Handmade Monday - Fabric box

Good morning! My contribution to Handmade Monday today is not going to win any prizes for the most ooooh, ahhhh fabric, although as you know I think hessian is pretty wonderful. Also, for this particular little project I wanted a neutral setting as I wanted my wool to do the singing - does that make sense?

After carting my teetering piles of Granny squares around on Friday in order to take a picture to show the progress of my blanket, dropping them twice, cursing countless times, (you must understand that they are all held in a certain colour sequence for ease of reference for me, I am quite fastidious about this!) I decided I must take matters into hand and make them a proper little home......

.......thus making it easier to transport them and provide a cosy home for squares and balls of wool (or yarn? When did we start calling wool yarn?), which can sit at my feet while I work.

I'm  afraid there's no tutorial today, as time has run away with me, but I can tell you, I measured carefully the size of the box I wanted, (length, width, height), prepared a paper pattern and cut out 4 pieces, one of each of.....

........hessian, lining, interfacing and interlining. Then I sewed them all up at the corners. But it was too floppy for my liking so I added French seams at each corner which seemed to do the trick and provided the soft rigidness that I was after.

Now I really must schedule in some Christmas time this week. I have been diligently trying to ignore it in favour of other sewing projects but it's no use, there are lists to be prepared, cards to make, outings to arrange and a Christmas Cake to bake.

OH came home with this last week, "I bought you this" he declared. So I'll be giving it a go, apologies to all you brilliant bakers out there who may view this as a little bit of a cop out, but I'll try anything once.

And I also read with interest  this post from Craft Blog UK referring to the 'About Me' section of your web page, and decided yes, mine was as dull as dish water, so I've had a bit of a revamp.

And now you know what I'm going to say don't you.......? Well it is the best way to start your week, by paying a visit to Wendy and the wonderful crafters that make up Handmade Monday. This week Wendy has solved a mystery!

Handmade Monday - Fabric bucket

Let me introduce you to the latest love of my life - the humble fabric bucket. I've had my eye on these for a while and as I've recently being experimenting with stiffeners on another project,  it led me to these lovelies. Oh I just can't stop looking at them!

I think I find them so appealing because they're rigid without being hard, they're so incredibly tactile ( I can't stop touching them) and I love their casual, slouchy appearance.

Is it ever possible to have too many handy storage containers? Well no, I don't think so. Pile them with pine cones, ribbons, thread, jewellery or just use them for your bits and bobs that get left all over the place. I've even seen them used as a plant pot cover which looks utterly gorgeous. If you would like one, I'll be popping them onto Folksy and Etsy later in the week.

You may recognise 'my snowflake', well she made a reappearance this weekend. I wonder if I was the only person thinking  about snow over the last two days? Probably.

Creamy cotton lined with a gorgeous red linen mix

 

How fabulous is this grey linen? It perfectly complements this white linen lining.



Where would we be without red gingham!

 Anyway there are a gazillion tutorials online as to how to make such a pot so I couldn't see the point in making it a gazillion and one. I've now got all sorts of ideas going on in my head as to what else I could put on a fabric bucket and how big or small I could make them, I'll have an army of fabric buckets by the time I'm finished.

It's coffee time now so after I've brewed up I'm off to see the very talented Wendy at 1st unique gifts who has been experimenting with a new design and then of course a tour around those Handmade Monday blogs, there's always something that makes me go "Wow!"

 

Happy Sewing!