Here’s my beautiful bag on holiday. My husband loves sailing (I tried it for four years but eventualy decided I didn’t like it! But thats another story.) and took the boat down to the solent. I went by train to meet him at Portsmouth. And then its a short trip on the Gosport ferry and then a very short walk to the marina. I love it in Gosport/Portsmouth, there’s so much to see with all the ships that come and go and the smaller boats coming in out of the marinas and just generally sailing around. Plus there’s a fabulous pub called the “Still & West”, has the most amazing view of the entrance to the harbour and one can sit for hours with a drink or two watching all the coming and goings. I used my bag constantly whilst here and it held up very well. I thought I’d share some pics. Oh yes and we actually had the most gorgeous weather too.

There will be lots of pics now!

Kooshty, our little boat.

Spinaker tower as seen from our mooring.

Me, enjoying the sunshine. A little chilly as its still quite early

Sunset, from the still & west.

Bag on the boat

Bag with cushions on the boat. Please excuse the mess in the background!

It is now July, and I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks now, and avidly reading the blog of Lauren Guthrie from the Great British Sewing Bee, (guthrie-ghani.co.uk) and her tutorial on making a weekend bag. I fell in love with the fabric she used and found some on ebay and promptly bought a meter of it. I also bought a meter of the clock fabric from Lauren’s online shop, and some other beautiful fabric too. Oh and I bought the webbing that she used for the straps (oh yes people I am an original thinker!). Just realised all that doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t go look at Lauren’s blog and her tutorial! Oh well if you want it to make sense you’ll have to go look.

Now obviously I decide that the bag in the tutorial is a bit too scary for me to take on for my first attempt (surprise surprise) and so I adapt it so it is less scary for me. I make it smaller, and leave out the pockets, and the magnetic snap fastener, and all the padding. Oh and I also end up using totally different fabric as the newly purchased fabric is far too nice and pretty to be cut up just yet (otherwise known as, I’m too scared). I’ll just sit and admire it for a while. Yes I will!

I bought some different webbing to use as straps from the lovely lovely Merchant & Mills in rye and used this instead, and found that I had enough fabric left over from the cushion making to use. I felt justified in using this as I felt it would be no biggie if I messed it up, so to speak. I’ll try not to bore you with too many pictures but I was so damned proud of the finished product that I took about a squillion pictures of it. I’ll narrow it down to the best ones. Or will I?

Naff modelling pic

Inside. Reversible.

Rest assured people, I do end up making things other than cushion covers. But like I said I’m a slow learner and like to be confident with what I’m doing before I move on. I’ve now made 6 or 7 cushion covers, I’ve lost count. Its nearly the end of June and I’m starting to feel the need to branch out a bit. Don’t worry though I shan’t venture too far out of my comfort zone. I’ve started thinking about bags and how I could go about making them. But of course thats quite a big scary step for me! So I’ll start with something small.

A pretty little pouch. Oh and look, it matches some cushions!

Another little pouch. For a friend.

So I think I’ve furnished myself with enough cushions for now, and start making them for friends. Whether they like it or not!

Front

Back

Flat

I’m now on a roll.  I made my first cushion cover on the 10th June 2013, the second one on the 11th June, then a third on the 12th. Forth on the 13th, had a day off on the 14th, then made the fifth on the fifteenth June.  Was away for the weekend and back to work on the Monday. I was now officially sewing! I had made things, I had made things that had a function. I turned flat pieces of fabric into something. And boy oh boy was I happy I was so happy, so so happy! Sorry for all the boring pics of cushions, but I’m very proud of them and want to show them off.

Back

Two together.

Lovely lovely cushions

Contrasting fabrics.

I’ve finished my first cushion cover and am now eager to do more. I didn’t really like the pillow case type cushion cover I made first time so looked for alternatives. I found a brilliant tutorial on “gone to earth” on envelope back cushion covers and they looked gorgeous. I read and re-read the post on how to do it, went to Dunelm mill and bought some gorgeous fabric. I also bought several cushion inserts and more cotton. I was almost as nervous buying fabric as I was making my first cushion cover. I didn’t really know how much I would need, and I think I totally confused the poor sales assistant, but she was really helpful and between us we managed to come to the conclusion that I’d need a meter of two types of fabric. I purchased said fabrics, drove home and went up to my sewing room and started to mark out the fabric, very very carefully. I was so nervous, this was lovely lovely fabric and quite expensive and I was scared of messing it up. After marking it very carefully I even more carefully cut the fabric, this was the point of no return! I cut the fabric, then marked out my seam allowance, Pinned it and began to sew……….

