14 steps to buggering up a shopping bag

I'm linking up to Allie's Christmas Countdown today, a sort of warning to other Christmas sewists!



A friend's birthday is coming up and I thought I'd "whip up" a fold away shopping bag for her using Crafty Ady's tutorial, like I made in this post, but without the mistakes.  And as I'd made it before and it'd be so quick and easy I'd make 4 and use 3 as Christmas presents.  What's that they say about the best laid plans?  So ladies, today is my tutorial on how to comprehensively bugger up a shopping bag.

1.  Make sure your cutting out is shoddy.  You don't really want the sides to match when you're sewing the seams.  If the handles can be off centre too, that would be a bonus.

2. When sewing on your binding, first of all, press the seams to the wrong side, this will ensure you have difficulty folding the binding over the seam.  Make sure you press with steam, we don't want any semi-permanent pressing here making things easy.

3. Sew on the binding as haphazardly as possible.  Make sure you miss the binding in places and the seam you're covering in others.

4.  The sewn line should be as wobbly as possible, as should the edge of the binding.

5.  Where the join in your binding is, fold and sew as messily as you can.

6.  Cut a bit of the underneath binding fabric off, make sure it's to the side of the overlap so it's visible.

So that's the binding on.  Next move on to the poppers.

7. Don't have the correct equipment, you're best off with a crappy plastic guide and a hammer.  Make sure the two elements aren't lined up properly so that the prongs miss the backing and stick out through the front.  I missed a trick here as I didn't remember to whack myself with the hammer.



8. Do this on several of the poppers, not just one.

9. You should try to cut yourself when removing the misapplied poppers, preferably on both hands.  I didn't do as well as I could here as although I cut both hands, I only bled on one shopping bag.

10. Oh, I forgot to say, mark the position of the poppers with pencil or marker pen so it will be visible after you've applied the popper.  If you can get an accidental pencil mark above the popper, so much the better.

11. Poppers applied?  Is one upside down?  Good.   Are three of them upside down?  Excellent.  It is OK to sob a little bit at this point, but only if you've already had to undo 3 misaligned poppers. 

12. After trying unsuccessfully to remove the poppers, unpick the flap and sew back on the correct way.  Make sure you catch some of the upper part of the bag in the seam.

13.  Repeat step 12.  Sob a little more.

14.  Sew the rest of the flaps on the correct way round.  This is the point you should notice another popper that was misaligned.  Undo it, making sure to cut yourself again.

Done?   Extra points for burning a hole in the shopping bag with the iron.  I avoided this by not ironing the bag when I'd finished as a hole was the only outcome I was likely to see.

Happy with them?  Erm... no.  Throw into the Christmas present box and don't think about them again. 

Total time taken: 8 hours. 
Poppers ruined: 4
Tears shed: copious

**Disclaimer - all errors were mine, Ady's tutorial is brilliant and does not include the steps above.

Weeks of frustration for one tiny gift...

Morning ladies.  I'm up bright and early this Sunday morning.  Well, it's 11:20 so fairly early for a bank holiday weekend and the start of two weeks off work!  I also got confirmation of my trip, I'll only be going to China, not Japan, but it's still good news.  I leave in 3 weeks time and I'll be there for 3 weeks.  I'll be taking my work laptop with me so hopefully I'll still be around, though I don't know if I'll have anything to post about. 

Oh, I mentioned last week I was going to see The Inbetweeners Movie - if any of you were thinking of seeing it, go!  It's so funny.

So, what's this frustration I'm talking about?  Well, one of my friends had a little baby boy back in March, I see him every Thursday in the cafe near work as she's a work colleague on maternity leave and comes back to meet me and another friend.  He's teething at the minute and a bit cranky so needs his dummy but often spits it out (dummy is the UK word for pacifier and a much better one I think - I can't imagine a toddler saying the word "pacifier"!).  If it goes on the floor, it's game over.  I thought that one of these dummy clips I've seen around would be the ideal thing for him.  He's too young to stuff it back in his mouth himself, but it'll stop it going on the floor. 

