Bag it!

I bought a host of small bag frames recently. It was one of those purchases where you can see the possibility but actually getting round do doing something with it is another matter. Well, I finally did something with a couple of the frames this week. Unsurprisingly I made bags. I am not a lover of handbags. I have two - one small, leather bag for official events and a second world war ruck sack that I use when I need a bag to carry things. So a love of handbags was not my motivation for these projects.

My first attempt was based on a tutorial on the Serious Craft blog. It's a super simple tutorial that makes a really nice clutch bag. I used silk dupion for my bag and lined it in some gold lining fabric I had in my stash.The gold lining doesn't really go with the silver clasp but who's counting?

  My second attempt used a piece of fabric that I blogged about back in January. It is so bright and colourful that it seemed a shame that it was left to gather dust. It just so happened that it fitted one of the smaller bag frames. So after much wrestling with creating a pattern this was the final result. My only complaint is the little bit of red lining fabric peeking past the frame. Live and learn, live and learn.

Eclipse

There hasn't been much creativity going on over the last few weeks as I've been feeling under the weather. However, today the UK was treated to a partial eclipse of the sun. It was brilliant. It's always a privilege to see the wonders of nature. While cloud is usually a nuisance when there is something happening in the skies, today it was a help. With the light cloud cover we were able to take photos of the eclipse without having to use expensive filters. Marvellous!

Bag of Klimt

A few weeks ago I bought a bag making tutorial from Angie Hughes on Etsy called Bags of Klimt. I'd had my eye on it for a while but, you know how it is, so many lovelies to look at, not enough funds to buy them all when you see them. So I finally got around to purchasing one and got stuck into it with my sewing machine. Nice clear illustrations and instructions meant that it was all really simple to follow and I was introduced to a few new techniques along the way. This was the final result:

Not quite as pretty as Angie's (free motion embroidery isn't as easy as it looks) but it's a first attempt.

I did actually skip a few steps (impatient to see the end result - ahem!) but I liked the effects that I could create. No doubt I will make a few more and I will certainly use some of the techniques on other projects.