Oh deary me!

Well I have been bad, talk about total blog neglect :(  The run up to Christmas was manic to say the least, lots and lots of custom bags were made and I left myself a whole two weeks to do my shopping for pressies for the four boys, the other half and the rest of the family.  I am never that late, it's usually done before December but all the same it was fun rushing around doing the last minute panic buy.
So anyway, what have I been up to on the sewing front?  Bags!  My stock was sold out completely in the festive season so now it's all hands to the pumps and major re stock and fabric shopping (my fav bit).  So here's a few that I've run up lately.

Also this little number made with my all time fav fabric which also happens to be right on trend just now, tartan :)

Just a quick one

Just a quick wee post today.  I wanted to share a pic of the bag I've just finished, for some reason, even though it has skulls on, it reminds me of Christmas.

Is there anybody there?

Appologies to all who are still with me, I've yet again been neglecting my blog.  It's been a busy old time, we moved house and I have been run off my feet with work and the summer holidays, and to be honest just a little on the lazy side as for once up here in Scotland we had great weather for nearly all of the summer rather than the two days we usually get.
As I mentioned work has been rather busy and I've been sewing away like a woman possessed which has left me with a huge pile of scraps of fabric.  So, what to do with them?  No time just now for a lovely but fiddely bit of patchwork so I made these .............

....... so simple yet rather effective don't you think?  The beauty of them is there really is nothing to making them other than choosing the motif from whatever fabric you have, just some iron on interfacing and a close zig zag onto some faux leather (my new favourite material to play with) and a wee keyring thingy, what do you call them anyway?  So off you go and raid your scrap box and rustle up some nice little stocking fillers :)

Hard at work

It's all go at Little Red HQ, a couple of big events coming up so the sewing machine has gone into over drive. 
Here's a little of what I've been up to.

Attempt at a tutorial for a ruffle skirt

Ok, I've never written a tutorial for anything but I figure that this skirt is so easy that even my kak handed attempts at explaining it should be easy enough to follow.
First off you need to measure yourself, you need your waist measurement, your hip (round the biggest part at your bum), the length from your waist to where you want the flat panel to end then from the bottom of the panel to the bottom of the skirt.
Next you need to draw your pattern. Take your waist measurement in inches and add 4 (in my case that's 34 inches + 4) and divide it by 2 (19 inches).  Take your drop from waist to hip and add 2 inches (for me it was 8 inches + 2).  Last off take the hip measurement and add 4 (40 +4 for me) and divide by 2 (22 inches).  Decide if you want to do a straight or curved shape (I did straight as I'm lazy and not so curvy).  Also because I'm lazy and it is less complicated I made my pattern shape to be cut on the fabric fold.  So that's the front of the skirt.  If you have a fairly flat bottom then cut this shape twice, if you are slightly more prominant in the posterior then for the back or the skirt add a bit of a curve to the bottom of the pattern so it hangs down slightly in the middle once you cut on the fold.
That's the tricky part over, the rest of the pattern pieces are basically rectangles.  The ruffle is entirely up to you, I recommend at least twice the width of the full hip measurement to get a bit of full on rufflyness.
Making up............. with right sides together stitch one side of the front panel to the back panel. At the other side add the zip and close the remaining length of the seam.  Add the waist band (there's plenty tutorials out there to show you how). So now you have what looks like and extremely short skirt.
Next up make a very large tube from your fabric for the ruffle and hem the bottom edge.  On the top edge make gather stitches until it measures the same circumference as the bottom of your teeny wee skirt bit and with right sides facing stitch together making sure your ruffles are even.
Check the post below for the finished result.

 

Brrrrr!

Oooh it's so cold!  I'm guessing this post isn't really going to make much sense then, I made a wee short ruffly skirt.

Not exactly weather appropriate but hey ho, it's very me

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a lovely festive holiday?  We came down with the dreaded lurgy in our house but all better now.
So on to 2013, we may only be a few days in but so far it's lookin good.  The weather has perked up a little (always a bonus) and I have some stock in a local boutique as of today with the opportunity to add lots more.  It's quite exciting really having only really done craft fairs and a little online selling to have my bits in a real live physical shop so fingers crossed that will go well.
Also this year I have done battle with my unthreaded serger and won.  Two hours of foul language and online help and it finally was ready to go.  Moral of that story is take a pic before you unthread and never leave it unattended with small kids who like to fiddle with tension dials.
I only have one resolution this year and that is to attempt to up my online presence so more blogging and etsy and folksy and of course good old facebook.
Happy new year to you all x