I went to Hobbycraft for some crocodile clips but they don't sell them.  I search the web, I found them in only one place on ebay and bought some.  3 bloody weeks they took to turn up.

I made one of the blue ones with animals on it first and realised they were so quick and easy I'd whip up a few.  One of the peachy coloured ones went wrong, the interfacing got snagged when I turned it and when I tried to pull it into place it tore.

I didn't use a tutorial for this, I made it up myself but didn't take photographs as there are about a billion tutorials out there already.  I used little loops of ribbon or cord for the dummy end - these will be looped through the dummy handle, then themselves to secure it.

A tab of co-ordinating ribbon on the other end holds the clip in place.  I thought I'd give baby Max a couple and put the rest in my shop.  Unless anyone wants one?

Speaking of sending things to bloggy friends (a tenuous link I know!), I got two wonderful parcels this week.  First up a swap with Jacey (Jacey, I can't find the link to your blog!) in Texas.  We met in the comments section of someone else's blog and I sent her some English chocolate in exchange for some American sweets.  She sent me a family bag of Twizzlers - my favourites, and some cola bottles.  Both packs are decimated so I can't show you a picture!

The second parcel was from the lovely Susan who blogs at Canadian Abroad.  If you haven't met Susan, go over and see her.  She blogs every day and is a prolific sewist.  She'd asked if anyone wanted some fabrics she'd bought early on in her sewing journey and considered to be ugly!  I thought they were beautiful and snapped them right up!  What do you think:

Thanks so much Susan!  Now I just have to work out what to send you in return...   It might be after my trip to China so please don't think I've forgotten you.  Nor you Allie, just got the buttons to sew on and your seat belt cosies will be with you.  I apologise for the delay, I blame the stealing of my mojo which recently occured. 

Speaking of my mojo (wow, I could write Dave's Tedious Links - a small Radio One reference for you Brits there), I think it's back.  I've been cross stitching up a storm, working on my giant granny and this afternoon, after I've spent some quality time with the rabbit's poo, I'll be sewing up these:

More fold away shopping bags, cut from a "vintage" sheet I found in a charity shop. I'm loathe to say it's vintage as I have no idea how old it is!  It's just someone's cast off, but at £2.50 for a flat double sheet and 2 matching pillow cases I couldn't pass it up!  One of these will be a birthday present and the other 3 will be Christmas presents - Allie, I will be joining in this month!

Is it wrong to make someone a birthday present/Christmas present from a thrifted sheet?  Especially as the finished bag will have only cost me pence to make?

Quilting help

I can't remember if I told you all or not, but I'm going to be an aunty!  Technically, I already am as Mr CA's sister has 2 kids, but this is my brother's first baby and I'm really excited!  They're 14 weeks along and will find out the sex in about 6 weeks time.  I'm dying to know the sex and the nursery colour scheme so I can get sewing and crocheting and making ready for the baby.  

I'm going to make a baby quilt.  As quilts aren't used for babies in this country it will be more of a playmat so I don't think it matters whether it fits in with the nursery or not.  I could wait to find out the sex, then choose the fabric, but no, I've chosen and ordered it already!  I'm going with Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda.



See the full range here.  Clearly, I wont be using the pinks.  Now I need to choose a pattern and I really can't decide.  I don't want to go for just charm squares, I want something a little more challenging, but not too challenging!  I've taken some examples from my bookmarks to show you.  You have to try to imagine these quilts in the Sunkissed pallette, not how they're shown.  I'd really appreciate some help in choosing a quilt and I know a lot of you have loads of quilting experience, so, please tell me - which of the quilts do you like?  Are any of them too hard for me?  Will any of them look wrong in the fabric? 

If you've seen pictures/tutorials of any baby quilts around that you think I might like, please add a link in my comments, it can be your own quilt or someone elses, I just want to see the possibilities!



