Another 241 tote

I made another 241 tote! My mum saw the one I made for myself and asked me to make one for her. She chose the fabrics, so I can't take the credit there, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I made a few changes, with this being the second time I've made this pattern now. Firstly, I attached the pockets to the relevant pieces before I started putting them together. I found it quite tricky to attach the pockets at the points where the pattern recommends (not impossible, and certainly didn't effect the finish, but not enjoyable to do), so I found this much better. I also find the zipper pockets and up bigger than the bag pieces and would so get cut off, plus they fight each other for room, so I trimmed these down as well. I also make my handles totally differently - using the fabric to cover a strip of webbing instead, but I did that with my own bag too. So here she is:

And I've been a bit down today (largely because I have received a £900 fine from HMRC for filing my tax return late, despite the fact they didn't tell me I needed to do it until it was already late, then I requested a pin number to do it online and that never arrived, and now they are saying they've not received it despite it having been signed for on the 28th of May...*and breathe, breathe, breathe* oh and I only registered as self employed because I was doing Avon to try and supplement my income as we were struggling, and I earned...wait for it £500! Less than the pigging fine!!) so my beautiful Beau bunny sensed I was sad and came for a cuddle. I look hideous in this picture as I am having a PJ day, but he never ever lets you cuddle him, so I just have to share!

Hello hoomans!

Mummeh did say that cos I was brave at da vets I could write a blog post today. I was bery brave - the vet lady did said she had never had a bunny let her look in his earsies for so long! And she did said I has a bootiful coat! What do yooz fink?

Ma mummeh says I has a short attention span and maybe I've got A...D.. OOH what's this on the floor...

Yeah i iz bored now, byeeee

Anyway, now he's gone I can show you my new heart garland, finished off on my new sewing machine!

Cash Envelope Finish!

I have finished my Cash Envelope for the competition over at 'from blank pages'. Thanks again to Diane for the fabrics and materials!

So here it is:

 I only use 4 pockets as I wanted it slightly less bulky. I am thrilled with the finished product, definitely the most complicated thing I've ever made!

Oh and a gratuitous bunny pic, now he's feeling better:

No progress :(

Today has been a bit of a blow out :( We have a very poorly sick bunny boy, he's not eaten properly since Friday night. So we've been to the emergency vet, not cheap, spent an hour there, and now we have to syringe feed him, get meds into him. He's got gut stasis, which is kind of like colic in babies, so he must be very uncomfortable, poor sausage. Not a good day.
He'c currently hunched up in his litter tray:

And this was him cleaning his face after medicine time:

On the upside, tomorrow is the start of this:

I have said before that I love how blogland pushes me out of my comfort zone, and this is a perfect example. I've never done paper piecing, I've never done curves. Of course this does mean my first block could go horrificly wrong and I got have a strop and give up completely, but I'm excited to give it a go.

Here are my fabrics:

I probably won't use all of them, but these are all my purples, so I've washed and pressed them all so I get a choice. I've also got a bag of scraps to go at too, and another one waiting to go to mum's to get washed.

5 dresses done!

Following on from Friday's success, I have now finished 5 dresses for:

I am thrilled with them too, here they are:

My major 'trying new things' with this one was the zig-zag stitch to neaten up the raw edges. I couldn't understand why my zigzag stitch would work on the main body of the fabric, but when I tried to use it on the edges, it would all pull in on itself. So my new thing that I tried? Reading the instructions (I know, like duh!) Apparently there is an actual special foot for this - who knew? (Yes yes, all the rest of you, whatevs, yeah?!)

Also, new - making my own binding! I had read a warning that with these little dresses being sent off, and being in a climate so different than ours, there was a risk of shop-bought binding shrinking disproportianately to the rest of the dress, so I thought I'd best bite the bullet and make my own. It really worked out well too, as it meant I could pick the fabric, rather than having to just choose a vague colour match.

Oh and a little side note, I am the queen of mending rather than redoing, restarting or the dreaded (and a swearword in this house) *whisper it* unpicking (ahhhhhhh!). Notice the cute little flower on one of the purple dresses? That was to cover a mark that came of the iron from all the spray starch I have been using recently. Just a little tipe for you there. If you're really good, I'll show you how I use seed beads and sequins to cover botched patchwork points ;)

And finally, a fluff piece (ba-bum-tsh!), the boy has been frightening the life out of us this week with 'the dead-bunny flop':

Those 'in the know' will be aware that this is a happy flop that bunnies do when they are really relaxed and, well, happy, but it can really scare you! Every time we have to check he's breathing!

Hope you've all had a relaxing weekend!

I'm linking up with:

My bunny boy

Ok, so today I have made some snuggle safe covers! If you haven't heard of a snuggle safe, it's like a hot water bottle for animals. It's a solid round thing that you pop in the microwave, and it's safe because your animal can't chew into it like they would a hot water bottle. So I have one for my bunny, which leads me nicely into a little introduction!
This is Mr Beau Jangles:

A friend of mine got him when she was very depressed, but quickly realised a bunny wouldn't fit in with her lifestyle, so we took him in... best decision I ever made! He is an absolute sweetheart! It took a while for us to get to this stage...three years in fact, but he will now come to us for attention and can't get enough of you stroking his face and ears! He was originally called Miss Sophie Jingles! It wasn't until he went in to be spayed that we discovered she was in fact a he, and 'Mr Beau Jangle' became! So that's why my blog is so-named, in case you were wondering!

So I made a snuggle safe cover for him, and had lots of fleece left over, so I've made 5 more and I'm hoping to pass them on to a rescue, either for their own bunnies or for some fundraising: