful New Year!

Happiest New Year to you lovely folks.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break with your loved ones and you all had a chance to catch up and re-connect with stuff that really matters.

I have been away an awful long time (as far as switching on my Mac is concerned).  It was all going swimmingly as of the 22nd of Dec when my friends and I went out for a lively night of caterwauling in a London karaoke bar.  As it was the start of the holidays we all let it hang out a bit (I don't drink so I made do with wearing a low cut dress) and by the time the evening was out I had started having these mad coughing fits (that'll teach me to flash my modest boobage).  I've had industrial strength flu ever since. I've been at home the whole time (bar one day when we ventured out to give presents) and I had cereal for Christmas lunch.  I'm still feeling crappy, but I'm over the worst and I can see the funny side of it all, and hey, what matters most is that my family and friends are well, I have a (reasonably) functioning body, and I get another year to keep doing what I love which is all I can hope for...well actually I am hoping for bit more...

I hope you are all feeling full of hope for 2008.

Next Year I hope for both you and for me that:

• we will continue to delight ourselves with the new things that we will learn
• we will regularly realize how great we are at all sorts of fabulous and ordinary things and that without us chaos would almost certainly ensue; things wouldn't taste as nice, things wouldn't be as comfortable, things wouldn't be as stable, things wouldn't be as pretty, family and friends wouldn't be as loved, there would be less happiness, light, warmth, colour, creativity and learning.  We are all pretty damn essential aren't we, and aren't we wonderful for being to provide all of that and more!!!
• we will indulge ourselves in a guilt free way - just like the kids can (look how happy they get when they are pleasing themselves - they don't miss a trick do they?)  Remember; if Momma isn't happy - no one is!
• we will have the reserve and the confidence to strive for just that bit more to make our situation better - in whatever form that may be.  Things really do change for the better when you change them for the better.
• our significant others continue to appreciate us just as we do them, see below...

I found this token of affection in the kitchen on Xmas morning.  Baked from scratch by my favourite Christmas elf (aka Al) with the help of his lovely brother...aw, stuff like that makes you melt.  I'm glad that my name isn't long!

Well, I have a lot of U-Handblog and shop housekeeping to get on with.  There's contest winners to announce and a mountain of packing to make a start on (thanks to my customers for bearing with me - I apologize for the delay, you've been very kind).  I'm really looking forward to next year, there will be more of the same and there is bigger and better baggy stuff on it's way.  I am pretty sure that I will be upping the ante with the giveaways too (just dotting the i's and crossing the t's on that score) . So thanks all of you for dropping in over the last year and making my first year of blogging so worthwhile, I hope very much that this blog will continue to compliment your mug of coffee or tea throughout 2008!

Big Kiss! Lisa (who is still in her pajamas - no party frock today).

March 08 - Twist Lock Clutch Purse & a Craft Mag Giveaway.

Holy Cow its' cold!  I went shopping in the centre of a ridiculously jammed and cold London with my sister last Saturday, it was ho ho ho horrible - what perverse thing to do to yourself!

I've finished the March  08 bag for Sewing Word Magazine. The magazine theme for March is green and the use of new techniques.  So in keeping with the theme I designed this purse which can be worn as a clutch. What is a bit special about the purse is that it has a purse twist turn lock (and up to now they were new to me as well).

**To see my tutorial on how to use Purse Twist Turn Locks click here.

March 08 magazine cover.

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I really enjoyed this using this fabric not least because it has so many reference points for getting your  symmetry right.  I used this fabric for the exterior, this fabric for the lining and this twist lock.  I  interfaced the heck out of the purse so it has a boxy and sturdy feel like a clutch bag does.  I'm so chuffed with the way the twist lock looks on the purse; it really 'lifts' the purse somehow.

Inside...

Twist button...

You can detach the handle (like I haven't) and wear the purse as a clutch - do you like my pajamas?  I'm such a slob; I'm always in my pajamas.

