More Petite Paniers

Head over to my Facebook page and grab yourself a cute little basket! 

Get in early as these are perfect for kids "Easter" egg hunts or you can fill them with cosmetics, candy or any other tidbits!  

USB flash Pocket DIY recipe

My first ever tutorial.  I hope it make sense to the rest of the world.

Grab your ingredients:

USB flash
Mobile phone dangle or cord
Clip
3cm Velco
Fabric 7cm width x ((USBcm + 1cm) x 6cm) length

To work out your fabric size, measure your USB flash and add 1cm then multiply by 6. In my example my USB was 5cm, so 5 + 1 = 6 x 6 = 36cm.  My fabric 7 x 36 cm strip:

Photo 1

Roll and iron a 1/4" hem on both ends, you can pin in place but do not sew:

Photo 2

Fold your fabric in half so that right sides are facing:

Photo 3

Sew 1/4" seam down each side making sure you leave the hem end open:

Photo 4

Turn your fabric right way round and iron flat:

Photo 5

From the bottom (no hem) fold up your fabric so that it measure the length of you USB + 1cm:

Photo 6

Place and pin your velco. Make sure that the velco on the folded fabric only is pin through 1 layer. Using a marker, mark out on the bottom fold where the middle is (see pen):

Photo 7

Unfold your fabric and carefully sew a button hole around the middle marker.  A small zig zag stitch works perfectly well also:

Photo 8

Carefully cut the button hole (Snip away any lose threads around the button hole):

Photo 9

Sew your velco pieces in place.

Photo 10

Fold your fabric as you did in Photo 6 and sew 1/8" seams on each side and the top, the top hem is now closed. 1/4" seam works fine also, I just prefer a closer seam on the outside. Do not sew a bottom seam.  

Attach your mobile dangle to your USB flash and pass the dangle through the button hole at the bottom  of the pocket.  

Attach you clip and your done!

Photo 11

 Your USB flash can easily be accessed and used without being fully removed from the pocket:

Tuck your USB flash into it's pocket when it not in use!

USB Drive pocket

As the kids need USB drives for school and I can't stand those long lanyards in the bottom of their school bag, I whipped up this pocket which should protect the USB and also keep it safe within the pencil case when it's not in use.  Aren't I clever?

For my mum

I don't need a reason to sew for my mum, she is my ultimate fan and I'm sure she has a draw full of all the craft and art that I have made since I was a little girl. I love her so much and now that I'm a mum I know how hard this "job" can be and she is just the best.

Mum loves Mermaids but I grew up calling them "Siréne" the french word for Mermaid, this was her pet name from my father, I find it terrible sweet.  I won't tell you the pet names my husband gives me... you can't picture anything nice!

So one day whilst online fabric shopping I stumbled on this gorgeous fabric by Michael Miller - Sea Beauties and just had to snap it up for mum.  I tried to use all of it and sent them off to her yesterday, I hope she likes them!

Little man was our apron model under much duress. 

Simple yet so delicious: Individual baked lemon cheesecakes

These are my husbands favourite desserts and as he has had an awful week at work I made him a batch.

I hope he enjoys this treat!

Kids Bicycle Baskets

My youngest son tagged along to the fabric store during the Christmas sales and chose some FQ's that he thought were cool.  He couldn't tell me what he wanted me to make with them but he had to have them.  So whilst on Pinterest I showed him all the boy type sewing items I feel I'm capable of making for him and he choose this bicycle basket by Noodlehead:

So I made the red one first as his bike is red but he thinks it's a bit too red (???) so back to the machine for a fully blue basket = happy boy!

New Spotlight Bag

For a long time now I've held on to two FQ's with the most gorgeous patterns.  They are bandana's by Michael Miller and if not for use as a bandana, a pillow would be the next likely use for it.  But pillows are not appreciated at my house, they are used as beating tools or found on the floor so I had to make better use of the fabric.

One I used to make a beach bag for summer:

As Spotlight has gone bagless (they do not give out plastic bags unless you ask for and pay for one) and they encourage you to bring your own with a little card that is stamped each time and you receive a discount after 5 times, I decided to make a special bag just for shopping at Spotlight:

I love it!

Pillowcases for Oncology Kids

Scanning my Facebook I came across this wonderful handmade challenge: Pillowcases 4 Oncology kids. Run by Handmade cooperative they aim to spur on the talents of there members to create handmade and unique pillowcases that will be donated to oncology kids in hospitals around Australia.

A wonderful idea that I definitely would like to be part of, so if I get a chance to get to the fabric store today, I'll aim at getting some nice plain cotton then maybe match it with a panel of some of the great fabric I have.  


Helping others without expecting thanks, anonymous giving aways makes me feel good on the inside, like when I donate blood.

The giveaway was a success in my opinion. I now have 85 likers at my Facebook page, 35 new likers in 24 hours was amazing.  30 fan's responded to the giveaway and the Green/blue fabric basket is now off to a new home in Queensland.

I am now offering the 2 remaining baskets plus the first basket I made up for sale. If they all sell I will definitely stock more but would like to make them a little bigger so then they would have more uses. I did of course make a little one for myself to keep and use to store my nail polish products in (which was why I made them in the first place)

:)

Grab a basket now!

Petite Panier

3 Cute little fabric baskets with one destined for a new home!

Head over to my Facebook page: JJ Handmade to have a chance of winning one of these cute little Petite Panier (Little baskets).

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog and my very first post.

Only very recently I was given the push to show more of my creations with the world and nervous as I am I would like to hope that one day I will be able to offer my creations.

There seems like so much to learn and so much to set up, I just thought it was easy as make, show and sell.  Maybe it is but at this point I find out there are rules and standards and I want to start out right and I'm in no rush so step by step I'll get there.

I have created a blog to share my journey.  I've created a Facebook page to get a little fan base and as of yesterday I've hit 50 "likers", I'm amazed as I assumed that only my close friends would like me (as that's what friends do) but I do feel I have genuine likers and the feeling is wonderful.

So the next thing that I would like to do is to have a little giveaway to my new likers at Facebook.  A couple of days ago I wanted to make a fabric basket but I wanted it to have a handle, so pencil to paper and a little thought and I came up with this:

I love it and hope others will love it too.  Tonight I shall create 3 more with different fabrics and hold my little giveaway... this is all so new and exciting!