Birdland bag

A week or so ago I made this post about the new line of handpainted/collage canvas bags that were coming to my shop. Then, Ruth, the brain, hands.... everything! behind Birdland Creations asked me to paint a bag with the logo of her shop.
I like custom orders because it is something new, you have the chance to talk and get to know a bit the person behind the shop...and it is ussually a nice experience. A challenge.
So, I set out to do it.

I printed the logo in A3 size and then tried to copy it onto the bag as acquaretely as possible. There is no making mistakes here or you have to throw away the bag and start again with a new one.






Then it was time to start painting. I mixed some yellow and red for the orange flower and beak... only I mixed too much! I don't like throwing away. I hate wasting materials... and there was so much paint left! ... quick! I thought, grab another bag and paint something else.











...the "paralel" bag. Some tulips.









The finished bag:


And the little (21x25cm) tulip bag:


This was fun, really, it was. I started to get all sort of ideas whilst painting this bag for Ruth. And I'm glad that she likes it too!

New old machine

A few months ago I received as a gift, a very old sewing machine. The neighbour of a friend of mine, a very old lady, was moving away and she wanted to get rid of this machine she hasn't use in... decades. It is actually a machine from the 60s. Old.
I have absolutely no clue about machine sewing. The little sewing I have done in my life has always been done by hand. I always wanted to learn and never had anybody to teach me (my grandma refused because since I was going to University to study big things, what was the point of learning how to sew... that was her reasoning which I still don't get).
I had that machine laying around (like everything, in the living room) until a few days ago I finnally sat my mother in law in front of it and gave a command: "make it sew!". No, not really or I wouldn't be alive now.
She sat there and patiently showed me the laberynth the thread has to follow, through loops and holes and little needle eyes. The secret thread underneath...aaaaha! so that is how it works! I didn't know about it!!! And all sort of things. And she said... ok. Sew. That was a command. And I folded a piece of fabric and stepped on the pedal... and I haven't stopped since.
No, not a pro yet (or ever)... not by chance. Buuuuut, just to make myself learn, I decided to make two little bags to take as a present to a play date with my kid. We were going to visit girls, so... little bags I made:



And then I got excited by the results (hey, pretty darn good for a first timer!) and made a combined bag, two different fabrics... and lining!!!!




Wait wait... that is not all... I do work with hand made felt after all, don't I... I made a few laps of felt and then tried them on the machine... shouldn't be so thick next time. I tried that "free hand sewing' thing... kinda fun!

(two different shades of green merino and some linen fibers)



(beige merino -black in the front- and those stripes are silky lint).


Not fully satisfied, after all I am in experimentation phase, I went and downloaded a bunch of free patterns from Amy Buttler..........pffffffffffff.... not only is everything in inches (ok, I could do the math...could...maybe...); but I think...nonono... Im sure that that is a complete other league. Delusional, moi???? naaah.
So back to simple.
I harvested some lavender from my garden yesterday, so this morning I made small little sachets with fabric scraps, stuffed them with lavender and put them around in my drawers. My drawers, because my husband can not imagine his socks smelling like lavender. I made extra small sachets to include in the packages sent to customers.


And last... recycle, recycle, recycle.... nothing gets thrown away: a multi-scrap sachet.



This should provide enough reading for the rest of the week...hahaha...
Have a nice monday!