This is the Snuggly Squares Baby quilt by Melissa at Happy Quilting.  There's a tutorial on Moda Bake Shop. )





This is the Zig zag Quilt by Crazy Mom Quilts, including a tutorial.



This is Garden fence at Hyacinth Quilt Designs.



The design for this one is Flower Show, the beautiful quilt was made by Libby at Handwash Only



And finally this is Lemon Bars on All People Quilt, designed by Cori Derksen and Myra Harder of Blue Meadow Designs.

So my lovely readers, please, please leave a comment to help me or to add more designs to the mix, even if you've never commented before, I'd love it if you would speak up now!  Remember, this is my first quilt so I want to make the right decision! 

Missing: Energy, Mojo, Motivation...

I don't know what's wrong with me, I have NO motivation whatsover to sew at the moment.  On Saturday I whipped up a couple of small items (predictably I've forgotten to upload them to photobucket, then I had the chance to sew all day Sunday, so I didn't.  I didn't sew a single stitch.  I lay in bed and read, then I watched TV and did a bit of cross stitch and crochet, but just a bit, not much. 

I've been wondering all day what I could blog about considering I don't have anything to show you, but I did remember I have some photos of bookmarks that I don't think I've shown you.  This first one was for my mother-in-law, bet you can't guess her name.

It's sewn on Aida band which has the lovely pre-finished edge.  The design was from an old magazine and I tweaked it a bit to include one of each flower/butterfly motif instead of missing two out and repeating the other two.

It was one of those "magic" designs where you cross stitch it and it looks terrible, then you add the backstitch and it comes to life.  Actually, it looks pretty terrible in this shot above!

Did you notice the tassle?  Oh yes, I found the tassles!  I had gone to the loo at work, I wasn't thinking about tassels at all, evidently something about the process of sitting there caused my brain to flick to a picture of the tassles in a bag with some embroidery threads.  Yes!  The tassels were with the DMC threads I'd bought to stitch another bookmark (not yet started) and I knew where they were.

As I had the tassels to hand, I thought it was about time I finished the other bookmark I'd made months ago, before I lost them again.  Actually, I'm not that sure where I put them after I'd used them...

I love this one.  Gloria has a birdhouse design for each month if you flick back through her archives.  I could fancy sewing them all up but might have to think of another use as there is a limit to how many bookmarks my friends and relatives need/want.

I still haven't finished the needlepoint bookmark.  I've finished the stitching but haven't done the finishing though the lovely robyn has sent me details on how to finish it.  It's just sitting there, ignored, much like my pinwheel table topper.  And my Lily and Will chair covers.  And my charity crochet squares.  And my Big Knit hats.  And my giant granny.  And my LANT challenge.  I haven't tried anything new this month though there is something sitting by my sofa waiting for me to get motivated. 

Moan, moan, moan, moan, moan.  I think I'd better go and moan at my colleagues instead!!

FSNI August

Good  morning ladies.  Yes, it is 2pm here, but I've only just got up!!  How lazy is that?  I've been suffering from back ache the last few days, I think I've pulled something, so lying in bed this morning was therapy.  Yes, I do believe that!


I didn't go up to the sewing room last night, I sat on the sofa with Mr CA so I could moan about my back.  I worked on my Charles Rennie Mackintosh cross stitch.

I'm really struggling to get a decent photo of this.  Too close to the window and you can see right through it, it looks like it's covered in holes.  Too far away and it looks washed out.  In reality the black is deep black and the colours are jewel-like.

That's a bit better.  I've started on the second rose now.  I also added a round or so to my Giant Granny.

I'm now on round 34.  I'm so in love with this.  the only problem is, I want to do the border in the palest cream colour but I'm on my last ball and Hobbycraft has sold out.  As it was recently on sale, they wont be stocking it again.  Is anyone going to a Hobbycraft this week or next and that wouldn't mind picking me some up if they've got it? 

