Laptop Mended I'm up and running.

 Wow!!!  I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. It's been a few months now.  There are a couple of reasons for this,  the first being my laptop has been playing up for quite a while. To log on would take about an hour on a good day which was really frustrating. 

The last two weeks it's been in the repair shop having new organs fitted and programs.  It came home yesterday and I am now up and running.

The second reason is because, I haven't been making any cards.  No handmade Christmas cards this year, no handmade Valentines card for hubby, and no Birthday cards.  However , I have been  kept very busy sewing. 

We were supposed to be going to a wedding in October, as we were packing, I realized  we didn't have any toiletry bags. This gave me the idea to make some. Everyone that saw them said they were lovely and that gave me the idea to make sets of travel bags for the granddaughters for Christmas. Then it was suggested the other female family members may like a set , either for Christmas or those with January /February birthdays.

I then extended the three bag set by including a tissue holder and a chap stick holder .

This set was made for my eldest granddaughter. I also bought some single sided emery boards those ones that usually have a really garish design printed on the reverse.

 I found,  I could peel off the tacky printed side and replace it with a print to match the bags.  

To achieve this, all I did was to photocopy the fabric (a laser printer is best for this)  I used to make the bags. Then adhere the printed paper to the back of the nail file and trim off the excess paper , if necessary  use a second emery board (a fine one) to neaten any rough edges.  

This set I made for myself. I needed a new bag to keep my hair accessories in, I didn't need three bags for these so this set is just a two bag set.

 Below is a photo of a small selection of the bags I've been making.

I made quite a few more  bags in different fabrics and vinyl's that I didn't photograph.

These bags are pretty easy to make  and can be addictive to make.

If you're interested in making these, there are countless tutorials on Youtube.
There are a few different methods to put them together, I suggest watching a few tutorial and decided which way suites your sewing skills the best. 

You don't need  a lot of fabric either. A large bag will take two fat quarters, one for outer and one for lining.

I bought the larger metallic coil zippers by the metre from Amazon.

 The wadding however was a bit more problematic. We don't have any sewing shops here now.  So I had to order online. The problem with this is you can't feel the thickness or the quality from a photo, so you  don't know how much body it's going to give the finished bag.  I order a wadding from Amazon which was perfect, so I re ordered the same stuff....what I received was so thin it didn't even offer enough body for the smallest bag.

So I ordered more from somewhere else... that arrived and it was fine for larger bags, but too rigid for smaller bags.

In desperation to get the project finished, I ended up going to a well known craft shop and paying  £26 per metre. To my mind that's way too much money.

If you plan on making them in vinyl  I strongly recommend  using a walking foot or a teflon foot. for the top stitching.