U-handblog

...annndd the winner of...

...the Typepad Featured Blog Celebration Draw iiiizzzzz...Lynne!!   Well, that's gonna be a bit of a bummer on the ol' postage :)

The draw was a great success; I now have all of your helpful suggestions (and very kind comments) on permanent record (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!) for me to use to gradually tweak this blog into ship-shape.  It's also been brilliant to meet some lovely new crafty bloggers.   

Sorry to those who weren't lucky this time.  I wil be holding more draws from time to time, giving away bag making bits and bobs, and a bag here and there, so perhaps you still may get lucky ...

Blogged dup dose

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself.  I'm at the tail-end of the flu from hell, which is why I've not been posting.  I must have blown my brains into the tissue by now, and I don't look too hot either.

I will hold the draw tomorrow afternoon (sorry to be a couple of days late but, I have some 70 names to write on little bits of paper and it's gotta be done properly!)

Thank you so much to everybody who has taken part, it's been really helpful.  I will definitley hold more draws like this in the future.  Now where are them tissues?

Yummy New Bag Making Stuff!!

Have you entered the 'Grab a (free) Bag' draw yet?  Go on; there's still 3 days left before a lucky winner will be drawn and announced!!

Hurrahh!!  We have New Bag Making Goodies unpacked and ready to go!

First up, we have some yummy new fabrics by Moda:

Here are some of the scrummy new  fabrics...

and some rather pretty new purse frames...


I'm so going to have some fun with these!!

I'm going to have delish stir fried Crab with ginger and spring onions in Soho with Al tonight.  I have dreams about Chinese style crab drool...  It's also really good that I don't have to be really flirty with my man over the dinner table so that crab juice all over my chin won't amount to me going home alone, heh! Heh!  I'll still do my hair though - gotta make some sort of effort :)

Katie's Pouch from Katie's Tutorial

Have you entered the 'Grab a (free) Bag' draw yet?  Go on; there's still 3 days left before a lucky winner will be drawn and announced!!

I wrote this tutorial and dedicated to it Katie.  She has kindly sent me some pics of a purse using this very tutorial.  She's made a fantastic job of it don't-cha think?  Thanks for the pics Katie!!

Outside view.  Nice chunky,cosy cord.

Inside View.  A Kaufman print.  Will you look at how neat and tidy that Zipper is!!!

Garden-ing Bag (Garden-in-a-bag). Geddit?

Have you entered the 'Grab a (free) Bag' draw yet?  Go on; there's still 5 days left before a lucky winner will be drawn and announced!

I've been having some fun with a lovely new fabric that arrived in the office a few days ago.  The fabric is called 'Fayette' by Moda.

I've called it 'Garden-ing Bag' (Garden-in-a-bag) because when I look inside the bag I have a sudden urge to chase butterflies in a summertime garden (hurry up with the summer already!)

I have made this pleated tote bag with a fabric insert, and a pretty flower pin.  I used upholstery weight wide weave cotton in grass green for the outside, and the pretty Fayette fabric for the lining.  That said, the bag is fully reversible so if you're having a flower power day - open up and turn yourself inside out!   Inside the bag you will find a zippered internal pocket.

Front View.  The flower pin is detachable.

Inside view.  There's that internal zippered pocket that I made a tutorial from.  See what I mean when I say 'Garden in a bag?'

Reversed view.  'I'm feeling bloomin' lovely today!'  If you like, you can use the pretty flower pin to hide the magnetic snap when the bag is reversed.

Beth's Zippered pouches of loveliness

Have you entered the 'Grab a (free) Bag' draw yet?  Go on; there's still 5 days left before a lucky winner will be drawn and announced!

One of the best things about writing tutorials is getting pics from crafteresses who have tried the tutorials and found that they work!  Yaay! Beth has made some delicious Zippered Pouches from this tutorial and this tutorial, and they look so yummy.  She has posted these pics on her blog (which is also full of lovely handmade bags), well worth checking out.  Thanks for the pics (and post) Beth keep up the good handiwork!

