You've just gotta go with the flow Sew with the 'Jo

I don't know what it is at the moment, but the sewjo is on fire!

Maybe it's the fact that there's this strange space in time where I'm free to just do whatever I want. No doctors / no hospitals / no pulmonary rehab / no work / no plans / no appointments.

It's just so damn refreshing and I'm loving it!

The first thing I started on was a custom order for one of my infusion nurses. I wanted it to be really nice because she has the magic hands when it comes to cannulating. First time every time (unlike everyone else)!

She wanted something similar to my Go Granny Tote, but it needed to be wider, with a zipper opening, red fabric, and an adjustable strap.

I only had half a metre of this fabric and I had to use every single centimetre (hence the strap teamed with some webbing).

She also wanted a zip pouch, similar to the SuperPops pouch that I use for my drawing pens, but longer and wider.

The instructions for this lined pouch are in Nikki's You Sew Girl book.

That's the first two projects for the year... lots more to come!

Oh... and Happy New Year

The Choose Your Own Bag Adventure Wrap - Part 2

Self Designed Camera Bag by Chapter Fifteen

Graceful Kelly Bag by I've Got A Notion

 You Sew Girl Mod Bag by Thornberry

You Sew Girl (the book) City Shopper by Apple and Tangerine

Adapted Bag by Wild About Melbourne

I promised you more and here's the second part of the Choose Your Own Bag Adventure Sew-Along Wrap.

Lots more beautiful eye candy on the bag front.... oh, and did you see those tulips in Tan's garden? Oh me oh my.... bewdiful!

Thanks so much once again to everyone who joined in the fun. It's no fun to sew-along without all of you. If you didn't make it by the deadline, never fear, you can still finish off your bag and I'll add it to the sidebar (but if I miss it, please email me and let me know).

Flickr Group

The Choose Your Own Bag Adventure Wrap Up

It's the end of another lovely monthly sew-along challenge.

Sew alongs like this are really fantastic as you get to see an entire range of different bag patterns, featuring a huge array of different fabrics. It's a great learning and sharing experience for newbies, and even for experienced sewers.

Without any further ado, here's a little show and tell featuring the gorgeous bags... please go and visit the blog posts that I've linked to for all of the details.

You Sew Girl Hobo Bag by Seabreeze Quilts

The Two Zip Hipster by Little Boozle

Sheriff Bag by Finki

Ann Francene Dimmer Ready for Afternoon Tea Bag by Mistea Crafts

You Sew Girl Small Tote & Satchel by And So I Sew

You Sew Girl City Bag by Beccasauras

You Sew Girl Shopping Bag by News Views Clues and Reviews

 

You Sew Girl Large Tote and Satchel by Snailblazer

 You Sew Girl Large Tote and Satchel by Apple and Tangerine

You Sew Girl Baguette by Me

Thanks so much to everyone who played along, and I think we'd better thank Nikki for her amazing range of patterns, of which we've managed to include six.

You can still add your bags to the Flickr Group or just pop on over there to see more photos.


Now if you're looking for something to sew in September (eeeeek September already), Carmel from Solomon Sewing is having a Hat Sew-Along. I've signed up. It should be fun!

A huge thankyou to my August Advertisers:

 Yardage Design

Spincushions

If you would like to advertise in September, just send me an email and I'll get back to you pronto!

A Mini and a Maxi Satchel

The Dragster is one of my favourite illustrations. I really like that it suits a entire range of ages.

I had one lonely Dragster Panel left in the stash, so I whipped up a new satchel for a friends son. He's growing up so quickly that he has now grown out of the mini satchel that I made a few years ago.

His little sister also needed a new satchel. The request was for pink, pink.... and more pink.

I think I can manage pink?

Prototypin'

Well the weather was absolutely miserable today....so what better thing to do than snuggle up inside where it's nice and warm for a spot of crafting.
I spent the afternoon, cutting, sewing, unpicking, more cutting, more sewing, more unpicking etc until I found a shape that was a bit different and that I liked.

Then I decided that I also wanted it to be reversible, so this is where I ended up. I stiffened the boxy bottom by adding some denim between the bottom layers.

I shall christen this bag Prototype 1. The next prototype will have some pockets and a neater strap. If you look really closely, you'll see that the strap is actually attached using curtain rings....it's the only thing I could find for the job today.

I made my very first sale in The CurlyPops Shop today (thankyou Liesl). A very big thankyou to everyone who checked it out and left me a message....I really appreciate the support!

By the way, I've just read a post by Sharon on her Handmaiden blog regarding costing and pricing for online selling....definitely worth checking out.

A Thankyou Gift

This is a thankyou gift for my friend Chris who knitted me the lovely scarf last week.

The denim is from an old pair of wide legged jeans that I chopped up, and the floral is from the remnant bin at Spotlight. I thought my sewing machine would struggle with the heavy denim (especially when sewing through four layers to make the handles) but there were no hiccups at all!

I might make another similar one for blogmeet....

What to do when lousy weather strikes.....

We were supposed to go to Rythm of Africa at the Werribee Zoo thisafternoon but the threat of rain and gale force winds was enough to change those plans! So instead, I used Jodies fab tutorial and made this bag instead.


It only took me about 2 hours (I had to unpick a couple of times because clearly, I can't follow instructions properly) from fabric selection to completion. I added an extra pocket (one for each side) and I didn't have any wadding or batting so I improvised and used curtain blockout backing material instead. I have one problem left. I want to add the lovely button detail that Jodie used on the straps, but I've been searching for my bag of buttons for half and hour and I cannot find them anywhere. If anybody out there is psychic, can you please let me know where to find my buttons (not my marbles, I know they're lost).