Renewed, refreshed, recycled... and kind of new.

I may be a little quiet over here in blog-land lately, but I'm still alive... tinkering away at a few new ideas, following up a few conversations, sleeping a bit, knitting, revamping a few patterns to make them downloadable pdfs...

 

 The Belle was originally written in 2005.  Unlike most of my other patterns, it hadn't been tweaked since it was released.  

Although it was heartening to see how much my pattern-writing skills have improved since then, and how much I've improved my methods, it was a can of worms, once I opened it up and started fixing things. There were mutterings about whose idea it was to go poking around in old patterns, anyway.

I pretty-much rewrote the whole thing.  I took new photos.  I made it better, faster, stronger....

 

I had some fabulous pattern-testers test it for me.  You can see the results of Anna's pattern-testing here.

I'm thinking the Belle would make a really good carry-bag for crochet or circular-knitting projects. (This is possibly because I'm a bit obsessed with all things yarn right now, and I seem to look at everything with a view to its ability to carry crochet or circular-knitting projects....)
 

In other revamping news, Melbourne has turned cold, cold, cold.... and the girleen and I are rarely seen outdoors without a beret.   Both the adults and kids berets are available as a pdf or as a paper pattern now.  I love making berets - instant-gratification sewing for instant-glamour and snuggly warmth.  Satisfaction all 'round.

The girleen hasn't stood still long enough for me to photograph her in the current favourite (which is the blue wool one I made when I revamped the pattern instructions), so I dug out some of the original photos ....awwww......my little pre-school girl.... 

 

 And in between there are edits and rewrites, and plans for new patterns....

 

There are also a few new dates scheduled for classes in my Northcote studio, and a few dates in Addicted to Fabric in Canberra.  Do come!

 

And in between that, I'm knitting.

 

 

 

 

 

More Denyse Schmidt fabric.. and a Belle Bag

This is the Belle bag.
Ok... so it's a bit of a Denyse Schmidt overload.... There are diferent fabrics on the way - I promise!

For a girly-looking little bag, the Belle actually opens up to be quite roomy. This is the inside.

It closes in two directions, which pulls the shape in to make it a "puff" . First are the side tabs with a small magnetic snap...
Then the centre-front and centre-back clip together with a large magnetic snap.
I used medium-heavy interfacing and light fusible wadding on the bag pieces. I also fused medium-heavy interfacing to the lining, to hold its shape firmly onto the inside of the bag. It's the first time I've done that - and now I wish I'd written it into the instructions because it also helps to support the structure in the bag really well.