Buttercup Bag I

I wanted to post this back in January, but I kept forgetting…

I got my new sewing machine the day before Christmas, so naturally I couldn't wait to try it out. Due to the fact though that I had to bake cookies, finish crocheting gifts, wrap presents and what not, I didn't have the chance to sew until after the holidays. I didn't even get to unpack my new baby. :(

So guess what I did the day after Christmas.

Yup. I spend the whole day at my grandma's house, sewing. Grandma and my sister helped.

As a result I present you this cute little purse. It's for my sister, who picked out the fabric (hence the pink, something I would never have picked for myself). 

The pattern is called Buttercup bag made by Rae.

I should probably mention that I am more or less a novice when it comes to sewing. I've been trying to teach myself for the most part and this was the first time ever I made a bag. Therefore, it did take quite a few hours. Grandma knows how to sew, but she is out of practice and the pattern instructions were in English of course, so I had to translate. But we worked it out eventually. My sister was mostly just there for moral support, since she doesn't know how to sew.

A few days later I made this bag. 

I was faster this time around, but still took about fours hours, I think. The bag is also for my sister. I plan on making a couple for my mother as well and once I'm really good at it, I'll make my own purse, so mine is the prettiest. ;)  I've got the fabric cut already. Now I just need to tidy up my desk area so I actually have space for sewing.

Christmas Crochet

I taught myself how to crochet at the beginning of last year. Naturally, I decided that I would crochet some of my Christmas presents. I always like handmade presents over generic ones bought in the store, so crocheting gifts seemed like a pretty good idea.

Of course I had no idea how much work it would be, not to mention how time-consuming. But somehow I managed and I ended up making a whole bunch of amigurumis to give to friends and family.

My first amigurumi was a baby dragon. This little guy had been the main reason why I had wanted to learn how to crochet. He's just too cute. Of course, for an absolute beginner he's also pretty difficult to make. Had I known, I would have chosen a different animal as my first piece. As it happens, I crocheted all the parts for the little dragon, but than had no clue how to start assembling it. So I put it aside, and made a few different pieces before going back and sewing all the parts together. 

My next project was a cupcake, which I intended to use as pincushion. Every time I sew, I drop the little box with my pins, so it was high time I found a solution for that problem anyway. The pincushion cupcake can be dropped many, many times, the pins stay where they are supposed to.

I couldn't find instructions that looked exactly like I wanted mine to look, so I even ended up inventing one of my own. I'm pretty proud of the result. I also made one with a birthday candle, since my sister's birthday is a week before Christmas.

For Christmas I ended up making three snowman, two penguins, two reindeers and one Santa. The Santa didn't end up as cute as I thought, but the other ones were all great.Unfortunately I didn't think to make pictures of all of them. I do have one of the snowman and one of the reindeer though and I will have to make at least one more penguin for the birthday of a friend, so I will make a picture of that one then. 

I got most of the instructions from the Lion Brand site. Registrations are required, but they don't spam or anything, so I didn't mind.

Patterns I used:

Baby Snow Dragon (German translation)

Reindeer

Snowman (Lion Brand, registration required)

Penguin (Lion Brand, registration required)

Santa (Lion Brand, registration required)