Saturday with spools and needles

It's Saturday ...
I woke up early and enjoyed my tea in solitude, while the rest of the family was still sleeping.

To cherish the boys and a sleepover guest, I'll soon make some pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast ... One thing I like about weekends is having the time to dwell in tea and breakfast in the mornings.

Later in the afternoon I've planned to repair some clothes - to iron and sew a few patches on trousers, neaten an edge of a sleeve or two, and fix my favourite totebag.

These things have been piling up since Christmas. Once you have the sewing-machine on the table, the repairing work itself doesn't take long ... from that point on there's always flow.

But how to get there?  ... You know the feeling when you've got this thing, you should do, but you keep on putting it aside, saying to yourself that "I'll do it tomorrow" - wondering therafter when that tomorrow eventually will come?

Well, in the case of the patches for the trousers, the tomorrow has finally arrived.

And for the tote bag as well.

 

I got this bag from a friend of mine - she's very talented and creative,

so she sewed the tote for my birthday a few years ago.

I like the patterns and the lace borders in this bag a lot,

so I plan to sew new traps to it, using a blend of a cotton-linen-fabric.

 

I've repurposed these cute chocolate boxes to sewing kits

 - there's plenty of place to sewing rolls and needles in them!

 

Enjoy your weekend ...

... and a warm welcome  

 to new followers Marty, Gilina and EG Camera Girl!

 

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Sincerely Paula's Weekend Blog Party

Reversible bags & rice bags DIY

When our children were small, I often sewed clothes and nice little things to them. Now Christmas is serving as a great occasion to find my sewing machine and get a bit creative!

I have been sewing to the small relatives - as the toddlers do not read my blog, I dare to show a few pictures here before Christmas :)

This bag of rice is 12 years old - it keeps appearing from the most odd places - I found it from the hood of our younger son a month ago!  When our oldest son learned to walk, I sewed him little rice bags with handles - that was the most used gift that Christmas! The rice bags went wherever he went - it was an easy thing to carry - it didn't tip his balance at all :)

So as this old rice back was found, I got inspired to sew a few ordinary rice bags with handles, to the little relatives that are about to learn to walk.

These rice bags contain a white cotton cloth bag which is approximately half filled with rice. After I put the white cotton rice back in to the coloured back, I set a ribbon to serve as a handle, and sewed the bag together from the top.

To the school girl I sewed a reversible bag - she can turn the bag either to pink- flowery bag or to the dog-patterned bag. I used a pocket from my old jeans to serve as a little pocket.

The other sweet niece is going to receive a pink - green reversible bag. I sewed a fish ribbon to brighten up the side of the bag. I'm going to put some the colored pencils and paper inside her bag.

The 3 -y. old little man gets a reversible bag as well. This back has a wide shoulder straps, so that he can carry all the little cars!

I'm almost ready with the knitted presents as well. Using double yarn and large needles, you can easily knit a scarf or two to Christmas.

This fluffy scarf is almost ready. It is knitted with 8 mm circular needles, using two different colored mohair yarn.

The fabrics for the reversible bags and rice bags was something I all ready had - I needed to purchase only the spotted ribbons. Sewing is fun, I should maybe arrange a monthly sewing afternoon and invite a couple of friends over ... I could actually sew a large tote to my library book ...

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