Selfish Sewing Week Starts today!!  What are you making for yourself?  I am working on a quilt and possibly a blouse.  Read below to find out how you can follow along, link up your projects and win a sewing pattern!!

the featured stitchers

the patterns

a Rafflecopter giveaway

After seeing Melinda's (Quirky Granola Girl) Patchwork Death Star, I knew immediately that I absolutely had to make one for my Star Wars loving sister-in-law, Shelley.

Click to Enlarge

Melinda kindly provided the paper pattern for the Death Star on her blog and I downloaded it immediately. Then the very next day, I was at my quilting guild's sewing day and scored some great grey scraps (whoop!) and the plan came together very quickly.

That one section looks really green in these pics, but it's more of a grey!

The pieced segments are basted to paper (I used a glue stick) and then you hand sew them together, which was a bit fiddly, but didn't really take that much time. I changed it up a bit, because Melinda actually pieced the background sections to the Death Star, but I appliqued the star right on top of a large square of background fabric. I was thrilled when I found the background fabric, and I love it's blue hue which gives the whole pillow a nice "spacey" feeling.  I can't think of another way to describe it! It's called "Texture" by Janet Clare for Moda.


After appliqueing the star on, I layered the top with batting and a backing fabric and started quilting. I used a variegated grey/white pearl cotton to hand stitch the stars, an outer running stitch, and the detail in the circle for the super laser. I used black pearl cotton for the line that goes around the middle, which Wookiepedia tells me its an equatorial trench. I used Aurifil cotton quilting thread to machine quilt the black rings in the background, and the grey stitching in the segments. I don't know a lot about death stars, but I followed Melinda's example, plus googled and viewed plenty of pictures.


The back is a from the Ghastlies collection by Alexander Henry.  The zipper was supposed to be a hidden, lapped zipper... but I forgot how to do it.  I decided to go for it anyway and it didn't quite work out as "lapped" as I would have liked, but it's not too horrible ;).


The pillow was for Shelley's birthday, which isn't until next Saturday, but I just couldn't wait to get it to her. So after quilting guild today, I drove there to pick up my son, whom she was babysitting for me, and gave it to her right away. I'm very happy to say that I got the squeals and reaction that I was hoping for. She loved it!!!  And... so do I. Very happy day!


I can add this to my collection of other geeky projects, like the Minecraft Lapis Lazuli block, and the Lego Sewing Machine.


Thanks for looking, leave a comment!

Get ready to sew for SSW!!  Selfish Sewing Week, by Imagine Gnats, will be hosted on Kollabora this year, and it's right around the corner.

I'm doing a bit of research to see what are the most popular zipper colours, because I am "formulating" (mwa-ha-haa!) a plan towards stocking some zippers that will be geared specifically towards bag making. Quality bag zippers seem to be quite hard to find for me locally, and I really have had quite a lot of requests from my lovely customers.


But where to start?  Colours, sizes, pull styles, teeth styles?  It's a bit confusing and it seems that this zipper thing is an all or nothing kind of thing.  I just can't have a few, but if I'm going to start somewhere, I need to start small and therefore I need to stock exactly what you want and need, but on a reasonable scale.

So this week I had a small giveaway/contest on the Emmaline facebook page and commenters had to tell me what colour zippers they most like to use on their bags and wallets.  I was not surprised in the love of Red, Black, Grey and White, but I have to say I was surprised at the purple & pink!





It should be noted that the pink, grey, red and brown include different shades and GEEZE what does Aqua, Turquoise and Teal mean to you, because they seem to look different to different people!

1)  I'd love to hear what your fave colours would be if you were limited it a few colours.

2)  I'd love to hear what SIZE your zippers would need to be. I'm am probably going to have matching #3 zippers (dress size) for internal zipper pockets, and #5 zippers for bag openings, but I am concerned about lengths of zippers the most.  What is your favourite length for your internal pocket (8" or 9"?) AND if you were to choose a couple of basic zipper lengths that you could cut down to size to fit your bag openings, what would they be:

A)  14"
B)  20"
C)  22"
D)  24"
E)  Another Length
F)  Zippers by the yard/meter

Now... zipper pulls are a whole other story!!  As some of you know, I stock my own zipper pull designs, so those are a given... but what about another choice!  Nickel, Antique Brass, Painted enamel to match the zip?  What do you like??