And now I'm up in my sewing room pondering what to do with this gorgeous parcel I got from the lovely Nancy.  Thanks so much Nancy, I love Fig Tree fabrics!!

Right, I'm off to get some sewing done, then I'll try and get round some blogs to see what you ladies got up to on the FSNI, but I'm going out soon to see The Inbetweeners Movie so it might have to wait til tomorrow.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Tonight's the night, baby

Nope, you're not getting lucky, well not with me anyway.  Except you, Mr CA, if you're reading and if you're a good boy!  Anyway, enough with the smut.  It's the Friday Night Sew In tonight. 

If you haven't heard of the FNSI (or have but had no idea what it is), it's basically an evening where we all sew/crochet/knit/make stuff, warm and fuzzy in the knowledge that lovely ladies all over the world are doing the same.  We then write a post about it the next day and go and have a nosy to see what everyone else was up to.  Just an incentive to get sewing (do we really need one?).

I haven't completely decided what I'm going to do tonight.  I have to nip to my mum's after work so it might be a little late for sewing on the machine as I do like to watch telly with Mr CA of an evening.  I might work a bit more on my Mackintosh rose cross stitch, or possibly do some crochet.  Or there's some applique work I need to do.  Or I could work on my embroidery design.  Or maybe I should start my LANT for August which I've decided on but not sure I'll get done in time...  so many possibilities!

The post without a title

I've just looked at the photos I finally remembered to upload to photobucket last night and I realise I don' t have much to post about at all!  I'm going to have to go on a mad crafting mission this weekend so I have something to post next week.  In the meantime, I think I can just about scrape a post or two together!

So, it's going to be random bits and bobs today.  I thought I'd share some photos of what I'm working on, any maybe a little story or two.  Not a bedtime story, more of a factual story.  That doesn't make sense, does it?  OK, I'm going to tell you what happened to my poor Colin this morning and I might think of some other crap to share along the way, if you're very, very lucky.

I've been seeing a lot of embroideries in hoops around and I wanted to get in on the action.  I really wanted to stitch some flowers in a teacup but couldn't find a pattern, so I had to attempt to draw the cup and I'm making the flowers up as I go along.  I'm hoping it looks weird as I haven't done any embroidery on the cup and saucer to give them depth yet and the flowers don't have stalks or leaves yet either.  But probably it looks weird as I'm crap at embroidery.

The two flowers on the right are done in satin stitch.  I can't think of a single other filling stitch.  I've had my embroidery books out and there's nothing that would be suitable.  I mean, there are probably plenty of stitches that would be suitable, but I'm not seeing them.  I don't think I'm destined to become a master embroideress.

I can cross stitch though.  I found a gorgeous Rennie Mackintosh pattern in an old cross stitch magazine and knew I'd make my mum a pair of cushions.  There are actually two patterns - one to stitch on black Aida and one on white.  These are the colours of thread I'm using:

Yum.  They actually look better in real life, more jewel like.  I've told myself before about taking pictures at night, but do I listen?  No, I don't.

Of course, having taken the picture in the evening, the colours are a bit washed out, they are actually really beautiful and I'm enjoying stitching this. Only about 48 hours worth of stitching to go if the stitching time stated in the magazine is anywhere near accurate!! 

I've been crocheting too.  I'm up to round 31 on the giant granny but completely failed to take a photo.  And I'm up to 10 Big Knit hats.  These are so quick to crochet.  I found a pattern on Ravelry, there's a Big Knit Ravelry Group which I've joined.  It has loads of free knitting patterns linked up and some fab crochet patterns.  No excuse knitting/crocheting UK ladies!

I'm using up odds and sods of yarn, but I had to arrange them in a rainbow formation of course!  Ooh, I haven't told you about Colin yet, sorry, I've got a cracking headache (yet another one) and so I'm finding it hard to concentrate... I'd better hurry up though as I've only got 20 minutes of lunch hour left.

