Improv Sewing Giveaway

A couple months ago I received a copy of a book called Improv Sewing by Debra Immergut & Nicole Blume.  To be honest I hadn't heard of their the authors or the book before and added it to the review pile not thinking much of it.  When the time came to review it I looked through the book and was amazed, I absolutely loved it.

Modern Stretch Velvet Skirt

The book really suits my personal sewing ethos (not having to be perfect and follow precise instructions/patterns).  It gives you a load of techniques and a few basic pattern blocks and then encourages you to experiment and use your imagination to make your own designs.  There are a whopping 101 projects in the book and the information to make many many more.

I gave it a glowing review which was spotted by the publishers and authors who kindly agreed to an interview, gave us a free project from the book to use on the site - the Modern Stretch Velvet Skirt, ideal for the autumn, and gave me 4 copies of the book to giveaway to my lucky followers.

The giveaway ends next Tuesday so if you'd like to enter please click here.

A winner, a new competition and some Christmas Makes

Really sorry I didn't announce the winner of the Festival of Quilts giveaway - the copy of Digital Imagery on Fabric by Ruth Brown from Stone Creek Silks.  I've had a bad chest infection for the last 3 weeks which has left me unable to do almost anything, unfortunetly hubbie and son got it too so it's been a very long few weeks!  Still got it but it's finally easing off a bit so trying to get everything up to date now.

So first of all the winner is..... Indigo Blue.  Congratulations, I will message you to get your address to send the book out.

Don't worry if you didn't win the book, we have a lovely Liberty Fabric Bundle giveaway going on over on the main site with The Village Haberdashery.  You can win a fat quarter of all 11 fabrics from the magenta/teal colourway of the new Liberty Lifestyle Fabrics - Bloomsbury Gardens.

The only good thing about being so ill and unable to work is that I've finally had time to sew!  Any form of movement triggers a big coughing fit so I spent several days just sat at my sewing machine sewing away.  I decided to make a start at some Christmas gifts and have made lots of make up bags (up to 10 now I think), plus a skirt for a friend's daughter's birthday next month.

I used a brilliant tutorial from Love Me Sew which is actually for a pencil case.  I made a pencil case first to see how easy the intructions were to follow (the answer is very!) and then started changing the size to make a purse, several make up bags and a wash bag.  I plan on filling them with sweets and giving them to all my female friends at Christmas.  I might make a few more of the pencil cases for kid's Christmas presents and fill them with pens & pencils.

Has anyone else started on Christmas present making?  Any good tutorials or ideas to share?

This is my favourite make up bag so far, I love these fabrics.  They are the from the Kiztbuehel collection from Westfallenstoffe available from Dragonfly Fabrics.  I like them so much I think I'm going to buy up a few metres and put them aside for a quilt one day in the future.