Two New Bags Listed On Folksy Shop

I have two new bags listed on my shop this week.  One is made from this gorgeous rose fabric with a co-ordinating stripe at the bottom and a strip of musical notes going around with buttons added for decoration.  It is fully lined and has a zipped inner pocket.

The other bag is made out of some lovely scottie dog fabric, this one has a patch pocket inside and is also fully lined.

Beach Hut Bag Listed On Shop

My friend mentioned to me the other day that she had seen a nice bag on a trip to the sea side with beach huts on it and she wished she had bought one so I thought I would find some fabric and make her one.  I found the fabric on Ebay, it is by Fryetts and is really nice for a bag.  I used some plain cream calico for the base of the bag and the handles.  The bag is lined with poly cotton and it has a patch pocket inside.  I made up three of them out of the fabric, have sold one and put one on my Folksy shop.  The other has gone away for Christmas.

I had a stall at a nice craft fair yesterday at Standard Quay, Faversham, Kent.  It is going to be an ongoing craft fair, about once a month so I am looking forward to the next one.  Not sure of the date yet but there is talk that it might be first week in November.


I sold one of the recycled newspaper clutch bags so that was a result.  I have another one that needs finishing off so I will try to get that done before the next craft fair.


I have bought some new fabrics so will be trying out some new ideas over the next few weeks.  I am just surfing the internet for inspiration.

Clutch Bag From Recycled Newspaper

I had a load of strips of newspaper left over from making my daughter's bag the other week so made them up with the help of my Grandson Leam, into some clutch bags.  I have them on my Folksy shop if anyone is interested.

Bag From Old Ties

I found a tutorial on the internet showing how to make a bag out of old ties.  My Other Half wears ties to work and was always chucking out the ones he was fed up with so I asked him to give them to me so I could use them.  Yesterday I decided to have a go at making one of the bags.  I will put a link to the original tutorial at the bottom of the page.


The first thing I noticed while making it was that some of the ties were different sizes so I had to fiddle about a bit to get the front and back to look right and end up the same size.  I also found the four I had set by for the handles were different sizes too so had to jiggle them about to get them to look symetrical, so if you decide to follow the tutorial then take this in mind before starting.


I decided to make up my own style of flap for the bag using up the smaller ends of the ties save throwing them out.  I did do a few mistakes though, I was going to line the flap but forgot to before sewing the flap into the bag so had to leave it off.  Also I was going to use magnetic clasps but forgot to put them in before making up the bag so ended up using press studs as they look better from both sides.


I have enough ties left over to make up another bag.  I think on the next one I will miss out the way the lining is done and just make a normal inner lining for the bag and then sew it in afterwards, then I can add an inside pocket to the lining before sewing it in.

This is the tutorial I partly followed http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=45985.0

Bag Made From Old Newspapers

I have had a break from sewing for the last week and decided to make another bag from folded paper.  I had some Chinese newspaper pages that were wrapped around some gifts my Other half brought back from his trip so I saved them and thought they would be good as a bag.  There was not enough to make the whole bag so I used some English newspapers as well.

This was the start when I had stuck strips of 2" selotape to the newspaper and cut along the edges so I had 2" strips.

These were then cut into 4.4" lengths which were folded up into the small bead kind of things that you connect together.  There are many good tutorials on the internet showing you how to connect these together and make them into bags.  The best thing to search for is Candy Wrapper Purse.

Once I had plenty of these little things made up I sorted them into different piles, some with more colours on and some mainly white and then put them in sets of 64.  Then I connected them up into strips of 64 and joined the ends together to make rounds like these.

When I had enough rounds to make the bottom of the bag I started sewing the rounds together using a thick needle and threading the thread through the folds at the top and bottom of the pieces.  Then I connected the two sides together at the bottom and it started to look like a bag.  This is what it looked like joined up.

I wanted to make the top of the bag and handles out of something else instead of newspaper.  I wanted something that was a block of one colour so had a look up the town and found a roll of wrapping paper in card factory for 99p.  The thickness of the paper was similar to the newspaper.

