I have had the outer lining fabric for several weeks now, I bought it in Ikea with the plan of making myself a tote bag. I've made several bags and always as gifts and decided it was high time I made one for myself. Only I wanted to push myself. I wanted to create a bag with sides and a bottom panel.



Putting it together was insanely easy and because of how it has been sewn it could be reversible if I felt like it.






(My fiancé being a delightful model lol)

I'm still contemplating whether to make some sort of decoration to add to the outside. I'm leaning towards definitely doing it and if I do I'll add pictures.

I'm really pleased with the bag, I wanted something large enough to carry notebooks to the library and yet not too large that it looked silly against my small frame.

It has taken me forever and a day to upload these images because apparently the Craftster Photo Hosting site will only allow one image to be uploaded at a time despite having the option for at least five.

I made this for my partner in the Newbie craft swap and as we've both sent and received we were allowed to show off what we made.

This is the medium item (There is a matching bag in the bag section).

When I saw that one of the ladies was excellent at crochet I thought immediately I would like to make her a crochet hook roll if she was my partner. Well, I was pretty fortunate because we were partnered so I bought fabric and set to making something I'd never made before.

I pretty much made it up as I went along and bought her some sparkly crochet hooks as a gift.
Apparently when she saw it rolled up she thought to herself, "I hope this is what I think it is." Apparently she wanted a hook roll for a long time and I happened along and made her one. I do love it when a plan comes together. 





What do you think?

I took part in the Newbie swap and as my partner and I have both sent and received we were told we could show off the things we made (in the fine old tradition of look at me, aren't I clever!).

I knew Tarmine626 didn't like huge patterns, I saw this fabric and knew immediately it was perfect, it's just gorgeous and honestly I had a hard time giving it up. The lining fabric is again gorgeous but the bag was missing something. I knew she had a cat and decided to make a felt silhouette to sit on her bag.

I included an inside pocket for the placement of wallet and keys (I know how much I hate having to root around in my own bag for keys).

I was extra careful and zigzagged stitched the seams so that it wouldn't come undone. I was a little paranoid but I'd hate for my lovely swap partner to get a bag that wasn't sturdy. I don't know how much it could hold weight wise but the handles are sewn on with a rectangle and an X in the middle to make sure it stays so I'm gonna say it's not a light weight bag...it's a contender (sorry I had to include the Rocky reference...I couldn't help myself). 

Now, on to the pictures. (Which I had to borrow from Tarmine because the pictures I took turned out blurry which is annoying but happens).






I'm really proud of my bag and I had a lot of fun making it for the swap. I'm also glad my partner loved it

Demi_Kitten

I taught myself to crochet using youtube videos and the Happy Hooker book from the Stitch n Bitch range of books. But I still can't follow patterns because they mostly just confuse the crap out of me. So I started a circle, expanded it until it seemed wide enough then stopped expanding and voila, hat. Then I found a youtube video to make a simple crochet flower and followed that, then in the red flower I changed how she did it slightly by adding a second layer of petals into the back of the first petals and made them bigger to give it a 3D effect. I like how it turned out anyway.

I created the red hat first (the flower was second despite this) and the purple hat went a lot quicker, which I was pleased about. I'm getting a lot better at crochet even if I still get confused by patterns.





Here are the flowers in greater detail.





Hope you like my little hats.

I would love to make something for my boyfriend for his birthday in October (trust me this much planning is needed) but I don't have a clue what to do. He doesn't feel the cold so a scarf is not needed, he has hats so wouldn't need a woollen beanie hat, he uses his laptop a lot but doesn't need a case for it. I'm kind of at a loss. I've outright asked him if he wants me to make him anything and he just shrugs, I know it isn't because he doesn't appreciate hand made items, he does, he just doesn't need anything.
But the thing is, I really want to make him something. So I need some help.

What do you guys make for the men in your life?

I should have posted these ages ago but being the mushroom that I am I promptly forgot and got on with my life. I made a skirt yesterday, took me about an hour and a half and I really love how bright and happy it is.

The skirt I made yesterday is the pink floral skirt, I bought the fabric to make a bag, made the bag (still have to sew the handles on) and wanted to use the rest (because I bought loads because it's so pretty) to make a skirt...and I did. It has a zip in the back.



The blue lace skirt came about because I kept seeing people wearing lace skirts but couldn't find any in the shops, so I thought "screw it" and bought the fabric to make my own, it has an elasticated waist.



This skirt is the first skirt I ever made and I love it, it's bright and I love how versatile it is.



All images are taken from my blog which is why I'm posing funny.

I was looking for decent guides for a friend who wants to learn how to knit and I found that 90% of the guides say things like "Have a friend cast on and start you off so you can get the hang of the technique first". The only problem I find with that is that casting on is quite a vital skill to have and one of my friends can knit (very very basic knitting, she can't purl but she can knit lol) but doesn't have a clue how to cast on.

Yes it can be annoying having to wait to be taught how to begin something but surely it's like someone teaching you to drive and starting you off in a car that is already moving.

Maybe it's just me, when my Mum taught me how to knit she had me practice casting on before she taught me anything. It just makes sense to me that we should start from the beginning.

Am I the only person who thinks like this?

I made this for my friend, she saw an owl bag she wanted but couldn't afford so I decided to make one for her, she also loves stars which is why the inside fabric and handle is made of star fabric.

I really wish I'd taken more pictures of this, the inside has a pocket in the same lining material.



I originally wanted to do something more complex but it was the first bag I'd ever made so didn't want to screw it up, especially as the owl fabric was so adorable and there was only a small amount of fabric.

My friend really loved the bag though

I actually made this a while back but didn't get around to posting it until now. I'm special like that.

I got the idea after seeing a leather obi belt, it was really nice but around £40, there was no way I could afford that so I decided to make one myself. So I did. I figured out the pattern (I say pattern, three rectangles is hardly complex) and it took me maybe an hour and a half to make including preparation and sewing.





Hope you like

I am making a fabric bag for use at university and want to use a waterproofing spray so that in the first heavy downpour my stuff doesn't get saturated. I've been looking on amazon.co.uk for sprays and there are loads. Has anyone used any for a similar purpose that could recommend a brand or alternatively warn me away from a product so I can narrow my search down?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Pam