Freedom Microlite Seat Covers

So here are the pictures or the new covers 

I think the colours go well with the dark wood and the feel of the material is lovely.

I did make a bit of a rookie mistake when ordering the material.  I made an assumption about the way the nap of the fabric would run.  I assumed it would be down the roll of fabric, and worked out how much material i needed based on that fact.  I was wrong, and had to order another meter of fabric! That's a lesson I wont repeat.

Other than that mistake, the construction was pretty straight forward and has resulted in a lovely finish.  I took about 9 hrs to make and wasnt too complicated.  Cutting out was the hardest bit.

New Hand Bag

After making my last bag, I wanted to make a hanbag size bag.

Here is what I made.

It has a single strap and a magnetic clasp to close the top.

After my mistake with my last bag, I didnt bother adding an inside pocket.

Charlie Shopping Bag

I made the charlie bag today. The Original Tutorial for this is not a lined bag, so i decided to follow this Lined Tutorial to add the lining.

I wanted to add ziped pocket to the bag, so followed this tutorial to help me add a zip. Except i made a crucial error, and sewed the pocket lining to the wrong side of the bag lining. So i had to ad lib a bit to sort it out.

I am really pleased with this bag and its going to be roomy enough for all the things i need to carry around :)

Un Named Bag - HELP?!

I have been making this bag for a few weeks now.

The bag itself took very little time. It is lined inside with green lining and interfaced for stiffness. The outer lining is a satin kind of fabric. I made up the shape as I went along and followed no patterns.

But the handles!!! omg. Its made from leatherette and is quite soft. Trying to topstitch the bag handles was a nightmare. I bought a special roller foot for my machine, but the feed dogs would just chew the under layer. The top layer looked good, I turned it over, and It was all scuffed.

I was so annoyed, as the topstitching was the last job and I had done the rest really neatly. I have had to unpicked these handles and re do twice!!

Finally I decided i would sew some of the lining on to the leatherette - thats the green you can see. Then cut out the handles, and turn inside out. I then finally hand stitched around too keep both sides together.

I am not really happy with the finish. I really would have liked to topstitch around the top of the bag. But i am just so scared of scuffing it again and ruining it.

Any one have any ideas how i could have made sewing this easier?

Anyway, I think the bag deserves a name, any suggestions?

Janome 8077 - Making room on my desk!!

Thanks to my lovely sister Carol aka Taylor's Textile Trials, I am now the proud owner of a new Janome 8077!! My sister is a fab textile fiber artist and knows a thing or 2 about sewing machines, and she took me to her lockal sewing machine shop in swansea (Cliffords Sewing Machines Ltd). I have to say thank you to Mike who gave me a great demo and also a discount!! :)

My mother gave me an old sewing machine some years ago, but over time, and much struggle with it, i gave up trying to do projects on it as it always messed up the work. My knitting and crochet rolls are good examples of the machines bad work. I gave up sewing on it at that point as it was just so hard do use.

I am now really excited about finishing off my other rolls I need to make - one for my straight needles and one for my DPN's. After that, I will have to see what else i come up with, as i better use it now i spent all this money!!

Also, another present (to myself) that came in the post today :) my bead organisers. Since i needed to make room on my desk for my new machine, I needed a secure location for my beads. I found these on ebay, and they came all the way from america. Mini tic tac boxes in a storage box. I have filled 2 boxes alread!! only another 3 more to go.

Lastly, a quick update on the garden. I have loads of tomatoes now, they just need to ripen up. Im so impatient though, just cant help checking everyday to see if they are ready!! Also, my first courgette and cucumber have doubled in size over the last few days. I have 2 peppers also getting quite big, maybe 1/4 size right now. What can i say about my sole runner bean plant!! It HAD black fly. I say had as they had a fight with a water pistol and soapy water, and now they have gone!! But i cant stop itching, so maybe they have jumped on me!! lol

Crochet Hook Roll

Finally got round to making the matching crochet hook roll that i have been meaning to make for ages.

Found a lovely tutorial ... http://www.joleo.co.uk/todayweare/?p=176 to give me guidance.

I had enough material left to make this one so now i have a matching crochet hook roll and circular kneedle roll.

