The peach fabric used in the photo above are the leftover pieces from the skirt I shortened here.

It’s turned out very differently from my original idea but still very pretty all the same. Can you guess what it is?

Next two days are spent traveling home again, its now 4 days later and we’re still not fully unpacked. I have a huge mountain of washing to sort and fold up and the boys are running out of clothes.

Good news, got the bag finished in time to take to the wedding. Well, just, I left off any type of fastening and didn’t have time to pin stitch the flap.

I had to sew the lining twice due to doing it wrong way around with interlining on the inside (the wrong side!) the first time, whoops.

My second go

Had lots of fun with the trimmings on the front flap. Stage one, the net over lay.

Next, the ribbon and cord trimming.

Yo yo’s

Fabric roses

Then beaded loops and we’re done. And the final finished product!

I was careful to get the lining of the flap with the picture up the right way when the bag is open.

Here I am wearing it at the wedding with my matching dress, a birthday gift from Mum.

And a close up of the flap, for those like me who strain their eyes and put their noses to the screen to take in the details,

I love my new little bag, can’t wait to take her out again

I started off with a strip cut from the under dress to form the base. This layer of the dress was cut on the bias, so my strip is now bias cut without any effort. This will help it sit nicely around her shoulders.

I also cut two narrow extra strips for the straps.

The edges are sewn together down the long edge leaving a small gap for turning in the middle, then the seam is pressed open lying in the centre of the strip.

The straps are tucked in and the ends stitched,

and then the whole thing is turned right side out, ta da!

I cut two strips of lace net from the lace over dress like this.

And then joined them up and gathered them.

Then I did the same with a strip of tulle in a contrasting lime green colour. The gathered strips were layered, pinned on and sewn down the middle of the base.

Next I made some flowers from the remaining lace net and some wine coloured tricot knit (petticoat fabric).

And sewed them on so it looks like this.

This is how it will be worn on the body, but on a much smaller person.

It took me all school holidays (two weeks) just to make the roses and sew them on! Now that the kids are back at school and kindy I’ll have to buckle down and get some real sewing done.

I will show you how I did mine, with 5 petals. My method is a little different, after having a play around I found this was the best way with larger circles, in flimsy fabrics. The size of flower you end up with depends on the size of your circle.

1. Find centre of circle by folding in half, then in half again. Mark with chalk on the wrong side of fabric.

2. Mark a line from the centre of circle to the outer edge.

3. Mark 4 more lines from the centre evenly spaced around the circle. This will involve some maths.
360 degrees divided by 5 petals = 72 degrees.
I used a protractor to measure 72 degrees between each line.

5. Cut thread at least 20cm longer than the width of your circle and thread onto a needle. Secure thread at the edge of circle and sew/tack along line to the centre.

6. Leave a tail approx 10cm long, or if you have 5 needles available to use, just leave the needle on.

7. Repeat with other 4 lines.

8. Pull threads one at a time and stitch to secure in the centre with a knot. Be careful not to tangle the needles!

9. Secure and cut threads, turn over to right side. Ta da!

Now you can have fun with them by cutting some circles smaller and layering the flowers.

Make a fairy hair clip/barrette by attaching a hair clip finding, or a brooch by attaching to a pin-back or…