The second attempt is acceptable

I needed a bag for transporting the equipment for my hobby - horse riding. It had to be insensitive to dust and dirt (=> grey color and synthetic leather), insensitive to humidity from outside or inside (=> oil cloth inside) and I wanted to have some inside pockets for a bit of order in my stuff.  

At first I over-sized the bag a little. It had been all sloppy and unhandy, so I ripped it up and cut the pieces smaller. Now it is maybe a little bit too small, but still acceptable, even when the helmet is not fitting in completely. Anyway there are only the most basic things inside that I like to have around. 

When getting the helmet out, you see the bottom is filled with the other stuff and you can see the side pockets I made from oil cloth, but I haven't the impression, that they are helping much for the tidiness. 

I am not entirely happy with it, but I will try out this evening if the bag is at least fulfilling the needs of transporting my stuff in one hand and not forgetting something ...

A bientôt,
Jane

Flowers and yoyos

Already two years ago I founded a sewing/crafting group, where we met about every two weeks to do little sewing projects together. My initial idea was that we would take turns to prepare the projects and leading the others, but in the end it has been always me. The others have been mostly working moms with few times for sewing and they appreciated the possibility to do a project that could be finished on one evening without looking for instructions and wasting time on preparing. 

After about 9 month the group like went to sleep. But now there have been quite a few requests to renew it and yesterday we had the first meeting with also some new members. We discussed a bit the projects to realize in the future, so I can now prepare for it. They kind of insisted in paying for my tutorial work and therfor I am a bit stressed to find the right way to teach  so everybody is satisfied.

We started with a little deco project. I prepared some examples of fabric flowers and Yoyos ...

The Yoyo on the little zipper bag is matching the lining. I also fixed one with hot-glue to a cloth-pin. I like to use that for example to pin a note on a present.

Some very little Yoyos I fixed to a birch crown together with some leaves I made out of fabric scraps that I glued together with Flisofix and a piece of wire inside. 

I also made small flowers that I fixed with hot glue to sticks. Those three I planted in a piece of floating wood so they can stay upright on the table.

They are also doing very nice in one of my deco houses:

I made some experiences with instructions for Japanese fabric flowers (Kanzashi), but I didn't managed to get as pretty results as shown in the examples. Somehow mine have been either bulky or when I used lighter fabric they were floppy. 

So I got back to a technique I already used years ago. Make yourself some triangles by cutting a 9x9cm square diagonally. Then fold them and close the shorter side to get a new rectangular triangle. Turn them to the right side, iron them and pull a thread trough like you can see in the picture below (red example). Finally pull the thread on both sides and fix the five petals to a round. Glue the stick in the middle and also two felt circles or buttons to hide the middle.

On the picture above you can see also an other example: The white one is giving round petals. You cut squares about 7,5x7,5cm, fold them in half, iron them and then you cut the rectangular corner off in a half circle. The rest stays the same. You pull a thread through the open side and plead the petals.... (click on the photo to see the stitching better).

It has been a fun evening yesterday, trying out all those things with the girls and chatting a lot. This will be repeated!

A bientôt,
Jane

A little repair

Today I changed temporarily my profession to mechanic and took apart my sewing machine. 

Only parts of it, but important parts. Two weeks ago I managed to break a spring in the mechanism of the upper thread tension. It still worked, but I feared it may cause major problems in a moment I am really in need of a working machine. 
As you can see my machine is old. The advantage is, that there is few electricity in it and I can do most of the maintenance myself. The disadvantage is, that you can't find replacement pieces in every sewing machine store.

This are all the pieces of the thread tension with the new spring (right side). 
I think I got them back together in the right order. It is working anyway! 
The tension for sewing is good, but I think there is still a bug, as the tension is still quite strong, when I lift up the foot and pull out the fabric under it. Did anyone know what I might have done wrong? 

May I show you a picture of my beloved Pfaff 230? It is not an automatic one, that means I can only sew straight and zigzag, but hey if I want to have a fancy seam, I can quilt it, can't I. The only (and very small) thing I am missing sometimes is an elastic stitch for sewing T-shirt cuffs. Otherwise it is just great what this machine can sew. It is not even hesitating to go through 4 layers of leather!

My biggest fear is that one day it might be broken and can't be repaired.

