A Whole Bag of Trim

Le GASP this might almost be like a TUTORIAL of sorts. Well, not really, as there’s nothing really to tutor, but I took shots as I MADE this. Madness! This bag was made for a very dear friend Luthaisea because it was her birthday, but also because we both share a love of trim. And by a love of trim, I mean full blown head over heels love.

The only downside to a love of trim is you end up with lots of little end bits of trim, that are not really useful for much (unless there are small people in your life, and small clothes to adorn!) And I needed a project to use up ALL THE TRIM IN THE WORLD *cough* or rather, all the trim in my trim box.

I made a really simple bag, just one piece for the front, bottom, back, and flap over the top, and then separate pieces for the side. In order to get maximum prettiness of trim placement I marked onto the fabric in super magic pens where each piece started and ended.

I then chose which trims I wanted to use – I tried to keep it vaguely colour themed in browns and pinks to blend in with the colour of the main fabric, but I added the occasional strip of blue for visual interest. I took care so that the bottom of the bag on either side ended in lace, and the flap of the bag ended in lace as well – as I felt it would hang nicely that way.

I didn’t put any trim on the bottom or the sides of the bag, as I felt it was already pretty fussy.

Onto construction – starting at the bottom of the front and the back sections I stitched the trim in place using a variety of methods – if the stitching was going to be visible (like the bottom of the pink ribbon in the picture shown) I used a zigzag, however when it was going to be covered by either ribbon stitched over it, or lace hanging down on top of it, I used a regular straight stitch.

I worked one piece at a time, pinning and stitching each piece of trim before I headed to the next one, giving a pretty neat placement. I also played around a bit with how much of each trim was shown.

Next I whipped up a lining for the bag out of polycotton. That was the quickest bit. I made the bag up at the same time – this was not quite so quick, as I had to ensure that the edges of some of the loose bits of trim were caught in the seams – and then at other points, where I wanted it to hang a little looser, they weren’t.

I made a tube strap, and pressed it in the same fabric that the bag was made out of, however I made it super long, as Luthaisea is more than capable of taking it in if she needs to!

Final result? A bag, made ENTIRELY OF TRIM – and it looks pretty cute!

Katy x

Bathtime Monsters

As soon as I saw this set of tutorials from Amber over at crazy little projects  I knew I had to make one for my godson for his birthday. Then I realised that each of them only takes half of a towel, and my littlest nephew’s birthday is in the same month. Score!

Originally I had wanted to make the frog towel – but I couldn’t locate any green towels for love nor money, and as time was beginning to run out, I changed my mind, and decided on the monkey towel (because I love monkeys) but brown towels seemed to have the same problem. Eventually I decided on a little monster towel, because it could be any colour, and what little boy isn’t a little bit of a monster anyway, especially at bathtime?

They were really easy to run up, although the towelling does fray – I ran them both through my washing machine before gifting them to make sure they could stand up to being washed by machine (an absolute MUST for anything for children). I made the eyes and fangs out of towel too – in retrospect I wouldn’t do that, Amber had advised felt, personally I hate working with felt, and the thought of wet felt made me shudder, but the towel has frayed quite a bit around the fangs. I also stuffed the horns, another mistake, as it made them REALLY TOUGH to insert. I managed it though, and overlocked it on the inside – still not the prettiest.

All that being said, I have a very cute picture of my godson in this, grinning up at the camera post-bath (which obviously, I am NOT posting here, he’s not my child, and he doesn’t need his, admitted gorgeous, face all over the internet) – so he clearly loves being a little bath time monster.

If I’d have only been a little bit quicker on the trigger you’d have got a picture of Mr P modelling this, however it doesn’t fit him, but I can tell he wants me to make an adult sized one.

RAWR

Katy x

A Birthday Dress Up Outfit

This was actually an unintentional birthday present – by which I mean it happened completely by accident. We’d already bought my niece some clothes for her 3^rd birthday, and then Mr P was going out and left me home alone for an afternoon with nothing to do on the day before her birthday.

And what little girl doesn’t need a cape I ask you?

It’s made out of white cotton velvet and actually nicely used up the last of it, which made me happy – I love it when I get to stash bust! The red gathered lace was also stash and I thought set it off nicely – the neck tie is done from some silver/white cord that I found in my sewing box.

The skirt was made from a simple rectangular tube with a fully elasticated waistband – nice and easy to pull on and off herself. The cape is a ¾ circle, neither of them are lined – as I said, these were dressing up clothes and made super quickly.

