A pocket hanging thingy for Julia's baby

(click to see big)

My oldest friend since I live in UK is Julia. She is a crazy Kraut (like she calls Germans), and she is expecting a baby boy, which we cannot wait to see!! To celebrate this wonderful news, I made her this little thing to hang on his room. It was SO much fun to make and plan! The fabric of the soldiers comes from Japan, the rest I got here in London.

Bags!

On my quest to make carrier bags to stop using plastic ones, I had some spare time one Sat eve so I went crazy and started making bags.. so I made one, then another, then another.. until I got 5 cut and half done! It took me 2 sessions to make them all, around 45 minutes per bag, not bad huh? Is so much fun!!

(Remember you can click in all images to view them into detail)

This is the simplest of them all.. but my favourite. I love the contrast of the strong red with the simple cream... bit summery :-)


This and the next one are very femenine.. I love how they are discreet until you open them and you can see the flowers inside! I actually decided to keep this one for me because I like it so much!!
The bag hunging from the door knob is for Robyn, because she is a super girl who has helped me a lot to get plenty of freelance design work.. so I made it for her. Still haven't given it to her but hopefully she will like it!!
This bag was for Julia, I gave it to her for her b'day. It is made with vintage fabric that I've inherited from my auntie Meme from Spain. I love how cheerful it is!! Everbody who saw this bag wanted it!!



And this last one is made with traditional Japanese fabric. So I gave it to my mum who not only bought the fabric but also would appreciate its quality the most.. is creamy colour on the inside...

Some fabrics

Decided to take a few photos of some of the fabrics I've inherited or bought and that I got waiting to be used. I've spent last Sat night making some bags which I should put up here soon. Also I've made quite a few necklaces but not sure I wanna share them yet... just watch this space!


My new top made of the top fabric you can see in the last photo. It is jersey.. was bit tough to sew I must say, as it stretches... so I had to saw it twice as after the first time, when I was trying to tie the bows tight in the back (which I'll try to take a photo off soon), it broke!!

My first meat pie

I was always scared of pastries, cakes and anything to do with oven baking.. until I saw others making them (my mum wasn't into that kind of thing, probably something to do with being Japanese and them not eating these kind of things) - then I decided to give it a try and.. it seems to have worked! First was the carrot cakes and banana loaf - which worked out with a 10/10 (if I may say so). And now this yummy pie!! Success!! YES!!

(before and after)

(and banana cake & banana loaf)

Amsterdam

Went to Amsterdam as a treat in the first long weekend of May. Not only visited Amsterdam but also Utretch, which is only 30 min away on the train and as lovely! We were so lucky - we stayed in this cool place decorated retro style.



And even though we've been there before, we managed to discover new areas a bit out of the tourists' track.

(typical house in Jordaan, with the bike at the front and the bench to sit down for people watching. They don't usually have courtains so you can see the cool interior design of the trendy "jordaanites")

Jordaan, the oldest neighbourhood that had modest background has become trendy and cool. That has brought cool chic boutiques and restaurants and there I discovered this a&c shop for babies that made me think of all of you, craft lovers.

(really liked this shop with retro style lamps in all shapes)
(if you have EUR 150 spare, you may want to buy this wonderful "tulip bag" - winner of many design awards. I totally fell in love with it, much better in reality than in this picture)

I also was so lucky to be walking around town on the day of the fabric markets. Yes, an entire flea market dedicated to fabric and sewing materials!! No wool though :-(

(in Holland they celebrate the births of a baby
decorating windows and the front of the house.
I saw many wonderful flowers, balloons and gifts
in display in various houses - I love the idea!)

Weather was also fantastic and there were plenty of flowers. I missed going to the flower massive place because, to be honest, I couldn't be bothered to organise myself to get the bus to get there.. and I truly enjoyed just walking around town. All worth it!

(click to enlarge)
(the city is full of exquisite Art Deco and Art Nouveau buildings)

Got myself some fabric, some new clothes and shoes! Lucky me.. and afterwards we stayed at the Hilton 5* where John Lennon and Yoko Ono made their interview from bed :-) The hotel was fantastic (obviously) - and we enjoyed chilling at the back garden, by the yatch marina of the hotel, where I started a knitting project. The hotel even had a soap menu in the bathroom - apart from the traditional pillow menu. Basically you could order a hand-soap of your taste for 17 EUR the piece....

Vintage buttons

Lucky me! my mother came to visit and she brought with her all my gran mother's old buttons!! She even separated them in bags per colours or material.. There are a few that are true antiques, made with baqulite! (bakelita) - some shapes and colours are unreal. Also, some have 6 holes?!

I feel so lucky!!

New resolution: I'm gonna make shopping bags as gifts

Everyone is on the trend of using tote bags to avoid discarding more plastic bags into the environment. This is just great and I think is a great excuse to make bags for a great cause. So, my first recipient was my friend Marwan, whose birthday I missed whilst being in Spain.

Is a serious bag, discreet and not on-your-face. I had to find a way to make a bag masculine enough but still interesting. Hopefully I got it right...

Once I finished it, I packed it into a piece of fabric, Japanese style.

Few things I've done last week

I've been pretty inspired and made a few quick projects. They all took me just a night (less than an hour per project perhaps). These are the results:

1 sausage-scarf
1 orange bag
1 red wine bag

Made with less than one skein (less than half perhaps?) with very big needles, in soft wool that I had left over from another project. And a few interesting silk yarns (for the ribbons), all I did is knit and reduce drastically every number of rows for the sausage effect. Then embellish with buttons for a girly effect. Could look quite fun in bright colours, making each "sausage" in a different colour, for kids :-)

And the bags

I'm so proud of these - I really enjoy making bags (which reminds me I must post a pic of my first bag, which I started in our first group session - stripes and dots, remember?). They are made with felt and inherited thai fabric that Mari gave me.

(click to see all steps to make this bag, easy and quick,
thanks to this easy pattern from Colorfull)
(forgot to add this pic, essential!! the bottom to keep the tote standing up - and give it more room and shape. Once you finish sewing it, is good to iron it to give it sharpness)

After making the orange small tote I thought 1/ is too bright and 2/ is bit small for my friend Mayo. So I went and made another one... which I plan to embellish with a flower brooch that she can put on or take off in the bag when she wants to use it on her jackets

Detail where you can see the "handmade" touch. The pictures don't reproduce properly the colour of the felt and the contrast with the apple green thread :-(
Is more like a bourgoundy red, warm and heavy.