Foldable Shopping Tote

Hello Everyone!

Have you had any time for sewing recently. It is soon easter and many will have a few days off, maybe you can make some time and try this project. I have made a few foldable shopping totes that easily fits in a handbag or bigger bag when not in use. My daughters really liked them so I decided to write a tutorial and share it with you. You can find it here and on my tutorials page together with other free printable PDFs.

The project really came about from me cleaning out some dress fabric that I realised was never going to be used. I used mostly printed rayon and polycotton, which is a bit thinner and works very well for this project. The tote bag can of course be made from quilting cotton but it becomes a bit bulky when folded together.

There is a lot of positives with this project. It is a quick project that can be made in a few hours and a gift that works for most people. It is also the obvious sustainable view with not having to use plastic bags. I even used material I already had at home. I used a plastic snap buttons which are easy to find and not expensive. Alternatively a magnetic snap button would work or a button hole or loop and a button could be used too.

Speaking of Easter, I have made a few posts on sewing for easter and my favourite one is this mugrug.

Take care and happy sewing!

Annika

Drunkard’s Path Table Runner

Hello Everyone 🙂

Today have a new tutorial for you. It is a table runner using the Drunkard’s Path block. I have made my best table runners using a traditional quilt block and scrap fabrics, for example this table runner using the Card Trick block. They are a bit similar in choice of colours and layout.

It is spring here in Australia and it is nice to freshen up the surroundings with something new. I am so looking forward to warmer weather and longer days. So far it has bin quite a chilly spring, but this week we might be able to spend some time on the beach. I have also freshened up my blog by changing web hosts. You might have noticed that the blog haven’t been available for a couple of days. But now I am back and so far I am very pleased.

This pattern is great for scrap fabric and you can use as many or few as you like. I used four different colourful prints and a solid cream coloured fabric from my stash.

I have included templates for the size i used, 2.5″ blocks excluding seam allowances. I used 48 blocks and placed them in four rows of 16.

The size of the table runner can easily be altered by the number of blocks and the size of the blocks. The design can also be altered by placing the blocks differently. It is a great project to make your own or you can make it exactly as I did with similar fabrics.

Most importantly, I hope you enjoy making the table runner. You can find the tutorial/pattern as a free downloadable PDF on my tutorials page or click the button below.

Until next time, happy sewing and take care!

Annika

Magic Cube Pouch

Hello Everyone 😊

What have you been up to lately? Spring is finally here in Australia. We had a couple of warm days last week and the days are slightly longer.

I have been making magic pouches or sometimes they are called cube pouches. When you open them up, you can easily see what’s in the case. It is like a tray for pencils/ make up or whatever you are using the pouch for.

There are plenty of tutorials online, and all of them had seams covered with binding. There is nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t look very nice when I make it that way. Maybe I would get better at it with practice, but I usually try to find a way to make the project without exposed seams.

I have made five of these pouches in the past week in different sizes. I have included templates for three sizes. I love figuring out the maths behind the sewing to make different sizes in these kind of projects. I’ve done that before with these box pouches, I just wasn’t as good at using Adobe Illustrator back then.

I hope you enjoy this free pattern and templates.

Happy sewing and take care!

Annika

Christmas Sewing

Hello Everyone,

It is almost Christmas time and this year I haven’t had time to make any new tutorials. I haven’t had time for any Christmas sewing at all, which is a shame since I have so many pretty Christmas fabrics.

Two Christmases ago I posted this post about how to make these Christmas pillows. You can find the post here. The pillow on the left is made from a pattern from Diary of a Quilter’s Amy Smart. You can find the post here.

Last year I found a picture on Pinterest of a table runner that I made with Christmas and wrote this post about how I made my own version. You can find the post here.

These cute little Christmas bags is a great way to use scraps of Christmas fabric. You can find the tutorial on my tutorials page or here.

I hope you have time for some Christmas sewing. It is still two weeks left until Christmas, hopefully I have some time too. Or I have to plan better and start earlier next year. Don’t forget to enjoy Christmas time, it is very hot here so tomorrow I am going to the beach with my teenage daughters.

Until next time, happy sewing and take care.

Annika

Hermione Granger Style Bag

Hello Everyone!

My youngest daughter is a very big Harry Potter fan and seems to know every detail about the topic. In a couple of weeks she is going to Oz Comic-Con here in Melbourne in a Hermione Granger costume and asked me to make her the beaded bag.

I did a bit of research and the blog Finding My Way gave me a lot of inspiration on how to make it.

I have made a tutorial and a pattern that you can download from my tutorials page or use the links. This is my version of the bag and not a replica.

It is a quite easy tutorial and one of those projects where you can play around with materials and embellishments. In addition to cotton fabric I used scraps of velvet and satin. For embellishments I used a braided ribbon and black seed beads and also the decorative stitches on my sewing machine which I usually don’t use very often. I hope you enjoy the tutorial.

Until next time happy sewing and take care!

Annika