My 1st Nicole Mallalieu Bag

I was petrified of this bag pattern (the flap totally freaked me out) which I bought back in September and had worked myself up about for 2 months LOL. In the end, with some encouragement from Emma and me repeating to myself that it's only a 1 flower difficulty rating, I started on the bag as a secret santa present for a special cyber friend.

Overall I am happy with the finished bag.

There was no heavy weight interfacing in the shop on the day so I went with shapewell which is very stiff. I'm hoping the bag will relax a little with use.

I wanted to make the strap adjustable but couldn't source a slide buckle in time.

I could only find bronze rings which I love and think match the bag but when I finished I wanted to add a twist turn lock to keep the flap down and could not for the life of me find one anywhere in Melbourne. I had no time to order online so had to use the only one I eventually found by pure luck, which was unfortunately silver.

I originally wanted to use a magnetic catch but I think I missed the step where I was meant to insert it into the flap before stitching it to the bag?? By the time I realised, I was finished and there was no way I was unpicking which is why I thought a twist turn lock would be good, if only I could have found a bronze one :(

I was scared to chop into my bag to insert the lock but all was good and I'm happy with how it looks.

Because of the shapewell, I went a bit nuts trying to iron the bag after turning it inside out (the right way) and was devastated to see that I melted some stitching. At least that's what I think happened? Has anyone ever had disintegrating stitches before? I could have cried!

I also made a matching tissue holder.











and the disintegrating stitches!

Christmas Caroline Dress

I had to make something Christmas-y so with not much time left at all, I made this Caroline Dress for M last night.

She wore it to the hairdressers this morning, here she is in her dress with her new short do.



Before we left



We're off to see Santa tomorrow so I'm trying to finish a pair of Little Explorers for the boy in some red dotty trim, Christmas-y without being OTT. Both new items of clothing will be worn for the Chrissy pic if there are no food/drink disasters between getting dressed and making it to Santa.