So, I mentioned there was a crafty mag for grabs.  It's actually a CURRENT issue of Sewing World Magazine.  To see what's inside this months issue click here. I'm not actually in this month's issue (so I'm giving it away now; narcissistic perhaps, but it should go to a better home). The reason I'm not in the Jan mag is that I buggered up the bag and my PC died at the same time...well, that was too much...so in the end I lost it a bit and couldn't submit a bag.  Hey Ho, it's still a jam-packed issue with loads of sewing help and inspiration for anyone who fancies it. 

I'll send this mag to 1 lucky draw winner.

To enter all you have to do is comment on THIS PARTICULAR POST by:

• Telling us what you're going you're going to have for your Xmas meal.  I'm getting together with friends this year because my folks are abroad (so no Chinese style feast for me).  We're going to have roast lamb & pork with the trimmings and choccy pudding mmm!

Contest (yawndom) Officialness :

• I'll randomly draw the winner in 10 days time - 27th Dec and announce the winner the following day-ish.  Good luck! 
• Sorry, I can't notify winners, so please keep an eye for the winner announcement (this is made easier for you if you subscribe to this blog so you don't have to keep checking back, although it's always great to have you pop-in for a read :0)
• Sorry, I can't reply to contest/draw comments, but I do love reading every single one :)

Tutorial - How to use Purse Twist Turn Locks

Purse twist turn locks look so yummy (and super-duper professional) on bags and clutches, as a design feature they really do add interest and they make your bags secure too. I have just managed to get my mitts on some pretty looking and professional quality purse twist turn locks for my shop so I thought this was a good time to post a tutorial on how to apply them to your bags and purses.  They are easy to use and they give brilliant results.

Twist locks work best when your bags are made from several layers (e.g. your chosen fabric and a combo of interlinings), this is because twist turn locks have a little weight to them and your purse needs to be able to support the weight without sagging. 

Here's what you get in a Purse Twist Turn Lock set: Front Plate (reverse side shown - which goes on the purse flap) and Twist Button with Washer (which goes on the bag body).  The coin is just there for scale.

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1.   Make 2 slits for the Twist Button - Apply the twist button before you do any sewing. Interface/interline your fabric now.  Mark the desired position of the twist button onto the bag front fabric piece.  Take the twist button and press the prongs into the fabric so as to make two indents in the fabric, if you like you can go over these indents with pen so you can see them more clearly. 

Here's the piece of fabric that I have selected to be my bag front and on it I have marked the position of the two slits  for the twist button.

2.  Apply the Twist Button - Take a stitch ripper and carefully make two tiny slits into the prong markings, push through through all of the layers.  Push the prongs of the twist button into the right side of the fabric, slip the metal washer over the prongs (at the wrong side) and then press the prongs down away from each other with your thumb. 

Wrong side of fabric: Be sure to double check that the button is straight (and not wonky) before you push them prongs down! Push prongs down away from each other.   Be nice and firm with it to ensure the button will be well secured into the fabric.

Result: one (non-wonky) twist button applied to the my bag front.

3.  Mark the Twist Plate position onto your bag/purse/clutch flap - make up your bag flap.  You may prefer to make up your bag and put the twist plate on at the very end of the bag construction.   I personally prefer to do this at the end because try as I might to measure these things, they usually don't work and I then end up turning the air blue and scaring my dog.  I am going to show you the "do it at the very end method'.  So finish making your bag and place your flap over the twist button and mark the position where the flap falls onto the twist button.

It's not very scientific, but hey it works!  Use some chalk and X marks the spot.

Now unscrew the screws on the front plate...

When you've unscrewed the plate you'll see that one half of the plate has a raised lip.  Get an ink pen and draw on the raised lip (including the lip around the outerside of the screw holes) like I have in the pic.  This will enable us to press the lip onto the bag front to get ourselves an ink imprint which will serve as our cutting guide...

Press the lip onto the plate marking draw around the ink imprint with pen if necessary.

4.  Cut a hole for the twist button - using the cutting guide we just made in the previous step, use small sharp scissors to cut a hole that is slightly smaller than your ink imprint.  It is very important that the hole is slightly too small or the twist plate will not be secure.  I would cut a bit and test, cut a bit more and test and so on..  and yes I know the cutting bit feels very butcher-ish; don't worry, go slow and all will be well.

