Cute Bag Pattern Alert!

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With all the beach trips we have been on and the many we have planned, I am always finding myself wanting to take a crafty project with me.  Most recently it has been crochet, but I have also had some hand sewing that would have been nice to complete on the beach with the waves crashing in front of me!  I needed a little bag where I could keep crafty bits separate to sun cream, drinks and towels to avoid any damage.

I came across a pin from Lori over at A Bee in my Bonnet.  Right at the top of her post is a row of these adorable little drawstring bags!  Cute and just perfect for the bag I had in mind; somewhere to put a few little bits, easy to access and covers the contents up from any sand that may be blowing my way.  I headed over to Ayumi at Pink Penguin for the tutorial.

Ayumi suggests using oilcloth for the bag, which would be perfect if I had some…but I didn’t and I wanted to try and use some of the fabric that I already have.

I chose 3 fabrics to use, making the handles the same as the main body fabric, and I made the rim the same as the lining.

Fabrics

Bathroom Makeover – Final Touches

Last week I tied up a few loose ends in the bathroom!  Again, Pinterest had given me a few ideas that I wanted to get done.  Mainly because the bathroom needed a few more pops of colour, but I also wanted to have a go at some other crafts!

1.  You may have seen this runner on my Sunday Sevens post and I finally got it finished!  Man, did it take some time!  I used a method called ‘Quilt as you go‘, where you sew the fabric straight onto the batting.  The tutorial I looked at was for a cushion cover panel, which I may make at a later date!  I really like the effect, and as I worked toward the edge of my batting, the fabric created a chevron effect.

Full runner

close up centre runner

 

Bathroom Makeover Part 3 – Handmade Bathmat

I recently borrowed a book from the library called ‘Simple Sewing with Lola Nova’ which has loads of useful projects that are quite different to the ones that get recycled over and over.  The blog is also worth a read!  It was one of these projects that got me thinking about giving the bathroom a little makeover.  The bathmat project was simple but I did change a few things to suit what I needed.  I bought a plain grey hand towel from Walmart that would be used as the back of the mat.  My plan needed to reflect the measurements of the towel so my patchwork squares were different to those in the book.

Plan

Bathroom Makeover Part 1

A couple of weeks ago I was very daring and I bought a single crochet hook and a ball of yarn.  Hours of online research later (mainly Pinterest!), I have taught myself to crochet and have made items that I am already super pleased with!  The first was the hat that appeared in my #sundaysevens blog post.

The next thing I had my eye on was some crochet bunting.  The tutorial/pattern was very basic and I was a little dubious that it wouldn’t be very good.  However, it was easy to follow and produced some lovely little triangles that could be turned into bunting.

Our apartment is rented and furnished through the housing company that is linked with the company that Adam works for.  It is lovely, modern and simple; just the right size for us but the colour schemes are not ‘us’.  We like little pops of colour!  Yes, there are different colours around the apartment but they are mainly on the cream and brown spectrum.  This makes me a little sad.  So a few little projects popped into my head and here I am giving our apartment a little makeover!

Starting with the bathroom!