So, Colin.  You all know who Colin is don't you?

Nope, not my husband.  He's the beautiful little bunny about to enter the tunnel there.  Ellis, the white bunny, is his ladyfriend.

Anyway, I went out to feed my buns this morning and all I could see of Colin was his bum sticking out of his bed.  He was scrabbling around and scratching and kicking straw and generally acting very strange.  He's usually such a placid, gentle, wonderful little bunny.  He obviously heard me so came out of his bed.  He had loads of straw in his mouth.  I thought it was a bit odd as I've never seen him, or any of the bunnies, carry anything in their mouths, they usually favour kicking as a moving method.  He ran downstairs and sat next to Ellis, straw still in his mouth, looking very downcast.  I reached in and pulled the straw and it was caught behind his teeth.  The poor little mite!  I don't know how long he'd had that straw in his mouth - I'd fed them about 8:30 the night before and so he could have been like that all night.  I felt so terrible.  Minutes after being freed from the straw he was scoffing his breakfast, so I don't think it caused any lasting trauma to him.

Speaking of cross stitch, well we were talking about Colin weren't we, but we were talking about cross stitch a while ago.  Well I was.  Anyway, I don't hold much truck with cross stitch magazines.  I'd bought a big bundle from a charity shop last year and although they had some nice motifs in them, they were pretty fuddy duddy.  I was in Melton Mowbray the other weekend and spotted the latest four issues of Cross Stitcher for just a pound each.  I picked them up and spent the weekend devouring them.  Wow, what a change!  The magazine has had a complete overhaul and is fresh and young and full of motifs I want to stitch.  All four magazines have post-its hanging out of them and I'm going to subscribe.  Just what I need, another magazine subscription! 

On that subject, what did you all think of last issue's Mollie Makes?  I think it's going downhill, already.  I'm hoping it was just a bad issue, but it was basically "how to make little things out of felt".  Hmmm, not impressed.

Right, that's it, I have to stop prattling now.  I'll leave you lovely ladies alone and go and hassle my colleague to make me a cup of coffee, just because I think it's a man's job!

shopping bag

Once again, I have forgotten to upload my photos onto the computer, so today I only have one thing to show you.  I made a fold up shopping bag for my mother-in-law's birthday last Saturday.

I used a tutorial I'd spotten a while ago and bookmarked by Crafty Ady, this link takes you to her blog, the link to the pdf tutorial is in her left hand side bar.

The bag has a really clever construction which means you can roll it up and keep it in your handbag for when you "accidentally" buy loads of fabric/threads/books/chocolate.

I think the fabric is Riley Blake Merry something, I bought it ages ago for a bag lining, but as I'd bought it off line, in the flesh it didn't really go with the other fabric I'd chosen. 

I made a couple of mistakes with this.  First I put the popper on the wrong side of the bag.  Ooops.  I couldn't get it off as it'd been hammered in place so I left it there and told her it was decoration!  I'm also pretty sure I sewed the main bag up wrong, as you can see, the seam goes down the front and back which means that the gussetted bottom is also the wrong way round, but I think that works better as a bag anyway.  My excuse, I'm sticking to it.

I used these poppers.  I bought them, then became convinced I needed a special set of pliers which were about £30, luckily I didn't need them, just a hammer.

And look, binding!  Oh yes, I did it again!  This time, it's fully machined in place as this is, after all, a shopping bag, not a work of art.  It was really, really easy.  I didn't pin it in place this time and that seemed to work better for me around the curves, I just kind of fed it in.  I did miss the back of the binding in places when I stitched the second side but I don't think it matters in a shopping bag - a quilt maybe.

And here it is all rolled up.  Aahh, cute.  Thanks Ady, I'll be making half a ton of these for presents!

Back to the craft!