This time, i added bondaweb between the interlining - and also added vilene interfacing between the pocket material to give this more substance.

What a difference it makes, this one is so much stiffer.

Here are the pics....

Circular needle roll

I have wanted to make something to keep all my tools in since my sister made me my bagsket.

I got her to go to the place she got the material from and get me some more so that they would match. She also sent me some lining and some curtain interlining. What a lovely sister i have.

I thought I would start with a circular needle roll as they are the biggest pain and the biggest challenge in making the roll.

My sis pointed out this blog to look at, and low and behold this lady had made one of her own. It was just as I wanted. So I copied it.

The one on chocolateachuva’s blog has 12 pockets – 6 rows.

I currently have the following circs –



Even though what I have would fit in the 12 pockets – I wanted to leave some space just in case I got some more to fill in the gaps. So my pattern was for 7 columns - 14 pockets.




I decided that a pocket of 8cm wide and 13cm deep was enough to hold them.

This is the template I followed


I actually didn’t follow this exact template – I allowed less of a seem allowance, but found it difficult at times, especially as my cutting out wasn’t great – so I have added a bigger seam allowance to the above template to be sure.

I stuck lots of pieces of A4 together and cut out the above templates. If you are lazy like me – start with the biggest and you can keep cutting it down.

After cutting out all my pieces, I started by making the hems on the pockets.

For both pockets – I folded 1cm over and iron flat, then folded another cm over and iron flat – on the long edge.

This has now made the pocket 14cm x 58cm – the pocket will be 13 cm in total – the left over 1cm is for the bottom seem allowance.

I pinned this down and then sewed it down with a straight stitch.

After doing this for both pockets, I went on to pin the 3 main layers of the roll together. The outer , then the inner curtain interlining and finally the lining. The interlining and the lining are the same size and I started by pinning these flush together. Then I laid this on top of the outer layer and left a 2cm margin on all sides.









My sister suggested to use webbing to stick all these pieces together to avoid movement when sewing. I didn’t do this as I didn’t really want to wait more days and go to the shops. When I have something in my head, I just have to do it. But in hindsight, this would be a good plan, as this would keep it nice and flat and together when doing the rest of the stitching.

Next I took out the tape measure and marked the lining with the following measurements – on both sides.
– 1cm for hem
– 8cm for beginning of hem for 2nd row
– 9cm for beginning of 2nd row of pockets
– 14 cm for top of first pocket
– 22cm for top of 2nd pocket
I marked mine in pen as this was hidden later in the hem.

Next I pinned the middle pocket so that the top hemmed edge meets the mark I made at 22cm. I pinned it down entirely and make a straight stitch straight across at the 9cm mark - this leaves a 1cm hem below.

Next I layered the next pocket on- this sits flush with the bottom edge of the lining – and pinned it down.

Then I got the tape measure out again and made vertical pins at 8cm intervals (minus the 1cm each side for the seam. This showed me where to sew the pockets.

I re measured at several intervals to make sure that my pinned lines were straight and even from top to bottom and from left to right.

Then I sewed down these lines. From the top of the middle pocket down to the bottom edge. I left either side of the pockets and sewed these up later.

Next – I folded down 1cm of the outer material and ironed flat, and then folded over again for 1 cm and ironed that flat. This takes the outer material over the inner material by 1 cm making a nice seam – I sewed this all down with a machined straight stitch.

The only things left now are for the buttons to close it up – I tore my hair out for about 5 minutes thinking of what I could use to do this. Was thinking about plaiting some wool or something – but then I remembered I had bought some new hair bands and they were brown. So I used them. I measured out where they would need to go before sewing down the left hand seam. I placed them inside the seam (with the metal bit of the hair band inside the seam) and sewed them in.

Then for the next 10 minutes I was hunting around the house for 2 matching and somewhat related buttons to add on. Thankfully I had some spare off a coat that looked ok and I sewed them on.

It didn’t take to long to do – couple of hours. It took just as much time I think to sort out all the needles and put them in.

It’s not perfect – my machine sewing technique has never been the neatest. But it wasn’t a bad effort for me. :)



Thank you carol for being my material shopper and general question answerer. :)