Custom order Tool Roll

I had a custom order for a Tool Roll.

I am rather happy at how it ended up ...

Complete with personalised embroidery ...

Custom Money Belt

A quick post about a custom money belt order with strap that I just completed, ready to be popped into the post tomorrow.

The client wanted some Japanese fabric as a lining, and after a few emails chose this gorgeous print. She said it was "ok" to do some applique on the front, so I decided to do something non-traditional and follow the flow of the print. I think it looks rather cute!

The back of the bag has some straps so that you can put a belt thorugh it and inside there is a zippered section for large notes and a pocket for change.

Custom Bag order

When I made myself a Tote bag for the first time I used this fabric.

You might recognise it as coming from Ikea, they have a great range of Fabrics for bags and book coverings. Used sparingly, I think that it looks lovely and it is so hard wearing as well!

I paired it up with some dotty lining with two pockets and a clip for the keys.

It is off to England, so I hope that the new owner loves it!

Material Obsession

Some new material for my stash ...

The first collection is from Favorite Fabrics in the US. The movie director fabric and popcorn is for a custom order and the cherry is for me! The lovely ladies at Fav Fab couldn't fulfill my order of the Robert Kaufman movie director fabric in a continuous length, so I opted for some popped corn as the remainder ... I am sure that some matching drool or dinner bibs might work well in this!


My second collection bundle of fabrics was the result of a visit to my dentist on friday. 1 hour of dental surgery and a new crown later and I found myself in a daze driving towards Patchwork on Central Park in Malvern. If you haven't been to this store, then you must make a day of it. Lynn has the most gorgeous store with a small gift shop in addition to their huge patchwork collection.

Anyway, they had a collection of fabrics that was 1/2 price if you bought over a metre ... so I did. The underwear fabric is called "Lingerie" by Alexander Henry and is a 2005 print, so rather hard to get a hold of. It might make for an interesting bag lining, or underwear bag lining. What would you do with it?

Another Custom order with Japanese Fabric

I can't quite remember where I got this fabric from, but it has proven to be a real hit! I love the fact that within one print there are so many possibilities and the colour scheme lends itself to so many different colours on the inside as well. Initially I got 4 metres of it, and I am down to my last metre!

So here is another custom job!

This time the inside was a teal colour, rather than the rust colours I have been using in past jobs.

Natasha likes to model for me ... this is a pencil case to match! (You can see Ana in the background claiming my white towel for her sleep space ...)

The elegance of the fabric lends itself to the label being on the inside.

I might have to make myself some things with this fabric before it disappears!

Custom Doggy Treat Bags

Completed my custom order of Doggy Treat Bags this morning. I am rather happy at how these turned out.

The dog breeder wanted the name of each puppy on the front of the bags in different colours.

I changed my construction method from my earlier version for the back of the bags, incorporating the belt loops into the zip seam. Not sure I like it, but it does look a bit more streamlined.

Inside I have the bone fabric and also clear PVC so that the owner can put doggy treats in it and then wipe it out afterwards.

Now to make some more scones for visitors coming at 2pm!

Birthday present for a girl who loves Geography

Just finished a custom job via etsy went into the mail this morning. Hopefully they will get it before the end of next week.
The customer wanted a custom longitude/latitude and she also wanted to choose the type of maps.
I am slowly running out of this fabric, so if you know of any other map fabric let me know!


I love doing personal things like this, so special!

Crafty Goodness

I love this time of night ... the house is so quiet, the cats are sleeping and I am tapping away at the keyboard. These "before bed blogs" seem to be becoming a tradition!

A busy day was had by all. Tori spent the day with her Scottish Granny while I went off to school to do some work. Granny will probably end up with her most Wednesday's.
After getting my gorgeous daughter to bed at 8.30 (someone fed her lots of tea today ...), I could finally unwind and get some sewing done. So what crafty goodness have I worked on tonight?

Firstly, I finished a "Patch Tote" for a customer and made a matching tissue holder to go inside. All I had to do was finish stitching the lining and the tissue holder is a simple "warm up" project to do.
As you can see, I am getting value from my Wigglesworth Quilt offcuts. I have enough for one more Tote.


The inside was the yummy yellow rose fabric and I tried my hand at putting in a zipper pocket as well.

Secondly, I made a Patchwork Trivet (custom order) to go under a teapot or cold jug of water on the table. A good little project with a little bit of ditch quilting.

Two layers of batting sewn together and the fabric is a Kokka Ouka in Red. I did however, forget to put my label on it and I could not be bothered going back to do it!

Thirdly, I tried my hand at a "Nappy Clutch". Big enough to hold three nappies and some wipes. Alternatively it can be used for other things. I have been wanting to try this for a while, but I just never had the time or motivation until today. I should take some measurement pictures!

Tomorrow night I have to work at finishing some orders so that they can hopefully go out on the weekend to their respective shops. Tomorrow is my first "full day" at work - 8am - 3pm with a pick up of Tori at 5pm.

Birthday presents for Heike

It has been a while since I have posted and my fingers are raw from the sewing I am doing!

My lovely mother-in-law had her birthday earlier in the week and I made some gifts for her. Firstly, my father-in-law bought a custom money bag from my etsy store (naughty Opa!).

To make it more femine, I put the D-rings at the top of the bag and the inside of the money pouch was done in a space fabric (to match the business). I also made a strap as well (as seen in my etsy store)

It also has one of those hidden compartments for money and a pouch for coins.


I also made her a tote with "Oma" on it and Tori gave it to her as a present. The material I got from spotlight and is a Camel print, as she likes camels.