Tell me about your zippers please!  I need some comments here!


 

Some NEWS about my Zipper Pulls that may concern you, if you are looking to buy them in the next couple of weeks. 

I have been very disappointed that my recent batch of the NICKEL COLOUR "handmade" zipper pulls (the top one in the above photo), are scratched and not acceptable to me. They got by QC unnoticed, but my manufacturer has been very accommodating and apologetic and is remaking the whole order of zipper pulls and labels. Sadly this means that I have to make them "Out of Stock" again. They have promised a rush order, and they will be ready in 2 weeks. 

I still have the Antique Brass ones (shown below), as well as the "handcrafted" & one with a maple leaf. Thank you for your patience, I really think this is necessary to ensure that you get the best quality product that I can give. 

Emmaline Metal Zipper Pulls

Thank you, to all of my customers, for your continued support and appreciation of my bag bling addiction ;)

 

Last month Veronica, from sewVery, shared a gorgeous Echino Purse and zipper pouch that also featured one of my rectangle purse locks.  I have really been meaning to share it with you all!

Source: sewVery

It's so beautiful!  Her post goes into great detail about the interfacing and stabilizer she used in her bag construction and I think it's a great read for any bag maker. Also, nice bag and fabric inspiration!

Great post, Veronica!!  Well worth a read.

Source: sewVery

Hi Bag of the Month Club members!  We've been working really hard at getting your prize sponsors organized for you and I'm proud to announce that our 9 wonderful sponsors have been VERY generous to us and we are lucky enough to have 14 PRIZE BUNDLES to give away.

If you are a Club member, please have a look through the prizes and link up your completed bag photos to the FLICKR GROUP.  If you are not a member, it's not too late to join, just CLICK HERE and you can read all about it.  The past month's patterns will be sent to you.  Sew much fun ;)

** You can enter as many bags as you like by July 15th.  Please give us a couple of clear photos of your bag so we can see inside and out.  (The judges are yet to be designated, but the designers will not be judging their own pattern.) 

Our Sponsors and their prizes:

January Pattern:
1st Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Pink Castle Fabrics
20£ Gift Certificate from Minerva Crafts
3 PDF Sewing Patterns of the Winners choice from Sew Sweetness
4 Spools of Aurifil Thread

2nd Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

February Pattern
1st Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Pink Castle Fabrics
20£ Gift Certificate from Minerva Crafts
3 PDF Sewing Patterns of the Winners choice from Emmaline Bags
4 Spools of Aurifil Thread

2nd Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

March Pattern:
1st Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Southern Fabrics
20£ Gift Certificate from Minerva Crafts
3 PDF Sewing Patterns of the Winners choice from Sewing Patterns by Mrs. H.
4 Spools of Aurifil Thread

2nd Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

April Pattern:
1st Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Online Fabric Store
20£ Gift Certificate from Village Haberdashery
3 PDF Sewing Patterns of the Winners choice from Betz White
4 Spools of Aurifil Thread

2nd Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

May Pattern:
1st Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Online Fabric Store
20£ Gift Certificate from Village Haberdashery
3 PDF Sewing Patterns of the Winners choice from Noodlehead
4 Spools of Aurifil Thread

2nd Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

June Pattern:
1st Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Crimson Tate Fabrics
20£ Gift Certificate from Village Haberdashery
3 PDF Sewing Patterns of the Winners choice from Chris W. Designs
4 Spools of Aurifil Thread

2nd Prize:
25$ Gift Certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics

Random prizes:
1st Prize:
50$ Gift Certificate Fat Quarter Shop
12 Spools of Aurifil Thread

2nd Prize:
50$ Gift Certificate from Fat Quarter Shop
4 Spools of Aurifil Thread

Our Sponsors!! I'm so proud to be part of this amazing collection of designers in the Bag of the Month Club, but I have to say - I am most excited about giving all of these wonderful prizes.  We couldn't do it without these wonderful sponsors. Thank you to them!

Aurifil

Crimson Tate

Fat Quarter Shop

Minerva Crafts

Online Fabric Store

Pink Chalk Fabrics

Pink Castle Fabrics

Southern Fabric

The Village Haberdashery

Now who's sewing? Do you want to make win some prizes?  Join up some nice clear photos in the FLICKR group.  Enter as many you like.

May all of your bags be handmade ;)