Isn't this pouch just darling?  To make this pouch, Beth followed (and made a great job of) of this tutorial.   I really love the colours and the patchwork.

More of that delicious patchwork and yummy quilting.  To insert a zipper inside her pouch, Beth followed (and also made a great job of) this tutorial.

 

All the fun of (Anne's Craft) Fair

Have you entered the 'Grab a (free) Bag' draw yet?  Go on; there's still 6 days left before a lucky winner will be drawn and announced! 

Thank you so much for your suggestions.  It's wonderful to have your advice like this.  There have been so many good ideas (many which I had never thought of) some of which I'm slowly putting into practice. 

I'm getting wider (blog wise) I hope it make things a bit easier to read...

Anne sent me a photo the other day that made me feel IMMENSELY proud (me in maternal way (because she told me that she loves bag making so much), and proud for her because she's sooo talented), it's wonderful pic of her standing behind her stall at her first craft fair.   She sent me a lovely email telling me of her 1st craft fair experience.  For starters; she went and got herself chosen to be the photographed stall for a piece about the craft fair in the local paper!!  Then she got approached by an organiser to hold a stall at a rival craft fair.  She made some new buddies, learnt some new stuff to make the next fair better, and most importantly MADE HER FIRST SALES!!!!!!

BIG CONGRATS ANNE (I love the way that she looks so happy)!!!    You did a brill job for your first fair; heaps better than I did for my first fair.  Aren't her bags and purses just absolutley gorgeous?!!

Sewing Zippers in Bags Tutorial 1. (aka Zippered inner bag pocket)

**UPDATE** If you'd like this tutorial (or any of my others) in PDF format click here.

Note: to view the PDF tutorial, you will need the latest Adobe Viewer program.  Get the latest version of the viewer absolutely free by clicking on the button below:

Here is a tutrorial for zippered pockets inside bags.  They look smart, they prevent your valuables from going 'walkies', they make essentials such as lippy and your mirror easy to get at, and a girl can never have too many pockets in her bag!  This one is for you Katie :)

A zippered pocket in one of the lining pieces of my bag-to-be.  When inserting pockets into linings always sew the pocket in your lining first before sewing the lining pieces together!

Here's how I put it together

Shopping list (as if you were buying from a shop, if not using stash fabrics

• 0.5 yard of fabric for pocket
• 0.5 yard of Vilene Firm Iron-on
  
• 1x 7" Zip

Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

1.   Cut your pocket pieces - cut 2 pocket pieces, and 2 interfacing/stabilizer pieces to the same size.  Mine are 25cm (W) x 18cm (H).  Also cut 1 more interfacing piece to the same width as the pocket pieces x 7cm high.

Iron the same sized interfacing onto the wrong side of pocket pieces.  Now take the smaller interfacing piece and place it onto one of the interfaced pocket pieces, match the top edges and iron on.  The extra layer of interfacing at the top this pocket piece will add necessary strength to the pocket, enabling it to take the weight of your wallet and keys etc.  This double interfaced pocket piece will be the front of the pocket.

Sew some stitches around the end of the zip to secure the zip halves (as shown in the pic)

Sew this end of the zip together.

2.   Measure and mark the hole for the zip -  Position the double interfaced pocket piece wrong side up onto your bag lining piece (where you want the zip to be placed), and pin.  Take your zip and measure the length of the zipper teeth (not the length of the zipper itself; as shown by the blue markers in the photo).  The length of my zipper teeth were 19cm. 

Mark a rectangle that is as wide as length of your zipper teeth x 1cm high.  My rectangle is 19cm (W) x 1cm (H).  In the middle of the rectangle mark a center line with a triangle at either end (as shown by the black lines in the photo).

Sew the front pocket piece onto the bag lining piece by sewing only all around the rectangle (which is blue in my photo).

Only sew around the blue rectangle, the black lines are for the next bit...

