Tote bags - hope you arent bored of them yet

I am from a family that doesnt believe in wastage. If I go to throw something out I hover over the bin before I drop it thinking "what would my mum think if she knew I was throwing this out" and "do I really need to throw this out or can I use it".

When at my sisters (most productive week of my life) I put together 4 patchwork blanket tops and for some of them I miscalulated what I needed to cut leaving me with a few squares left over so I utilised them by stitching them together with the idea that I would sew it on as a band onto a tote bag.

These will also give you a taster as to the blankets I made, which I backed yesterday so they are now all finished. Woohoo. I will blog about them later on in the week when I get some pictures of them.




And some Curious George:





#24, #25

New on Folksy

Hi all,

Just to let you know I have now listed the Time for Tea tote bags and the Kids Animals in Cars tote bag on Folksy.

Domestic Kat Designs on Folksy

Dont I just have the best nephews....

How cute are they? Very cute I hear you say and Id quite agree. You have already been party to the gorgeousness of my youngest nephew Kieran and my neice Emily Jane so now its time to showcase the other 3. THis is the reason Ive been quite quiet lately. I have been making kids size tshirts with one of the Glasgow Tigers logos. 15 of them I made!

I got some white tshirts from Tesco and my mum had this beautiful orange fabric that was just the right colour that she had cut for a pattern to make bermuda shorts. We have no idea who she cut the shorts for or when!

I took the logo from our helmet decal and scaled it up and down to make it proportional to each size of tee. I have made these in sizes 3/4, 5/6 (gone already), 6/7, 7/8, 10-11 and 12-13 and they will be going up in the Tigers Fundraising shop tomorrow.

And this is what happened when I said goodbye to my nephews...



#23

More Tote Bags

I made some more tote bags when at my sisters. This time I had about a metre of fabric with some cute animals in cars on them. Id had it for about 2 years and Id never used it because I felt the pattern was too big to make into a notebook cover or a quilt.

When I moved back into my mums house I went through all my fabric as I was putting it away so I would have a photographic memoir of what I had. I came across this fabric and straight away decided I was using it on tote bags.

These 3 all have the same image on the front as on the back:

Elephant:


Giraffe:


Cat:


Then there are 2 bags which have different images on each side:

Bear/rabbit:



Cat/ Giraffe:



These bags along with the other tote bags will be going up in my Folksy shop very shortly.

#21,#22 (only counting as two as two seperate designs)

My beads arrived!

OOOOOHHHHH the beads I ordered just arrived. Check back in about a week and a half to find out what these beauties are going to be made into.

Engagment Gift

As many of you will already know I am a member of an American Football team. I dont play but I am registered as a member of the team and I help out the guys on the sideline with anything they might need. We are two thirds of the way through my fourth season. Over this time guys have came and gone but you do have the core group of the team who have been here long before me and are still there.

One of those guys is Jamie. I refer to Jamie as the alpha male of the team as he organises pretty much everything (player related) and leads from the front. He also is a guy who makes me laugh my butt off whilst at the same time is a genuinely nice guy. For as long as I have been in the team Jamie has been seriously dating his beautiful girlfriend Laura. Laura is an absolute gem of a girl who, since the first time we met was chatty and friendly.

Well, a few months ago Jamie decided to take the plunge and ask Laura to marry him and she said yes! For integrity's sake here is a beautiful picture of the proposal:



So Saturday was the engagement party (the night before a game! the horror!). Now Jamie and Laura have been living together for almost 2 years I think so thinking of a present for them was going to be a challenge as they would have pretty much everything they need.

I decided to go with a twist on the His and Hers stereotypical gift. I got some beautiful combed cotton towels from Dunelm Mills which I decided I wanted to put a border of fabric on which I would then applique with their names. I have to admit I spent a good hour or so trawling through my fabric for just the right one and then ended up going with the very last one that I only found because it was in the box with the towels.






Here are Lauras which are pink. I made one towel appliqued and the other plain.





And here are Jamies:





The next day Jamie came and told me that he and Laura opened the presents after we left his flat and that they both absolutely loved them so Im very pleased with how they turned out.

Is it bad that I already know what I want to make for the wedding...

