I just love piping, I think it gives every bag something special. I was browsing some blogs and found this great tutorial about piping over at U-Handbags.  The only question is, which bag should I try it on?I didn’t wanted to make something big, since I only wanted to try out the tutorial, so I came up with a little clutch pattern.

It was also the perfect project to try out my new Stitch-It Kit from Sublime Stitching. Since I used some classic pinstripe fabric I went for the skull to make it a little bit more interesting. The kit comes with 35 cute transfer pattern, but it’s not a really good starter kit in my opinion. It gives you some basic stitches but doesn’t give you any suggestion what kind of stitch you should use with which pattern. The yarn comes in basic very bright colors and the hoop is pretty unstable. So if you really like the pattern, then go for it, or buy some from the website and save yourself the money and buy some yarn you like and a good hoop

The piping was really easy to make, thanks to the great tutorial. I’m not really a fan of the clutch, somehow it turned out a bit wonky. I just can’t seem to find the perfect interfacing, sigh. This time I used Freudenberg 250 which is pretty stiff and some thin quilt batting, and even though the lining is home decor fabric, it still doesn’t feel right. I also added two inner pockets for my cigarettes (cough) and keys.

But anyway, mission accomplished: I now know how to make piping :)

I found this great meme called Sunday Stash and just had to play along. Even though it will be hard for me to post on Sundays because usually I’m over at my SO’s house, but I’ll try to take pictures in advance. Anyway here we go, my first stash pic:

up I know these look familiar, because this is what my future quilt will be made out of. These are fat quarters from Heather Ross Mendocino in Jughandle I ordered two month ago. The quilt will actually feature only the yellows and plums and I hope I made the right decision, because looking at the picture now I quite like the pinks. But I guess I will use them for future pouches/clutches/make-up-bags.

So if you want to join the Sunday Stash fun head over to 1/4 of an inch.

I love Etsy! And I love PDF patterns! It’s instant gratification. I bought this pattern and lucky me I found a zipper at home so I could make this really cute pouch. I don’t know why this pattern is called clutch because in my opinion it’s definitely a pouch. Anyhow, it’s great for carrying my make-up around (read: three lipsticks, powder, lip balm, hairpins, lighter, cellphone) instead of just tossing everything in my bag.

It’s actually not as quick as the name suggests but it’s a lot of fun and I definitely learned some new tricks I can use in future projects. I’m still trying to figure out how to make a pattern on my own using pleats, so if anyone has a tip let me know.

Ever since I first saw Heather Ross Mendocino line i knew I had to make a quilt. The only problem is: quilts scare me. I’m bad at math, I’m bad at cutting straight and I have no patience whatsoever. I only made one quilt so far which was the Easy Lap Quilt from Amy Karols “Bend the Rules of Sewing”. Since you design on the go with this quilt, it was a great project for me because it didn’t require planing ahead. 

Anyhow, since I’ll have 3 weeks off over Christmas I thought if I don’t try to make a quilt then, I probably never will. So yesterday I made a “floor plan” for my quilt to figure out how much fabric I need, and since I tend to forget things in my calculations I asked my boyfriend to help. Let me just say this: it can be a blessing and a curse to have  a programmer-math-geek as a boyfriend :) A half hour, a few discussions and many laughs later I knew how much yardage of each fabric I had to buy and went over to fabricworm.com. I ordered 9 yards and on checkout my heart dropped: 72 $ plus 28 $ shipping. Oh boy that’s a lot for a quilt that I’ll probably gonna mess up, but I ordered it anyway. 

But there are good news too:

First, Cynthia from fabricworm mailed me today that she could fit the whole 9 yards (ha!) into a Flate Rate envelope so I only have to pay 12$ shipping to Germany.

Second, I will probably learn a lot until this quilt is finished and third, I’ll keep you posted during the process so maybe you’ll learn something too, even if it’s only some new cuss words.  

So cross your fingers that the package will arrive in time - only 3 1/2 weeks to go.

Customize a chair- maya*made shows you how

Gift Card Box - A free pattern from Heather Bailey

Felt Advent Calendar - Make it now, use it next year again

Paper Flower CD Case - Give away your favorite mix-CD

Snow Mum Pillow - It doesn’t have to snow to make this one

I love Amy Butler fabric and I love her pattern, I just wish it would be easier to get my hands on them without ordering from the U.S.

So I was delighted to find this podcast with her over at decor8. If you want to know the woman behind the fabric and how she became a designer check it out!

In other Amy related news, she just launched  Midwest Modern 2, which  essentially contains the same design as Midwest Modern but this time using fall colors. She also has a new look-book available for download on her website.