3.   Make the rectangular hole for the zip - Make an incision into the BLACK LINE using a seam ripper then get happy with your scissors.  Only cut the black line and the 'V' of the triangles - don't get too close to the stitching with them scissors!!  You will be cutting though your front pocket  piece and your bag lining  (and any interfacing that you may have on your bag lining -  which I do, as it happens) all at once.

Pull the front pocket piece though the hole you have just made.  That's right,  every single bit of the pocket is has to pull thru.

Just cut thru the black lines!  Push/pull all of the lining thru the hole.

This should be the result on the front and back (after a bit of persuasive ironing!)

4.   Sew zipper to bag lining - pin the zipper to the hole in the bag lining.  I haven't used that many pins because it's all a bit too bulky for me.  Not to worry though, you'll find that once you have sewn a few stitches, you'll be able to move the zip and the hole around a bit so you can straighten up as you sew.  Stitch the zipper to the hole about 2mm from the edge.  Do take your time, you can't rush these things!

Pin zipper to hole in lining.  Stitch zipper to lining 2mm form the edge.  Go SLOW and you'll have half a chance of sewing straight!

5.   Finish assembling the pocket - place the back pocket piece (wrong side up) onto the front pocket piece and pin.  Fold the top edge of the bag lining down out of the way so you can begin to stitch the 2 pocket pieces together without stitching through the bag lining (because we don't want those stitches to show on our bag lining, well I don't want them to anyway).  Sew all around the pocket keeping the bag lining out of the way as you sew.  Ta Dah you're done!  That wasn't too bad and it's looks really profesh. too!!

Pin the pocket and sew all the way around and you're done!
 

Scrub-a-dub-dog!

Have you entered the 'Grab a (free) Bag' draw yet?   Go on, it would really help me out :)

Thank you so much to everyone who has already entered the draw.  I really appreciate ALL of your kind comments and your suggestions.  I've decided that I will definately hold more of these little contests in the future because your input is so helpful :).  Sorry about not replying to your comments individually; I am reading thru everyone...

I am the middle of prepping another tutorial at the mo and I will post it later today.  For now I want share some pics of bath time mayhem with Mr Beans (sooo cute - I'd say that because I'm his Mum, but he is though!), but first a photo of my lovely Valentines day card from Al.  I hope you all felt SPESH on Valentine's day!

Much nicer (and more meaningful) than yukky red lace & pics of roses...Al also got me some delish red embroidered silk to feed my bag making habit which I'll post pics of when a bag gets made...


For a small animal, Beans can smell BIG.  So, bath time today - sorry buddy!

'If I look all cute, (with big eyes) will you take me for a walk instead...?'

'...aww please...just a little walk...the daffodils are really pretty right now...!'

'...humphff, look at me!  It's crap being a dog sometimes!!

Thank you for your comments everybody!!

Have you entered the 'Grab a (free) Bag' draw yet?   Go on, don't be shy!

Thanks you so much everybody for commenting on my previous post.  I'll look through every one of your comments and use your suggestions to make bloggy improvements.  In fact, if this draw works out I'll have more 'Grab a Bag' competitions every now again to help keep this blog in good shape :)  You've all said some really lovely things and I'm really glad that you are finding this a useful read.

I like having this blog as a space to rant and rave about things but nothing is nicer than other people also enjoying what you love.  It feels just brilliant  when someone says 'You've helped me make a bag'.  It makes me feel kinda maternal and sooo happy that other people are also getting pleasure from something that I'm obsessed with!

Just a short post today because I'm up to my eyeballs and I'm planning another tutorial for the blog (and they take aaaaaggggessss!).  I'm going to leave you with some pics sent to me by Jo in UK of an absolutley gorgeous zippered handbag that she has made.  Thanks heaps Jo, love it!

Jo has named this bag 'Sip' after a kindly friend who gave her this wool and cashmere blend fabric (NICE friend!)  In Jo's words the bag "is interfaced within an inch of it's life" which explains why it has such a good shape.  The very pretty button is from Liberty of London - YUM!

Inside view with pretty Alexander Henry print lining.  Very, very nice job of the Zip.