The paper is metalic in finish so would give the bag a nice shiny feel to the top.  These are the handles and the top round made up.  My Grandson Leam came round and helped me do them, I was folding and he was threading them together.

The next photo shows the top round and handles sewn onto the bag.

Now all I needed to do was add the zip closure to the top and the bag is finished.

Car Tidy

 I made this car tidy for my OH for his birthday.  I still need some more bits to go in it.  

Loyalty Card Wallets

These loyalty card wallets have been made using up scraps of fabric I was saving up.

Teabag Holders

I have been using up some scraps and made these teabag holders.

Craft Fair In Kent, Anyone Interested

I have booked a stall at a craft fair which is supposed to take place in Rochester, Kent on the 5th August 2012.  The lady organising it is having trouble getting stalls booked so if anyone out there lives near by and is interested please let me know and I can pass on the details.  The stalls are £25 and its from 10 am till 2 pm.

More Fabric Baskets

I made these smaller ones this afternoon, finished them off by blanket stitching the lining and outside together around the top edge as I thought I would have trouble sewing them together on the machine.  I will definitely be making up some more of these.

Sewing Baskets

I made these fabric baskets over the last few days, I made 5 altogether.  I have bought some bits and pieces to go in them, just need some better scissors and they will be ready to sell.

The first photos are the empty baskets and the next two are them with the bits in.

Felt Key Rings

The other things I have been making are felt key rings.  I had a lot of felt laying about and lots of ribbon and beads and someone suggested I have a go at making some as they might draw the kids to the stall.  They have been a new challenge as they are quite small to work with and have all been made by hand.

Kiddies Bags

The next things I made for the stall were some little girls bags.  I think I should have made them a bit shorter as they have come out very tall and skinny, probably because I forgot about the bits that would fold back for the gusset down the sides.  They look better when they are opened up as if to use them to carry something but I needed to fold them up to store them.

Dolls Quilt and Pillow Sets

I am keeping my fingers crossed that I might have the chance to have a stall at a craft fair this year.  Just in case it pulls off I have been making up some smaller bits and pieces that might sell.  The first things I made were some doll's quilt and pillow sets.

Coats From My £2 Stash

I have now made 4 coats/jackets from the fabric in my £2 stash.  The first one was just a simple two fronts, back and sleeves with a couple of pockets on the front and a band around the neck/fronts.  I used a cardigan as a pattern for it.  I think I should have made the  band a bit wider at the top for the collar but it looks ok on so will leave it as it is for this one.

The next two were from a frock coat pattern that I bought.  I am quite pleased with them but not sure whether the stretchy fabric suits the jackets as much as a non stretchy one would.  The fabric also makes them a bit heavy but my other half said they look alright.

For this one I used some of the lovely Chinese brocade my other half brought me back from China for the collar and lapels.

The line in the back of this one is the back seam as I haven't lined it.

This is by far my favourite one.  I had an old leather jacket that had scratches on it that I was going to throw out but it fitted ok so I decided to cut it up and use the pieces as a pattern for this coat.   I only cut up half the coat, I made the first cut straight up the centre back and then left one half as it was so I could check how it went back together again.  Then the other pieces I cut as close to the seams as I could and then added a seam allowance to the new pieces.  The coat is lined using some thin, stretchy, shiny fabric I had left over from doing the sofa.

I have also made three pairs of trousers.  One pair is plain black and just straight trousers.  For the other two pairs I used an old pair of jeans as the pattern.  Again I only cut up half the jeans, so cut down the back seam and up to the zip and cut so I had half the zip on each side when finished.  That way I could tell how they went back together again.  For the front I didn't cut the pockets off separate, they were quite easy to cut out from the new fabric as the.y were.  On assembling the new jeans I made the back's up first (there was a sort of yoke at the top of the back) and then added the patch pockets then sewed the back seam.  For the fronts I made the pockets first so they looked the same as the original jean pockets then put the zip in again following how it looked on the original ones, then finished the front seam.  Then I just had to sew the side seams and inner leg seams, put the waistband on and do the hems.

