Floral bag, twirly skirt

I have finally managed to finish off and photograph a couple of projects which I started quite a while ago.

The first one is a bag which I made from a tutorial on the Heart of Mary blog.
I'm quite pleased with the way it has turned out, but for myself I'd like a longer strap and different fabric. Due to this, I think I'll be listing it on my etsy site.

The next is a skirt that I mentioned in an earlier blog entry that I've done entirely from my own design. I based it on a skirt that I bought from Primark a while ago by just creating 8 identical panels, sewing them together and then creating a band to go around the top. I then hemmed it and put a zip in between 2 of the panels. It was kind of an experiment but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and shall definitely make another at some point....and an action shot:

First couple of projects

A while ago I decided that I wanted to try making some of my own clothes. I got a sewing machine for my birthday, bought a few books had all the best intentions to get started. Then I left it all to sit there getting dusty. I have finally got past my fear of working out how to buy material, thread my sewing machine, general lazyness etc, etc and managed to produce some (in my biased opinion) okay looking stuff.



First proper knitting project since...well probably about 1989


This was actually loads easier than I had initially anticipated after having looked at the pattern and not understood a word on it. It was quite tricky to get the ribbing around the neck and arms (and took a bit of taking it apart and doing it again), but I'm pretty confident that I could do it without too much difficulty.





First time ever on a sewing machine


So, I braved the market, bought some material (after being shouted at for being indecisive) and got set to work on this. I had originally intended to make the outside using the material used for the pocket, make a lining using the spotty material and the pocket on the front was also going to be the spotty material. Unfortunately, the plain blue material was a bit thinner than I'd originally thought and the spots showed through. My lack of experience (and lack of knowledge on how to do hems) has made the pocket look a little ragged, but generally I'm fairly happy with this as a first attempt at the sewing machine. I made this a couple of months ago and it's served me fairly well ever since.