Here's my inky mess imprint, as you can see I have cut a bit and I have tested a bit.  I'm testing to see that the hole on my fabric is going to be slightly smaller than raised lip on the twist plate.

Cutting finished:  the hole on the flap is now just about large enough to accommodate the lip of the twist plate.

5.  Assemble the Twist Plate onto the bag flap - Sandwich the fabric bag flap in between the front and back parts of the twist plate (at the hole you have just made) and screw the back of the twist plate to the front plate.  Ensure that there is no fabric showing through, pull any stray fabric away from the hole if necessary.

Here is the lining side of my bag flap and you can just see the see the front part of the twist plate  on the other side.

I've screwed one of the screws in and I am kind of stretching the fabric around the hole, at the same time I am keeping any stray bits of fabric away from the hole.  I'll just pop the other screw in and I'm all done!

Ta Dah!  I gotta say it; I think that lock looks pretty scrummy!

I hope you enjoy giving this tutorial a go, if you do I'd really love to see a pic of it in the new "Bags made from my tutorials' Flickr group.  I'll be checking it regular!

I'll show you what my bag with the twist lock looks like in my next post...**UPDATE here it is.

 

2 copies of Knitspeak up for grabs!!

Sorry I've been a bit absent; it's good humoured chaos behind the scenes here.  It's hilarious how busy it gets in the run up to the holiday...we are running around like headless chickens so we can have a holiday from  running around like headless chickens.

So here is the book review that I promised.  This book is an absolute God-send for anyone who knits (or in my case anyone who tries to knit). Knitting patterns are so easy to find. There are loads of free knitting patterns on the web, but if you're anything like me you won't understand what half of the flipping pattern is instructing you to do and knitting patterns don't come with a de-coders.  Enter KnitSpeak, this book is a knitting pattern/knitting language dictionary that translates all of that knitting gobbledygook into plain English. 

Righty, now to have a peek inside:

Knitspeak does exactly what it says; it demystifies knitting language. Never be baffled by knitting gobbledygook again.  It's also has a jam-packed appendix full of other helpful knitting nuggets of info.

Stuff like this (to the new-comer) isn't obvious is it?

Intarsia? Intarsia? Sounds like the name of a Far Eastern belief system.  This book spells out what the funny names mean and it is full of clear diagrams like these.

Inside you'll also find clear How-tos like this one.

This book is a great idea and the language (as promised) really is a plain as day.  It sure is going to help in getting some of my knitting WIPs whipped!

So, knitters and knitters-to-be, did you enjoy the sneak peek.  Do you fancy winning a copy of this super useful book and a matching fridge magnet?

I'll send this book to 2 lucky draw winners.

To enter all you have to do is comment on THIS PARTICULAR POST by:

• Telling us what is the Christmas pressie that you are the most excited about giving this year (I'd tell you what mine is, but the person reads this blog so I can't spill).
  

Contest (yawndom) Officialness :

• I'll randomly draw the winner in a weeks time - 2st Dec and announce the winner the following day-ish.  Good luck! 
• As this prize is on the heavy-ish side I'll need to ask the lucky winner to make a donation for the postage. 
• Sorry, I can't notify winners, so please keep an eye for the winner announcement (this is made easier for you if you subscribe to this blog so you don't have to keep checking back, although it's always great to have you pop-in for a read :0)
• Sorry, I can't reply to contest/draw comments, but I do love reading every single one :)

When you finished entering the draw you might want to check out the fabby Crafting Heroes Interview with the lovely Carrie Sommer on my other blog.  I hope you enjoy it!

Want to read something lovely?

No sorry this isn't the book review post (that will be in my very next post).  I just read this and I felt the urge to share it with you because it made me really smile inside.  They have been together for the best part of 10 years...Awwwww!

...the winner of the U-Handbag 2nd Birthday draw is...

Soreeeeeee for being sluggish in announcing the winner of the 2nd birthday draw.  The shop has been incredibly busy (thank you to my lovely customers!) and another 2 or 4 pairs of hands would be...er...handy.

