High Rollers and Fashionistas

Yesterday the Rolls Royce Ghost Club from the UK came to town as part of their Nordic and Baltic tour. Fortunately it was a glorious day when they pulled up in formation outside Riga City Hall. It was very funny to see so many grown men unashamedly drooling! Here's a flavour of what they were drooling over!

And

This little lady attracted the most attention!

Today is the last day for submitting entries to Sew Sweetness' Purse Palooza, so true to form I swithered about whether to make the Fashionista bag from Lisa Lam's Bag-Making Bible, which is on my 12 WIP's in 2012 list, in time to submit. Yesterday I decided to go for it. Nothing like a deadline to concentrate the mind!

I have already made two of these bags, both of which I gave to my daughter-in-law, so had decided that the next one was definitely for me. I had even bought the perfect bright pink wool fabric for the bag a long time ago on a trip to Tallinn, so I have had very little excuse not to have it completed before now.

Once I started making the bag I remembered why I had been putting it off for so long! The first step in making the bag is to construct both sets of handles and although the shoulder length handle with the chain is fairly straightforward to sew, getting the chain cut and attached is another story. The instructions tell you to cut the chain to the desired length, an action I have found impossible to do on my own in the past. Fortunately, our local ironmongers at home has a very willing owner who is happy to cut my chains with his professional-looking wire cutters as often as I need, so I have gathered a store of them for just such an occasion. The instructions also tell you to open the chain links to attach them to the D-rings on the end of the strap, another action I found impossible to do, so my solution was to attach a split ring to the end of the chain, which then attaches to the D-ring.

The short handle provides a whole different set of problems. To attach the bolt hook to the end of the piped handle you need to sew 8 layers of fabric whilst trying to avoid hitting the top of the bolt hook with your machine needle, not for the faint-hearted that is for sure! It took several attempts is all I am admitting to :)

Actually once the handles are sorted, the rest of the bag is fairly straightforward, even fitting the twist-turn lock and inserting a zipped inner pocket is pain-free compared to grappling with 8 layers of fabric. Although I did need to grit my teeth, cross my fingers and hope for the best when cutting into my already sewn bag flap to attach the front part of the lock and then again to fit the eyelets for the short handle.

Finishing this bag also means that I can shift another project off of my waiting list and on to the completed list, which is very nice, and it is this month's finish for 12 WIP's in 2012!

So here is how my list is looking now

Completed projects

• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart, Orange and Reindeer cushions
• Orphan Block needle roll, Pieced Arc Tea towel, Purse and Padded Hangers Tutorial
• Sunflower and Sew Happy QAL quilt
• Play mini-quilt challenge quilt 
• Patchwork Block, Dragon and Fashionista Bags

Ongoing

• 6 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted
• 8 Zakka-style SAL projects completed
• First border of teatime quilt completed
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 12 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (on schedule)  
• Yellow rainbow cushion waiting to be appliqued 
• In the Bag Ugly Fabric challenge fabrics arrived waiting for inspiration!
• 4 Summer Quilt Bee blocks completed
• 1 Star of Africa Bee block completed

Waiting

• Indigo and violet rainbow cushions
• Last block of Sampler quilt
• Amy Butler bag
• Christmas mini quilts

There is a bit of a logjam in that ongoing list I think, will have to work on that soon.

Tomorrow's posts in the Let's get Acquainted Blog Hop are from

July 12

    Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade 

    Marti from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks

Rebecca has been posting tutorials this month for her Christmas in July series, so I am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with tomorrow and Marti has a giveaway running on her blog at the moment, so both are definitely worth checking out. 

Linking up to  Purse Palooza , Sunday Showcase,  WIP Wednesday  and We did it Wednesday.