U-handblog

A letter to Al's Mum

Hello Al's Mum,

I've never met you and I often feel sorry that I'll never get to a chance to.  Decades ago you passed away, taken from a family that treasured you and think of you still.  I've seen evidence of your love and influence many a time. Like many mums you were the sunshine and the glue that held the family together.

I know you must be so incredibly proud of your two wonderful sons.  Al will be a fine doctor and Paul will be a fine lawyer.  Without any help, both of your boys have worked so hard to put themselves through college, get good grades and pull out the stops to make a good impression on their employers.  I can only hope my own children will be as hard-working and diligent.  Your boys are both healthy, smart, capable, hard-working and very funny! 

Al does regularly drive me bananas, but I love him very much.  He has a lovely soft side - that I suspect comes largely from you.  He's shared with me what he remembers about you and from that I'm positive that we would have made a fabulous MIL & DIL team. We would have shared recipes, had sewing afternoons, gone habby shopping and had silly 'singing at the tops of our voices' competitions.  I would have also loved to have you as a confidante for times when family life is confusing to me.

I'm writing to you now because of something sewing related.  I love that you loved to sew because sewing is what I do for fun and for a living.  I come from a whole family of crafters myself.  It feels like a continuation of tradition that survives time and place, it's a good luck omen and it bonds us all together. 

 

Al has given me your sewing box and I'm honoured to have it.

Right now I have been assigned the task of making new cushion covers for the old Carver chair.  The padding is shot to pieces and the fabric kinda doesn't go with the rest of the house :)  Al has chosen the new fabric, gotten new padding and it's down to me to do the making.  I feel sorry because this means taking apart your handmade cushion covers so I can follow your pattern.

 

The old Carver chair.  Still going strong and enjoyed by many!

 

I can't help but feel pangs of guilt whilst undoing your work.  As I unpick your stitches I imagine you sitting at your machine, probably humming a pretty Irish tune to yourself.  I have to say of your cushions, your piping, seams, zipper and the whole thing is so neat and technically expert.  You really could have taught me a thing or six!

I'm taking my time with this delightful sewing WIP because I want to try to make as fine a job of it as you did.  Hopefully my cushions will look as nice and last as long as yours have.  When it comes to recipes and instructions I usually insist on veering off course, but this time I am going to try to be as faithful to the original as I can.  It's a modest way of acknowledging you and keeping you in my family. 

The chances are that as a crafter you probably get it....  XX

Add pics to the BMB Flickr and get FREE bag making stuff!

Goodness gracious me!  We've been taken by surprise steam roller thanks to the launch of the book. We've been rushed off our feet.  It's certainly kept our new girl (the lovely Steph) on her toes.  You'll be hearing from her on the blog soon.  In my blogging absence we've just been trying to pack all the orders and order in lots of tasty new bag making goodies for Autumn.  I've gotten back into designing new sewing patterns, overseeing the U-handbag website re-design and all around me Al has been busy doing the DIY Dad thing in our new house.  It's chaotic and it's great!   Espesh when this damn flu goes away.  :)

Big thanks to all of you for your kind words and encouragement about The BMB.  You've been really ace about it. I am definitely going to keep on writing :)  I know, I know, I know I have gone on an ooooon about it for quite a while now.  I promise this will be one of the last blog posts dedicated to the the 'B' word for now. 

I'm itching (and nosey) to see some of the stuff you've made from the book.   So, I'm going to offer you a...um...incentive to share your BMB pics in The Bag Making Bible Flickr group.  First, I'll show you 2 of the first recruits.

 

Both of these bags are the Piping Hot Hobo bag (found on Chapter 8).

 

This beauty was made by Christine.  I love love love the geo Japanese look of the fabric and the bright teal pop from the contrast piping.

 Same bag design, but look how different they are with the individual choice of fabrics.

 

I love this Alexander Henry version just as much!  The black piping goes a treat with the leather strap and Sally has gone town by making a dinky-doo cute matching purse.  Love it!

 

 

And my version from the book.

 

 

FREE BAG MAKING BITS FOR THE NEXT 5 BMB FLICKR GROUP POSTERS!!

**UPDATE: We got our five winners for September. Please feel free to post pics.  I'll do a Flickr Pool show a tell on the blog in about a week :)

 

To qualify you need to complete all 5 of the following steps:

1. Join the BMB Flickr Group.
2. Post pics of your BMB makes to the Group.
3. Name the item you have made in the description/title (should look like this).
4. Include a link to anywhere the BMB can be bought in the description (should look like this).
5. Leave a comment on THIS BLOG POST including a link to your pic/s in the BMB group.

I'll send a nice goodie bag to the first five entrants who complete all 5 steps above.  I'll run this little contest for the next few months until the goodies bags have all run out. 

 

Woo! Thanks for helping to spread the word and I sooo can't wait to see what you folks come up with!  :)

The Bag Making Bible Sneak Peek - available in the shop

Finally, here is the sneak peek inside a book wot I wrote - which is very nice and something that I won't get to do that often.  :)

My bag making book is written more with a focus on bag making techniques.  Before I sat down and did any writing I looked through as many of the other bag making books that I could get my mitts on. On reading them I noticed that none of these books concentrated on how to make the various parts of a bag. They were more likely to be 'how to make 20-30 bag designs'.  I wanted to do something completely different to the other bag books so I wrote about how to construct the different parts of a bag; like how to do/how to understand linings, pockets, handles, structure, piping, interfacing and stuff like that.

That way if you wanted to add a zippy pocket or handmade piped handles (for example) to another bag pattern (or your own bag design) you could find the info in my book to enable to you achieve that.  But for those of us who like to follow recipes there are 8 brand new bag designs each with full-sized patterns.

BTW I haven't simply put this blog in my book. It wouldn't be right.  Where there is any repetition of my blog in the book I have made a point of going into further detail in my book. I just wanted you to know that; it had to be said :)

 

If you'd like a signed copy of The Bag Making Bible I have copies in my shop ready for immediate dispatch.

 

I'll only post some of the book of the pics on this blog post (because it takes too darn long for them to load up).  If you want to see all of the book pics you'll find then in my Face Slap fan page).

 

☜ Click to see my U-Handbag Facebook page.

 

Da cover.

 

What (in my opinion) makes a good bag making sewing machine & handy machine feet to own.

All about Interfacing.  It's so un-sexy to look at, but we all now how important it is, don't we ladies?

One of the Zippy how-tos that are inside the book (there are 3 zippy how-tos in total).

 

The Organised Office Bag.  This bag is a super-duper posh messenger style bag.  Inside you'll find an optional lap-top harness, a bellows style pocket, pen holder and zipper pocket (full instructions to make all of these features are all inside the book). Try making this in wool tweed, oil cloth, or cord...mmm!

The Oversized Fashionista Bag in all of her wool tweedy and magpie shiny metal-ness.

 

The Great Getaway Bag (this version is in oilcloth) - has a big boxy shape, adjustable shoulder handle, big front pocket, and various slip and ziper pockets to keep your gear under control.

 

 

Some instructions for the Great Getaway Bag.

How to make a darted corner pocket (with optional lid)

 

The Piping Hot Hobo Bag.  Seems like this design is a bit of hit with some of you :)

 

 

If you'd like a signed copy of The Bag Making Bible I have copies in my shop ready for immediate dispatch.

 

I'll only post some of the book of the pics on this blog post (because it takes too darn long for them to load up).  If you want to see all of the book pics you'll find then in my Face Slap fan page).

 

☜ Click to see my U-Handbag Facebook page.