ever been scared of your fabric?

I don't mean scared of how much fabric you have (surely that's not possible!). Or physically scared of it, although from the size of some stashes I've seen (my own included) a small avalanche of fabric could cause a nasty injury. What I mean is do you have fabric that you're too scared to use? I do, stacks and stacks of it in fact. Some fabric is so lovely and so expensive that I hesitate to cut into it for fear of stuffing it up. But with those fabrics you can generally get more of it if need be. Where I fall down however is using the one off, vintage pieces of beautiful fabric I pick up from op-shops, garage sales or ebay - once they are used there's no more of it, so I always feel such pressure to make the most out of it.

It was this case with this fabric which has been sitting in my stash for years, so long that I can't remember where I picked it up from. It's a heavy cotton, probably home dec weight I'd say, and it has the coolest op art swirl print. No clues on the selvedge as to age or designer, and it was a decent sized piece that could have been made into a wall hanging, pillows or at one stage I toyed with making a retro 60s style shift dress. But I couldn't decide and so it sat in the stash!

Well I have woken up from my baby denial coma and realised it's only 27 days (EEK) until this baby is due and it's time to make some useful baby stuff and stop frittering my time on more clothes for me! So I decided to use this fabric in something that I would use frequently and take out every time I leave the house - a nappy bag of course! Inspired by a fancy schmancy Isoki brand nappy bag that retails for $169 (it is reversible and comes with a lot of useful little pouches, but still $169 is too much for this Scrooge), I decided to use an OOP New Look pattern and I came up with this bag for less than $10 worth of hardware (interfacing, magnetic closure, O rings):

I did make a muslin to see how big it would be, and it is huge enough to fit everything a nappy bag needs without enlarging it all (in fact it's so huge it hides my basketball belly!). The only modifications I made was to add some pockets to the inside lining in a contrast fabric, and to add a magnetic snap closure because the pattern didn't have any closure to it at all. I used black corduroy for the straps, which by complete fluke was a brilliant choice because corduroy is a grabby fabric and the straps don't slip down at all. I left off the contrast panel at the top of the bag only because I wanted to maximise the amount of the main body fabric that was visible.

So whilst I was on my sensible sewing streak, I made some fitted cot sheets out of a queen sized sheet set that I no longer use - it happens to be the right colour for the nursery decor I'm planning, plus being worn and often washed 100% cotton it is now lovely and soft. With a bit of fold over elastic (love that stuff) around the edge, they were super simple to make. Speaking of the nursery, I have spent the last two days dismantling my sewing room and cleaning it out - it was exhausting clearing out all that junk and I haven't even cleaned out the wardrobe yet (no where to put the fabric stash!)

And thanks for all the birthday wishes to my last post, especially from my sewing fairy godmothers LOL! First week of pre-baby holiday has been absolutely fantastic - sleeping in, shopping, leisurely breakfast and lunches, of course all this will end when the baby actually arrives but I'm sure I'll be too happy to care about that (fingers crossed!)

Well I was about to say thank god it's Friday, but every day is now like a weekend to me, so it doesn't matter. But to everyone else I will wish you a happy and productive weekend!