A summer bag

I have crocheted myself a new summer bag... I finished it end of June... Well, I guess I need to line it before it's finished...

You can find the pattern for the squares I used HERE (pattern is in both norwegian and english). I didn't have a pattern for the bag itself, but I've used 13 different squares that I just crocheted together as the work progressed...  

I've put up a photo of  each side so you can se all the different colour combos.

Thanks for looking:)

Neon coloured drawstring bags

The weather today wasn't much of an outdoor activity kind of weather. It wasn't really bad, but it wasn't very warm or sunny either, so we decided to spend the day indoors. So, the girls have been playing with my sewing machine. They have been making themselves a drawstring bag each.

They've done everything themselves... choosing the (bright coloured) fabric, kutting it, pinning it together and sewing it all up. OK, so I helped a bit with getting the right pieces lying the right way in the right place when making the opening for the string...

They were both very pleased with their new, neon colured drawstring bags.

My wee helper and a birthday present...

If I am to sew during the day, this is how you'll most often find me.... With Susie on my lap, helping me. Susie's job is to take the pins out of whatever I'm sewing and put them in the pin cushion (if you look closely, you can see that I'm using my new pin cushion... the one I won). It takes... eh... a bit... longer with this help, but at least I get to sew. Right?

And I must admit, it is kind of cozy having her there on my lap showing an interest in what I'm doing. Here, she's helping me sew a wee drawstring bag.
I (we) finished the drawstring bag and a travel tissue holder yesterday. Maja's friend from school had her birthday party last night, and Maja needed a present for her. I hope she likes it.

Every little girl should have a pretty bag, and when Maja realized I was making a drawstring bag for her friend, she wanted one too. So when I spotted this lovely fabric in the shop yesterday (had to go and get a string for the drawstring....), I thought of Maja's wish for a pretty bag.

Look, it even sparkles...

Maja was over the moon by the thought of getting a bag in this pretty fabric. Don't know when I'll get the time though. I have to drag my sewing machine and everything I need downstairs and use the kitchen table for sewing. My sewing room is still just a mess with boxes from the move....

Pink drawsting

I thought Susie ought to get something as well since Maja just "ordered" a bag from me. Sus loves to put things in little bags and carry them around, and she always pinches Maja's wee bags. So I used some more of my flea market fabric and made her a pink drawstring bag.

It wasn't easy to take a pic of the new owner... she's always sooo busy...

...So I caught her while she was stuffing her toys in her new bag.

Ok, so she finally tired of running and stuffing and stood still long enough for me to get (a good) one.

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I just want to mention there is a great give away over HERE.

Strawberries in October

It was Maja who insisted I buy the strawberry fabric at the flea market on Saturday. There was a bit of mildew on it, so I didn't really want it. But she insisted... "can't you sew me a bag of it, mum? Pleeeeeeeease?" What can you say... I guess I could just cut round the mildew... I threw it in the pile of other fabrics... And here is the bag... Tadaaa! I used one of the other flea market fabrics for the lining and pocket.
The pocket on the front is a "double" pocket, one with a zipper and one behind. Quite handy.
It has an inside pocket as well... a girl can never have too many pockets...
Maja was so eager to get her new bag, that I finished it already Sunday evening (but haven't had time to blog it before...). And here we have the new bag owner... happy as can be!

Moving on...

...but not too far... I'm still making small quilted bags, just a different design.
I got the pattern for this lovely make up bag (and for a larger one) from Elna in Norway. Thank you very much! The bag was really easy to sew, but I think maybe I did something wrong with the lining, because it seems to be a bit... not big... but it doesn't really fit... it's all crumpled up, if you know what I mean.... no?? But I'm not giving up... I will try to make another one soon, and maybe do the lining part a bit different.

This is the other side of it. The fabric I used was something I found in a charity shop... I really like the brightness of the colours on this fabric.

Finished!!

Here they are! All 7 of them! The quilted bags are now done and ready to leave me for their new owner... Hope she'll be as pleased with them as I am.

The fronts:
And a view of the back of them as well...

More pink...

The quilted bags are finally starting to look like something...
This is what they looked like last night:
The "only" thing left now is to put on the top border and zippers... better get on with it...

Status report...

Sorry I've been a bit slow on the blogging front lately... Had hubby home in the weekend, and then I've been busy getting my house ready for putting it up for sale.

Anyhoo... here's a wee update on my bag order. All the fabrics are cut and I'm in the process of quilting the bags now.
I'm almost done with the quilting, but I ran out of white fabric for the lining, so I need to get some more of that. I went to the quilt shop in Linlithgow today, but they closed at 2pm on wednesdays... I didn't know, so I was there about 10 past.... that meant I had an hour to kill in Linlithgow before I had to pick Maja up from school... went to the textile shop to see if they had some white cotton. But guess what... They were closed too!! I'll try again tomorrow or maybe friday.

My first custom order!

A few weeks back I got my first custom order over at Etsy! Yay!!! The customer wanted 7 of my pink quilted bags (like the one below, this one is still for sale in my shop).
I had to get new fabric for the stripe at the top, because I didn't have more left of the ones I used in the original bag, so the custom bags won't be exactly the same. Yesterday I washed the new fabric, and I've been cutting the pieces for the bags today, so I'm now ready to start sewing.
Guess I should go downstairs and get started instead of sitting here blogging...

Happy happy joy joy!!!!

Late last night, I got an email telling me I'd sold something on Etsy! I'm sooooo excited... I've had my first sale!! Yoohooo... This is what I sold; the green reversible shoulderbag.

It is now in the post... on it's way to Norway... to a gal named... wait for it... Tonje! How cool is that...!? To Tonje....from Tonje! I hope she enjoys it!

Quilted bags

I've been making some quilted purses/bags the last few days. I didn't have a pattern for these bags, so they are just made up as I went... It was really good fun. I really enjoyed the quilting... the batting made them so soft and lovely. They are all living in my etsy shop now.

White handbag with flowers

I just remembered that I still had one handbag left after my handbag sewing marathon before christmas... I didn't have anyone to give this one to, so it's now in my etsy shop.
I had so much fun sewing handbags for christmas presents last year. I think I'll make some more bags soon (more night work...)

Christmas presents revealed...

I promised to show you those christmas presents that I made that I only gave you a sneak peak of in an earlier post... so... here they are:

All the sneak peaks were handbags. One for my mother, one for my brother's girlfriend and the rest for my husbands nieces.

The two top ones are the same design and the two bottom ones are the same design. I've used the same fabric for three of the bags but all the bags are different. (It's quite amazing how different they look when you change the fabric.) All the bags had pockets of some sort, some on the inside and some on the outside, some zippered some not. They all had a magnetic snap closure as well.

I hope they all liked their handbags (if not, they could always put them in a wardrobe and use them as storage for bits and pieces.....;))

Etsy

I've just opened my own Etsy-shop! Yay!! Haven't got a lot in it yet, but I'm working on a few more things, and I'll start for "real" as soon as christmas is over and done with..... I know I should really have had a lot of stuff in there BEFORE christmas so people could buy stuff from me for presents.... but.... achhh.... Anyway, there's a link on the right hand side if you want to go and have a look (and maybe buy something????;) ....)

These are the things I've already put in my shop:

Some Hardanger embroidered Needle books

A green stripy bag

and a childrens fleece hat

Gym bag

My eldest daughter Maja started school last month, and every belonging has to be named. So for her gym bag I cross stitched this little name tag.