Gingham Bow Tie

Back in May, I had to make 30 bow ties for the Italian Contemporary Film Festival. Though I had made a tie before, I had to find an easy enough patter to 'mass produce' these bow ties.

The tutorial from Sew Like My Mom perfectly guides you through the steps to making one.

I finally got to make a bow tie for me. The only alteration is that I made to the pattern is that I shortened the neck length to fit my small neck (12 inches). I also watched and looked at many tutorials to figure how to tie it.

PIN WIN: Felt Earphone Bunny

Wednesday afternoon I was feeling quite restless and I wanted to do something but nothing intesive so I went on Pinterest and found the felt bunny earplug carrier which I had bookmarked. The pin does not have any instructions so first I sketched a pattern and then cut it out of felt (2 pieces for the body, ears and arms). Then I put it all together with simple embroidery stitching and for the cheeks I used a red crayon.

The original pin

 Mine!

PIN WIN: Pretty ribbon wellies

I usually share something I've sewn or knitted but, this time I'm going to post about something I've made from Pinterest. For a couple of months now, I've been hooked on Pinterest so much so that now I have 66 boards and over 1100+ pins bookmarked. I've also ran into Pinstrosity, a blog that shares unsuccessful pin creations. Luckily, I've have a few successes which I'm going to share here.

Ever since Katrina called rainboots 'wellies', I've really taken a liking to this Brit word so now I started to use it! It makes me...happy!

Here is the original Pin:

Here is what I did:

I added two red bows with some leftover ribbon I had. I used silk ribbon which looks great but has the tendency to undo itself so I would suggest that you tie a double knot or sew the bow in.

Square Coin Purse

 

This is the coin pouch that I made after seeing the Circle Zip Earbud Pouch on Pinterest. The original is in a round shape pouch and seeing that I can't sew in a circle, I opted for a simple square shape. I also did not use any batting but used interfacing on the main fabric to give it stability. So happy with the overall result!!! I will definitely try to do more as it perfect to hold bus tokens, small change, usb drives, and lip balm all handy on my keys.

Flexi Frame Wristlet.

Here my new flexi frame wristlet. I love the details of the flex frame; it has a hoop detail instead of the usual flat tip. It's from a Korean brand called INAZUMA. The tutorial I used comes from UHandbag and it's not a hard pattern to develop; once you have it, putting it together comes very easily!

Flat Iron Cover

I'm excited to be travelling this summer and I needed a cover in which to put my flat iron.

So here it is, two rectangles sewn together in a 1/2 inch inseam (with lining inside). Easy peasy!

 

Zippered Coin Pouch Tutorials

Zippered coin pouch tutorial 1

Zippered coin pouch tutorial 2

Business Card Holder

I did this business card/points card/id card/credit card holder after being inspired on pinterest. This is the original blog that offers a really easy tutorial on how to make these cute holders. I just saw another holder where the pockets are lengthwise rather than on the side. I look forward to making one of that too!!!!

PASSPORT WALLET from ADORN

Here is my take on the ADORN Magazine passport wallet. I absolutely love it. My concern was to get the main cover with the two larger side pockets right and the rest was just decoration I could have omitted. I made the opening tab slightly longer [it wraps around] and decorated it with one crochet flower. I have the pattern and the instructions on PDF file so if anyone is interested, please leave a message in the comments along with your email address and I will be very happy to pass these along to you.

TWEED PASSPORT SLEEVE

I recently became a Canadian citizen and I am waiting to get my brand new Canadian passport in the mail! Of course, I didn't want to get any ordinary passport sleeve/cover!

I followed bunnybum's passport sleeve tutorial and as you can see, it turned out great!

First of all, I have to say that tweed is my new friend!!! I had some tweed that I bought at a thrift store and haven't had that chance to use. Tweed makes everything so polished!

For the lining I used a sheer, woven cotton that I reinforced with interfacing.

bunnybum finishing steps were to topstitch the outside and to fold the pockets and topstitch again. I didn't want the topstitching to show so I embroidered little running stitched to mimick the 'topstitching' and finally, I sewed the folds by hand using the invisible/slip stitch.

To top it all off, I placed a simple crochet flower made from this tutorial.

THESE BOOTS WERE MADE TO.....LOOK GORGEOUS!

First of all let me say, aren't these fabric boots absolutely pretty? I was excited to pick up from the library Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle by Tone Finnanger. Even though it's not Christmas, I couldn't help myself from trying to sew these cute fabric boots! The patterns provided in the book do not include seam allowances so I used 1/8 inch seam allowance. I also traced the boot pattern as is without enlarging it which resulted in 6 inch long boots. I used some black paint to define the sole and heel. Finally, I sewed little gold rings at the top for easy hanging. 

FLOWERY SNAP COIN PURSE

I've been wanting to make these cute coin purses for a while but it's impossible to find internal flex frames in Toronto's craft and fabric stores! Luckily I've managed to remove a flex frame from a used [and rather ugly] leather jewellery pouch. I used the U-Handbag tutorial and it came together in a snap! I absolutely love it! I'm surprised by how roomy it is!It's unfortunate that I won't be able to make more, at least for now...I have in mind a really cute purse design I would have loved to try out, but I guess I have to wait.

WARM KNITS FOR A CANADIAN WINTER

I'm keeping my head and my hands warm this winter with these matching hat and mittens. The hat is a 'grown-up' version of Wendi Dunlap's  cupcake hat for babies. I was googling the pattern for the cupcake hat and by chance, I came across her lovely pattern! You can download the PDF pattern here.

To match the hat, I knitted this pair of super warm thrummed mittens! I have knitted mittens before and I once saw someone knit thrummed mittens but I had no idea of what it was called or what was used to make them. After researching, I discovered wool rovings make these mittens so toasty. I got two packs of rovings, one for each hand, from The Workroom. If you want to make your own, the best how-to for thrummed mittens is found at hello yarn! As always, I knitted an i-cord and attached it to each mitten because I used to have the tendency to lose things!