Tilda bag and purse

Do you ever get one of those days where you cant even string a thought together let alone a sentence? Yesterday was one of those days. I wanted to make something but I just seemed to have some sort of creative block!. Sure enough at 11pm something happened (kids tucked up in bed and a fruit and nut bar devoured) I relaxed enough to begin making lists of things I wanted to try, supplies I needed and I also sorted through my fabric stash. (I recommend doing this, its really easy to forget what you have.)

In the early hours of this morning I was inspired to try making a make up bag...which I have now renamed a purse as it came out tiny! This was my first attempt at doing anything with a zip and I found it tricky to say the least!. I found that it was difficult to sew exactly the same distance from the zip all the way around as there was no visibility. The tilda instructions mentioned nothing about how to finish the edges of the zips off. I've seen other people use a strips of fabric to make a neater finish, but as they looked good in the picture and I hadn't made anything like this before that I would follow the instructions to the letter.

Just about the only thing I enjoyed about making this was seeing how the wadding I used added some nice body to it. Once the zip was completed I thought that was the worst bit over but as the purse was lined I had to sew that aswell and ended up with one side longer then the other...oh dear!! So now my daughter has a play purse but I still dont have a make up bag big enough to carry my huge amount of make up!

So anyway, Iv pictured it next to a larger tilda bag I made earlier on in the year which was far more successful then my wonky purse!

Both bags are from the Tilda sew pretty homestyle book.



I borrowed this book from my local library and have found it really interesting. Darning socks has become a far cry from paying £2.50 for 6 pairs from Primark that my husband bins and buys fresh every year!

Its made me realise just how privileged I am, so I've now decided not to buy any more fabric until I've used up all I have!!. O.k so a small stash arrived for me today, but thats all I promise! Im also going to go through all my daughters old clothes and unpick the stitches and upcycle it for other projects.

Here's a question for you, what's been your most successful, enjoyable creative project to date?