Selvedges, Discounted Fabrics and More!

We had some beautiful sunny days recently!

Just look at that blue sky!

This is my Siblings Together Bee 2 quilt top - borders are on and all ready to be quilted.

And these 8" Disappearing 4 Patch blocks are on their way to Theresa/Hilly Filly as Miss March in Siblings Together Bee 2.

I had a little sort through my selvedges the other day.  These are my selvedge jars AFTER I have sorted through them and eliminated those I can't use!!

As you can see, it's quite a squeeze!!  I hope I get some play-time soon with these lovelies.

And speaking of lovelies, have a look at these!

These fabrics (& more) are now listed in my Etsy shop at silly prices!  Designers like Amy Butler, Valori Wells, Tanya Whelan, starting at £4 per metre.

So if you want to bag a bargain, be quick as stock is limited.

Happy shopping!

Jude xo

Denim & Selvedge Bag

So you know I was working (aka playing!) with some denim recently!  I'm working on a series of bags which I may teach in the Autumn term.

Well I got 2 bags completed today (you can thank the continuous rain since Sunday for that!).

Today I'll show you my Denim and Selvedges bag!

Like most trends and fads, I was a latecomer to the selvedge craze, but I'm head over heels about them now! I think it appeals to my love of recycling textiles, especially when some designer selvedges are so adorably cute!

The front and back of this bag have the same design, just different selvedges used. The denim is all from recycled jeans, and the handle was a belt from another pair of jeans!

Bag linings are a great excuse to use loud and vibrant fabrics and I didn't hold back on this one!

Because of the pleat I couldn't insert my usual array of pockets, so I simply popped in a wee denim pocket (which was once on a child's dress) and a key fob to keep those keys handy!

The magnetic closure tab has been finished with a felt button given to me a while back by a lovely quilty friend.

I really enjoyed many aspects of making this bag, especially using Coats Creative thread for the feature quilting. I haven't used this thread before, and just happened to have the right colour of 'jeans orange'. It's much thicker than standard thread, and you need a size 100 (jeans) needle, but the sewing was smooth and I will be on the lookout for more of this range (Gutterman Creative & Gutterman Jeans threads are not as thick as Coats Creative & I have still to try Aurifil 12wt).

My playtime continued with a little matching pouch to go with the bag.

Clearly I couldn't stop sewing down those cute selvedges!

L: Porthole Hexie; R: EPP hexie

I've put an eyelet in the pouch too, so that it can be clipped onto the keyfob inside the bag. This will keep a sewing/crochet project handy to throw into the handbag on trips out!

Apologies for the long post for this one! It feels like I've been birthing this bag for a while and it's so satisfying seeing it not only complete, but turning out just how I imagined it!

Stay tuned this week for bag no.2!

Jude xo