Mother's Day Martha May

Judith's fantastic Martha May bag pattern saved me from having to give my mum another M&S gift card or cardy for Mother's Day yesterday.  There was steam coming from the sewing room to get these made when I had a few spare minutes but thankfully, they got sorted on time.

Mum choose the fabrics for her bag herself this time and Martha May has been reduced in height a little at her request, so it does look a little different for my last Martha May bag made to Judith's original pattern.  Actually, my preference would have been to keep the height, but then it's not me who will be using it.

This is a little matching case which I hope will fit mum's new Kindle Fire.  Yet again, one of Judith's patterns to my rescue.

This time I rescaled the pattern to the measurements of the Kindle Fire and only inserted one extra pocket inside instead of the two pockets in the original pattern.  I'll admit I made a wee mistake in my new measurements here and as a result the case is about an inch taller than I had intended it to be, so I hope the Kindle won't slide about too much inside.  (I forgot that I hadn't added the final pocket so the flap would close higher up than in the original  - doh!) Next time I'll know better!

Pressies sorted for another year!

Mmm Mmm

That's Mmm for Martha and Mmm for May.

Yup, meet my Martha May bag made from the absolutely fabulous pattern just published by Judith today!

I cannot tell you how much I LOVE this bag!

For me it was infatuation at first sight when Judith showed us Martha May on her blog a while back, so when she asked me if I would pattern test this bag for her, I almost bit her arm off for the opportunity (not literally you understand, but close to it).

The shape of the bag is cut from a template which you get in the pdf and then you're off following Judith's cutting instructions and methodical pattern steps.  The great explanations and step by step instructions with plenty of photos really helped me to feel confident that I was interpreting the stages of the pattern properly.  So, you fine folks out there are bound to find it just as accessible and, as Judith says, while it has been graded as Intermediate, if you have experience fitting zips you could very happily tackle this bag.

The pattern is now available on Judith's Etsy shop at a snip of a price. So, if you feel the need of a new bag for yourself for the autumn, or fancy making a start on some Christmas gifts for family and friends, stop reading this post now and get on over there and buy a copy!    And, if you're heading anywhere special in July 2013, buy the pattern now and then this could be your must make bag for the FQ London Retreat - just saying!

And finally, if you go a bit Martha May mad like me, you can even draw up a smaller scale pattern template and follow the pattern all over again to stitch yourself up a matching Martha Mini to hold your lippy!