Sarah

I had such a good send off from Bristol from everyone, but one of the best and possibly the most unique and at the same time frightening presents I had was this Tom Boonen puppet theatre. Look there is me and Tom Boonen cycling down the Champs-Elyse
in Paris and if you move the wires the cloud moves back to reveal Eddy Merckx. Thanks to Rosie and Rich who I know were quite scared they had even thought of making it.

Due to the fact I want to buy a q-be I am selling my stuff on ebay.

You can buy some vintage scales, a vintage bush radio in cream and blue, a sarahmade vegetables and fruit bag or a sarahmade library books bag.

Happy bidding!

I am thinking of making a website. The following is my proposed colour scheme.

I have been frantically crafting over the last couple of weeks because today I took the craft to another level and actually had a stall at a christmas craft market. It was funny. I shared with my friend Jo who was selling jewellery.

I was selling bags, cards, gingerbread christmas decorations (delicious) and Christmas stocking which one young man described “wow the anti stocking”. I don’t know if that was good, he didn’t buy one.

It was a bit slow but I did sell a couple of bags, a couple of stockings, a few cards and lots of gingerbread.

There is loads of craft left though and bags are being sold to friends at a special price of £6 (usually £8). I have lots of Vegetable and fruits, library books and shopping ones but I think all the ‘lunch’ ones have gone. If you have never seen my bags before you won’t know what I am on about. I will post some pics but let me know if you would like one before christmas and I can send this week before I go to Morocco on saturday.

They are being snapped up fast so better be quick. Oh and there are some very cool stockings. I will post some photos. They are the anti stocking apparently.

I have to tell someone. I just made the most amazing bag I have ever made in my life (my sewing life which is actually only 5 months) but it’s amazing. It is a camping utensil case with grey ripstop outer fabric and waterproof inner lining. It also has red velcro. It is only 3 days until the start of the camping season and I think the combination of sewing and camping is too much for me to take.

Well after giving my excuses earlier I settled down for a night in and then only remembered about the craft at 21.15 when Tom sent me a text. How could I just forget?

So here are the results of the craft challenge. The aim was to complete 3 craft projects by yesterday. Only two people took me up on the challenge - Jo and Sue - that’s my mum. I can assure you that Jo and Sue did complete 3 projects but I only have the photographic evidence for 2 projects each, though I think actually Sue’s (mum’s) rolls might count for more than 1 project as there are 3 of them.

In no particular order (there are no winners here….)

Sue

Sue would like to present some fancy bread and a patchwork cushion. This is no ordinary bread as it contains herbs from her garden, obviously winning extra points as herb growing is a craft in itself. Credit is also gained as the cushion was made as a present - she is not even keeping it!

Jo

Jo also gets extra points because how on earth do you make things with metal? Silver at that. That takes skill. There is obviously more than one invitation so extra points go to the amount of units in this project.

Me

I probably lose a few points for doing only one of the original projects on my list. However I think I make up for it in the red bag as this includes a zipped pocket, 5 panels, velcro and a popper. I also gain points because I actually made 2 of the book bags (brown canvas with pale green paint) and Mira - one of these is on its way to you.

I am having a craft break for a little while. It all became a bit too much like work with a deadline…however I have 3 new bags and I managed to use 2 of them today.

Well done.

Well the craft challenge is complete but due to work commitments, gas leaks etc etc I will not be able to post any photos until later in the day. It will be worth the wait though.

When is the official British Strawberry season? Am I allowed to eat them yet? Well too late I already have and they were delicious. I made a promise to myself to make strawberry jam at least every 2 weeks to keep me going through the winter. That challenge starts today.

The craft challenge is going well though projects may have changed slightly. The sewing machine is coming out today. Blimey - while making jam? How sickening.

In sympathy with Tom who has 3 big projects to hand in at 4pm on 28th April I too am setting myself a 3 project challenge, though of the craft variety. I already have one other recruit - my friend Jo at work. Her project list is:

1. Finish making wedding invitations and send them out
2. Make a bracelet for a 30th birthday present
3. Finish knitting her scarf.

My projects are:

1. finish making a skirt for Mark’s wedding
2. paint a canvas to go above my bed
3. make a bag from the very exciting fabric Kate bought me in Australia.

Photos of my projects will be posted here by 4pm on thursday 28th. Tom says if I haven’t finished them I have to stay up all night on the wednesday.

Want to join in? Submit your project entries to me here.

The prize is you get to enjoy lots of craft completion on the 28th. I will be wearing my skirt, carrying my bag and lying in front of my canvas.

My plan today was to go to Wells but I rebelled from my planning and stayed at home to go shopping on my street and make bags.

This is the bag I made today. It is rather more advanced than my previous efforts. Notice the brown canvas lining and the zip. It is made from a rug.

Due to my recent acquisition of a sewing machine and my growing repertoire of crafts I was quite excited when walking along the beach in Brighton to see this on offer:

We went in to the entrance to find it was £5 to get in and it was full of funny lookin women with bags of crappy craft. So we didn’t go in.

If you like the idea of the Creative stitches and hobbycrafts fair you may also like Entertain Alfresco offered by the same company.

On my continuing quest to find the perfect material (I am currently looking for a particular tweed and ripstop tent material in brown) I visited Fabric land in Bedminster. What an amazing shop. I think it is a retirement home for fabric as it was full from floor to ceiling with patterns from the 70s and 80s and not really much past then. There are two aisles, one of which you can’t get down due to the foam piled up and there is no order to the rest of it. I found some interesting material with a little Dutch looking girl on it weighing out cheese and I bought 1m for £2. I made 2 bags for birthday presents and one for a small child.

I made three bags today, one for me, one for my mum and one for Tom. I can’t tell you what they are like as it is a surprise for Tom though I am concerned he won’t really like it. When I voiced my concerns to my mum she said “well it hasn’t got flowers and girlie things on it” and when I voiced my concerns to Tom he said “why won’t I like it? Does it have flowers and girlie things on it?”. It doesn’t by the way but obviously if I ever want to make something horrible for Tom I now know what to make.

So during the last few weeks of sewing etc people have been telling me I should sell the things I am making. I have always been very hesitant about doing that and today I realised it really is a waste of time as it took me about 6 hours to make all three bags, I spent about £6 on materials and I wouldn’t sell them for more than £5, or at least I don’t think people would buy them for more than £5. So does that mean I would be earning £1.50 per hour? I couldn’t buy any vegetables to fill my bags on that money.

So I have decided I am going to make stuff for trades (and for presents). I made my mum a bag in a trade for some marmalade she made today. I think she only got paid about £1.50 an hour for making that too. It made her say visious things about tescos again. I think Tom is brain washing her.

I got a sewing machine for Christmas from my mum and dad and to celebrate I have a new category called SEWING.

The new range of sarahmade products will include in the first instance bags. Lightweight shopping bags and more complex slightly padded bags with lots of pockets. The emphasis will be on the practical and therefore they will be made from lightweight and waterproof tent material. I have found the best website of 2005 so far Pennine Outdoor. They stock all the fabric I could ever possible want. I have just ordered two leaflets on making general bags and cycling bags.

In the first two months I will be just practicing and Tom, Kate and mum and dad will be getting lots of bags to try out. Then if I think my bags are the best I will branch out and possibly take commisions.

I love January for its new project inspiration.