Slouchy Shoulder Bags

It's been a while since my last post and I thought I'd show you the few items I had made.

First I want to show the changes in the space I work in. I've been inspired by Dee and her blog where she dee-clutters her life. I "met" Dee thru' my blog where she would leave little notes for me to read. I never realised she had a blog until one day she SUMMONED me to go read her stuff and I sure did. Anyhoo, I looked at my own home and it is one big clutter. I live with 3 other hoarders with my husband being the biggest hoarder of all. I'm No. 2 with my fabric and sewing stuff. So I decided to start to de-clutter starting with myself. The first thing I did was rid this cork board of all the junk. I discovered newspaper cutting from years ago and expired warranty cards. In its place I have put 2 drawings by my girl. This space is now reserved for to-do lists. Let's see how it goes.

Below this cork board is a little table which used to house an antique Dell computer. I gave it to recycling because it finally died. Now I use this table to do my cutting and template making. I wish I have a longer table to do my cutting but there isn't any space in my home for a long table.

This is my sewing machine where I do all my magic. I cleaned up the mess before I took the photo. This machine sits on an Ikea table which is a heavy table. I like it that it's heavy because the table won't rattle when I use the machine. Most Ikea products we bought are quite flimsy but this table is real solid.

Another de-cluttering "project" I have on-going is to have as little leftover fabric as possible. My next leftover fabric project is going to be a placemat or another coaster or a pin cushion. I don't know yet. But the idea is not to have so much scraps lying around.

One other thing I used to do but discontinued but picked up again is to do a complete mop down of my sewing area after I complete a project. This is to get rid of the lint and prevent a pile-up of fabric.

Here are the items I made this week.

This cork board is a good place to hang my bags.

These 2 batik bags are similar but different in some small details. The one above is curvier and longer. But you probably can't tell.

Here they are side by side.

This one's similar in design. The outer fabric is a Kate Greenaway print by Lecien. I really like how the striped lining goes with the outer fabric! All 3 bags have fat bottoms.  The Kate Greenaway print bag is now available at Etsy, Artfire and Zibbet!

Lastly a canvas sling bag.

Check out the bottom. I use a formula to calculate my bag bottoms. If anyone's interested let me know and I'll post it next time. You know, I've grown in my bag-making. I think. In the past I would try my best to get the bottoms to match the base of the bags perfectly. But now I find the crinkles rather attractive and I use running stitches to create pleats before I sew the bottom on.

I am in a friendly smock-off with Dee. No, no, it's not star trek related. I'm making a smocked bag while she's making a smocked poncho. Hehe. I'm kidding. I have no idea what she's making. But she's way ahead of me. She uses a smocking machine and she has a smocking teacher. You can go to Make Mine Silk to check on her progress. As for me, I'm still ploughing thru' this Smocking Book. It's really advanced so I have not even started. Time out, Dee!

I said I would make 15 items. I have 4 out of 15. 11 more to go.