The big fabric sort-out!

I have been an avid collector of vintage fabric for about eight years now. I wouldn't say my collection was out of control, but I have got enough fabric to keep me going for about three or four lifetimes!

For the past three years most of my vintage fabric has been in boxes in the loft. I felt really disconnected from it and since having my daughter my fabric collection has been neglected. When we moved to our new house, I vowed that I would organise it better, I really wanted access to it, so that I could create things with it. It's pointless having loads of yummy fabric if you can't get your hands on it!

My mum was updating her wardrobes and she said I could have her old one. My husband grabbed his drill and some spare pieces of wood and added two shelves to convert the wardrobe into a large cupboard. We then got all the boxes out of the loft and I started the process of sorting through it all. Some I wanted to keep, some to sell and some to pass onto my lovely crafty friends.

As each box came out of the loft, it was such a revelation each time I started sorting through the fabric. There are so many pieces I'd forgotten about. I have amassed some lovely examples of vintage Moygashel, Sanderson, Liberty and Heals fabric. I have one particular piece of vintage Sanderson 'Cobweb' fabric that is just beautiful.

I now have a lovely area in my home where I can house my fabric and look at it whenever I want to. Who knows, maybe I might actually get the time to use it all!

Spring giveaway: vintage trim bundle and 20% discount code

**This giveaway is now closed**

Signs of Spring are starting to emerge in my garden, so I thought I would run a giveaway featuring these lovely vintage floral trims. Plus, you will also win an exclusive discount code for 20% off anything in my Etsy store. I will email the lucky winner their discount code once the giveaway has ended.

Up for grabs is a bundle of vintage trims worth over £10 in total. The prize bundle contains:
3 yards of vintage tiny flower trim in crimson and orange
3 yards of vintage tiny flower trim in lipstick red and navy blue
3 yards of vintage tiny flower trim in royal blue and pale yellow

How to enter:

mandatory - Please visit my Etsy store and leave a comment below telling me which is your favourite item.

three additional ways to enter:
1. Become a follower of my blog. Leave a comment and let me know that you're new.
2. Tweet this giveaway:
@pouchbags Spring blog giveaway: http://pouchbags.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/spring-giveaway-vintage-trim-bundle-and.html
3. Like my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pouchdesigns

**If you enter this giveaway, please state clearly your email address, OR your Facebook/Twitter/Etsy username, so I can contact you in case you win**

The giveaway is open to everyone in the world. The giveaway runs from Friday March 1st through to midnight (GMT) Friday 8th March. This competition is open to worldwide entries. I will pick a winner at random, and announce the winner on Monday 11th March.

Also, I am currently having a big stock clearance sale! Up to 50% off original prices. Check out my sale section for more details.

Spring 2013 Issue

Brighten up a drab and dreary day, and blow away those cobwebs with the UK Handmade spring issue!

Alongside the regular selection of gorgeous handmade goodies, tutorials, recipes and reviews, UK Handmade brings you exclusive interviews with inspiring designers and makers who use their own unique creativity to provide us with a fresh take on everyday items. So throw off those winter woollies, fling open your windows and breathe in some FRESH air.

You can view it here

UK Handmade is a design led online magazine committed to showcasing and promoting the best creative talent the UK has to offer. You can find out more about the magazine and submitting articles here

Get stitching!

I've felt in a real creative slump recently...moving house hasn't helped, in fact it's stopped me from sewing for many weeks now. I felt like I needed to do something to push myself a bit more and try and learn something a bit different. I've always loved hand sewing and blanket stitch is something I love doing for my owls and rabbits, but I felt it was time to learn a few more stitches. I started having a look around on the internet and got completely sucked into embroidery tutorials, stitching blogs and oh so many video tutorial on youtube. It is seriously addictive and once you start looking at all the embroidery stitches that are our there and all the amazing work people have created, you just want to grab some thread and give it a go!

I was very lucky to receive some beautiful handmade wedding presents. One of which is the owl and the pussycat image at the top of this blog post. Made by the wonderful Sally of Tinkering Times, it hangs on our bedroom wall and I look at it everyday. Recently, I've started to study it in more detail and look closely at the stitches, all the tiny details Sally added to this piece never cease to amaze me.

So, inspired by Sally's work, I ordered an embroidery hoop, got out my embroidery thread, begged a couple of crewel needles from my Mum and started to try out some embroidery of my own. Since looking at a few tutorials I can now recognise some of the different stitches and I have to say that I have fallen slightly in love with split stitch. Having always had an urge to embroider words, split stitch fits the bill nicely. I've always loved blanket stitch, but split stitch is so lovely for creating letters.

