DIY Zipped Purse

I recently showed you the bag I made for work.  I have a few small items I take to work and I always struggled to find them in my old bag.  Seeing as I had some leftover fabric, I decided to create a small zipped purse to keep these items together.  I’ve shared the process here.

In the photos above, you can see a few suggestions on how to use your finished purse – the possibilities!

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Free Machine Embroidery set up: My 7 point checklist

Recently, I made a birthday card for a relative using free machine embroidery.  It had been a while, so once I finished the design, I discovered that I had kept the dog teeth up and had probably been competing with them the whole time!  I thought it would be useful for me, and perhaps other people, to have a checklist to run through when you decide to configure your sewing machine for free machine embroidery.

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Welcome to the Clobber Creations YouTube Channel!

Many people find it hard to listen to themselves on a recording and I definitely fit into that category!  Unfortunately, I was never any good at acting at school, and even when I worked in a call centre, my supervisor used to mark my calls down for being flat!  It used to be awful listening back to calls with customers, but at least there were no graphics to accompany the awkward voice.

Youtube is a different matter!  While I’m intrigued by the background elements – setting up the microphone, lighting, focusing the camera… I try to avoid talking or appearing on it.  However, I’ve reached a point where a few busy projects have come to an end and my partner is nudging me in the direction of video.

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Reversible loop scarf

One of my goals is to use up my stash for smaller items and gifts before purchase more fabric.  For a friend’s Christmas gift, I followed this aim and found some fabrics to use.

Following a guide from Love Sewing Magazine (issue 01), I cut 4 rectangles of cotton fabric, two in each fabric choice, and then stitched them together to create a loop scarf.

One issue with using the stash is finding two fabrics which work well together.  Although the purpose of the scarf is to have the option of two different looks, I didn’t want the fabric choices to clash too badly if you could see them both.

This was a nice simple pattern to follow and I am quite surprised at how warm a scarf made from dress cotton fabric can be!

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Dungarees!

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When I took part in the #miymarch16 instagram challenge, I put down this dungarees pattern as my sewing ambition (new Burda 3779).  I bought the pattern from a charity shop for £2 just over a year ago because I loved the idea of making some, and bought some denim shortly after.  However, the amount of pieces in the pattern felt overwhelming, and I couldn’t get started.

A couple of months ago, I asked my mum if I could bring along the pattern and fabric when I visited her to see if she could encourage me to get started.  Over the weekend, I managed to trace the pattern, pin it onto the fabric, and then cut it out.

One of my main worries was altering the pattern to my size.  However, we decided that as it was designed to be very loose fitting, I could cut it a size smaller than usual, which would ensure that the bottom half would not be too baggy!

I didn’t manage to pick it up again for about a month after this visit!  Feeling that I still needed a boost, I went back to my mum’s for a crafty retreat to get the pattern finished.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  When I attached the bib section to the shorts, it didn’t provide a completely sealed finish, but I think I might have misread it.  I would plan to take steps to create a better finish next time.  Also, the inner sides of the bib are tacked in place and then secured by edge stitching and top stitching.  However, I decided to slip stitch it in place by hand to secure it before the two rows of machine stitching.

The braces were simple to attach.  The buttons have to be hammered on, but in my view, this is much easier than stitching button holes and working out where to place the buttons on the straps!  There’s the added benefit that you can adjust it to size.

DungareesPleats

The pleats on the front were also a worry, but turned out to be really simple to complete.  They were more like tucks.  The denim material is so sturdy that it was easy to tack in place and press well at every step.

I think these may become my ‘uniform’ for craft days!  I think I will have to make a trouser version for the winter though (I’m already imagining some navy polka dot material which could be used for the second pair…)IMG_20160829_164019Harry did become jealous of the sewing project during its production, and kept sitting or laying on the instructions.  When I moved the instructions out of the way so he couldn’t make any further holes in it with his claws, he decided to settle on the garment instead!

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