Swapsies

I meet so many lovely people in the online sewing world and every now and again I meet someone I really click with and I can imagine having a cup of tea with whilst swapping ideas and talking fabrics.  Amy is one of those people and we conspired a little swap to follow the rush of Christmas- we have both received our packages so now its show and tell.  Look what I have to show- the cutest little Dresden bag and matching coin purse adapted from Amy's free pattern.

This is a bag with a purpose.  When I teach music in school, I have a little bag with remote control, throat sweets and other vital bits and pieces.   My current bag is a sad and sorry denim patch pocket, well worn so Amy made a replacement.  It needed a strap large enough to cross my body- we move around a lot in music!  You can see me in my work clothes below- the bag is perfect and its little coin pouch partner fits inside!  Both have just the right amount of grey to fit in with my sober serious Mrs Green attire ( gotta have some sort of authority) and the pops of colour make me smile and my eyes glint each time I look at it!

The tiny pouch is the cutest thing with its mini dresden petals!  I can only imagine how fiddly this was for Amy to make.

And Amy included some of her screen printed My Happy Place print (available in her shop)  Such a crisp and neat print on the softest linen.

And a cathedral windows card- this shape really makes me think of Amy!

And I think it was the cathedral windows that lead to me using the petal design on a frame purse in my makes for her.  The flower pattern was from Suzuko Koseki's book Natural Patchwork

It is a tricksy pattern to do with all those curves and I did it the worng way roung and the texts weren't reading how I wanted them to read so the quick unpic came out- but all worked out!  We both added a personal touch with initials!  Fabrics are Japanese linen, Yuwa print and vintage flowery fabric scraps.

The lining is a Suzko Koseki print.   I drafted the purse pattern myself using Lisa's helpful hints at U- handbag and the frame is from Cotton and Cloud.

I found an interesting fabric panel just before I started this swap that I thought would suit Amy.  It is a fine cotton with a lovely text print- I have no idea what it was for, emboridery maybe, but the print stayed on after I washed it.  It was a large rectangle, big enough to make a decent size lined drawstring bag.  The ties are vintage bias binding.

It is hard to photograph white on white, but you get the idea

A very nice swap and a great friendship, makes the world seem a little smaller x