The Prettiest Gym bag!

AKA the bag that nearly broke me and my machine!

I have wanted to make a duffel bag style gym bag for a while. I got this lovely stripey material from my Mum's stash recently that I thought would be perfect for a bag. So, flushed with the success of my recent backpack making I set out to make one....It nearly broke me. Tis was much trickier than I anticipated, but I really don't know why. It has come out really well but was most definitely a labour of love with at least 4 sewing machine needles sacrificed and  lot of seem ripping!

I used the free safari duffel bag pattern from Sew 4 Home as I really like the detail of the front zipped pocket and the pocket on the end.

Instead of using a contrast fabric for the base as detailed in the instructions I played about with the direction of the stripes on my main fabric. 

The bag is fully lined - I used a bright pink polka dot fabric which I think finishes the bag perfectly and I can't wait to use it at the weekend for our trip away to the seaside!

 Running/cycle shorts

So my other love is running! I came to it relatively recently but now I am completely hooked. Not only is it a way to get out and keep fit, I have made some amazing friends through running too. It has shown me that I am strong and that anything is possible. 

But back to sewing, until recently I would never have considered running in shorts but the hot weather a few weeks ago made me try it. Initially I cut off the legs of some running leggings I didn't really wear much.

Now I have found something else I can enjoy making and then wearing my first try was with some left over jersey I found from when I had been making children's clothes. There wasn't enough of one type  so I put in a contrast panel which works quite well with the design of the shorts.

Most importantly the shorts have side pockets!!! I had a bit of trouble with the pocket binding initially but modified it and now I think it looks really smart. I love the lego brick pattern on these and enjoyed playing about with the bright orange contrast jersey (again left over from something I made for the children.) 

My favourite pair are my purple galaxy print with the hearts contrast.

I made these specifically for my most recent running event - the Birmingham black country half marathon - to wear with my Nots Women Runners purple t-shirt. It was a great event that I ran with my husband, I got a new PB, my family were all at the end cheering and my shorts did not fall apart!! 

 

Bags!!!

I have found  new crafty sewing project that I love! Bag making.

The Arizona Roll top Backpack from Sew Modern Bags

This roll top back pack is really fun to make with all the processes involved. I liked the fact that it wasn't a paper pattern but a measure and cut. I made the first one with a lovely pink striped canvas and had fun with using the stripe directions differently on different pieces

  Fully lined with zip pockets!

Round 2 with a waterproof canvas. Made this as a request for someone. I had lots of fun with placing the pattern to have the animals in interesting places.

 Hi!

That was a long absence!

2023 Cate is now Mum of three lively boys, Runner, Makaton signer, sometimes bell ringer but definitely still knitter and seamstress.

I have a new, beautiful sewing shed (mostly to escape from all the noisy boys) and I wanted to start sharing my makes again. I still love to craft, and now I have loads more people to make things for which is amazing!!! if only they didn't come with so much washing....

Woodland Stroll Cape

This is something I actually made about a year ago but never got round to posting about it. However, it has come back out of the wardrobe recently and made me think about putting some pictures up.

I used the Woodland Stroll cape pattern from Liesl and co and some really lovely navy coat felt fabric from Stuart's market stall in Leicester. I also found some really pretty fabric to use as a lining - although this isn't ideal as it frays so will probably need replacing in the future.

The pattern instructions suggest lining the cape all the way to the edges of the cape however, I thought it would look better with an inside border that matched the coat outer, it also gave a sturdier edge for buttons. To adapt the pattern was a bit fiddly but not impossible. To begin with I cut out the medium sized cape outer as instructed. To allow space for a border on the lining I cut the lining out in a size smaller. This did require some adaptation as in some places I had to redraw the pattern to add the border but for the most part the smaller size worked out perfectly. 

After cutting out the lining and lining edge it was a simple process of assembling the cape although getting the curves to fit together was rather fiddly! I liked the wooden toggle buttons as it makes the cape feel almost like a duffle coat. 

The final adaptation was to use the underarm buttons just to decorate the cape as I didn't think I would ever really need to undo them. I didn't pay too much attention to the suggested placement either I just tried on the cape and put them where I felt they worked best.

I love how the cape turned out, it feels really smart but fun and it has had a lot of wear! I hope the pink lining lasts a little longer and I have recently covered it in fray stop to try and extend its life.

Books and blankets

So I have been making more baby things....

Recently finished item include another blanket, this time a crocheted grey blanket that is really soft and snuggly. For more information I have uploaded the project to the love knitting website where I found the pattern but here are some pictures.

I have also had some fun constructing a soft, quilted number book. Which is probably more for me than the baby (even a super advanced child isn't going to want a number book as a newborn - yes I do know that!!) but I enjoyed making it and it is something soft a squidgy for him to play with.

I had to make this up as I went along but think it came out fairly well. I started with a jungle animal panel form the fabric guild in Leicester and began by chopping up each of the squares.

Each square was quilted directly on to some wadding. I spent ages doing this, programming in the numbers and words to my sewing machine and playing with different patterns to make the quilting interesting. 

When I was happy with each one I pressed them and trimmed around the edges so they were all the same size.

It was a bit of a headache trying to work out how the pieces now needed to go together to turn out in the correct order and I had to make a couple of extra non-number pages to make up the sequence. The centre of the book I wanted to use the elephant procession and the two alphabet and number lines.

When I had worked out the order I attached the quilted squares to some calico and then bound pairs of calico pages together. I had to hand sew down each binding otherwise it didn't look very neat.

Finally the pages were sewn together in the centre for a completed cute safari counting book....

Blankets and Quilts

This is a combined post as I finished two separate projects at the weekend that fit well together.

Project 1: Knitted blanket

This blanket hasn't taken very long to complete at all but I have really enjoyed doing it and it has come out really snuggly!! 

The pattern is worked in squares but instead of completing them all and sewing up afterwards you pick up stitches from block below as you add in each colour. This not only makes it a bit more interesting than making a load of squares but also removes the need to sew them all together at the end - Great!!

The wool was mostly left over from a the sweet as candy jacket I had made last year so I only had to buy a small amount to complete the project. I followed a pattern by Kino designs: Sweet Faux Hawk blanket but made up my own colours.

I did alter the pattern slightly as I am not a fan of garter stitch so used stocking stitch instead and added a moss stitch border. The final size is 34" x 40" perfect for a car seat or carry cot.

2) Dinosaur quilt

I have enjoyed doing a bit of quilting recently instead of making clothes all the time and  have even got all the left over bunting out from the wedding to start making the memory quilt that I have been intending to do for months. However, this project used a really cute quilt panel I found in the Quilters Den in Warwick two weeks ago.

I haven't used panels before so I decided to cut it up into blocks that could be recombined to form a square lap quilt or even floor blanket. I had to add a couple of fat quarters to have enough material to make the border but other than that the quilt is mostly made from the panel itself. 

The back is a grey cotton combined with a strip left over from the dinosaur panel. 

I layered the quilt with double thickness of wadding as I am intending the blanket to be thrown on the floor for baby to lie on rather than to cover him up. I had some fun playing with the different patterns on my machine before deciding on the wavy lines for quilting. I also outlined each of the dinosaurs.

Finally the binding was added which I hand stitched down. Again this was made from some fabric that was on the original panel to keep all the colours matching in.

I am really pleased with the final result and have already bought some more material to make some more quilts - at least the baby will be warm!!!!