Weekend Shopping!!!!!

This weekend I went on a little shopping spree.

On Saturday, I visited the local fabric shop and bought, bought, bought. Now I really have to sew, sew, sew to make some of that dough back. I absolutely love the linen. The muted colours are just waiting for some punch of colour.

So yummy!

Sunday, Marko and I went to the Vide Greniers (empty attic sale...like a garage sale, but way better) in Bar sur Loup, a little french village just went of where we live. Marko found this wonderful scale for me, just 8 euros...as he likes to say..."deal!"

I love this new toy. The bright yellow base and metal bowl is very 1950's...so vintage.

Like a kid, after opening birthday presents, I played with this toy all night long, weighing everything from our dinner to the produce in our fridge.

Wallet MaDNesS

I know...I know...I said I was taking a little break from sewing and blogging, but these wallets are so fun to make that I couldn't help myself. Yesterday, between preparing for our guests and cleaning up the flat, I would take a little sneaky sneak to my sewing machine and make a couple of these babies.

Sooo fun to sew, and now that I have the system down...looks like another tutorial on "youtube" is on its way...

Like an Energizer Bunny...I keep sewing and sewing and sewing...

I have been posting everyday with all my new creations trying to keep you all updated on my daily activities. The next couple of days will be crazy, busy for me (we have guests from Germany on thursday coming for dinner and again on friday and saturday is brocante day...yummy brocante), so I thought I would post all of my doings from the past couple of days in one go.
Firstly, another "Petit Sac". I took a break from these bags for a while (I was little Petit Sacked out and wanted to change things up a bit), but now I am back in the sac mode (tee- hee). I was very excited to see Zenzey (who by the way also makes beautiful bags) left a comment about the tutorial on how to make these bags. Thanks Zenzey!

This bag was made from heavy weight linen and cotton.

Notice the French flag colours and all the French Maisons...

Also, I finished another pouch. This one made from fabric I ordered on ebay france. I was a little worried it wouldn't make it with my broken french. Not too sure what I wrote, but I guess I was understood because my order was complete.
Last, but not least... a Kitty Bag (everyone needs a Kitty bag I think). Made from linen as well (notice the theme). I played around with my sewing machine settings and fancy stitches, and addded some embroidery in brown thread.
The closure is two vintage buttons I picked up here in France at a local Brocante market. I love the colours; brown and blue a great combination!

Pomme Wallets

Today, I have been working on these new pouches. I had this left over apple fabric but not enough to use on a full bag, so I figured I would cut out the apples (there are pears too, but one fruit at a time please). I appliqued them unto these scraps of linen, and made some little wallets. I am glad I didn't throw away these scraps of fabric...you see... it is important to keep everything...even if it takes over your sewing room.

This one is my favourite
I also made two with white apples

All are available on my etsy shop.

Bags, Bags and more Bags...

Just finished 2 more "le marche" sacs.

I just love making these bags and for some reason I get such joy converting these large bags into 6 x 6 pockets (maybe too much time spent by my sewing machine).

This one is wrapped and ready to go...on its way to it's new owner in New Mexico

Sur La Plage Part Deux

Last night as I lay in bed to go to sleep, I started to dream about my beachbag (sad, I know). I thought; what else can I do to make it even more functional?

This morning I woke up and went straight to my machine to make a little matching change purse. Just like the bag its waterproof made out of vinyl and oilcloth.

Then I thought perhaps the bag could fit in there...

and...

Viola!

Sur la plage...

Yet another creation...this is a beach tote made from oil cloth and vinyl.

Lots of room for all my beach supplies.
Upclose you can see the bag says " la plage" meaning the beach.
I have also embroidered some waves on the bag. So you can carry a little bit of beach where ever you go.

Completely waterproof. I really like this bag because after swimming you can toss all your wet stuff (sand and all) and then hose it down afterward.

I think I will try it out this weekend.

What else can it do?

I found another use for the wine bag. It can be a vase, you can correspond the flowers to the colour on the bag; rose - pink flowers, rouge - red flowers and blanc - white flowers. The goodies bags can be used for the same thing.

I am always recycling...

Vin Sac

MERCI BEAUCOUP Visnja! C'est une bonne idee!

My husband came home from a business trip,where he visited his parents and he passed on a message from his mom, Visnja. "Can you make wine bags out of those goodie bags?"

Can I?... I am always up for the challenge.

So, here they are. I am very happy with the way they turned out. Each one is embroidered to the colour of wine. Pretty clever (if I do say so myself).

I made one for Red Wine (notice the empty bottle...)

One for White Wine

And one for Rose Wine (the most popular type of wine here in the South of France).

These bags are a perfect host/hostess gift. They are reusable and definitely a conversation piece. I think these would be a great hit at any dinner party. Vous pensez?

Sorry wine not included.

Le Marche Part Deux

As you can see I have been pretty busy playing around with Market Bag styles. I think I got it!
This one is made form a heavy weight linen/canvas blend, lined inside with a stripe cotton fabric (in french colours of course) and has one pocket to hold your wallet and cell phone while browsing through the shops. When you don't need the bag it folds into it's own little pocket so you can carry it around in your purse. How cool is that!

The pocket measures about 6 x 6 inches when folded up.It is pretty large, perfect for shopping at your local market (definitely not a Costco bag).You can see here, it can carry a box of cereal, milk, canned goods, box of cookies, bag of chocolate almonds (a must in any diet) and a bottle of wine (again another must for any diet...also very French).

C'est tres practique!

For the Subway

This little guy was made for holding subway tokens or bus change. I find I am always searching at the bottom of my bag for loose change for the highway toll (we don't have a subway here in Vence) but I wasn't sure how to translate highway toll into French and metro (with the accent on the e) just sounded and looked cooler.

I love the little wooden bead matroushka (I know not french but I couldn't resist).




I made a couple of these change wallets for sale both in blue and red.

Mon Petit Sac - For Michelle

Another Petit Sac made for my dear friend Michelle. Her and her husband were visiting me here in France for two weeks. We had an amazing time and she wanted a little piece of France to carry around with her in Toronto, Canada.


The print is a little French street scene with a patisserie, cafe and the Eiffel Tower. All the places Michelle visited while vacationing in France.


Inside, the pockets are embroidered with labels so that each item has it's own little home. One pocket for her keys.


And another pocket for her mobile phone and any other extra goodies she might carry around with her.


These bags are available for custom order.