It seems most of my time these days is spent sorting and tidying and running errands and thinking up ways to use up all the random items of food in my kitchen cupboards. Tinned pears and lemon jelly anyone?
(FYI, totally delicious)
I have been trying to relax a little though, and doing a little bit of sewing while I still have my sewing machine, soon it will be in a 40ft container crossing the Atlantic. So, in amongst preparing some projects to occupy my time while unemployed, I have also knocked up a few Red Velvet Mini Clutch purses, the new free pattern from Cake patterns. I made one to match my LIberty dress, one is a secret (shhh!), and one I made out of some material I picked up a couple of years ago that has been just waiting for the perfect project:
The pattern is great, really easy to make, and I used less than a half of a fat quarter of my patterned fabric, then just some small pieces of spare fabric I had lying around in my stash for the inner lining and handle. All I had to do was buy a zip…. or use one I had lying around in my stash! Really good pattern to whip up for some gifts!
…and a bit of printed ribbon on the inside. Now I can take a bit of British with me 🙂
Back to the sorting…..
Baking, Making, and Crafting 
I love this! And thank you for the link to the free pattern . . . I’ve already downloaded and it will definitely go in my sewing queue! 🙂
No problem! It’s a really cute make!
Ooh I’ve downloaded the pattern! Might be a bit advanced for me still. Zips are scary. But I can try 🙂
Practice practice practice! I am in no way an expert at zips, but the small size of this item means that it’s easier to get it lined up, so I say go for it! There is a zipper foot with that machine right?
Also I found with this pattern, as it has a definite right way up and wrong way up, I had to think about how I was transferring the fold line markings in order to get the pleats right.
I don’t know. I haven’t finished reading the manual. There is another foot in there but I don’t know what it’s for. Hmm…maybe I’ll do some more practice before attempting it then!
It will be a really skinny one.
I don’t know. I got them all out. There’s one the same size but in metal. There’s a metal one with a sort of twisted bit in it. There’s one that I think is a foot but it’s got an arm on it too and then there’s a sort of flat L-shaped metal thing with a bend at the bottom that I’m not actually sure is a foot of any sort. *so confused*
Oh. I looked it up. The spiral one is a hemmer foot and the metal plate thingie is a cloth guide, like the old fashioned version of the grooves on yours. It doesn’t say what the other two are.