All packed for Paris and London

Lynda and I leave tomorrow for Paris for one week and then onto London for another week. 

There are 2 Quilt Shops in Paris and I intend to visit them both.

We have our tickets bought for the Eiffel Tower at 7:30pm so that we can see the city lit up at night.

While we are in France we are also going

to Versailles and

Vimy Ridge.

After a week in France we are taking the Chunnel to England and will be going into Palace overload.  We have our tickets for Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace and the Tower of London to name a few.  We will also be visiting Stonehenge and Windsor Castle.  That is one tour that we have allowed ourselves.  The rest we will do on our own.

Buckingham Palace

There is also a quilt shop in Surrey just outside of London proper and I intend to visit it also.  It would be nice to pick up some fabric from France and England that is very unique like the fabric I found in New York City.

I hope to do some blogging while we are away and post pictures of our trip. 

Peggy



New Purses for Paris and London

This year my big trip is to Paris & London.  One of my sisters and I have been going to Europe every year for the past 4 years now.  The countdown is on as we leave on Saturday.  I will fly to Toronto and meet her there and then off to Paris for a week and then onto London for another week.

I really like clothes and accessories to match so I had to make 2 new purses to take with me on this trip.  Everything I am taking is either hunter green or an olive green so I had to make some new purses.

We wear our purses under our clothes and then carry what I call a day bag with an umbrella , a bottle of water, camera and small essentials for the day.  The only valuable thing in this bag is my camera and it usually ends up around my neck.

The fabric doesn't match because I made the Sew Sweet Satchel first and then decided that I needed a new day bag as well.  

The strap is long enough to go

across your body.

I have 2 zippers, one on the inside and

one on the back.

I really like this pattern that I found here for the Dandy Bag and I have made it many times with a few variations. It is an easy to follow tutorial and cute bag.

I have a small pouch hanging

off of this bag, it is for

my sunglasses, so that

they don't drop down too far

and get scratched.

I found the pattern for it at Studio Kat Designs

It is called a Roly-Nester.

I also put pockets and a zipper

into my Dandy Bag.

No purse is complete with pockets

and a zipper.

Peggy

ZIPPERED POUCH TUTORIAL

I wanted to make a small pouch for my make-up etc so I searched the internet and couldn't find one that I liked so I made up my own pattern.  The reason I didn't like the patterns was that either they had seams showing on the inside or the zipper construction just wasn't easy to work out.

I started with a finished piece of fabric 18 x 9.5 inches (I sewed together 2 1/2 inch strips and then quilted them) and decided it was too big so I cut off 6" and then the pouch was too small, so I started again and cut off 4 inches.  I ended up with 3 pouches and the tutorial is on the smallest.

So lets get started.

(I love talking to myself, I hope someone is listening

besides me)

Here is the small piece of fabric, 6" x 9.5"

And the lining

I folded them in 1/2 and sewed a 1/4 inch seam

down both sides, on the lining also.

Then you have to box the corners

And also on the lining

Cutting the corners off on the pouch

and the lining cuts down on the bulk.

Turn the lining right side out and

place it inside the pouch. 

Pin around the top and stich 1/4 inch around

Make sure you leave a 2" or so

space to that you can turn it

and pull everything through the opening.

Press the seam all around so that

the lining doesn't show and it

all stays inside

I don't stich the opening closed I use

Steam-a-Seam 2.  It does a much

nicer job and stays closed.

I also put a small stitch along the seam line

at the bottom

to hold the lining in place.  That way

it won't pop out when you take

something out of the pouch.

Next I added the zipper.

The only light blue zipper I had on hand

was too long.

So I did a zig-zag stitch over the teeth

and cut it off.

A cute little zippered pouch

Peggy