Sewing Room update

One of my goals for this year was to organise my sewing room. I am always in such a hurry to get onto the next project that I let the "junk" accumulate.

But I did it! And it only ended up taking a morning. I cleared out two black garbage bags of scraps. I don't really quilt so who am I kidding keeping all the tiniest of pieces.

Sewing table before

Sewing table after

I have to be careful anyway as it is not so much a sewing room, but a sewing area. A little corner of the basement that hubby designed and built for me when I began sewing again.

Cutting table before

Cutting table after

The cutting table was so piled high with projects that I was using the boys' beer pong sorry table tennis table! You can imagine how that went down when they were home!! Now I even have room to display some of the postcards I picked up at the Ball Gown Exhibition that I went to see in London in summer! Some sewing inspiration!

Most of the patterns are neatly packed in a milk crate. 

Threads arranged by color as far as possible

Old friends found! (from my bear sewing days)

That was the easy part. keeping this way is the tough part!!!!

Bag Lady

I have sewed not one but two bags in the last two weeks.  It does of course mean I am behind in my sewing goals for the year. But never fear, a Mathilde blouse is half finished on my sewing table. So keen am I to finish it, that I had 20 minutes to spare at about 6.45 am this morning (yes, 6.45am on a Sunday morning!!) so went and sewed before I headed out for my long run!

Anyway back to the bags. The first was a camera bag, the Paparrazi bag. I was a pattern tester for this new pattern from Sew Sweetness. I am not a quilter but I love her bags.

Front View

Back View

Here is my version of her Paparrazi bag. I love the fabric I chose, also love the pockets and inside there is  a removable insert to make the inner sections as wide or as small as you need.

 
The second bad was a shopping bag for a friend ( a hostess gift).

I used a ripcord nylon for this and I think it turned out well. Who doesn't need to keep a shopping bag in their handbag! I used the Simplicity pattern 2806 and sewed view B. This is the second bag I have done from this pattern and both have turned out well.

The Toronto Sewing Blog Meet Up

Dana, Gillian, Catja and Kristiann

The first Toronto Sewing Blog Meet Up took place on Saturday and it was a resounding success. Thanks to Gillian and Adrienne for all the organizing!

Vicky, Kristin, Andi and Tracey

I took the train in from the 'burbs and then got my exercise for the day by walking up to La Gourmand cafe on Spadina at Queen Street West. We were greeted like old friends even though most had never met each other in person.

We were given name tags with our blog addresses to we could figure out who was who. Then Catja spoiled us with decadent Cake Pops. Yummy!

Because we were 17 people, after the first store we split up into smaller groups and meandered along Queens Street West. It was such fun to look at what other people were buying and hearing their sewing plans. I was remarkably restrained, I only purchased one piece of fabric, a black and white polka dot cotton.

Vicky picked up this Mandela print Shweshwe fabric on a trip to South Africa

We shopped for a couple of hours before heading to the Tequila Bookworm (how cute a name is that!) where we had the upstairs reserved just for us. Our server was on his first day on the job and here he landed up with 17 ladies all talking non stop and of course he was also asked to take several group photos!!

Moi, with Adrienne and Seraphinalina

Gillian, Kay, Chloe, Anastasia, Dana, Vicki, Catja, Jagoda, Moi, Adrienne

Chloe, Reethi, Sarah and Anastasia
(I think that piece of fabric is going to grow up in to a pair of pants)

We then proceeded on to the second part of our day which was the fabric and pattern swap. That was great fun.

All in all a wonderful afternoon and I for one am looking forward to a summer one as well.

There are more photos up on Flickr.

Shopping Bag

One of my goals this year was to start making some of my hostess gifts. So this is the first one, a reusable shopping bag. I used a twill fabric for the bag and then wide double fold bias tape for the edging and blue webbing for the handles.

I used Simplicity 2806, and made view E. I liked the 6 big pockets, 3 on either side. Perfect for 2L pop bottles, or bottles of wine.

I didn't line the bag as I felt the fabric was thick enough and instead of the long and short handles, I made just medium length handles. I did triple stitch the seams and also overlocked (serged) the edges.

I think the hostess really liked her bag and we had a really great dinner on Saturday night!