Pouches to go!

Backtracking to Christmas, I decided to make good use of my sewing skills and produced a few bags and pouches for my step-daughters and other family. I love working with colors and trying to mix colors and patterns for a fun effect. I wish I'd kept one of these for myself, but as I was running out of time, I was only able to make them as presents. The tutorial for these great pouches can be found at the Noodlehead blog.

A plain linen type cloth with polka-dots makes up the body, and an inner panel with 3 different fabrics and an appliqued hexagon.

Same style, just reversed the fabrics a bit and used a different hexagon.

Used a different background fabric, a linen-type with fun bright flowers on it, and a subdued darker fabric for the center panel. To brighten the center I put a bright green hexagon on it and added some embroidery detail with light colored thread.

Inside the bags I used a fun purple fabric which I bought for 50% off in town.

Made 2 of these Charlie brown themed bags for my son and one of our good friends.

Different styled bag which is really easy to sew up, the exterior is all Christmas scraps sewn together randomly, and a linen type darker fabric with polka dots for the inner panel.

Backside of the random Christmas scrap exterior.

Another bag in the same style as above, but with brighter flower fabrics which I found on sale at Jusco's Pandora House (if anyone goes to Jusco)

Inside of these bags uses a dark purple fabric decorated with Japanese rabbits, this is the year of the rabbit!

And when I remembered it, each bag got a little tag on the edge....

Close up of some fabrics I used. All are cotton and bought around me.

I love making bags, I think so far they are my favorite item to sew up, but I made a couple of hand made scarves, and those were pretty cool too.

Some scrappy free-style log-cabin candlemats I made for small Christmas gifts. No pattern involved, really simple using strips and leftovers. Embroidery was mostly straight stitch using leftover thread from other projects. Threw some beads in for accent. Have never done the log cabin block before, so it took a few tries for me to get the hang of it.

Used a snowflake embroidery theme around the edges on this one.

Tried for a holly and leaves look with the beads.

Straight stitch embroidery is relaxing, no thinking involved, just trying to get the lines straight!

Tried to put some simple Christmas trees in the corners.

For those of you asking about buying some of these, many of them are originals and I don't usually make more than a few at a time. But if you see something in particular you like, jot me a note and I can re-do it for you, though probably slightly different fabrics will be involved.

Paper Piecing bitty bowl!

The little tiny bowl was a lot of fun to make, made from English paper pieced hexagons, 1/2inch diameter each. I thought with it being so small it'd stitch up pretty quick, but being so small, it was trickier than I expected. I got the idea from here, and finally found pentagon pieces online from the States here. The nice thing with this is it uses scraps, which I love! This bowl was my test run, and it turned out cute, but i didn't put any interfacing in it, so it's very flopsy.

So, my next try I made the bowl using 2" sized pentagons and I ironed interfacing inside one layer and it turned out much sturdier, able to be used to hold candies or small things. In the future I'll iron interfacing to both sides for a good sturdy bowl.

I finished the bowl off with a buttonhole stitch around the edges for a sort of homemade/country style look.

And finally, when starting Christmas ornaments this year, I wanted to make little snowmen out of hexagon balls, but after making the first 2, I realized it was going to take ages to make one, so had to revamp my plan.

Bits for Boys

Made for some of the littlest boys in my life, Jordan and his friend Yuji. Pencil cases from character fabric that they love. Pokemon for Yuji, Nintendo for Jordan. Now to finish Peanuts for Jay and Little Miss for Julia!

Pokemon front

The insides are lined as well, with a nice check/plaid I found.

Back of Pokemon

Front of Nintendo's Mario Kart...I didn't pay attention though to the image direction, and so Mario's Kart is upside down.

Back of Nintendo, all images are going the right way on the back :)

BABY Bits

Decided to attempt some baby things for some of the new babies in my life...NOT MINE! Don't worry everyone, for friends and family!

Found this adorable caterpillar pattern in a Japanese quilting magazine, and had to make it. Don't know how reliable it is as a toy, I did try to make it strong enough to endure playing, but I think I'd leave it as a mobile or decor.

Yoshi decided to help me model out one of the bibs I put together, easy and fun to make.

The pile of baby boy bibs I made, I have a few leftover, am thinking to list them on Etsy for sale.

Small fabric basket, big enough to hold some cotton, diaper cream and little odds and ends that need organizing.

The bottom of the basket, a Japanese linen-type fabric with hand embroidery embellishing.

Another free pattern I found online for a diaper clutch, throw a few diapers and pocket wipes into it and it's ready to toss in your purse for those quick trips out the door, walks and times when you don't really need a full-on diaper bag.

You can't see it too clearly, but the top has a hand-embroidered feather stitch using scraps of embroidery thread left over from years of cros-stitch projects.

I love playing with colors, that caterpillar is made primarily from scraps with lots of color.

Julia has asked me for a mini-version of this to hang on her school bag, as soon as I have time, I want to attempt it.

Close up of the bib. I did all machine quilting on it, using a multi-color blue thread for the top. But the little hexagon embellishment was hand-sewn.

Bitty Gifts

Made these up for my sister a few weeks ago and have been waiting for her to get the package before I posted the pics! Was fun doing these, the snowman doorhanger pattern can be found here, and the little pouchy thing was from a book I purchased at Amazon.

I told my sister that all in all, if I were to be paid for the hours put into those, that snowman door hanger would cost about $400, damn expensive! LOL! It has some applique in it, of which I'm not that good at, and I had to pull out a few parts to redo. Other than that, it was easy enough. The little pouch is a Japanese lineny sort of fabric, really popular in Japan now, with a babushka (??) Russian doll design on it, I love that fabric and couldn't wait to make something out of it! In terms of time it only took about 20 minutes to put together, really easy, and, very convenient for your purse!

Mee A Bee

Meet my new foreign housewife friend in Japan who makes these adorable little bags out of Japanese fabrics. And lucky for me, she lives close enough for me to drop by on my way home from work sometimes, for a cuppa or comparing sewing projects, or best of all, hashing out the problems involved with raising your children in a foreign culture and school system.

Mee A Bee