New way for zipper pouch - bag-sewing 3/2020

This zipper pouch I made already in January. I had a new idea for a method to fit in the zipper in a pouch without getting bulky zones where the zipper goes in between lining and outside fabric (those who know me a bit longer know that I am searching since years for the best way to solve this problem)

I'm not sure this is the ultimate way, but it is not bad - only you have to work precisely.

The zipper is only in the pink stripe and the pink is fixed between cat-fabric and lining. The end of the zipper is fixed in the little handle on the right. You can see on the last photo below that the handle is also between outer fabric and lining.  This way the pouch is closed all around and nothing can fall out. 

I need to find the time to make some more tests on this and then I maybe give you a tutorial!

A bientôt,
Jane 

Shadows on snow

We didn't jet had real winter weather (at least not in the valley, the mountains are a little white) thus I didn't feel like winter crafting. But then I saw some mirrored silhouette picture on Instagram and had to try! 

For the sky I tried another method I saw lately for watercolor painting with small children. You paint the watercolor on a plastic bag and then lay it on a wet piece of paper. This is first of all much fun and on the other hand it produces the most different and interesting color structures on the paper. I certainly have to color more paper with this technique!

This is what the kids of my crafting class made for background and below their finished pictures. It wasn't easy for them to cut the silhouettes with a knife, but except some accidental cuts in wrong directions it went well.

- click on the picture to see better -

The one with the wolf (hard to see, but it's the last in the row) inspired me to do myself a howling wolf. I wanted to place him on a hill. That wasn't a good idea as the trunks of the trees weren't oriented in the same direction as the tree silhouette, so I had to cheat a bit to get them straight.

I liked this art, but when seeing all the early flowers in my garden I don't really want to have snow in reality anymore!

A bientôt,
Jane 

XL-bag for cutting support - bag-sewing 2/2020

When going to my sewing classes I have to take my cutting support (90x60cm) and my rulers with me. Neither of those fits comfortably into any bag I have. 

As I have to take also other stuff with me, this has been really deranging and I feared a lot for my rulers they might drop and break. So sunday two weeks ago I made a quick XL bag from left over curtain fabric (those from swedish shop are always at least 1m too long). For fun I applicated some "tangram"style birds/chicken on it:

On the bottom it's a little reinforced with canvas.

So convenient now to take my support and two rulers with me. I can hang it over my shoulder and have my hands free for the box with the other materials!

A bientôt,
Jane 

Teamwork quilt

Beginning of december I did some quilting for a blanket where my cousin did the patchwork. It is for her daughter. As my cousin can't quilt, she sends it to me and I did the sandwich and quilting. It's already the second quilt we did like that! Very satisfying teamwork!

Technically my cousin isn't a very precise worker (good that nobody will ever again see the backside of the patchwork ;-) but I love this very alive and unique patchwork top!

My cousin left the choice of the pattern completely to me (Thanks for that confidence!). I had to think a while as both sides are quite different. Then I decided that on the very colorful side you will probably not see much of the quilting anyway, so I chose the blue side to be up during the quilting and took the stars into a simple overall meander quilting. I find it worked out as planned. 

I like the finished quilt, my cousin too and her daughter is happy as well! What can you ask more of a teamwork?

A bientôt,
Jane 

Backpack - bag-sewing 1/2020

My first sewing project of this year had been a very spontaneous backpack. Last weekend of Christmas vacation: after breakfast I surfed a bit sur pinterest and found this photo. I Loved instantly the idea with the front pocket. Normally I don't like at all those backpacks as the strips are hurting on the shoulders when wearing them too long (only my oppinion! I know plenty of people like them, including my first son).

 I dug in my fabric stacks and found a black/golden deco fabric and a black corduroy and started immediately. I hadn't the cord or the laid or the tassel. Those I added later the week after a visit at the supply shop.

Due to the size of the fabric I had the bag isn't really big, but maybe that's better so it won't hang too heavy on the shoulders. The only problem with the corduroy is, that it is quite thick and therefore not closing very tight. I would propose to use softer fabric, than you could close it even without the stoppers on the ribbon. I have been too eager to do the sewing so I used silver eyelets, because I didn't had them in black or gold. That's about my only point of critics to this bag. 

Sewing backs had been a bit neglected in the last year. This year I want to do more and try out new ones. That's why I count the bag-projects-posts now ;-) The next 2 bags or pouches are already finished, but I'm behind with making photos and posting them. But I will soon!

A bientôt,
Jane 

pimped handbag

I have to confess something: I BOUGHT a handbag!

My old one slowly fell to pieces, but I never found the time and/or motivation to make a new one. So when I crossed this bag I didn't hesitated and bought it. 

It has the perfect size, only it has been little boring colorwise. So I pimped it by replacing the (plasic!) zipper straps with dark yellow leather and designed a sew-on leather patch. Therefor I tested all my black markers on leather and finally found one that didn't smear. It is not the best drawing I ever made, but the pen got empty while drawing, so I didn't had a second chance ;-)

Like the bag now :-)

A bientôt,
Jane 

Calendar 2019 closed

I wish you a happy and healthy and creative new year!

A new year means also a new calendar. Did someone remember the calendar/journal I started last January? look here!  

I really pulled it through the hole year. It's not one of the things you start in January and then slowly forget about it until Easter!

I love the whole book. It is me the whole year! Some of the content is my very private thoughts but most of it is only notes about what I did every day.  And scraps and the little memories you forget otherwise.

Sometimes I wrote too much unnecessary stuff. And there had been unmotivated weeks where I filled out the page only on sunday with what I remembered. During vacation I wrote several more pages like a diary.

On the right side is always the calendar part on the left free space for extra thoughts or pictures or notes or sketches or left overs of crafting projects I did that same week.

The new book for 2020 is on my desk now. I hesitated to start it. I feared it might be less nice like the other one. Starting a new book gave me pressure that I had to make something even more special - more perfect. Continuing the old book had been comfortable as I only had to add another page of plenty pages. No pressure that it needs to be gorgeous as there had been already pages I like more and pages I like less.

I finally started and directly messed up the front page :-) I didn't rip it out  jet though. Will see what I can change to make it better. I started a new front page on page number two and the first week on page number 3. But with the failure on the first page the pressure was gone! 

Looking forward now to the new year and what I might put into my album. Maybe I find a more even method to structure the calendar? Maybe I don't. What I like most about this calendar or journal is that I'm thinking a bit more about the days and what happened. Sometimes time passes so quickly you can hardly follow. This book is slowing down.

A bientôt,
Jane