Amy Butler Bag

So I've had a lovely book sitting on my shelf for weeks, a book of Amy Butler bags with patterns and instructions and everything. The thing is it scared me, I love sewing, knitting and craft in general but, AB bags are soooo gorgeous I daren't even open it. Trouble is I also love bags, indeed I have a bit of an obsession with bags, don't care any kind. I have a draw overflowing with shopping bags, and a whole side of a double Ikea wardrobe full of them. So of course, I want an Amy Butler.

So I opened the book, beautiful the layout, the colours, the art-work and all the pattern pieces you don't even have to scale them up. Great, I spent hours looking longingly at the bags and flicking through the instructions before I decided on one, I found just the right fabric, agonised over what colour liner to put in it.

Decisions all made I opened the envelope in the back of the book and sorted the  pattern pieces and off I went. From start to finish I'd say it took about 5 hours, I've only made a couple of bags before so considering the finish you get it's not bad.

At the moment I enjoy carpet bags or tapestry bags so that's what I did and I'm very please with the results. But, I have a couple of comments about the instructions, make sure you read them all the way through before starting and that you understand exactly what to do. I found myself unpicking several times because I misunderstood the instructions. Also, make sure you check the pieces you need I found that one piece of the bag was just measurements in the book no pattern piece.










Despite the couple of reservations I am please with my cosmo bag, the finish is lovely and the inside has a couple of pockets in it.

Curtain Skirt

I haven't posted for a while so I thought it was time to get posting. My daughter is an avid leader of fashion for her peers and as such can soak up a large amount of time shopping and searching for style on the internet. Having said that once something is in her wardrobe it stays there and is usually combinable  with everything there, one of her favorite pieces at the moment is a picture skirt, it's a good shape fits perfectly and looks good. So as she didn't want to pay for another one, or wait for it to arrive from the States, she asked me to copy it. Link to my daughters blog: BATTAB

In the end the skirt cost me EUR5 to copy!! We found the bottom of some Ikea curtains that I'd taken up and I must admit the result is lovely :).

So here goes:

First thing to do is make a pattern, get a big sheet of paper, I used a newspaper - my favorite go to for pattern drawing, you can buy special paper but why bother. As the skirt fits perfectly and is only 2 panels (back and front) just lay it down and draw round it, adjust any measurements it need be, add 1.5cm all round for the seams and 5 cm for the hem, mark where the zip goes. Now you need to cut a piece for the waist band and interfacing, take the paper pattern lay it on a fresh sheet of paper and make a strip by copying the top 5 to 10cm this will give you an internal waistband.

Cut:

2x skirt panel

1x waistband in skirt fabric (on fold)

1x waistband in interfacing (on fold) without seam allowance

• Iron the interfacing onto the wrong side of the material waistband.
• zigzag round the cut out pieces.
• Lay the 2 panels together, right sides facing.
• Pin and sew together along the non-zip side.
• Open the seam and pin the interfacing on to the waist edge of the skirt, - again right side to right side.
• Sew along the top edge and trim the seam if necessary.
• Turn in the waistband and iron down.
• Sew the other seam to where the zip goes.
• Iron open the seam and carefully iron the rest of the 2 sides over.
• Pin and then tack (loosely sew) the zip into the skirt.
• Carefully machine sew the zip in - I find it easiest to adjust the needle to the side and do it slowly - to strengthen it machine over the bottom a couple of times.
• Turn up and sew the hem and tie the loose ends.

Where I've said iron, it is only a tip - but it does really make it easier. You can do this with any item og clothing!

ENJOY