Lots of little gifts...

Ready for a bit of time travel? You'll need to go back in time to Christmas 2011! I made a pouch and three of the very popular and oh-so-clever drawstring bags for presents.
In a bit of a last minute sewing frenzy, I managed to turn this stack:

Into this:

Christmas Present for my son's favourite childcare teacher

this:

Christmas present for sister-in-law

and this:

Christmas present for brother-in-law

My zippy zipper ends were always bothering me, so I finally splurged and bought Oh Fransson!'s Perfect Zip Bag pattern, and it was worth every penny.

Now, if I'd made these recently, they could so be part of the My Precious QAL; my heart palpitated as I cut the precious fabric. Perhaps I'll have to make myself something special soon?

And those of you paying close attention will have realised that there was also some Echino fabric in that first pic - I better snap a photo of the iPad case I made for my husband!

Cool Kindy Pencil Case

My eldest just started Kindergarten this year and I couldn't send him to school with just any pencil case.

I gave him a choice of fabrics and was really pleased that he choose my favourite Melody Miller print from her first line of fabrics, Ruby Star Rising. It's been sitting in my stash for quite a while now in need of some love!

The size was determined by the print - I cut 1/2 inch out from the edge of the viewmaster reels to make eight reels fit perfectly on each side. Whenever I make a zippy now I use the techniques from Oh, Fransson's perfect zip bags pdf pattern - it makes for such tidy zipper ends. I also ironed interfacing onto both the outside and lining pieces, and sewed in a stiff woven interfacing. It should last at least the year!

Inside, one of my fabric faves - a snippet of MoMo's Wonderland scissors. So perfect for a pencil case, and I love to see it peeking out.
Still plenty of finished items to blog...I just need some sunshine to take some decent photos!

Kitchen Curtains

Really? Have I not blogged since my giveaway winner post? Sorry about that - times have been busy (in good ways, mostly) - overseas visitors; brother-in-law's wedding (can't wait to show you the flower girl dress I made my daughter); my sister's moved here!!!

I've got lots of projects to blog about, some from ages ago, so here's the first one - our kitchen curtains. Yes, it took five years for me to make a window covering for our kitchen, but at least these are pretty awesome, thanks to Melody Miller's Ruby Star Rising fabric. I was super excited when I showed my husband about a dozen fabric options and he chose this one! I was even more excited when an online search turned up this fabric half-price - making it much more affordable. Somehow I managed to order just a bit less than I needed, so I used some Denyse Schmidt Country Road from my stash to make the casing and some tiebacks - it coordinates really well.

Unfortunately, I found it seriously hard to take a good photo of curtains, as they were so back-lit. Hopefully you get the idea.

I've got lots of little Christmas presents to blog about, and that flower girl dress - I'm just waiting for some photos from the proper photographer.