I'm pretty please with my first attempt. I think I may have had the thread too thick on the first set of letters I created, or maybe the letters were too small. I tried less thread and bigger letters on the second attempt and can't decide which I prefer. More thread gives a bolder look. I know the embroidery hoop bandwaggon has been trundling along for quite some time, but I can really see the appeal. I've got lots of handmade hoop gifts planned for all my family and friends now I've caught the letter-making bug. Also, once I've practiced a bit more, I'm going to make my daughter some personalised items and if I like them, I may make some more and stock them in my Pouch stores!

Just as a little footnote, I found this video to be very helpful, it's simple and informative and a great place to start if you're new to embroidery.

Tutorial: foldaway market tote

This handy reusable tote folds away into it's own pocket. Perfect for storing in your purse for spontaneous shopping sprees. I have made mine from upcycled vintage fabric, but feel free to use any lightweight cotton. The following is a sewing tutorial for making this lovely tote. You will find full instructions and free pattern to download and print.


Foldaway market tote tutorial
You will need:
Fabric
Scissors
Thread
Pins
Pattern paper (squared)
Sewing machine
You will need a piece of material 84 x 71cm. Cut out the 4 main pieces plus a piece for the pocket 18 x 36cm. All seams are 1cm. You can find the pattern template for this tutorial below. It is not to scale and is for guidance only. You will need to make a template on pattern paper, I would recommend using squared paper so that you can achieve true straight edges.

I have also included the full two-page tutorial at the end of this blog post, you are welcome to print that out and work from those instructions.
Step 1. Fold the pocket piece with right sides {RS} together and stitch around the edge leaving a small gap.Trim the corners and turn right side out.

Step 2. Place the pocket with the fold at the top, centrally on the right side of one main bag piece. Stitch around 3 sides.

Step 3. Join the main pieces {RS} to {RS} at the tops of the handles. Neaten the raw edges by pinking or zig-zag machine stitch.

Step 4. Neaten all round the inside raw edge between the handles by pinking or zig-zag machine stitch.Then turn under and sew all around the edge making a curve at the corners.You may need to clip the corners slightly.

Step 5. Sew the bottom of the bag {RS} to {RS} and neaten the raw edges as before.

Step 6. Pin the side pieces {RS} to {RS} by lining the top edge to the mark on the main bag piece (about 7 inches from the top) and the bottom edge centrally to the bottom seam of the bag.

Step 7. Sew all around the seam leaving 10mm at the top. In each corner pivot your work keeping the needle down in the material. Neaten raw edges as before.

Step 8. Pink or zig-zag stitch around the side edge of the bag opening. Turn under and sew all around the edge. Turn bag right side out.

And there you have it, a strong, yet lightweight foldaway tote, handy for a multitude of uses.



You are welcome to print the following two instruction pages out and work from there.
I would love to hear any comments or see any photos of your finished foldaway market totes!
Copyright: This tutorial is intended for personal use only. Please don't make these market totes to sell. You are more than welcome to share this tutorial. but if you do, please could you link back to http://www.meyouandmagoo.co.uk

And finally, if you would like to follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, you’re more than welcome!

I also sell a range of handmade goodies, including vintage fabric cushion covers, lavender filled rabbits and owls and a gorgeous range of vintage trims browse my shop by clicking this link

Happy New Year!

I can't believe its been nearly two months since I last wrote a blog post...oh the joys of moving house! The past few months have been extremely stressful, but now we're in our new house, I hope things will start to settle down and we can get some normality back.

After having our whole lives packed up in boxes for the past few weeks, its been lovely to finally start taking a look at my vintage fabric and stock levels again. Top of my list is to make some more Lavender rabbits in Spring Green.

I first blogged about these rabbits at the start of 2011 when Lu Summers very kindly gave me some vintage fabric. I decided I wanted to use this gift to "pay it forward" and raise some money for charity.

I've sold 6 recently, which I am over the moon about because it means I've raised nearly £40 for Children's Hospice South West. I'm hoping to make some more over the coming weeks, so fingers crossed I can carry on raising more money for this fantastic charity.

The rabbits are available in both my Etsy and Folksy online shops

Etsy shop

Etsy shop

7-day Half Price Sale!

The Pouch blog has been really neglected recently...this is due to the disruption caused by moving house! We're nearly packed and ready to go, so I've decided to run a 7-day Mega Sale. Next week I will have to temporarily close my online stores to move house. I wanted to offer my customers a chance to grab a fantastic bargain before I shut-up shop for the next few weeks.

Check out my Half Price Sale Section here

There are so many bargains available in my sale section and they all have a whopping 50% reduction taken off the original price.

Like this Reversible market day tote in chocolate and toffee brown, reduced from £25 to just £12.50!

And all my vintage fabric peg bags are now reduced from £16 to just £8

Half Price Sale Section here