#19,#20

Appliqued Tote Bags

As I said, I stayed with my sister last week and took a lot of projects with me to work on while I was there. Previously, I had slightly lost my mojo with sewing particularly with stuff to stock my tables with at craft fairs.

A while back Vonnie decided to wholesale order some gorgeous 100% cotton tote bags. When they arrived I said I would take 25 as I had a good few ideas of how I wanted to embellish them. In fact at the time the hoarder in me screamed take 50, take 50 but I decided to be rational and take 25 and then if I needed more I could always get some more.

The fabric I used was a gorgeous fabric I had picked up from Dunelm Mill called Afternoon Tea which I had left over from the Time from Tea swap. I cut out all the cups and teapots that were on the fabric and simply stitched them onto the bag. However, I personally think it has a lovely effect.

Pictures below to show the placements etc. I made two bags with this fabric, one with the three on it and the other one has designs on each side.









#17, #18

Spring tops - AGAIN! #15, 16

As promised 4 posts ago here I am posting about the two spring tops I made myself from Sew Mama Sew.

This is the first one I made. The material is a small cord pink leopard print with black sateen lining forming the chest band. There are no pockets in this one but there are strap ruffles. Whilst getting these photos taken I was doing my best to annoy the heck out of my big sister (the one I made the top for) by waiting until shed pressed the button and then moving really quickly into a dumb pose, hence some bluriness.









This top is made from a beautiful lightweight skull and crossbones fabric in navy. Im hoping that of what I have left I will have enough to send to Amanda of KitschyCoo to make into one of her adorable hoodies for my nephew for his christmas.

This top does have pockets on each side as I have tried to show and again the ruffles on the straps (for a lady my size I think I definitely need the strap ruffles or else I would look utterly horrendous as opposed to vaguely horrendous :-p)







I particularly love that last picture as I think it looks really cool. Its the only one I like out of the whole shoot :-p

Fabric blowout

So far this year I have done 3 craft fairs that have made me a wee bit of money. After each my mum took the takings and put them into a wee purse (only once giving me table money!) and she said she was going to keep that money in case I ever needed a big outlay for fabric, wadding or backing.

Then it transpired she was actually saving the money so I could have a nice trip to a fabric factory shop (http://www.standfast-barracks.com/aboutus.html) that we both knew about approx 5 mins away from my sister in Lancaster. Last week I went to visit my sister for a wee holiday and this shop was first on my list of things to do. When the day came around to go to it I got really apprehensive that I wouldnt like it, I wouldnt get anything or it wouldnt be as cheap as I thought.... boy I was wrong.

These pieces of material are nice and thick and soft so going to use them as backing for blankets/floormats.
First two pictures here was £2.50 a metre and I got 2m of the green and grey and 1.75m of the red






This material is so soft and I took what was left on the roll (3.5m) at £1 a metre.



This is a gorgeous baby fabric wtih jungle scenes. £5 for the bundle, it has 2.75m in it.



I love this hot pink print. I bought it with intention of making a bag for a friend of my sisters who wanted a pink bag that no-one else would have but she liked another fabric I showed her. £3.50 for the bundle with 1.75m.



This there was absolutely no way I could resist. I havent been able to find any camouflage material anywhere up here and my mind started racing with ideas of messenger bags and kids clothing. An absolute steal at £1 A METRE! So I got 5 of each (they also had the desert storm kinda colour)



Next, were these items called Large fents. Typically between 3/4m and a metre and were only 80p each. Love it and one of those are actually silk!



Then small fents. Probably about half a metre each (2 black ones at top are more like a metre) - 45p each





I also go these beautiful liberty prints most of which are about a 1/4 metre and will look great for lining bags/clutches. Might also use one of them to make a camera case. - a stunning 35p each



And this gorgeous pack of silks. 3 pieces each either a fat quarter or 1/4m - £1.50 for the three.



Finally I got this bundle of sample size approx 1/4m fabrics, of which there were 18 for a measly £2.50 and all because I saw the fabric pictured seperately poking out the side and had to get it!





And for those who cant be bothered counting all this up I got ALL of this material for the princely sum of £47.95. Now I need to get sewing, eek!