I know that blogging has been very sparse around here. I try not to put pressure on myself to blog but I do want to get back into it. There is something that makes me want to share what is happening and what I'm creating. But I've been letting it slide for so long that whenever I think about writing, a little explosion goes off in my head with all the things that I have made, everything that has happened, amusing little anecdotes. And then I think, "maybe later".
But am going to attempt to kick off again with a project from last year when I decided to make book bags for first birthday presents for the babes in Sophie's gang. It took me awhile to choose fabrics. I had most in the stash and supplemented the pretty prints with some grey suiting fabrics and blue denim. In retrospect perhaps wool wasn't the most easy care fabric to choose but it has fantastic body and texture! Last week one of the Mum's said she was going to get hers dry cleaned which I took as hugely complimentary.
First I chose fabrics that I thought suited both the Mum and the baby. I chose different fabrics for the lining, the pocket linings and the back pockets so that took a bit of coordinating and cutting out.
Then I used MS word to select a font I liked then hugely enlarged the letters for a template for each of the initials. I ended up using two different fonts depending on the letter in question! You can see the "I" is serrif whereas the "W" is sans. It also depended on whether it was for a boy or a girl.
I cut out the bags to maximise use of the fabric I had ensuring that enough was available for the handles. The size is roughly 28cm X 35cm.
I used with double sided iron on interfacing for the letters to stick them to the pocket then appliqued around them with zig zag stitch.
I had so much fun making these. I ran out of steam before I did a sixth one for Sophie but I will hopefully make one for her one day.
