Sew La Ti Embroidery:
small sewing projects

 For my giveaway this time around I have a pretty little charm pack of  "Ruby" , the latest fabric collection by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. This collection is oh so gorgeous and I really need to get some myself now that I have seen it in person to touch and see the lovely colour palette they have used.

Along with the handmade gift making that is going on in my sewing attic lately I have whipped up a sweet little birdie pincushion and a matching needlebook. The Birdie pincushion was made using this free tutorial here and is really so easy and satisfying to make. I think I will be making more of these in the near future. The needle book cover is made up of tiny little 1" squares of shabby chic fabrics with some coordinating wool felt pages inside taken from my precious stash of Heather Bailey felts.

In order to be in to win this wee collection of pretty sewing supplies just leave me a comment sharing one or more of your handmade gifts for this holiday season or perhaps a link to your favourite tutorial.

This giveaway will be left open till 16th December when a winner will be drawn randomly.

Overseas comments are most welcome and also please make sure I can contact you via email :-)

No I'm not going to write a post on how we rarely hand write letters any more but it is something that we see less and less of which I think is a little sad since how special do we feel when we receive even just a handwritten note. Anyway with those thoughts in mind I designed this writing/journalling folder or "compendium" I think is the correct word for it. I used up some scraps of batiks leftover from the making of my 'Boho bag'. As you can see it has 2 pockets on the front for pens and closes with a fabric loop and handmade button (a miniature version of the button on the bag). Inside it has 4 large pockets for storing paper, journals and pens, 2 single pen pockets and 2 pockets for cards. Once again I used some African 'shwe shwe' fabrics for the inside. I really like the way these prints coordinate with the blue batiks plus the fact that they've been in my stash for a while now and it feels good to finally find the perfect items to use them in.

 

Another wee makeover and a pretty dramatic one actually if only I had taken taken photos before I ripped the shade apart to show you....

but here is the old fabric which is terribly faded and stained and now I can't think why I put up with its sorry state for so long. It also used to have a blue fringing along the bottom edge the same shade as the braiding.

 

I used one of the unpicked segments as a pattern and used 4 different fabrics on the main shade in similar aqua colours. Above is a Michael Miller dot and an Amy Butler print.

 

And on this side a Heather Bailey print .

 

Some pretty ric-rac trim around the top or crown of the lamp.....

 

For the bottom edge I used some leftover bias binding and added the turquoise and green beading but when I put it back on the lamp base it just didn't look right... sort of like it had a crop top on.... so I added the white pompom trim which added the extra length it seemed to need. I was going to remove the beading once I'd added the pom-pom trim but have decided to leave it and it adds a bit of sparkle and did take quite a bit of time to sew on.

Now the base was originally a very dark brown so I gave it a couple of coats of white gloss spray paint which I must say looks way better than the drab dark brown.

Now I have never spray painted anything until this project and I learnt the hard way to always read directions when trying a new technique or product. It says on the side of the can to shake for a minute before spraying and because I didn't do this to begin with I was wondering why I wasn't getting good coverage. :-D