My shabby little suitcase

I started making over my battered little suitcase before the Summer but whenever I came to finish it off there was a kittycat taking a nap in it.  I finally finished it this morning...

..painted ivory with some of the original leather still peeking through in parts...

...lined with a pretty vintage style fabric...

.♥.

...and now a new place for me to store ribbons and buttons and pretty lace.

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Pale blue, pale pink and cream...

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Rustic Country Cards

I had some spare time to put together some lovely little fabric bits and made these cards...

A delightful tiny patchwork quilt, with a small amount of padding...

and a country red barn with a lot more padding!

I also did a couple of tiny Union Jack cards ~

These pieces have no padding but are mounted on the same rustic fabric surround.

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Scrappy Fabric Collages

It's that time of year where a lot of my sewing is on dance costumes for a very dear friend's child.  I've also been working on some boring, practical sewing too so I thought it was time to treat myself to something fun and just for me!

So I gathered bits of fabric, lace and ribbons and put together this pretty fabric collage...

...sewn with a curvy leaf vine up the middle and a tiny zig-zag around the frayed edges.

 I was so pleased with the result I set to and made another...

 and topped this one with a button and frill flower.

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Oh, Soldier Soldier, Won't You Marry Me...

More fabric tags, this time with a big tall sentry box and a neat little row of soldiers...

made from blue denim with a red gingham ribbon.

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Tiny Bunting...

Look what I've been whizzing up on my sewing machine...

...denim gift tags with tiny bunting flags sewn on in bright ginghams...

...and some in a paler denim with stripey pink and green bunting ...

...and some in a beige heavy fabric with mixed pattern bunting...

  

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Little House on the Prairie Tags.

A little bit more of fabric collage sewing.  Sometimes I pick up a piece of fabric and I know just what to do with it and what other fabrics to use, other times I can go through piles of different patterns and not find the exact piece I'm looking for (even when I don't know what it is I'm looking for).

Anyhow, these tags sort of evolved from bits of ribbon I have had for ages and wanted to finally use, so what  could be better than as a garden for a cute little house?

And I wanted to use a Union Jack ribbon too, so these houses got our great nation's flag as their garden.

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A little bit of fabric collage...

All those little bits of fabric I can't bring myself to throw away have been put to use in some fabric collages...

...a cute little birdcage...

...and a butterfly.  

There are more in the making, but not finished just yet.

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Sheep!!!!

Following on from my rabbit success, I also made a sheep.  Daughter Holly made one, too.

This is mine...

...and this is mine and Holly's...

...and here they are with the rabbits.

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Little Rabbit FooFoo...

...running through the forest...

 ...scooping up all the field mice...

...and bopping them on the head!

Fabric Tags

An order for 60 fabric gift tags...

...all done and ready for dispatch.

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Gift Tags...

...in lots of different fabrics...

 ...'With Love'...

...and 'Happy Birthday'... 

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Raggedy Again...

I've been trying to stock up on some items...

...like this heart.

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Denim Blue and Red Spot Too...

Tatty Rag Heart...

...in soft cotton denim, pale blue stripe and red spotty fabric.

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It's been that time of year again...

..when I've had my sewing machine whizzing away at making dance costumes for my friend Alison's youngster.  So to celebrate finishing them I allowed myself a little spare time to do a few more bottle bags in the rustic burlap-style fabric.  Each of these have the string tie detail...

...and if you look very carefully at the first photo you can see a little bit of the top of the stripped dresser I've been working on this Summer.

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Bottle Bags

I was asked a while back to make some fabric bottle bags as an alternative to the shop-bought paper ones.

I have a big piece of this gold organza-style material so made a couple of these.  I sewed a crimson organza tie to the back of the bag, which can be tied around the neck of the bottle in a big bow.

For the cupcake fabric I sewed a pink spotty ribbon and button on the back of the bag, again to be tied in a bow around the neck of the bottle.

And the strawberries printed fabric I made into a bag with two handles with a button and loop fastening.
They're all sewn with French seams so are nice and neat on the inside too!

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