Busy, busy

I took advantage of the cooler weather to go back to bed for a bit this morning, that's the other thing I hate about summer, I don't sleep well & so I'm perpetually cranky. What's that? I'm always cranky?! Well, how rude. I'm just particular, that's all.

Enough about me, more about the work in progress. I found a great site here & she suggested using a quilting ruler (of which there are a few in the house, even though I don't quilt) to cut squares out of each corner (mine were 1"/2.54cm) & then lining up the seams. Boy, what a great tip! My perpendiculars are pretty perped, let me tell you - anyway, I was so thrilled I made two bags & some lavender pyramids & put the lot up on Etsy for the bargain basement price of $25. US, that is. Anyway, we'll see. There are lots of people out there doing pouches, boxy or otherwise, but only mine has the added bonus!

The only other thing was that I haven't seen any method of making a lined boxy pouch without having a raw or overlocked (that's 'sergered', to those of you in the US of A) seam showing & I don't want that. I want it to be really nice! I did have a bit of a brainwave about how to do it, but when it came to practical application, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I need my mother for this, she's a genius at that stuff! Mum! Get on a plane!

Summer, blah

So, it's about 20C today, lovely. I hate summer. It's hot, it's sticky, my hair goes frizzy, I get cranky. I was going to meet up with mwh after my sojourn out in the golden west yesterday, and waded my way through the humanity heading into the station as I was attempting to head out, man, that was fun... sadly, the nice bar where we go for drinks etc on the occasional evening was closed! Orrore!

Anyway, the lovely southerly buster came through with a vengeance last night & has cooled things down so I can wear real clothes again (sitting here in grey trackies & a pink cardie as we speak...) and more importantly, I can think. I hate how the heat melts by mrain. See!

Enough whining. Here's the pictures I couldn't post yesterday of Protea and the pouch I finished last night. I found a set of instructions for a lined boxy pouch which basically said "make two & then stitch one inside the other'. Hmmm. I may try it that way but there's got to be a "make them both at the same time" method, I just need to find it. An Etsy pattern may be the way to go, methinks.

Happy Birthday Kaz!

Well, the birthday parcel has arrived in the beautiful HV, so I can now share the pictures with you. I'm getting better at the pouches, too, I just made another one with the squared up corners but I still can't work out how to get the angles right - I'm still sewing them a little bit off the perpendicular. Hmm. Maybe I need to get the set square out? Also, Blogger is being a bit tempramental tonight & I can't get the other image of Kaz's gift to appear the right way round, you'll just have to imagine a large-ish bag with drawstrings, in the same lovely lime green & orange as the pouch. I'm working on fixing this. Most annoying!

In the meantime, I've also given the lovely Protea froggie some new eyes, I wasn't very happy with the ones he had before, too pink (he looked a bit like a rabbit with mixo) but the camera battery needs recharging, so tomorrow it is. I also bought some new cards from here, and put my own photos on them - what a great idea this is - you can have a different photo on every card - if you're a keen photographer looking to advertise, this is a nice cheap way to do it - $19.95US for 100 cards - can't beat that - & they're great quality... anyway, here's one of my photos for you to feast your eyes on.

Well, it's a dry heat...

Today was a stinker, especially out west, which is where we don't live. This is where we do live, and the water was about 23C tonight. Nice. No sewing today but, too knackered. Maybe tomorrow!

Making whoopee

So a friend rings me & says "make me some lavender bags for a colleague... blah blah blah...", all the rest has been deleted in the interests of national security. I don't want to cause any ructions here, so I've gone with discretion being the better part of valour, and all that.

Anyway, gift made & ready to be shipped, and pictured here.

I've also just received 50, yep 50, 9" zips (that's 22.86cm for those of us in the rest of the world), from here, in a whole range of great colours, & I'm about to seriously start making pouches for sale. I have a gorgeous one in turquoises cut out to give to a person at work who is about to get married, & we'll see how we go. Alex loved hers (well, it immediately disappeared into the depths of her room, so I'm thinking she liked it!)... is 10yo approval less worthwhile than, say, 40yo approval? I'm not sure.

Anyway, my time here is up, my jammies are calling me and I've got a big day going round & round on the shuttle between the city & somewhere else! Off to bed, said Zebeedee.

And when you're not...

You're definitely not. I made another pouch to give to Miss Alex, who's 10 (nearly 11!) & got it all stitched up & then noticed I'd caught the little bit of a patch I made when I cut it out, in the side-seam & it had split. Damn. About the only thing I can do is to unpick the lining seam, turn it back out & then make it even narrower. Major bummer - and so I definitely can't give it to Alex. But I did make her another, much better, pink one, here! Also I have things to post that I've made for Kaz's birthday, but I can't post them yet because I know she reads this... sometimes!!!

Also, if anybody knows how to make a lined box-y pouch, can they tell me? Mine are definitely only coming out 'boat shaped' (which is not so bad really), but I want to make a proper lined box!!! See, the frustration did get to me. Off, off to the biscuit tin (I got some genuine McVities Ginger Nuts last week and they're mine, all mine!)

Heat burns, y'know...

So, did I rave about the little iron mwh bought me for Christmas? Well, if I didn't, I should have, because it's great for getting into those tiny little corners & the insides of things. But it also has this magic property - it burns things... good thing I was watching (sort of) what I was doing... the silk bird (top left) I made has a light brown patch right under her tail from the shaft of the iron. Boy you have to watch those hot shafts.

Hmm. Moving right along.

I made these today, for Mary, and the birdies yesterday. I just love that Olive Rose. Also, as promised, I posted the zippered pouch & matching lavender bags off to MGF Kaz. We'll see what she has to say!

Back to work today. Notice how that's the last thing I note here? 'Nuf said.