Thanks for bearing with me whilst I had a couple of non-crafty posts.  Things seem to have calmed down a little now, though we're waiting to see if they flare up again before the bunnies come home.  They're having a fine old time on holiday anyway, being spoilt rotten!  Mum and dad are both retired and whenever the bunnies are with them (when we go away) they seem to spend most of their time outside, talking to the bunnies.  As insomniacs, one of them can often be found in the garden in the middle of the night holding a conversation with their "grandchildren". 

So do you want to see some crafty stuff?  I made a little sewing caddy for my mother-in-law's birthday which is coming up this Saturday.

I used this tutorial on You Sew Girl. It's a good tutorial, but you definitely need a walking foot to attempt it - the last step involves sewing up 12 layers of fabric and it is not easy.  I made so many mistakes when making this.  I wanted to use this lovely sewing themed linen but only had a fat quarter.  I cut the pattern out the wrong way round as it was one of those "place on the fold" patterns and my caddy would have been very tall and thin.  I had enough fabric to start again so I managed to cut it out upside down!  I went back to the first, mis-cut piece and added a bit of the lining fabric as tabs on the edge and I think it works.  You can see on the photo above how hard it was to sew that bottom seam.

Inside is a square of felt for needles - a little flat since I ironed it - and a strip of elastic which I've sewn dividers in to hold her sewing bits and pieces in place.

Here's a picture with some pins and my scissors inside.  I bought her a pair of scissors, a pack of needles, an air-erasable pen and 3 skeins of cotton-a-broder to go in it.  She's not actually a crafter, but she has it in her.  She used to crochet and knit, I've seen her reverse knit her granddaughter's knitting project and I've never seen such speed!, and she did do some embroidery on the cushions on her sofa, so I thought I'd try to encourage her.  I've also bought her an embroidery hoop and a lovely, lovely book that I want to keep for myself to go with it.  It's this book:

And here's the sewing caddy folded up and tied.

She has got a couple more presents, I'll show them in another post as I've got a busy weekend with the mother-in-law's birthday and my brother coming down for the weekend, so I doubt I'll get any crafting done this weekend.  I'll leave you with a picture of my Big Knit crocheted hats so far.

Edited to add:  Ooh!  I've just remembered where I put the tassels!  I'd gone for a wee, must have spurred it on somehow!  Now I can't wait to get home and make sure I'm right...

Thank you and an update

Hi ladies.  I will be back with a crafty post soon, but I wanted to take the time to say thank you and let you know what's happening.

So first, the unpleasant stuff that's been happening.  Nothing happened riot wise last night, we'd evacuated the bunnies to my mum's house, but all seemed quiet.  I'm hoping that's the end of it, but who knows?

We leads me on to thank yous.  I was touched by the comments and emails worrying about my physical safety.  It's wonderful to have such wonderful bloggy friends and I'm truly grateful you're all out there.  When I logged on and saw the comments, I felt a lot happier, knowing there are people out there that do care, regardless of the fact we've never met face to face.  Thank you my friends.

On to the most serious topic of all - the non-nipple tassels.  I still can't find them.  Hobbycraft doesn't sell them!  One of my lovely blog-friends offered to send me some, but alas, I doubt they'd arrive in time.  Thank you very much Cass, if I didn't need them for this Saturday, I would have taken you up on your generous offer.  

I will leave you with some photos of the bunnies in their holiday homes.

Excitement from Colin and Ellis as their grandad apears with breakfast.  I had to take the blue thing and the tube with them as they love them.  When I took them out of the run at home to put them in the car, they sat there looking all forlorn!  Ellis loves to tip the blue thing over.  I have no idea why!  They also love the steps leading up to their holiday hutch and will squeeze under them and just sit there. 

Poor Tiffy is missing her mum.  Or wondering where grandad was going with that carrot.

Harry is never allowed to eat until Tiff has selected the bits she wants and run off to eat them at the other end of the hutch.  Here he is tucking in whilst he gets the chance!  I don't know why they're eating out of my parents' pasta bowls instead of their own food bowls!

I miss them already!