My new handbag

My old handbag has been falling to bits for quite a while now so this week along with one hundred and one other tasks i decided to make myself a new one.
Here is the finished article and some photos of it in the making.

Mostly i used an old pair of jeans, and yes they were not the usual blue colour. The cowgirls came from an old pair of E's pj's, the stars from a fat quarter i had lying around and the stripy cord from an old pair of E's trousers. The zip was recycled too, came from an old jacket, and the lining was made from sections of a sample booklet from a fabric shop.
I also used some really heavy interfacing, the kind that you would use for tie-backs, it was a little tricky to work with and it would have been better with something not quite so heavy, but there was no choice at the time.











Firstly I drew out a pattern on card so I could use it again another day. It started out as a rectangle and then I curved off the bottom corners, folding it in half to ensure that both sides were the same.
Then I cut out interfacing the size of the pattern pieces, one front, one back and one for the base, i didn't use any on the sides.
I then stitched the fabric directly onto the interfacing and trimmed back down to size. I overstitched the seams to add to the pattern.

Next I cut fabric for the sides, pockets for the sides and made the strap. Then i stitched it all together.

At this point i realised that i should have attached the strap sooner, so had to unstitch the sides and sew the straps on inside the side pockets! Hopefully i'll not be making that mistake again.

Lining next, with a little zipped pocket for hiding sweets in usually. Kids are always looking in my bag for them.
The zip was attached to lining using some more denim from the jeans. Broke a needle doing this! must remember to be more careful.

Next I attached the lining to the bag using a length of stripy cord trousers, machine stitched to the inside and then finished off by hand stitching it onto the outside.





All in all it took a little longer than expected, but it's exactly what I wanted from a bag, and the zip works and the strap is not held on with a safety pin as my old one was.

This bag is not for sale, but I have a selection of handbags for sale in my Folksy shop, go take a look.

Pastry Days

I've had a bit of productive afternoon, pies, tart's and something else!

The kids helped with the personalised chicken and ham pies, T only had ham, and E didn't get onion!
Jam tarts next, haven't made them in years, but i ran out of jam and had to finish the rest with a chocolate almond and syrup mix. Then i moved onto a coconut tart with an almond layer. Will be off to try them once they've cooled.
I've listed a few more things on Folksy now and i've sold something so i'm quite pleased with myself.
bye for now, JD

Polymer clay sweets

Have spent a large amount of the day taking photos of my liquorice allsorts and dolly mixture keyrings and charms. 

Some are now listed on Folksy, and the others will follow tomorrow.
I firstly made the sweets using polymer clay and had to eat several of the real ones just to make sure that mine looked the same. Managed not to mistake the clay ones for real!
Then using flat head pins and charm straps or split rings created the charms/keyrings.
Always a bit of fun.
bye for now, JD

My first post

A very original post title!

I'll start with a photo of the latest thing i made.

This is a Chocolate Valentine/Anniversary card and yes it does actually have chocolate in it and you can eat it, just the chocolate part though.
Ingredients - one 5" card, one divine milk chocolate advent calendar, one spare piece of denim, stamp & embossing powder.
Firstly open up the advent calendar and cut out one of the pieces  of chocolate keeping the plastic & foil around the heart intact.
Secondly cut a small square from the centre of the card, larger than the chocolate, but smaller than the plastic surround.
Next find a stamp that has a design that fits around the chocolate, i used  a limited edition free hostess gift from www.particraft.co.uk Stamp and emboss this onto a piece of denim or other fabric.
Fourthly cut a heart shaped hole in the centre of the denim and assemble as shown in the picture.

If you don't want to make your own, I have a shop www.folksy.com/shops/JDArt where you can also see some of my other creations. More additions to come.

bye for now, Julia