Sewing Jinx & Healing Hearts

Healing Hearts is a campaign running at the moment for quilters to put blocks together to send to New Zealand for the 29 families that tragically lost their loved ones in the mine disaster there.

I only found this earlier in the week from a fellow blogging friend. Ive got my blocks in the mail today and saw they have enough blocks now.

Such a great cause, I hope that Shirley is able to pool enough resources together to finish.

In other news, I am jinxed with sewing machines! I borrowed mums to put my blocks together and now her machine makes a funny noise... or it did, then it went clang and viola no more noise... probably not a healthy sign though. I think I shall step away from the machines for a while lol.

Erica

Yesterday I finished my very first library bag. I made it from scratch without the aid of an official pattern and fudged it as I went.

The result was rather impressive even if I do say so myself. I am not 100% happy with the draw string straps and may change them before I give it to the lucky little lady. Time will tell.

It was made for Miss Erica. A friend's daughter who is starting school next year. Im sure she will love it. It is made from a soft denium look fabric, with flower motif embrodiery. I couldnt have found a more lovely main fabric. I made my very first ever lined pocket which turned out perfectly first go!!

The Pocket detailing

The name was fused on before using blanket stitch over the edges for a more professional finish. The most difficult part of the name was trying to use the iron on the fusing while getting the rounded letters to fold underneath so as to avoid fraying without burning my fingers.

Detail of the lettering

They turned out rather well. Her name is perfectly centred across the top and the colours just blended better than I could have imagined.

Hanging by the straps.

The inner layer is a special fabric that I got from Green Beans Australia. Its called PUL - Poly Urethane Laminate. Its a water proof, breathable fabric that is used as a layer in modern cloth nappies to prevent outer clothing from getting wet. I orginally went to Spotlight to see if they had a readily accessible equilivilant, the sales attendant basically looked at me strangely and tried to sell me something that would not do what I wanted it to. So I promptly came home and shopped through the colours on GB. It was really pot luck as to if the colour would work of not. It came in the mail and it was fantastic! I musky pink which complemented all my other colour choices! Woo Hoo!. Making the lining work was a bit of a pain as I hadnt done a bag or lined one for that matter, for over ten years! TEN years!

Taggy

I spent today making the most of my time and making a Taggy.

Whats a Taggy I hear you ask? Well... a Taggy is a small blanket or piece of material that has (wait for it) tags sticking out from the sides. Taggys can also be childrens toys that have little tags around it. The concept being that children, babies in particular, love to play with tags. Wrap their fingers around them and explore all the different colours and textures.

My very first Taggy has ribbons of different width, texture and colour. It is based around a rainbow coloured fleece and a white spotted microfleece as the main design. On the back is a simple cotton spotted fabric. In the middle runs a piece of cellophane that brings with it a crinkling sound that all children love.



I am considering quilting through the middle with a name otherwise I was considering embroidering the name in one of the small white squares. I am still undecided about either if any.

It turned out remarkably well given that most of the size measurements were guesstimates as to how large I wanted it to be and how long the ribbons etc. So all in all I think my judgement made for a pretty Taggy.