Here’s something you need to know about me, I am a slow learner. Always have been always will be. I need to see something done several times, maybe more, before I’ll attempt it, then I need to attempt it several times, usually more, before I feel even remotely comfortable that I know what I’m doing. I also think about doing things for a long time before I actually put anything into practice. I just want to explain why it took me from January last year when I first had the idea to sew, till June last year to finally put needle to fabric. Like I said in my previous post, I enrolled on a course at the college which didn’t start till the middle of March, then there was a hiccup with the first tutor (she was rubbish) I knew nothing about sewing and I could’ve done a better job! The next class I could attend wasn’t until the second week of April, I went to 4 classes and slowly began to realise that I was out of my depth. Having no prior knowledge of sewing was not helpful at all. I didn’t know what I was doing or why. I had no background knowledge to back up what I was being told or shown. I didn’t understand the sewing machines and they scared the living daylights out of me! All I knew, was that I wanted to sew but this wasn’t the way to go for me. I did however learn some things and pick up some tips that have been very useful to me. So it wasn’t a complete waste of time or money.

Its now the beginning of May and I procrastinate for a while feeling a little disheartened by the lack of appropriate classes out there. I have been watching the ” Great British Sewing Bee” and loving every minute of it, I have been perusing sewing blog after sewing blog. This is becoming an obsession now!

One of my many obstacles at this time was that I have nowhere to put the sewing machine my Mum lent me. I have a box room that used to be my Art room but is now full of junk. You know the kind you clear out of one room and put in another, plus a lot of rubbish that just needs to be thrown out but never got around to. I eventually enlist the help of my Husband to get that room cleared and turn it into my sewing room. We did this the bank holiday Monday end of May. I now have a sewing room, YAY! I put the sewing machine in my little sewing room and look at it for a few days. Then I thread the machine have a little go at sewing on some scrap material my Mum gave me and get very excited.

It is now June, and I decide I’m going to re-cover an old cushion and I buy my first piece of fabric and some calico. I have a week off coming up soon and think it will be a good idea to wait till then to attempt to sew anything properly, give me chance to really concentrate and I think it will probably take me a week to do it! So 10th June I make my first cushion cover. This is the start……….

It was around this time last year, at the age of 41 and 11 months, that i had an epiphany. Whilst toiling away at work one day feeling pretty miserable and wondering how I could maybe find something else to do with my life, an idea popped into my head. I could make my own tops (I can never find exactly what I want in shops so why not make my own) and these tops would be so fab that all women would eventually want one! And I could give up work and have my own fashion empire. Yes dear reader I have a vivid imagination and once I reigned it back in I remembered that I don’t actually know how to sew!

Hmmm could be a problem but only a minor one I thought. So I started looking into sewing classes, unfortunately they were few and far between where I live. I found the nearest thing that looked suitable, a “Pattern cutting and dressmaking” course at my local college. Apparently according to the blurb in the prospectus it was suitable for all abilities. However it did not say “suitable if you have no knowledge whatsoever of sewing or how a sewing machine works or anything at all to do with dressmaking”! I chose to ignore that fact and enrolled. I started the course in March and needless to say discovered it wasn’t for me. Although the lovely course tutor said I would be able to do it I simply felt out of my depth. Plus we were using industrial sewing machines which, given half a chance, wanted to sew my fingers to the fabric. So i decided not to take up any more of her time, or take her away from those who would benefit from the course, and left.

All was not lost though, I discovered that I was happy, very happy, making marks on paper and fabric and sticking pins in things and I was more determined than ever to discover how to make my own stuff. So my lovely Mum lent me her sewing machine to see if I could get on with it. I sat down with it and read the instruction manual, yes thats right, actually read an instruction manual. I’ve never read an instruction manual in my life, but I read this one. And I wound a bobbin (don’t you just love that word?) and threaded the machine. Oh man was I ecstatic!

So it is now June and I buy my first piece of fabric, I’m going to attempt to re-cover an old cushion. After examining my pillow cases I decide thats what I’m going to try, a pillow case type cover. Finally I feel ready to have a go! I don’t really know what I’m doing or how I’m going about it but I’m going to try. I measure the cushion, I mark the fabric, cut the fabric, and finally sit down to sew the fabric. I’m so nervous I am shaking and my hands are getting sweaty. I tentatively start the sewing machine and start sewing. I can’t do a straight line to save my life but its not too far off track, I keep sewing till I’ve finished. And when I finish I breath a sigh of relief. Then its the moment of truth. Will it fit the cushion?

Apparently so!