More linen lovelies

Last weekend, working my way down the list of makes before losing my sewing room, I thought I'd make myself a couple of zippy pouches to help me when I need to re-store sewing items that usually sit on my sewing table top.

I sifted out some of my small Bonnie and Camille scraps and chose some Essex Linen in Grey and some of that gorgeous damask style linen that I used previously.  I also thought that I'd make up a wee frame purse for a late spring birthday present while I had the linen and pretty scraps out on the table.

The large grey zippy is big enough to re-home my scissors and rotary cutters when the time comes to pack them safely into a box.  I tried a wee bit of wavy piecing on that pouch just because.

The small linen zippy pouch will be a new pencil case and is quite simply just a little indulgent because I have been wanting to make myself something from those narrow little linen offcuts that I have.

As you can see, I had mixed results with my zip tab ends.  Above on the pencil case they are pretty much perfect, but below you can see that I managed to lose one almost completely on the scissor pouch.  I really don't know what I did wrong, but I'm not too worried as it's not for a gift, just for me.

I think this frame purse is the prettiest of the three and I'm happy that is the case because it will become a birthday pressie in a number of weeks.  I especially wanted to share the linen with the recipient because it really is beautiful.  It needs a wee treat or two inside before passing on, and in the meantime I will just look at it and sigh until it's time to wrap it up for delivery.

Making little pouches that come together quickly can be very satisfying indeed!

All About My Boy

This post is all about stitching for my wee son, who in all honesty is getting to be not so "wee" anymore.  It was this realisation that made me interrupt planned sewing to accommodate his request for two post-Christmas makes.  After all, one of these days he's going to waken up and think that it's not really cool to want items stitched by mum!

So, when he asked very politely if he could have a wee bedside table holder for his new watch and if I could make a larger pencil case/pouch that would hold all of the chargers and earphones his various gadgets are accumulating, mum got on the case (terrible pun, I know).

We had a fun few minutes choosing fabrics for these items - no messing around for hours making decisions like his mum!

We decided to recycle a pair of last summer's shorts which already have a handy dandy pocket on (bit less work for me) suitable for keeping delicate earphones separate from destructive plug pins.  Then I think he was channelling an inner retro, slightly hippy groove, when he chose the camper van fabric to go with a wee piece of denim for his watch tray and the lining for his pouch, and he was very keen that the zip on the pouch would be bright and zingy next to the dark camouflage of his old shorts.  Like a man who knows what he wants!

These wee makes got a great big smile and a big hug too - definitely worth taking some time for my precious boy.

His recycled shirt quilt has had some progress this week too.

Last time I left this quilt I thought I had just about six 16 patch blocks to make but I seem to have miscounted a little and I actually needed eleven.  Anyway, now it's confession time - I gave up on the remaining 16 patches after five and used up some larger squares to create four patches to finish the quota of 88 blocks.  Yep, I cheated!  And, I don't care (how daring am I?).  The four patches will look great mixed in with the other blocks and actually, now I'm only sorry I didn't make up some more of these for the quilt.  In any case, I now have 88 blocks to trim, layout and piece into a top.

As was always the plan for this quilt, it was to be a slow time project, but now that DS has seen the blocks finished he's keen to see it come together.  Perhaps one afternoon while he's bored I can convince him to help me play with layouts for all those blocks!