The inside has some pockets for mobiles and other things as well. Lined with a cotton to match the Camels on the front.
We also got her a nice bottle of wine, and looking at the pathetic brown paper bag that it sat in, I quickly whipped up a wine bag to carry it in. I quilted the inside so as you can keep the bottles of wine cool during transporting. The material at the bottom of the bag is the Ume Komachi dobby fabric that I have made some things from.

Phew! Now on with the sewing for the online shop!

Dotty Smock or Pinafore

The challenge was thrown to me to make a smock or pinafore for a little girl. I had been previously looking at apron patterns and I came across an etsy shop called CreativeJnee's which had a pattern for sale which looked interesting. So taking a the 70s Misses apron idea and a pattern for pinafore I had previously made, I made this!


It is quite a simple design that crosses over at the back and lends itself to a growing toddler.

To make it more girly, I put some pockets in and added buttons as embellishments.

I also decided (for an extra degree of difficulty) to make the dress/pinafore reversible.
I am going to refine the pattern a bit when I get feedback from the customer and make my daughter one to kick around in.

Doggy Bag

I have spent most of my day wrestling with my embroidery machine. I foolishly bought a bundle of QA embroidery threads soon after I got my machine thinking that they would be good value. They are not. They keep on breaking under duress! So the money saved was quickly wasted in the time taken to do one embroidery piece ... Grrr

My husband is on holidays at the moment, so I was fortunate to have him take care of my little girl while I wrestled with the machines .. I have to get them to Statewide in Coburg for a service when I get the time.

But the day was fruitful! I made several versions of the "Doggy Bag" a family friend wanted me to make for them.

The idea is that it is a bag that they can put on their belt and carry dog biscuits in when they are training dogs. My first try was a flop. Not big enough to carry biscuits in and the seam inside the bag where the clear PVC met was a dogs breakfast (heh!). But after a few tries with patterns and zips, I made something that I was happy with.
The design principle is similar to my pencil cases. It has a black PVC bottom, but the inside is lined with "bones" fabric and clear PVC so that Doggy Biscuit crumbs don't stick to the fabric.

The back of the bag has loops in it to go on your belt.

While I am happy with the end result, I can categorically say that I hate sewing with PVC!

Boomerang Gift Set

A few weeks back I was asked to do a gift set for a little girl. The client picked the fabric and we embroidered her name on the bag. The thought was if she went to childcare, this could be a good sized bag to put all the essentials in.
I was given quite a bit of freedom with the components of the gift set. The client wanted a bag and the shoes and whatever else was upto me. She had fallen in love with the Boomerang fabric as it looked quite "Australian" in design. I decided to do a little changing mat with a toweling backing. I use one of these with my daughter and it is very useful for both changing, eating and general moping up of baby mess. Once I did the embroidery on the bag, it was quite easy to do the embroidery on the face washer (the finished gift set had a red and black face washer). The embroidery machine required both back interfacing and also "ultra solvy" to prevent the needle pulling the toweling back through. Ultra Solvy then rinses out under some warm water


The bag was lined with the same fabric and there were some pockets sewn into the inside of the bag, along with the pockets on the outside of the bag.
The size of the shoes were 6 - 12 months. Hopefully little Elisa will be cruising by then!

Pirate Shoes

I am fortunate enough to be a position to purchase some bulk materials from one of the local textile houses. I had visited their show room a number of time and one of the ladies on the front reception asked me to make for her something cute for their little grandchild (0-6months). I presented her with a selection of fabrics and she chose a pirate theme.

I have used this fabric in the past for bibs and changing mats, but it looks cuter on shoes! I now make my shoes with natural fibre batting and the heel of the shoe has my logo embroidered up it and the size embroidered on the inside. Every batch of shoes that I made improves and looks more professional.

I have often dreamt of doing a range of pirate wear clothing. I can imagine my daughter running around in a little wench or a little pirate outfit. I keep on thinking that my sewing possibilities for her will open up when she starts to walk around. At the moment her clothing is horribly practical as anything too loose will hamper her ability to pull herself up on furniture and skirts just get in the way of her crawling.

In other news, I have my first retail order for 6 pairs of “bat” shoes. Three shoes in 0-6 months and 3 shoes in 6-12 months. So the last week has been spent getting packaging and marketing materials together so that my product looks professional. The process for making the shoes has become more streamlined and I have tops, soles and heels sitting there waiting on being sewn together when an order comes in.

This is packaging version 1. I spend about two weeks vising various packaging wholesalers on this side of the city. Paper boxes, plastic bags and I decided on clear PVC boxes.

The back of the box has a little hang-sell tag for shops and the internal graphics were refined by a close friend who is a graphic design artist. Overall, I am quite pleased with the result and the boxes look good all lined up with shoes in them!

Bunting Bag (Custom Order)

I never really knew what a bunting bag was exactly before I took on this custom job. It is very much an American term used to describe a travel garment commonly used in prams.

The client wanted a bunting bag that would suit the personality of the recipients. We discussed some ideas, I sent back a few sketches and then I did some embroidery samples. Decided that the embroidery would look better on red rather than black and then started to sew. The end of sleeve mittens were the trickiest part of the project and I am sure if I made one of these again, I would do it the “easier” way. I want to make my little girl one for next winter in purple with little bat embroidered on it.

Anyway, onto the technical stuff! The Bunting is made from Arctic Polar Fleece, PolyCotton Tartan and Wool Wadding for extra warmth. The brief that I was given was “warmth”. The Bunting has a custom Wolf Howling embroidery done on my trusty Janome 350e and the “tags” with Konstant Kaos on them are also done on the Janome (how I love my Janome).

For more images of Konstant Kaos creations, check out my livejournal scrapbook.