Neeltje

My friend K. give me this totally great piece of fabric for present, just out of the blue. Her talented youngest daughter Neeltje gets all credits for the mermaid drawings. And K. gave us all on her blog this lovely idea. Hard to resist to try!




Two pouches, one for L's friend Grietje, who's having her birthday and inviting all her friends to the zoo. And because L loved it, one for herself. A surprise when she comes home from school. With content that is.

Magpie

Rasmus is like a little magpie that loves to find and collect small antiquities. Yes, he's special and having his birthday party tomorrow. L is invited and she will bring this naturel leather pouch, not for his pens but for his finds.


The leather is bought last Saturday among a lot more beautiful pieces. Thanks Kristel, for the great day! And say congrats to me, making something out of it this soon ;).

Teenager-proof

Both my girls needed a toiletry bag for a long time already to replace the too small ones they used. Finally in Christmas holidays these Petit Pan sisters were made.


Bottom and inside from oilcloth, size large enough for the far future. Based on this fine tutorial.

The light one is for my youngest L; it's a part of her birthday present a few weeks ago. Yes, of course the rest will be shown soon as well.

Already preparing for Carnival...

Little gift

Of course M and I visited Petit Pan in Paris. Just love their fabrics. M choose this one. On the inside my favorite oilcloth.

For me, this is one of the most difficult sewing projects, so really, I do respect my Belgian blogger colleagues, for instance her and her. They finish over 10 pieces, when I hardly manage one! Like before, I used this tutorial.

I ironed the volume interfacing to the outer fabric, and that's what I have to skip next time, because unless the topstitching there's no relief left.
Never mind, I added all my love and closed the pouch. M is over the moon.

Appendix one week later: I had to laugh when I saw it laying around like this, without any air left inside.

Do the clutch - end

This third clutch was made for my sweet niece Sietske.

The clutches were made in the same order as shown to you. The pattern was just drawn by myself and was changed after clutch number one to get a slightly larger one. I loved to pick the fabrics with M, having the receiver of the present in mind.

After three clutches I wasn't bored at all! It's great to play with the patterns and to try to make the pattern continuously. The yellow pattern of this fabric was familiar to me, being one of the patterns in this book.

Let's finish these clutch series with some tips:

1. These Prym press fasteners are easy to cover. Cut a small circle of your fabric, baste along the edge, pull the thread to cover the upper part of the fastener.
2. It's better to reinforce the fabric on the inside for the lower fastener part. As the upper part is going through the flap with the volume interfacing, it is not necessary to reinforce here. 
3. When you make the wrist strap according to this tutorial and you're about to keep the swivel clip from sliding around, I recommend to stitch across the strap near the swivel clip exactly on the seam (that you made by connecting the two ends of the strap). Doing this will make the seam invisible. Something for purists, I know.
   

Do the clutch again

Today it's Christina's turn, who got 7 years old last Monday. Don't make it too flowery nor too pink, that's not like Christina, L assumed me.

We added some elastics and a hair band inside.

Do the clutch

Last weekend three clutches were made, two for two birthday girls of 14, one for a birthday girl of 7. Where were would we be for such presents without Sofie? The only little changes I made: the slightly bigger press fastener was covered by fabric. I'm not sure about Sofie, but for this clutch I used volume interfacing, that was attached to the lining.


Today it's Jula's turn. Now I know she liked it. As did M, who gave it to her.

Sweetheart

L has a sweet little boy in her class. Quiet, lovable, quite often the one and only boy present at girls' birthday parties. How to describe him more? He is knitting, loves knitting, knits all the time! While L is just starting her second knitted handicraft in school, he's finishing his third or forth one!
So when asking L for an appropriate present for his birthday she said at once: knitting needles! Maybe like all other girls who were invited... Never mind, because L added this unique (;)) self made present as well. Taking this pouch, but just extended it, thinking of this well-known Dutch horse. I used fusible interfacing on both outer as inner fabric, but still the long pouch could have been a bit more stable. Maybe I'll use another interfacing next time. But I do like the zipper result.

What more to tell about this small sewing project? The circle pattern of the fabric, which I really love, turned out to be continuous on the top; just a coincidence!

More experience

Thanks to L's friends who invite her, I take my chance to extend my zipper experience.

Girly fabric chosen by L, little necklace added inside. How-to found here (thanks, Sofie!). Only difference: I had no visible stitch on the lining along the zipper, because I had the lining facing the opposite site of the zipper during the top stitching. If you know what I mean...

First one

The making of this pencil pouch -my first ever!- was fun. At the exciting moment of turning it, I was surrounded by quite some kids, who looked at the pouch as looking at a play. They were surprised that a wad of textile can turn into a common object.
Thanks Spiegelstiksels and Oon for helping me! Especially the first tutorial was useful to me, but the cut corners didn't align one hundred per cent. I just trimmed them a bit to make them align. No problem! Upper right: I turned it inside out to show you the red inside.
This prototype was a birthday present for L's friend next door. I'm sorry, Jil, that I forgot to add the tabs. And next time I'll use interfacing for both outer fabric and lining. I'll make you an improved one as well.
Btw, can you believe that these are M's very first felt pens? Sinterklaas gave them to her and she's happy!

Her idea

(Almost forgotten how to blog, but here I am again!)

Today M wanted only one thing: a new cell phone cosy. Since she lost her phone a while ago, she got a new one, the cheapest ever. But she is as happy as ever.
She told me exactly what to do. Making the tiny phone going upward by pulling the string or ribbon. So this is it, out of remnants of some former blogged items. Does any of you blog followers know which one?

Me and zippers

L is having a birthday party at the moment. For Philemon I made this pencil pouch. It means practicing zipper sewing to me. The fabric of Ikea you saw before.

All design credits of this present go to my super creative friend Kristel. A lot of variations are entering my mind... I'm curious what the outcome of that will be. And if there will be one...

Be careful birthday boy!

Leaving

My colleague Roel is leaving us. He likes this blog, so I gave him a self-made souvenir. I used this good old tutorial of Vlijtig. Took the sizes slightly bigger for the iPhone 4 model. And demolished a small, cheap coin purse of Hema to get a spring-fastener.

Roel, all the best!

More school supplies

L needed a simple little bag to keep her shoes for gym and eurithmics lessons. I love such an occassion to make her something. 
And I'm obviously not the only mother who sticks to the craft supplies of HEMA. In the schoolyard I see the applications and ribbons on t-shirts, trousers, bags, ...

First attempt

This summer I finally wanted to make a stamp. At my work we have plenty of linoleum samples. I worked hard and precisely, but this material is in my opinion too flat to use for stamps. The second attempt was with a sample of bulletin board. This worked out better, but with a result that I was not fully satisfied with. I used the stamp to make an invitation, and to stamp on little price bags for the skate party, made of fabric remnants. When you use this ink and iron it to fixate, the stamp will be definitive.
Some weeks ago I used an eraser of HEMA to make a stamp with better results.