Present sewing

With Christmas looming, sewing for myself has taken a back seat. The past three weeks have been a mixture of delight and panic at the amount of sewing I needed to do. Phew though, as of about an hour ago I made my way to the end. This was mainly thanks to the fact that work tends to slow down heavily in the last week before Christmas holidays so I have been able to sew in the evenings which is usually impossible. My first Christmas make this year was a pair of tote bags. I made them with a meter each of Liberty Lawn which I bought in the Abakhan Liberty sale over Black Friday.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out and with the new shopping bag policy I think that they're a pretty useful gift. I'd like one myself but it seems so indulgent to use a meter of Liberty lawn for a bag for myself.

The pattern came from the rather lovely book 'The Liberty Book of Home Sewing' which gives very clear instructions on making the bag. It also gives ideas for how to take your product further. For the bags it shows you how to make a small bag carrier so you could clip it into your handbag. The book doesn't come with patterns but gives easy to follow instructions on how to make your own.

The bags have a small amount of top stitching. Something which I'm not very confident doing and which could definitely be better on the bags as you can see! I tend to wobble off line as soon as there's a curve!

The bags are joined by the handle and strengthened by sewing triangles. Whilst this isn't the prettiest finish (I considered many others) I came to the conclusion that it was the most practical. Here's hoping that the recipients like them as much as I do! How is your Christmas sewing coming along?