The Emma Bag - Using Personalised Fabric

I made a bag for my daughter's birthday using the Katybag pattern from the very talented LiEr of iKatbag.  She liked it so much, I decided to make one for my niece for her upcoming birthday.  What 3 year old doesn't need their own little handbag :)

It measures about 6.5" wide by about 10" tall (including the strap) - so just right for a wee girl.

I'm really pleased with how it has turned out...I finished it late last night. 


I used my own fabric designs - an allover Emma print with a little daisy, and a coordinating one that was just the daisies.  The best part - the entire bag (both sides!) only needs a fat quarter of Spoonflower's linen-cotton fabric! 



I even had a little over to make a matching coin/what-have-you purse.

This is the fabric design for the outer of the bag (you can click on it to be taken to Spoonflower to see the detail):

The resulting actual fabric looked like this:

It's fully lined, and has a magnetic clasp - making it easy for little hands (and no so little ones!).

I love the piping detail, and it's not too frightening once you get the hang of it - in fact, I think I'm going to pipe a LOT more now.

As far as the construction went - pretty straightforward (sorry for the night time shots - it's the only time I get to sew with preschoolers!):

Cut out and interface the pieces...

Add the piping

Add the clasp and sew up the outer and inner bags.

Then put it all together

To look like this :)

Let's hope she likes it!

UPDATE:  I've had a few people contact me asking if they can get the fabric I used in their own name.  Yes you can - by going to my Spoonflower shop here, click on "Send A Message", and send me a request with what you would like.

Mr Mikey Robot Fabric Collection Has Landed!

It was with great excitement that I opened my latest package from Spoonflower.  The samples for the robot fabrics that I designed for my son had arrived!

I'm really happy with how they have printed and I'm looking forward to designing a quilt for my wee boy with them in the Kona Cotton.  So happy in fact that I've put them up for sale on Spoonflower.

I have Mr Mikey himself:

Mr Mikey's Legs in a stripe (think this is my favourite):

Mr Mikey's buttons:

Smiling Mr Mikey in small:

...and large:

and finally Robot Waves:

They all coordinate with the Robot Cheater Quilt I designed:




Which also printed very nicely:

All in all - a great day!  Made even better by 2 year old's reaction to the fabric - big smiles and wanted to run around the house with it as a cape :)

iPad and iPhone Cases!

I just found a pretty neat site that lets you put your designs on iPad / Laptop / iPhone cases and skins (amongst other things...).  Society6 it is called.  They also do stretched art canvases, art prints, etc, etc.

I've uploaded a couple of my own for fun:


This is my Old Film Leader fabric design as an iPad case:

...and my Bubbly Bubbles design as an iPhone case!

I have to say - if I actually HAD an iPhone or an iPad I would be very tempted to buy one of the cases! :)

If you want to pop over and have a look at what you could do the site is here.

Have fun!



Robot Cheater Quilt - Mr Mikey Robot!

It's contest time again at Spoonflower.  This time - the theme is Robot Cheater Quilts, and this is my entry:

 

Well, to be precise - the quilt design in the centre is my entry!  I got a little carried away with the coordinates :).  You can view the entire collection here.

If you would like to see all the other entries, and perhaps have a quick vote - click here, then click on "Vote for your favourites".  There are some really neat entries this week.

I'm currently waiting on my proofs to arrive - so the fabric itself should be up for sale in about a week. :)

Personalised Name Fabric Available!

I've been thinking of doing this for a while - and have finally gotten around to it!  I've had so many positive comments about the items I've made with my custom personalised name fabric, and have been asked many times where someone can get their own - so I've made it available for sale on Spoonflower.

I have thirty or so different colours ready to go, including now some with daisies or birds.  If you know someone interested - they can go to my shop and have a look at the collection.  If the name showing is the one you want (which is going to be rare!) - go ahead and order it - other wise send me a message via my Spoonflower shop and I will change it to whatever name (or words for that matter) you like.

You can then order it in a wide variety of fabrics from Kona quilting cotton, to linen-cotton, organic knit, cotton-silk, etc.

Here are some examples of what I've made with it:

This is the reversible sunhat in cotton poplin...

The Mikey shorts - also cotton poplin..

A selection of tea towels in linen-cotton:

It's so neat to be able to give someone something really personalised - particularly if they have very unusual or unique names (like my husband!).

The Mikey Shorts

I was never quite sure about these shorts for my son, until I started letting him out of the house in them!

 

The positive comments from people I didn't even know were amazing.  All wanting to know where I got the fabric...  I made it, and can do it in any name!

First off - the pattern is again from Tie Dye Diva - the Way Cool Shorts.  Nice and easy - and I just love the pockets.  I will be making them again next summer - the sizing goes from 2 to 8.

Now - an explanation as to why these shorts look so wacky!  Quite simple - it was supposed to be a sunhat!  I ordered two fat quarters - one for each side, then realised my son's head was NOT suited to that pattern...  So they morphed into some very unique shorts.  I only just just just had enough to do it - I've made the pockets slightly smaller than the pattern states - simply because I didn't have enough fabric.

The most time consuming part was keeping switching top stitching thread - I used white on the blue, and blue on the white.  Would anyone actually have noticed if I had sewn it all white??  Probably not! :)

Here's one of the pockets...

 The front with faux fly detail...

And the back...

This is the closest thing to a shot of my son wearing his shorts...scampering away from me up the stairs!!

Love this pattern - and as I said, will definitely be making it again!

If you want to make your own creation with this fabric (or the other colours it comes in - with your name on it) - I'm making it available on Spoonflower.  Have fun!

The Lazy Day Sunhat

I'm finally getting around to writing about something I made for my daughter for Christmas!

It's a sunhat.  Nothing particularly exciting about a sunhat - except this one is made with my own fabric design that I had printed at Spoonflower!  Completely personalised - I love Spoonflower.

The pattern is called the Lazy Day sunhat from Make It Perfect - and it's completely reversible.

I managed to squeeze it (just!) out of two Fat Quarters - one in Pink, one in Purple/Lavender - my little girl's favourite colours.

The best thing it - she will actually wear it (!) and since it has her name plastered all over it - we are less likely to loose it :)

I got her Teddy to model it for me...first one side...

Then the other.

As it's nearly impossible to get my daughter to sit still for a decent photo!  This is the best we could manage - twirling in her Fairy Tale dress...

P.S.  I've now made this fabric available for sale with any name - see this page for details...