Embroidered purses

This was sparked off by the name labels I am embroidering for the Casuarina House children. I am getting better at them, but they are quite time-consuming, and i really wanted a faster, small project. So I went to my collection of images and pulled some small designs out. I embroidered them on my medium sized hoop and then cut the pieces to 6" x 5". I cut a matching oblong of denim for the back of the pouch and two oblo9ngs of lining. I then sewed the zip between the denim and the lining, leaving a gap of 1/2" at each end. I put the denim pieces right sides together, having remembered (most of the time) to open the zip first) and sewed round the three sides. I repeated this with the lining, but left a gap of about 2" along the bottom, for turning. Before turning I cut out a 1 1/2" square from each corner and boxed the corners to make the pouch shape. After turning I sewed up the gap in the base. I like these, and hope they will sell well. I will not repeat all of the designs as some (eg the "funky" one) take ages to sew, but I am now on the look out for more, similar designs - and am even considering trying to design some myself.

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Noriko bags

Last week this was one of the photos I showed you:

This was five Noriko bags waiting to be sewn.
Here are the finished products:

I made three with long straps and two with short.  I also decided it needed some kind of closure so I added ribbon loops and threaded a drawstring through.  They make cute little bags, I think, with an unusual shape.
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A major project

I've been asked to make backpacks for the children at Casuarina House for Christmas.  They are for them to use at school, and I am going to make the drawstring pocket backpacks.  However, with 24 children the bags all need to be identifiable, so each will have the child's name on.  I've started this part of the project, using my embroidery machine.  I'm not entirely proficient with it, and there has been some struggling and cursing along the way as I fought with its vagaries and the tension (the machine's, not mine!) The first five name squares are now done:

I'm intending to make each name different, either in font style or colours.  I'm a little worried about fitting the longer names on, however (eg Angelina!) as I don't seem to have many interesting small fonts and they can only be reduced slightly.  I may just have to go ebay shopping again!
The bags have to be finished by November so that Paul can take them over when he returns. Hope I can do it - watch this space!

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Cosmetics bags

Today I started sewing my stock of pre-cut items from last weekend. I was so right in my belief that this will really speed up the process.
These bags feature as a clutch in the wonderful book Bags--The Modern Classics: Clutches, Hobos, Satchels & More by Sue Kim.  

I decided it would make a really good cosmetics bag, particularly with the Christmas market in mind.
This is how it turned out in denim:

I may make some more with embroidery on the front - haven't decided yet!  In the meantime I will see what the response is to these.
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Adorned from Above