So, Christmas is over and we have turned over into 2010, we really are moving into the new teenage years of the century soon, aren’t we? My New Year resolution this year must be to try update my blog more often and try getting some visitor over here that aren’t spam!

I haven’t been as active making stuff as I should have been, but frankly, with work and stuff going on in the weekends the last couple of months I haven’t had the time, really.

We’re still stuck living with my partner’s parents, but things are looking up in that department as Sam is looking for work now that he’s finished with Uni and I’ll be looking for a new, better paid job. So hopefully it won’t take us too long to get our own place. Hopefully somewhere with enough space that I can get a bit more room for my sewing. I could need a slightly bigger desk and a shelf and some more drawers.

What do I hope for in 2010? Well, I’ve already mentioned a fair few things such as new job, new flat and all that. I’m hoping to get more sewing done and start my own little part time business selling handmade things like bags and the like. I do have some good ideas for bag designs that I think would look cool. Once we have more money and our own place I would like to start taking dancing lessons with Sam so we get another activity to do together and that will hopefully get me into somewhat better shape. I can’t really remember much more at the moment, and I don’t want to overdo it either.

Anyway! We celebrated Christmas with my family in Norway, this was Sam’s very first Norwegian Christmas and we both enjoyed it a lot. I hadn’t seen my family since June and Sam hadn’t seen them in nearly a year and a half! We’ll be going back again in February for mum’s 50th birthday, though, and I hope we can manage to see my family a bit more often from now on.

There was plenty of snow about, and Sam made this snowman outside my sister’s house:

Over to sewing, I made some bags as Christmas presents this year. I’ve been working a lot on my techniques and I’ve worked out how to make my bags more sturdy and with a higher quality than my old flimsy ones:

My mother received a bag from a pattern I’ve created myself and that I call London (after the London Cats fabric I used for it):

My stepmother received a version of a pattern I’ve used many times, this time in a tartan-ish fake wool fabric (I liked the colour) and with satin details:

Detail:

I also made a 1950’s housewife Christmas apron for my sister, but unfortunately I completely forgot to take pictures of it. I might see if I get a chance to take a picture of the apron when next in Norway.

My second bag project was making a pretty bag out of purple corduroy. Again I used a pattern from Making Vintage Bags by Emma Brennan. I stayed pretty close to the original pattern in this one (unlike my previous project) with only minor changes. This one has a red and white striped satin lining and a satin rose decoration next to the flap. I really like this bag and I’m currently working on a pretty much identical one, but with different decoration and a little bit longer handle.

Here are the piccies:

This was my first bagmaking project after not having touched a sewing machine for nearly 5 years (has it really been that long?…), so it’s very far from perfect. It was a good practice project, though. Since I didn’t have access to a photocopier or scanner when I started making it, I had to draw the pattern by hand and scale it from the pattern I used in Emma Brennan’s book Making Vintage Bags by using a calculator. Of course I did some very bad mistakes, like making the top too narrow so I can only barely get my hand inside the bag (and I have tiny hands). At least that’s a very thief proof measure, since the thief wouldn’t be able to get inside it!

The bag is probably not going to be used, but I’m keeping it as a memory of my first ever bagproject.  It is made from very bright orange satin with red cotton lining and a couple of silver bangles as a handle. It also sports an orange bow on the front in the same fabric as the bag, with a red velvet ribbon as bow centre. The pattern is based on a vintage bag pattern in Making Vintage Bags that I mentioned above. Due to my choice of fabrics (really cheap scraps from a fabrics shop), I don’t think there is much vintage about this bag other than the shape. Here are a couple of pictures:

Yes, I know the pictures are nearly identical. I just had two, so posted both while I was at it