Before I got it, the machine had been used in a polish textile factory. It is a table machine and is not a standalone. My husband made me the wooden base already in the beginning of our relationship. Later, when I started quilting he made the extension from Plexiglas. 

Unusual tidy my desk - it won't stay long that way ... 

A bientôt,
Jane

edit: I found out what has been the problem. One disc had been installed in the wrong sense. Now everything is working fine! 

Writing case no. IV and a knot in my brain

I had a new request for a writing case. This folder I made in September did a good job advertising and I got a new client. Of course there had been several changes to what should fit inside! I nearly made a knot in my brain to fulfill all requests. 

The stability of this case is again managed by a folder I pieced together myself from cardboard and fabric.

Every piece for the inside pockets had to be figured out, cut and sewed with high concentration to match the sizes of the things that should fit in. I tried once to work on it in the evening, but had to rip up one piece 3 times. 

But now it is ready and I am quite happy with it. Have a look:

The outside is quite simple to let the owls act. The closure is done with large velcro, covered by two owls that fit with the others.

In addition to the obvious pockets on both sides it is again possible to slid papers (or whatever you want) between the pockets and the folder (see for example the white paper on the photo below)

Inside there is on the left side a big pocket to hold an agenda (the one on the photo is not the final one, it should be much thicker). The pocket is decorated again with owls and beside them are places for 3 pencils or pens. 

To hold the agenda in place and for the pocket not become sloppy after a while of use, I stabilized the upside with a stiff double side fusible interfacing. It is an upstanding pocket and you can see the fixing on the photo below.

On the right side there is only one big cushioned pocket for a tablet-PC. It is closed with an also cushioned flap with Velcro. I think a Velcro closing is the most secure after of cause a zipper, but if you are pulling out the tablet all the time over an opened zipper, I guess it will get scratches. To bolster the pocket I used a leftover piece of a Quilt inlay. 

On top of the big pocket is a small one for business cards.

I enjoyed immensely the moment when every piece had been on its place and I finally sewed together everything. It turned out just as I though. Great relief :-)

A bientôt,
Jane

Two boring bags

Sometimes I get very nice color combination, that are surprising me as I wouldn't have chosen them myself, when following clients wishes, but this time it has been hard. It should be brown! No other color - just brown! Did you ever try to find a fabric that is just brown with no other color mixed in, but still with a pattern? I couldn't find any that would work for making a bag. I managed to soften it to light brown/beige though. The bag model should be like this ones that I made in November.

The outcome is one of the most boring bags I have ever made:

To add a little life to the brown I fixed the straps on the outside and inserted a little pocket in matching fabric in between. The pocket on one side is open on the other side closed with velcro

Inside is an open pocket and a clips (not visible on the photo) for keys. The bag can be closed with two press-buttons. 

I thought it might be not brown enough and made a second version with dark brown synthetic leather.

To make it a little more interesting for me I inserted this time a zipper as closure. Otherwise it is the same like the first.

I feel a strong desire for color now and will sew something in orange or green to brighten up the week and the grey weather. By the side: my garden is looking brown and brown too :-)

A bientôt,
Jane

Back! with some drawings

Hey there! I am back from winter vacation and hopefully back to creativity. In the last month I didn't felt very creative and not at all motivated to deal with the ideas that are nevertheless still coming into my head.

Vacation with kids in a big city while visiting some family didn't sound like lots of time for finding inner peace to get back motivation, but there have been calm periods in our guests apartment. I had my box of crayons with me and my boys and me made some drawings with it. I still love to see all those colors together and I tried to use them all. See the three different drawings I made.

I think I like the last one best, as the colors are the most powerful in it.

The boys have an other week of winter vacation. Let's see if I get some more nice things done. 

A bientôt,
Jane

Deep in snow

We got about 40cm of snow in the last 36 hours and it is continuing snowing. Like always it is the little ones who suffer: The poor lutins (french for dwarf) have been closed in by a nightly blizzard.

Apparently they started to shovel snow in daylight, but a snow-slide from the roof buried again half of the village.

I know it is very quiet here since a few weeks. It is that I am having loads of other stuff to do and besides feeling slightly increative in the moment. Then my youngest had been ill with high fever last week. And in a week the winter vacation is already starting and we will be away for a week. So please stay patient and I hope you visit again. Soon there will be new things to show. 

A bientôt,
Jane