Interchangeable patches

This is not a full project but more of an idea that you can implement into a project.  A few posts ago I showed off my little embroidery that came with a cute bag kit.

It's OK but it's not 100% my style although the bag is cute.  Now I could make the bag without the embroidery or I could put it on anyway and deal but then I got thinking.  What if I could do both?

This is a bit of a 'make it up as you go along' job with the odd ebay purchase to help.  The first step was from the kit- make up the backing border.  This is pretty basic- two pieces of fabric cut to size (allowing for seam allowances) and then sew around the edges, right sides facing.  Then cut a hole in one side to allow you to turn it inside out to make a little pocket thing (this hole is going to be the back when it's attached to the bag).

This is the point where things take a turn.  Jumping on ebay, I found some very thin little powerful magnets- you can see one of them in the photo above.  They are about 1 mm thick but are strong enough to stick to a metal washer through a layer of material (I checked before sewing them in).

Handsew these into place inside the fabric pocket onto the BACK piece of material.  That way the front stays nice and plain.

This is the BACK view of the pocket- you can tell by the rough slit to gain access and the stitch marks holding those magnets into place

Then all you need to do is sew some metal washers onto the back of whatever pieces you want to add to the patch.

Not the most pretty sewing job but shhh, no one else is going to see this bit!

Put the top patch in place and the magnets will hold it in place nicely

With four magnets (plus I bought an extra just in case that I've just stuck in the pocket with the others to add a bit of oomph) it's more than enough to hold the patch in place- holding it up and giving a good shake doesn't move it so it should?  be enough to keep things in place.  At least for something with low interaction- it probably will not work as well as is on a piece of clothing that rubs and catches on other things.  You could boost the strength in the attachments if you used more magnets instead of washers to the embroidery- just make sure you don't sew the magnets the wrong way so they repel rather than attract!

Feel free to leave a comment if you try it!  I realise that I could also have used velcro, but this way you don't see anything if the embroidery isn't put into place.  Plus maaagneeets...

More embroidery...

I seem to duck into different crafts in phases- one big or several small projects in one craft until I get tired of it then off to find a new exciting project.  What, me get distracted?  Oooh, kitty!

Meet George, my new kitty

Ahem.  So as I was saying, I've finished another embroidery- just started it because I was in the mood to do something small, easy to do on the couch and pretty.

The trouble was that crease above the trees.  That's AFTER washing and ironing it with steam.  Grrr.

So I hit google for ideas.  The easiest fix I found with stuff I had was to put some vinegar onto the crease as the acid would help loosen the fibres to iron the crease out.  Then wash it in water to remove the vinegar.  Here's the finished result after ironing and letting it dry

It hasn't completely removed it but it is well and truely in the background now, particularly with the 'bumpy threads' nature of the fabric itself.  I'd call it plausible (sorry, I've been watching a lot of Mythbusters on the break!)

And bonus round, here's a sweet little shadow work embroidery I did (see the theme conversation at the start of this post!)

Bunny bags

This is not the most high tech project but it is fun and good to do with the kids (or for the kids as it is in my case).  If you've not been in the shops since Jan 1 when the hot cross buns hit the shelves, Easter is coming.   I have three nibblings (my favourite word discovery recently- the plural of both nieces and nephews) and of course as a doting aunt, I have to get them chocolate.  But there is a bit of a mix of things to give (in part because one needs dairy free chocolate so that has to be different from the other two).  So I needed bags.

However, when I went to the shops, 'Easter bags' were starting from $2 each which seems silly for a bag you can't reuse for the next birthday/Christmas/present giving occasion the way that normal gift bags can.  But plain brown paper bags were only $2 for three.

So I was at home looking at my boring brown bags and decided to try and smarten them up.  Step one, cut out three pairs of ears from white paper and pink paper.  Nothing fancy, but I was sneaky and doubled over the paper prior to cutting so the rough, uneven ear would match the other.  Glue the parts together.

Next step, the tail.  I don't have a pompom stash at home so if you do, you could miss this step if you liked.  I tried two methods- using two discs of card with a slit cut through it to wrap wool around or wrap wool around the four fingers of the other hand (there are tons of pictures and explainations on how to do this on google).  The finger method was far faster than the card method, although the pompom was much neater than using the card method.

Both methods are much easier without certain assistance from George...

Finally glue the ears on the inside of the front of the bag and glue the pompom tail to the back (craft glue was good for this) and let dry.

Have fun and happy Easter!  And if you are one of my nibblings, no you can't find out what is inside until Easter.  Assuming the bunny inside doesn't eat it before then...

I've said it before, kits are good holiday go tos

Labour day was a little while ago but since I've not gotten around to photographing this until now, here's a new post!  This is part of a cute little bag kit I bought from a patchwork and quilting shop in NSW a few years ago on my travels and it was perfect to throw in a bag and take camping.

I tweaked the pattern a little- I added boards to the boat (it was just an outline originally) and changed the colours of the fish because I preferred the green and yellow.  The boards are a little wonky and uneven but I choose to call it quaint and rustic instead of 'wobbly because you really should've drawn it on before you started'.  The important thing for any project is to know how justify... innovative differences caused through inattention...

Really finished crochet bag

I went to see when I posted the finished crochet for a small bag and was slightly shocked that it was way back in 2014!  At the time it was just the outside, but since it had no lining it wasn't terribly usable.

Well I finally sat down with some fabric and tried to fix it.  I used some light blue/purple silk I picked up at a craft show years ago for the inside and some cream cotton for the outside and lining of the pocket.  It took a bit of puzzling and 'um, if I want the seam there to be inside but that seam to be opposite... ?' but I got there in the end.  Even got the pocket in properly and sewn in such that it is big but not going to lose things in the lining.

Sewing on a few small D rings and adding a chain (as I couldn't find something that would work for a strap and internet says that metal chain handles are in anyway) and it's finished.  There are a few little things that I can see that I did wrong but since I'm not an expert sewer or designer, I can live with them.  I might throw a few hidden stitches in to hold the crochet in place a little better but I suspect that it's one of those things that only I see.