New Sewing Machine Mat

Well as I mentioned I have been spending a bit of time getting some sewing projects done these holidays...not to mention watching a heap of DVD's. I have moved out onto the dining table to sew...that way I can also have the DVD playing at the same time. The problem with that is the machine leaves little black scuff marks on my table especially as I push and pull it out of the way.


So my solution was to sew myself a mat....I made it with wadding inside so there is some cushioning to protect the table and also have pockets to keep things like scissors, unpicker (my close friend), ruler, pencil etc close at hand and voila! here it is.
I am pretty happy with how it turned out....great value.... $3 for 1/2 a metre of fabric and I used a left over piece of wadding.

New Sewing Project

After searching on the internet for sewing projects I came across a tutorial for making your own fabric binder cover. I decided I needed to make one for my new job. So here is my first attempt.


Have a look at the inside. I used plain black fabric so I would save the printed fabric and have enough to make another couple of covers. I included a pocket on the left hand side and sewed a space for secure pen storage. This also stops things sliding over and preventing the binder from closing.

Why not take a closer look.....

Well what do you think???? I love it and am going to make myself another 2 with the remaining fabric. If you want to check out where I got my inspiration from click HERE

Sew, Sew, Sew!

Wow!

This will be the third addition to my blog in the last 2 days after months and months of nothing. Hope you are not too shocked to keep reading.

I have been busy today making bags for gifts.....and for myself.

This bag is called a "Margaret Bag" and I got the pattern from the internet. The material is from "JJ's" at Redcliffe and was only $6 a metre. All up I think the bag cost me about $8.

This is my new shopping bag.....I am going to use it as a replacement for the plastic ones. This material came from spotlight....Toni has also used it before (just shows what good taste she has). I made up the pattern for this bag ... using some of the different patterns in the material.

Now onto the gifts....

I made this drawstring bag for Declan to keep his dancing shoes in. I followed a basic pattern from the internet....this is my first drawstring bag that is fully lined. I love that all the seams are hidden between the two layers. I used the computer to print out the writing and traced it onto the fabric, cut it out and stitched around it on the machine.

Then this is the same pattern for a drawstring bag for Tara to also keep her dancing shoes in. I actually handstitched around her lettering becasue I wanted to use purple, which is her favourite colour. Hopefully she will love it as much as I loved making it.

Well that's all for now.... maybe I will be making more regular updates in the future so please keep coming back to check.

Finally some pictures of my sewing!

As I mentioned in my first post I have been giving the sewing machine a bit of a workout lately.....the first time it has been out of my cupboard for a while and certainly the first time for anything other than curtains and alterations to clothes.

The first thing on my list was a Pencil Roll.....I have to say that the inspiration for this came from Deb at the scrapbooking weekend back in April. I have now made a few of these. I decided to make the pockets big enough to hold 1 or 2 pencils or a texta or crayon.

Here are some of my other ones.

I also used one of them to store my crochet hooks and am thinking about making some taller ones to hold my knitting needles and paint brushes.

I will add some photos of the wet bags and shoulder bag I made when I can get my mother to part with them. She has been using the shoulder bag since I made it....and she has put in an order for a matching water bottle and umbrella bag.

Tonight I also tried my hand at making a tissue box cover ....and although I will make some minor adjustments to the next one I am pretty happy with how it turned out. What do you think? That's all for now.