Octopi have it sussed; if I had as many hands as this cute fella (who comes from a lovely shop which has a good ethos) I could email, pack, blog, make a sandwich, and drink my tea all at the same time.

Thanks for entering the everybody, it's very flattering that you like (and have used) my bag tutorials. I'll keep them coming, I have lots of lovely ones planned for next year.

Okeydoke, so there were 122 entries (5 of which were a duplicates that I deleted), leaving me with 118 entries.   Today the Random Number Picker (so you can blame it; it's nothing to with me!) chose the number 63.   

So will Mau who wrote"

"My first choice is Hex Open Bag Frame (Knitting Bag). I think I could use that bag anywhere :) It's cool AND practical. For that I would choose Sweet Home fabric in kiwi and for the lining Happy Garden in kiwi/espresso. The second choice for fabrics would be By MOda: Blossom Super Circle in apple, for the lining Queen of the Ranch - Lace and Roses in apple.
The second choice for a bag would be Silk pleated and darted purse of prettiness - because it IS beautiful! I would use Fresh Air- Dandy Damsak or then Winter Paisley."

Will you please step forward and tell me what your postal address is? 

Sorry to all of you who didn't get lucky this time, but I have yet another nice draw coming right up in my next post.  It's a book review, and I'll be giving the book away. Woo!

Other nice stuff:  Tomorrow on my other blog I will be posting a Crafting Heroes Interview with the lovely Carrie Sommer of Sommer Designs. 

And the winners of the Amy Butler Sewing pattern contest (Nov 07) are...

Here's a gorgeous guitar song for your to listen to whilst having read, or you might prefer some rather cool electronic chill-out (I don't make up all of these daft music genre names).

As ever your entries were delicious; as ever it made the judging difficult. 

Here are the winners of this month's Amy Butler Pattern contest - each wins an Amy Butler Sewing Pattern of their choice:

Joanna has made a bright and poppy In Town Bag out of some yummy Alexander Henry fabric, it's enough to beat them winter blues!

Phillgry made the first Sophia Carry-All that I saw (nearly a month ago, that was QUICK!) it's sooo yummy!  I'm going to try and make myself one in the holiday.  All of the Sophia bags were delicious too, but this one got lucky in the draw...

Kristin has made a lovely graphic print with bold red trim Weekender Bag.   There were other smashing Weekenders too but this one got lucky in the draw.

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Well done Ladies!  Please get back to me with your choice of Amy Butler pattern and your postal address, and I'll send you your pattern!  If someone doesn't claim their pattern it will be carried over as a prize for the following month.


Thanks to everyone else who entered, sorry you didn't get lucky this time.  You could always try your luck in next month's contest!

Next month in the contest it would be lovely to see more patterns besides the Frenchy Bags and Weekender Bags, perhaps we will because Amy has another 4 new designs, and I will be stocking all 4 four of them...De-roool!!

 

Moo Mini Card Holder

I now have pretty neat card holder for my Moo cards.  It's prefect for keeping your different Moo cards organised and keeping them in perfect condition (rather than being stuffed in my wallet and all getting dog-eared).  What a great idea! These cute holders are beautifully made by Claire,and they are an absolute steal for £4.50

My card holder is in yummy Amy Butler Fabric.

Folds-up neatly so you can pop it in your pocket.

...man...I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to the Christmas R & R (I bet you can't either!)

Carpet Bag No.2

I've just finished another carpet bag (here's the 1st one I made), they're so satisfying!

I used this pattern, these handles, and some velvet flock home dec fabric

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I know what's going to happen, I'm going to make a load of these bags and I'm going have a devil of a time deciding who should get which bag (and whether I can justify keeping one or two for myself), just as well I've made 2 of each...heh heh!

 
I'm so excited more presents have arrived from abroad and I'm hiding them around the house.  I'm very good at hiding stuff (as you well know Al, so don't even bother...)  I found some lovely handmade things to give this year.  I can't wait to see their faces; it's one of the nicest things about Christmas.

What things are you looking forward to this Christmas?