I think it took me about an hour in total – it would have been much quicker if I’d not decided to put the lace on. It was exciting to see her open them the next day, as I’m often really nervous about my sewing capabilities, but she dressed up in them straight away. The only problem was that the skirt was a little big (I looked up measurements for an average 3 year old on the net) and because it was so heavy, only stayed up by dint of her nappy giving her extra bulk. Still, too big is better than too small for little ones, and at least she can grow into it!

This is why I totally shouldn’t be left alone with fabric and a sewing machine!

Katy x

Failure on the First - Death by Drains

YAY. It’s time for MORE FAILURE. So, you may have noticed something – I claim this blog to be about training for housewifely duties, and I talk about sewing (A LOT) and I have talked about cooking (once) but I DO NOT TALKING ABOUT CLEANING

There’s a reason for this. I’m pretty bad at cleaning – I mean, most of the time, I keep my house respectable. If we have guests coming around, it gets a bit cleaner, and if the landlord is coming for an inspection I run around like a tornado of cleaning until it is spotless. But on a general day to day basis, I would say that cleaning is my weak point as a housewife (it’s OK, Mr P knows this). The following story demonstrates this, I call it “The Day I tried to kill myself whilst cleaning the shower.”

So a little while ago it had reached that point where the shower plughole was blocked - again. A little context here, Mr P and I both have long hair which falls out, a LOT. By this I do not mean either of us is going bald, we just have that hair that tends to end up lying all over the place, and there still being plenty left on our heads. It's a nightmare. I also realised the whole 'men with long hair' thing is a contentious issue... I do not approve in general, of men with long hair, or really, men with hair, however it Suits Mr P, he'd look odd without it. Yet another way he is not the man of my dreams... but it does mean I get to practise new hairstyles on someone other than myself!

Anyway, I digress...

I bought some drain unblocker from the pound shop. This should probably have been cause for concern in the first place, but actually, for a lot of cleaning products I find the pound shop does just fine. I may have to re-think that view, in light of the following events.

I decided on doing it as soon as I got home from work, seemed like a good idea, so, as the packet instructed I donned a pair of rubber gloves, found myself a cupful of hot water, and went into the bathroom. I poured a sachet of this strange powder down the plug hole... that's when it started to go wrong, I noticed a strange vapour coming out of the plughole, so, being me, and therefore not very sensible, I started to pour the cup of hot water down the plug hole, as the instructions told me to... the vapours increased, and an accidental lungful burnt like the fires of hell... so, leaving half the cupful of water, I raced out of the bathroom, and stuck my head out of the (thankfully open) bedroom window.

Once I'd stopped coughing, I took a deep lungful of fresh air, dashed into the bathroom, poured the rest of the cupful of water down the plughole, ran into the kitchen, grabbing the box of instructions en-route and half hung out of the kitchen window.

By this point I had the extractor fan on in the bathroom, the extractor fan above the over on, and both windows in the flat wide open. Even to duck my head back inside the kitchen window made my lungs burn, the vapours had filled the entire flat (even though I'd kept the bathroom door firmly shut.

I read the instructions.

"Leave for ten minutes. May produce flamable gasses."

Flamable I wasn't overly worried about, I wasn't making any flames, but I hadn't been silly and overlooked the "Warning, wear gas mask whilst using" symbol, or the alert reading "This product will sear a layer off the inside of your lungs" - it simply wasn't mentioned. Goodness knows what was down my plughole.

So, I sat there, with my upper body hanging out of our second story window, for ten minutes. Just as the ten minutes are coming to a close, Mr P's car draws up, he's home from work. Now, it's worth mentioning here, Mr P has asthma, and not the kind of 'if it's cold or I have hayfever I get a little out of breath' asthma, but the kind of 'if I forget to take one of my doses of drugs in a day I need to go to hospital straight away' kind of asthma... and here's me, with a flat full of noxious gasses.

"Helloooo" I yell to him out of the window, he glances up at me. "I'm sorry." I say, "I love you. But you can't come in."

I, briefly, explain, and with a shrug he tells me he's going to the pub (next door) and I can join him when I'm done. I'm so grateful he's not mad at me from barring him from coming home after a long day at work that I nearly collapse.

The time comes to set the water running through the plughole, so it's another lungful of fresh air out of the window, and another dash to the bathroom, holding my breath, while I turn the shower on, before returning to sitting with my head out of the window.

I let it run for five minutes, and then, leaving all the windows wide open, the bathroom door open to ventilate it into the flat, the extractor fan in the bathroom still on, coughing and spluttering, I too vanished to the pub.

An hour later we decided to venture back, and it was, mercifully fine, the plughole now no longer blocked, I'd stopped coughing (after about half an hour) and Mr P wasn't really all that mad.

Still, lesson learnt, expensive drain cleaner might be worth it, because although the cheap stuff has worked, I rather like my lungs the way they are.

Katy x