printed

hope you all had a good creative weekend. i wasn't particularly productive but i did use a little child-free time to fiddle about making this printed pouch. it actually looks a lot better in the pics than it does it real life; it's very lumpy and unglamourous, i made the brown linen side pieces too narrow; they really need to be wider like the first pouch i made. zip went it ok though! ;) suffice to say i shall not be producing these for sale anytime soon. how do people manage to make and sell them for around $6? it took me forever, and it's not even lined yet! what i am happy with, however, is the printed fabric. i used acrylic paint with a fabric paint binder, just cheapy products, and actually they work very well on linen. after i printed and heat set it, i gave it very rigorous wash and ironed it dry, and it was fine. it does change the handle of the fabric a little, but not horribly. so more experimenting i think!

zip it!

i wasn't in the mood for doing much yesterday, but as it was a choice between tackling the never ending ironing pile, doing the hoovering or playing about with fabric in my workroom, guess what won out? the pic is my first ever attempt at stitching in a zip. yep, despite the fact that i've used a sewing machine everyday for the last fifteen years or so, i have never tackled the business of putting in a zip. i've always steered clear because i've thought of it as a really tricky thing to do and i'm terribly impatient. i'm one of those awful people who gives a job up if it doesn't go perfectly first time. so, yesterday i was determined to make a simple pouch from some pieces of linen i bought from namolio the other day. and while it's not perfect, i'm feeling ridiculously pleased with myself.