Happymaking blog

Sew with the flow

I'm making a bag for a friend's birthday. It's a biggish one. The first proper big one after 21, really. We are going down to Devon for the weekend, so I am understandably overexcited :) 

We will go to Exeter first for a spot of shopping (Exeter is extremely good for shopping) and then go to the house which claims to be 10-minutes away. I suspect those are Devon minutes, which seem to be quite a bit longer than the standard version....

Anyway, a handmade present is definitely in order. I had a trip to Painswick Fabrics in the summer. I have to ration myself  to occasional trips because this place is like a crack factory for anyone of a crafy persuasion. Anyway, I was very restrained and bought only 3 fabrics, 2 of which were offcuts piled up at the window. This is, if I remember correctly, by Mulberry. And it's just fabulous. Understated and striking at the same time somehow! And oh so luxe.

After some delicate and subtle probing (ish), I determined that an overnight bag was no good, she has lots of small bags, but an across-body messenger style bag would be just the thing.

I hadn't at this point tried actually sewing the fabric. So I got my designing head on, thought of all the size, shape and the pockets I wanted to include and got cutting. So far, so good.

But sometimes, designs need to be compromised. It's like sewing a rug! So the concealed front pockets were out. And later, I despatched the zip pocket on the back exterior. But although it's simpler than I planned, it has good, deep internal pockets with a padded mobile pocket and a ribbon with a clip to attach keys. They are always included in any bag I make, after years of scrabbling around in the bottom on bags in the pouring rain.....

I also paid a tiny visit to John Lewis, and found some upholstery trimmings...... well, as I'm using upholstery fabric it seems only right. Although this picture does rather highlight the one bit I didn't sew as close as I could. It's not noticeable in real life, happily.

It's proving trickier than I anticipated, the handles in particular have been less than simple, but I think she will like it. I really hope so anyway, cos this thing is built to last!

I'll show you the FO (finished object, not the other thing you are thinking) after I've actually finished it! And after giving it to the birthday girl on our girly weekend away. Just grown-up-ladies (sort of). No kids. It will be a lovely break from boyland. Where I live.

Speak soon, be happy xx

Five go camping in Dorset

Well, we were missing the lashings and lashings of ginger beer, and there was a sad lack of cake, but we had a lovely time on our brief holiday. The campsite was right on the coast - it's an organic farm 11 months of the year and an organic campsite in August! The Jurassic coast is protected as a world heritage site, so no building can be done along it, there's not even a coastal road for most of it. The coastal path runs right along the field that we were camping in. This is how close we were;

And in the evening,a short walk in the other direction we found little ponds on the cliff and the big tanker-type ship was all lit up:

 

 

 

 

The afternoon at Durdle Door was our highlight.

 

 Just spectacular - and the sound of the surf whooshing over the pebbles is fabulous.

 

Organic food cooked over a campfire followed, with spectacular skies and stunning sunsets

 

 

 

 

Happy days!