New Fabric Stash

I bought some fabric off a seller on Ebay the other week  My brother-in-law picked them up from the seller for me and we went up to pick them up from my sister's house on Friday.  I was expecting there to be 4 black rubbish sized bags full but found that the bags were more like people sized and there was an extra bag they had given him for free.  We had to jiggle it all about to fit it in the car to get home and I couldn't wait to have a look and see what was in there.


The fabric is all knitted jersey and mainly dark colours.  The pieces are all quite large in size.  I am hoping to make myself some clothes out of it like jackets and trousers.


Here is a photo of some of it piled up on my table.  There is another big pile on the bed which I couldn't fit in the photo as I thought the table legs might give way with the weight of it all, plus there is another bag full under the table which is small cut off pieces.

I have already cut out a long frock coat and a pair of trousers out of one of the pieces and another jacket out of another.  I will publish a photo when I have finished it.  Seeing as I got all this for the princely sum of £2 I am well pleased.

Three More Tops

I had some more of the fabric that my Sister In Law gave me so today I gave myself a big push and made three more tops.  I made them the same style as the brown one I made last week with the elastic around the neck and sleeves.

Little Purses

I made some little zipped purses yesterday.  I am not entirely happy with the zips but they will do.  I am going to take them round to my Ex Mother-in-law to see if she can sell them to her friends.  I made one for her the other week and she uses it all the time to keep her bingo money in.

New Top

I made this top yesterday out of some fabric that my lovely Sinter-In-law gave me.  The fabric is a knitted thin jersey of some kind, like a thin crepe.  It drapes nicely and was really easy to sew.

I had a top already that I liked so I used this as a pattern to cut out the pieces.  There were four pieces altogether, the front, back, and two shoulder/sleeve pieces.  The shoulder/sleeve pieces are practically rectangular in shape and they are sewn onto the sloping edges of the front and back like raglan sleeves. 

When I had sewn up the shoulder seams and the side seams I finished off the edges of the neck, sleeves and bottom by making sure they were all even and then I sewed around the edge with a zigzag stitch in a dark brown colour, sewing half on and half off the fabric.  Where the fabric was slightly stretchy the finished result doesn't really look like zigzag, it just looks like a neat edging. 

After that I stitched some thin flat elastic around the inside of the neck and sleeves using a stitch on my machine which I think was a double overlock stitch.  It was like a zigzag with a straight stitch down each side and it tried to make it wide enough so it encased the elastic rather than actually stitching through it.

The top took me about 2 hours to make from start to finish and cost me nothing but effort.

Super Hero Cushions

I wanted to make a cushion for my daughter's boyfriend for his birthday.  He loves Marvel Comics so I searched on Ebay and found a seller selling some lovely colourful Marvel fabric.  I also bought some plain black cotton to go with it.

When the fabric came I had a look at it and found that there were three nice bits I could cut out as panels to make fronts so decided I would make up three cushions, one for the boyfriend and two extra for my shop. 

I cut out three 12 inch pieces out of the fabric and then cut some 3 inch strips from the black fabric and stitched them around the outside as a border.  This made the front of the cushion.  The back of the cushion has a 12 inch square of black cotton with a star appliqued on it, then a thin border of the comic fabric and then 3 inch strips sewn around to make it the same size as the front.  I put a zipper in the bottom to close it.

More Mother's Day Cushions

I finally braved the cold today, put on numerous layers of clothing and went up to do some sewing.  It was driving me mad not being able to get on with it.  I am glad I did as I finished off three cushions for my shop.

They are all similar using the gorgeous fabrics I got in the sale the other day.  Each one has one of my embroidered pansies on one side and "The Best Mum In All The World" embroidered on the back.

Cushion 1

Cushion 2

Cushion 3