Extra Special Custom Order

I was approached a few weeks ago by a previous customer who asked if I was willing to donate a bag to a cancer charity dinner she was helping to organise.  Of course I leapt at the chance.  My mum had breast cancer and was a survivor so the support the charities give to families and suffers is very important to me.

We talked about colours and decided that since the event was going along the theme of green and bright pink, the bag should reflect these colours.  I approached one of my favourite fabric suppliers, Saints and Pinners, who very kindly offered to donate the fabric to make the bag.  So following another discuss on style, this is the bag that will be raffled at the dinner on Friday evening:

I love the Amy Butler ‘Love’ Range!

The co-ordinated bright pink lining finishes the bag off beautifully!

I hope the lucky winner enjoys using their fabulous new bag!

Busy Couple of Weeks!

The last couple of weeks have crazy at funky diva designs!

I have been working on a number of projects:

1. 12 Purses for a beautiful bride to give as presents to all her lovely helpers.

2. 4 Little cupcake totes for students on Cirencester Cupcake cupcake decorating workshops.

3. The gorgeous new bag ‘Katie’. Designed as a funky school bag to carry folders and everything else a girl needs!

4. A beautiful tote and purse matching set for a little girl in Australia.

5. Another fabulous diaper bag made using cotton twill and Amy Butler fabric.

6. Beautiful blue Alice bag with custom embroidery on.

Some of these bags have already got a blog of their own, but others are waiting for their debut which will be coming over the next few days!

Still loads of lovely orders to complete so I had better get back to the sewing machine!

Cupcake Crazy!

This week funky diva designs has been Cupcake Crazy!

I first met the lovely Louise of Cirencester Cupcakes on Twitter and when she dropped off some cupcakes for my Birthday in February I thought I had died and gone to heaven!  They were so yummy!  They inspired me to make a cupcake tote which fortunately Louise loved.

So when she approached me about making some exclusive bags, purses and make-up bags for her new shop in Cirencester I jumped around for joy!  We have been plotting for a couple of weeks and I have been putting together the first set of cupcake lovelies for Louise.  Finally, yesterday all of the cupcake lovelies were price tagged and ready to go.

Here are the purses and make-up bags.

The purses and make-up bags are available in navy, pink and white.

The lining is the same as the cupcake applique.

The large totes are all fully lined and big enough to carry all of your lovely cupcakes home!

Louise and I are really pleased with them and hopefully visitors to the shop will also love them!

If you are in the Cirencester area, Cirencester Cupcakes can be found in Swan Yard.

Going to eat my chocolate cupcake now!

Sunday Sewing!

Yesterday afternoon I suddenly realised that my eldest son had a birthday party to go to.  There is a limited number of shops in Tetbury, and I think I might have a reputation for giving book vouchers as presents!  Fortunately the party was for a little girl so I dug out the sewing machine this morning and went through my stash.  Not what I had in mind for my Sunday morning at 7.30am!

This is the little bag that I made, which I hope she likes for carrying round her favourite things:

Pretty pink flower tote for a lovely little girl!

Close up of the flower with a pretty vintage pink button.

I went for a very bright lining to brighten up her day.

I hope very much that the birthday girl enjoys using her cute tote.

Inspirational Cupcakes

On Sunday I blogged about the delicious cupcakes that I was given as a surprise by Louise from Cirencester Cupcakes.  They were yummy!

Her lovely cupcakes looked so amazing and they inspired me to think about a way I was going to carry those lovely cupcakes home from her new shop. 

 And after a couple of days of playing around this is the bag I designed with those lovely cupcakes in mind:

Made using my favourite pink corduroy, the tote is embellished with an applique cupcake and felt writing.

The lining is pink gingham to co-ordinate with the cupcake.

I am really happy with how this cute tote turned out!

You can buy it now from my Etsy shop.

More adventures in applique!

Last few weeks have been a bit of a rush, but today I finally got to sit down and make some more stock for my shops.

I decided to experiment with machine applique and I thought I would share the results with you.

I really enjoyed having a go at making this little bird.  It is the most complicated piece of machine applique I have tried yet and I am really pleased with how it turned out.  I really like the spotty cream fabric, which also lines with pencil case.

A bit out of my ‘comfort’ zone of colours, I for this lush orange fabric from Fabric Rehab.  I love it and I bought a co-ordinated bundle so expect more in this sort of colour.

Again the pencil case is lined with the fabric from the flower.

As usual these pencil cases are available online in my Etsy shop, funky diva designs.

Pretty in Pink!

It is Monday Mosaic time again!  This week the colour from the Etsy sellers is pink because it is nearly Valentines Day.

I hope you like the selection this week.  There are so many lovely things to choose from so it has once again turned in 12 gorgeous items!

1 SusanGreenBooks

2 especially4ubyEandT

3 deancustomdesigns

4 silverunicorns

5 flauntdesignsjewelry

6 EclecticaByJan

7 beadoutlet

8 SixSkeins

9 rulatwal

10 modestambition

11 Durhamhinny

12 likealilyamongthorns

Funky Flower Power!

I showed you a while ago my first adventures into the world of freestyle embroidery, which were not too bad.  I have been using the purse and bag and getting loads of really nice comments.  So I felt confident enough to have a go at something to sell.

I used the same fabric as before for the outside of the bag and matched the lining with the bright pink thread of the flowers.  I also put a pocket on the inside the essentials like keys and phone can be easily found.

Here are my funky pink flowers:

Lovely tote to carry the shopping in.

It has a very funky lining along with a pocket.

Close up of the funky flowers

 You can buy the bag in my etsy shop or my MISI shop.

I really enjoy freestyle embroidery!  It gives you loads of freedom to make the bag/ purse unique. I think I will be back in my workspace tonight trying out different fabrics from my stash!

Two Loves in One Week!

I confess that I fell in love with my work room earlier in the week.  Head over heels in love!

I thought one brilliant thing this week was enough, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much I would love my new camera! 

My old camera had suddenly packed up last week, then came back to life but without the display screen.  Very annoying!  Isn’t amazing how reliant we have become on digital technology that gives us immediate feedback?

The images I took yesterday were all done with the old camera and loads of patience – I had no idea how good the images were until I loaded them onto my computer.  It is my birthday in February and I had my eye on a lovely new camera that I thought would do the job perfectly, but didn’t cost the earth.  I mentioned my problem to my dad, who lives in Singapore, and he very kindly gave the money for the camera as my birthday present!  Don’t you just love dads?

So I trekked off through the snow to Cirencester today and got my lovely new camera – a Fujifilm S1500.  It is so lovely, light and easy to use!  Here are my first attempts at taking photos:

Lovely blue felt flower.

I love how clear this photo is and the colours are perfect!

New design clutch

A sneak preview of a new design.

Close up of felt flower on pink clutch.

Check out the colour and  the details on the vintage button!  So clear!

Close up of my lovely coffee machine!

I have serious dependency on coffee - here is part of my machine!

I think today is going to be the start of a long and productive  relationship!

Every snow cloud has a fabric lining!

The only bonus of the snow that I have discovered so far is its reflective value!

After asking for some feedback on my Etsy shop, the main feedback was the dark background did not do my bags and the fabrics justice.  In an attempt to sort this problem out I hired a friends daughter and took some outside shots in the snow.  It reflects the light so well that the photos turned out quite well.

What do you think?

Gemma bag in Amy Butler fabric.

Cute little pink wristlet from pink corduroy.

New design Hilary bag in brown corduroy.