A couple of small projects

I have a lovely bag which I received as a Christmas present a few years ago. It was bought from Accessorize and I love it, it has lots of pockets to put things in and it is a good design. I use this bag in the winter as it is made of wool. As I have used it so much the pink piping on the handles had started to fray over Christmas leaving the piping exposed.

Frayed piping on handles.

I wanted to carry on using the bag and there was nothing wrong apart from it now looking a bit tatty, so I bought some bias binding to replace the pink with.

I took the handles apart, removed the pink fabric from the piping cord, stitched the new navy blue bias binding over the piping cord and then put the handles back together and reattached to the bag. This took quite a while but I am very pleased with the results as the bag looks so much smarter, it still feels strong and should keep me going for another few years.

I also made this little bag for a friend of mine as a birthday present. I love this fabric as it is so bright and fun. I lined it with pale pink felt and put on a bright pink zip.

Cupcakes small zip bag.

Summer bag - Tile Florish

Hello,

This is a bag I finished for myself about Eastertime. I have been test driving it since and am very happy with it.

Pixie bag

Close up of inside lining and magnetic fastener

The fabric is from Joel Dewberry's lovely collection, and the fabric is Tile Flourish in green. I saw this in John Lewis a while ago when thinking of the bag and knew that was the right fabric. Something fresh and bright for Spring Summer, while being a pattern which can go with anything.

The other fabric is a gorgeous pale blue which I bought at the same time, it also has a nice weight to it, not too thin and flimsy.

I used a pattern I bought on Etsy which can be found here. It is the Pixie handbag. A very nice pattern, easy to follow and I love how having the darts in it gives the bag so much shape.

The pattern was reversible, but I have only put interfacing on one side, and am quite happy with having it this way round. Also I added a magnetic clasp to the bag. You can see that inside for the lining we have the pale blue for the bottom half, and the tile flourish for the top band.

I stitched it with a pale blue thread to blend in with the fabric.

I focused on making sure my top stitching was as straight as possible and have been working on ensuring that I reverse stitch at the end of a line and keep threads tidy.

I bought the fabric from eclectic maker a website I will definitely use again. Beautiful fabrics, reasonable p&p and quick delivery which was beautifully wrapped.

New skills and materials used

No new skills, but improving my technique on topstitching, ironing and darts.

Joel Dewberry - Tile Flourish green

Pale blue cotton

Interfacing

Gutterman polyester thread

1 magnetic bag fastener

Shopping list

 http://www.eclecticmaker.co.uk/

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/94730453/reversible-pixie-handbag-purse-email-pdf