Zakka start to the year

I felt I needed something to start the school year with. I love the japanese idea of Zakka, making something extraordinary out of something quite ordinary ...

I am all excited over this computer keyboard material I got through a few weeks back ... I am IT teacher after all!

So, a good opportunity to play around with my covered diary pattern again and make some more improvements to my product.

I decided to wrap around the keyboard fabric around the front of the diary.

The back of the diary has a flap that can be used as a divider or you can tuck it into the back band for a more "traditional" cover. Surprise lining inside, circuitry!

I also put some elastic on the cover to close the diary up!

I also had a strip of black canvas left over, so I thought I would try my hand at a quick bag to carry all my important book writing stuff in.

Straining a bit because there is lots of important stuff in it!

Birthday presents

Tonight I gave myself permission to just experiment. Rather than sew an order (which I should have been doing), I just created something from scratch and I wasn't sure where I was going. I haven't done this in a *long* time! Material, batting, interfacing and velcro!


The result, is a birthday present for a three year old this weekend. We are off to the party on Sunday (so hopefully her Mum won't read my blog until afterwards).

Not quite too sure where I got the material from, or where the idea for the two straps came from. The bag just kinda materialised from two squares. I finished it off with some buttons on the right hand side of the picture and a felt flower which I have attached with machine. The top of the bag closes with two flaps and velcro. I wanted to make it easy to open and close.

I also whipped up a quick pencil case from the left overs (note my dodgy attempt at patchwork).


I used my lanyard clips to make a strap open and close the pencil case (not sure how three year olds operate!).

Tori and I are going to put a few more goodies in the bag for the Birthday girl, hopefully she will like it. It isn't my usual style, but I think it might be good for a three year old!

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!

A bag for Paula

My husbands cousin is currently living in Sydney. He and his family are out from Germany for a working holiday and they came down to Melbourne for Christmas. It was nice to have more family around than our usual place setting for six. It was our biggest Christmas celebration so far!

They have a little girl, Paula, who is about 5 years old. So I decided to make her a bag for Christmas, something unique. The base fabric I had was "crafty" in theme (scissors, measuring tape, etc), but I did find it hard to decide on the colours of the complimentary fabrics. If I was sewing for an older person, I would have gone for a more "classic" look, but as it was a little girl I decided to stick to bright fun colours. The bag had nice long arm straps so that she could put it over her head.

I embroidered her name on the outside of the bag and I sewed on some fun buttons to make the bag a bit more dimensional. If I had had some more time I would have done some hand embroidery over the print design as well (silver thread on the scissors and pins).


On the outside there is a nice big pocket either side to put things in, and the inside of the bag had a pocket and the Konstant Kaos logo. You can see some of the buttons as well!