A little udder

One of my sisters took up crocheting at the same time I started knitting so I made her a smaller version of my needle udder for her crochet hooks. She isn’t a fan of flowers or paisley or anything like that so I struggled to find a fabric I liked that I could use for the inside of the udder. I finally found an off cut that I could use, that was very plain, but a colour she liked. Then I used the same fur I had used on my one as I knew she loved it. I accented the udder with beige and brown fastenings. My sister told me this was her favourite Christmas present. Dec 2009

Following the pattern

This is the first time I have followed a pattern. I decided to make some pj bottoms for a friend but didn’t know where to start so I bought a Newlook pattern (6859). I went shopping for material and it took me nearly a whole morning trying to decide on the fabric. I didn’t want to use checked material as this makes it harder due to trying to match the pattern so I went for a busy flower pattern instead. This is another fabric that I got a lot of so, again, it pops up in some other projects.It took me a while to decipher how to read a pattern, but once I had figured it out I managed to get the bottoms made pretty quickly. Dec 2009


This picture makes the legs look different lengths, but I assure you they were the same length.

A little something

Once I had made the bag for my friend I decided to make a mini version for her young daughter who loves bags as much as her mummy. I used the same materials and did a similar, but simplified design. The handles are made out of the inner seam of the grey jeans. Dec 2009

The picture on the right shows mother and daughter matching bags.

And sew it starts

When I was young whenever my nan knitted me and my siblings cardies and jumpers there would always be a label in it saying ‘hand knitted by nan’. As I decided to sew a few presents for Christmas my first thought was to get some ‘handmade by Hev’ labels made. It took me a whole evening to choose the design I wanted, I don’t really know why, it’s not like there was that much choice. But a few days later the labels arrived and I was ready to start making.

My first present I decided to make was a bag for a friend. I had an idea in my head of what the bag would look like. It was going to be a big bag made out of a few different fabrics. I had a long, black cord, skirt that was in good condition but that I hadn’t worn in ages so I decided to cut it up to use. As well as this I had a pair of grey jeans I had out grown so I cut those up too. I did buy some red/black flecky material to accent these two fabrics. I also got some black cotton for the lining, plus some d-loops for the handles and a few large buttons for decoration.
I didn’t have a pattern, or any thing to follow so I just sort of made it up as I went along, knowing how I wanted it to look in the end. It took me a while as I had to figure out how to do each detail I wanted to add. The most annoying thing was when I sewed the lining on, I turned it all in the right way and realised I had sewn the lining on inside out. It took forever to unpick, but I’ve never made the same mistake again.
I think this is where it started, my tendency for making bags. This was my first bag I made but it was not going to be my last. When I’m trying to think of something to make I most commonly make bags. I guess it’s because bags are one-size-fits-all and there are so many things you can do to them to make them different. This was also the start of me re-using materials from old clothing (I call the things made from old clothing items rejuve in my blog labels). Dec 2009