How things eventually come together

Around these parts, things rarely happen in a linear, organised fashion. It's all multi-tasking, juggling too many ideas and not enough time, dodging unforseens, managing minor crises and drawing wildcards... and no lists. Most people who see this in action wonder how anything gets done at all.
But they do. All it sometimes takes is a few hours in the studio on my own, with no interruptions. Weeks of half-started projects are completed, photographed and hung in the showroom. Gosh, sometimes they're even Photoshopped and blogged.

(This felted wool number is my Sling bag pattern, with a bit of a ruffly rose made from the off-cut selvedge. I also altered the strap to put a big shiny ring in it. Fabric was a bargain from GJ's).

And HOW LOVELY to see a completed nest of A-line skirt samples - sizes 8-18 (US size 6-16?). My only disappointment was that I made this panel feature on the size 18 instead of in my size.
This pattern is currently being tested by lots of lovely gals, and will hopefully be ready in time for the Quilt and Craft Fair in Melbourne.
My patchwork experiments have been put to use in a few bags and purses. I tried to blend the craftsy look with a bit of street-smart topstitched denim and a few sharp lines. My Day Bag pattern was a good 'blank canvas' to play on...And I made the Day Bag as a satchel, in soft and fuzzy woolly Rathdowne Remnants bargain fabric with more patchwork and a few (..ahem... strategically placed) bits of leather.

This 150mm Frame Purse (below) makes the pretence that what is revealed by the cut-away area is indeed worth featuring (??) but it was a little idea I've had in my head for a while, so it was good to get it out.
And sometimes, to finish off a good finishing session, I just have to start something else...I made this Chunky Purse with some machine-knitted "learning experience" pieces. There was an awful lot of chopping and stitching bits on, until it resembled a rose-ish sort of thing.

It took ages. I nearly gave up and binned it a few times... and then poof! It appeared! As if by magic. (I only wish I'd done it in a colour that's easier to photograph.)

After that, I needed a super-quick-fix, so whipped up a Party Purse in the same knitted fabric - this time using the reverse side (ok.. so I accidentally interfaced the right side of fabric...As the wee girl says after embarrassing interruptions, "Let's continue...").

I slapped on a few randomly cut bits of felted jumper (sweater) with a few rows of top-stitching. Voila! FINISHED PURSE! (...and might I say, finished in an organised, linear fashion..?)
School starts again tomorrow, so hopefully there will be less distractions and more coming-together-of-things.

Gosh, I might even be organised in time for the Quilt Fair ....Who'd a thunk it?

Note to all the people who ask me where to get the patterns, purse frames, interfacing or hardware featured in my blog posts:
Please click on the highlighted text. It takes forever to put all the links in for you - please use them. :)

Another day at the office...

It was great to see this little purse finished today. My second-thoughts about having done squiggly free-motion stitchery were put to rest. I like. And I like it when I like.

I bought this tie-dye/marbled, felted wool in GJ's clearance room (upstairs, where the patchwork fabrics used to be) during the week. $15 per metre and lovely stuff...... so I took a metre in each of 3 colourways.

Ahem.. that's a lot of purses....
There were lots of purses at work today, in fact. A Purse Frame Class.
It was a hoot! Not only did I teach six fabulous women to make purses, but I learned a lot about what goes on behind-the-scenes in the Melbourne Zoo Gorilla enclosure..... (Conversation was interesting and varied!!!). Thanks for a fun day, girls!

Hot on the heels of the purse gals departure, a special student arrived for a bit of one-on-one tuition. This class had to be rescheduled from yesterday, when I was bad-mummy-who-was-too-busy. We used a Christmas present book as the basis of the lesson (because Mummy couldn't possibly know what she's talking about).And a star is born....

The rest of this week wasn't a lot of fun (bills, stress, deadlines... school holidays...). But days like today make me feel like I have the best job in the world.

My Local....

Fabric store, of course (...I can't remember the last time I was in a pub). I love GJ's Discount Fabrics in East Brunswick. And I think it's even better, now that all the patchwork fabrics are downstairs. The room is huge and light and full of colour. Gosh, there are even a few nice hat and bag samples.

GJ's were among the first stores to take on my patterns, way back in 2004, and have always supported me with lots of display space for samples.

They've always been good at keeping things fresh.... trying new things, turning over huge volumes of fabrics and always bringing in new ranges. (I love this Sherbet Pips range....it makes me want to make a quilt!!). They have great sales and bargain baskets (today I saw some Kaffe Fasset short ends for $8 per metre). Get on their mailing list!

And now they're the first to take on my first range of 'in store' bag hardware, to accompany the pattern range. So you can get all the bits to make the bag from the one place. No need to pay postage. We often talk about the great online craft community, but I love my local-real-life craft community, too. GJ's is a bit like the bar where everyone knows your name. A hub. I always bump into people I know, and the staff seem to know everyone. They focus on the real-life store and their customer service, and are constantly striving to improve both.

Even if this sounds like an infomercial/advertorial, it isn't. I just really love what they do and I appreciate their support.

Do you have a 'local'...? (And ...ummm...do you think they might like to try a bit of bag hardware..?).

PS. We've also begun wholesaling bulk quantities of hardware to makers of handcrafted bags and purses. If you'd like to order rings, frames etc in quantites of 50's and/or 100's, drop us a line and we can send you the relevant info. (Note: There are minimum order quantities).

On the way to work this morning....

I found myself at GJ's Discount Fabrics. In the back room, there was a pile of patchwork fabrics on clearance for $12 and $8 per metre - Moda, Robert Kauffman, Vera Bradley, Michael Miller etc.

