Easy Peasy Sunglasses Bag

So I really REALLY fell in love with the material I got from Spotlight for the back of my Country Kitchen Apron, and I've been trying to find a use for as much of it as possible.

When I carried my sunnies around with my in my hand bag they always ended up really dusty and needed to be cleaned almost every time I put them on (which isn't a good thing when you're driving!)

So there was a pretty long piece of the material left over, and if I folded it then it was just the right width to hold my sunglasses. So I sewed it together up the sides, and using a pink sheet of felt cut out the same size and sewed up the sides of that to make the inside of the bag.
Next I got a small length of pink ribbon and folded it in half tying the ends in knots so they wouldn't get lost inside the bag if you pulled one side too hard.
I flipped the material inside out so the stitches are on the inside, and slipped the felt inside the material (leave the stitches on the outside).
Stick the ribbon between the two layers all the way around the bag, and then fold over a small lip on the material side of the bag. Sew all the way around the bag leaving just enough of an opening for the ribbon to slide in and out of, leave a gap between the ribbon and stitch the gap closed.

Easy Peasy! Just make sure you don't catch your ribbon in your stitches, then slide your sunnies inside and pull the ribbon tight and VIOLA!!! You have your very own sunglasses bag!

Update on Harry Potter Night!

Alright, lets just get it all out here on the table...

I've been a lazy LAZY little girl lately with my arts and craft projects...  at the moment I have about 4 things laying around half finished. BUT it's all OK.

Why? I can hear you asking yourself, let me tell you why. I've noticed it! Plain and simple truth... I'm slipping back into my old habits of starting stuff and never finishing it so now I'm doing something about it!

First thing's first, the Harry Potter night goodies. I have finished the Hufflepuff set of bags and scarves, and am 80% finished with the first Ravenclaw bag (the last of the sets that I need to make) And I've found that as long as I am doing other things while crafting I get a lot more done.

So I've been watching movies, and even the Australian version of Kath & Kim, and have almost finished this bag in record time!

Now if only things will stop interrupting me... either some one comes to visit us, the dogs have  been escaping our back yard because our next door neighbor is a moron who has no respect for his neighbors, or we have had to go out to see other people....

This week I have no plans to go anywhere, all I need to do is my housework and my crafts.

So with you all as my witnesses, I plan to at least have my Harry Potter sets finished and photographed by the end of this month!

Le Hufflepuff Bags!

So once again I present to you the Hufflepuff Bag Set (free pattern by clicking here)! I'm still working on the scarves but they will be up soon.

Now you may notice that this set of bags differs a bit from the others, this is because I used two different types of yarn. The black yarn is just a normal 12 ply where the yellow is the very soft baby type yarn used to make blankets or baby clothing....
This made it difficult to do the fringe at the bottom, as every time I tried to pull a bit of yellow yarn through I ended up pulling the fluff off of it and was left with a few threads, so the fringe for the hufflepuff bag is a solid color, and the fringe on the scarves will be the same.  Lately I have also been looking around for some decoration ideas. I have found quite a few! There's the Hogwarts Crest that I have put on the top of my invitational letters, and used GIMP2 to turn it a nice green color to match the ink in the movies. There's the Potion Bottle Labels that I plan on using for my lollies and drink bottles, which will be easily done. I plan on getting a few of the glass water bottles from a cheapy shop and placing a label on it for drinks, and getting a few of the glass jars for the lollies.
There are the Butter beer labels which you can print off for free, and I will also be putting those on some of the water bottles, but I plan on getting some glass beer mugs and placing a label on each one of those as well, as a party favor for my guests.


I do also have my slytherin cloak finished entirely now, but as I am home by myself at the moment and would need someone to model it for me.... well it will just have to wait until some one else gets home, because I highly doubt that any one wants to see it on my puppy! There will be an awesome step by step video for the next blog so stay tuned!

As promised!

BAGS!!!!!

and 

Scarves!!!!!

As I've said before here is pretty much what I've done since my big break. To the left we have our Gryffindor bags and scarves, and to the right we have our Slytherin set. I've decided to make two of each bag and a total of eight scarves, four in single blocks and four in stripes. These have taken aaaaages to make, but they have been totally worth it! My only problem is that when I went out and got all my yarn to make the bags I didnt notice that the sizes I got were all different, but that's alright it just means everything will be different sizes.

So here we have our scarves, made from the same yarn as the bags. Four were made of each style. The pattern for these scarves is simple, I just did a search of what styles of scarves there were and made miniature versions. They measure approximately 8 inches long and have a fringe on the bottom just like a normal scarf. There is a problem with rolling up on the edges of these, but if you use a yarn that is iron-able it is easily fixed.  There is a pattern for some double knitted book scarves that gave me the idea for this which can be found here and its free! That's always good to have.

Golden Snitch Key chain

I decided to try and make a few golden snitch key chains, only because knitting them really was making my fingers bleed. It's ok though not everything needs to be knitted, there are more than a few ways to do what you like! I went to my local craft store in the jewelery section for this little number, and let me tell you it was a little hard to find what I wanted. I ended up having to go several times and to a few different craft stores to find all the parts I needed, you wouldn't think it would be so hard... Now I ended up using some end posts which were pretty long, some silver wing charms, phone charm lanyards (the black thing in the photo) and some small golden balls. I was looking for some plain golden beads, but instead I found these very ornate balls with holes on each side just the right size for the end posts to go through. Using a pair of wire curlers I threaded the end post through the wings and the ball, curled the end around making it nice and tight and then attached the charm lanyard to the curl. To top it off it will be presented in a small silver gossamer drawstring bag, with a small note reading the line from the last movie where Harry Potter receives the golden snitch in Dumbledoor's will reading.

Coming up next: Huffellpuff Bags and Scarves!

Back In Business!!!!

So as of today I have full internet access as well as a fully functioning computer ^_^ its gonna take me a while to get back into the swing of things though I've been forced to use my phone for so freaking long I've almost forgotten how to use a proper keyboard!

Now I haven't slacked off, don't you worry! I've finished both the Slytherin and Gryffindor house bags and the sets of scarves, as well as came up with some really cute golden snitch key rings. (Pictures and instructions will follow at a later date.)

I am currently starting work on the Huffelpuff bags and scarves. The invitations are ready and awaiting a chosen date, all of the decorations are ready to be put into place, the menu is set, and now all we need to do is finish unpacking our new house, and get our kitchen sorted and we will be on a roll!