If you're in get-down-there-quick-before-all-the-good-stuff-is-gone distance, it might be worth popping in for a spot of stash-building. (Word of warning - I bought the last 3.5 metres of the Moda "Sweet" rose and stripe print).

Just another Manic Tuesday

...which involved a spot of shopping (cleverly disguised as a pattern delivery...).

Well, it was a bit obvious what I was up to, really....

The sushi print is destined to become a bib for a sophisticated inner-city baby.... (yet to be born... but I'm sure he/she will be a sophisticated inner-city type). At sale price it was $8 per metre.

As were all of these prints from Timeless Treasures and Patty Young. (The Patty Young is discounted because it has a small fault a few cm's in from the selvage - easy to cut around at that price! The other fabrics are all PERFECT beautiful quality quilting fabrics). Little girl's dresses and hats are most likely here...

Re: first two photos - the chicken print is a Robert Kauffman and the pink floral is from Sandi Henderson's Farmer's market range - both 25% off the usual price. I didn't buy enough of either of them last time so it was great to be able to replenish supplies. GJ's really do have a fantastic range.

And Superfrog was seen about a lot today - at kinder, GJ's, my studio and Safeway - in a spanking new outfit!! I was lucky to catch a snap or two in the supermarket....

...but her identity remains a mystery because she was also wearing sunglasses.

Thanks to CurlyPops for the star birthday gift. We'll be struggling to top this one for a while...!

Wrapped... and rapt.

I'm SO HAPPY!

As the mother of a sewing studio kid, I've been LIVING for this stage of development...

It gave me the half-hour I needed to finish this large Wrap bag...

...with that o-ring variation I did on the Small Wrap. I used two XL o-rings on each side of the strap (and Ikea fabric).

So now I can show you the (Empress Woo by Robyn Pandolf) wrap I made on Saturday. ( I think I saw some of this beautiful fabric still at GJ's last week. I bought mine a while ago).

...with it's super-wide weight-distributing grown-on shoulder strap.

... And I HAVE to share a story - told to me by a grown-up only-child-of-a-seamstress. When she was a small child, the only child of a seamstress was kept busy with colour-sorting buttons ..and seed beads (!) while her mother worked.

It's a bird..... it's a plane....

It's SUPERFROG! ...with a blurry face to protect her true identity. Superheroes are shy like that! (And they often wear lumpy hair ornaments and plaits under their skin-tight helmet cap things...).

At 11am on Friday I was rummaging through GJ's spangly remnants. At 1pm that day, Superfrog made an appearance at the kindergarten fancy dress party. In between we had lunch.

(Needless to say, not a lot of hemming - or indeed patternmaking - was involved in the construction of this costume).

There were lots of princesses, fairies and pirates at the party... but only ONE Superfrog! For a kid who watches way-hey too much TV (!!), she sure has a pretty original way of thinking. Cracks me up.

Did somebody mention a sale...?

In fact, Lara did. She emailed me with links, the evil woman.... she heard a whisper that I'd broken my fabric diet and sent word of sales to tempt me!

I'm thinking of sending her a bill for another lovely pack of fabric from Above All Fabric.

...including these SUPER CUTE Robert Kauffman kid's prints. I'm not sure if I'll ever make anough bibs to work through the stash I have already, but I couldn't resist.

A big box from Quilt Home...

...including this gorgeous range - BasicGrey / Urban couture by Moda.

I'm so sorry I didn't get a dress length of this print (below) because it's now GONE from the shop. Such a shame - it would have looked lovely in my "one day to be made into a dress" stash.....


I can't thank/blame Lara for this lot, below. I think I could possibly blame Felicity for forcing me to bookmark the page months ago (when she mentioned it casually in a blog post and it looked a bit exciting). I couldn't POSSIBLY accept responsibility....

These are Hip Fabric delights... I'm particularly in love with this peacock one -

from PROUD by Keri Beyer for In The Beginning Fabrics.

And yesterday I popped in to GJ's to drop off some patterns and saw this. $5 per metre and perfect for little summer dresses for my girl. I'm making plans to go back to GJ's for a big knit-fabric-fest when I have more time to dig through the treasure trove in the remnant warehouse out the back.

I do believe there's a parcel (or ... ummmmm...two?) of fabric yet to arrive.... Can I still blame Lara or do I have to admit to a bit of an uncontrolled binge?

My name is Nikki and I'm a fabriholic.

But wait... there's MORE!

Still rebuilding that stash of mine... More fabric arrived today - this time from from Sew Mama Sew.

Then I went to GJ's to (..ahem.....) drop off some bag samples. I saw this cow print patchwork cotton for $12 per metre ("Oh, I'll have 2 metres, thanks....") and then I saw the pigs.... Unbelievably cute.

The nearly-four-year-old hand is used to show scale. The wee girl wants a "cow" dress and I'm thinking bibs for the pigs (and cow offcuts).

Now, to prove that it is not all obsessive fabric-buying for no apparent reason, here are the purses made today with my Pippijoe offcuts.... seen here yesterday.

A lovely (if sadly short-lived) relationship with new overseas suppliers has left us with half a ton of the wrong 200mm purse frame. The frames are slightly bigger and chunkier than the ones we ordered (ummm...using their production sample and saying "Yes, we'll have these ones, thanks".......!!??).

So (the short story is...) I've made a bigger, chunkier version of the purse. And - six toiles later - I like it.

More of my beautiful new fabrics will be cut up over the next week or so to make samples. Instructions will be tweaked and cover-art will be redone with new photos of new samples. And a new pattern will be born!

See...? I can justify anything!