Bertie and Poppet's Hand Made Project Bags

Tomorrow I promise you a non salesy blog but you'll have to forgive me for this! I just can't help myself. They've been in the shop for just over a week and I'm so pleased with how they've been going. It's a real shame that the scaffholding is *still* up because they're in the window and they looked so sweet before it all got covered up by ugly builders bits.

Anyway, let's not talk about that anymore, it's caused enough stress this week....

So, at the fifth birthday party in early September, the lovely Gill brought me one of her handmade bags as a gift. It has a beautiful cat print on the front and the lining had cat paws all over it! It was PERFECT! Ever since, I've used it to house the balls that I bought from Yarndale to knit my Fox Paws Shawly/Scarfy thing and it's been hanging up in Chris's bedroom for the rare couple of hours I get free to knit another pattern repeat (I dare not put this thing down during a pattern repeat, apart from to top up my cup of tea/find some chocolate. Stressful is not the word...).

[Hang on, in finding a link to the birthday and Yarndale blogs, I've found a picture of the outside of the bag!


And here's the inside:

 

How cute is that?!]

The thing that I loved about this bag, aside from the cats and that it was a gift (I bloody love getting gifts. You know when people ask about whether you prefer giving or receiving, I'm all about the receiving. ha), was how well made it was. Obviously, you can see that it's fully lined but she's put a little bit of padding betwixt the outside material and the inside one which gives the bags a real plush sort of a feeling - like they're quality. I mean, you look at the stitching and you can see that:

(I assure you that her stitching is better than my photography... ). Can you see how straight it is?! I chose this bit of the inside because it shows where she began and ended the row of stitching, how neat is that!? And if there's one thing that I learned about knitting, and my grandma (a fabulous seamstress) told me about sewing, it's that, the neater you are in your crafting the better wearing the final thing will be. I can attest to this, because if you've ever seen the inside of my handbag.... well, let's just say that my project bag has been in there for days at a time and made it out alive...

Gill made some adjustments to the bag before giving me the ones I have in the shop. The wadding inside stops a little earlier now which means that the drawstring can get tighter. This works better if you're using the bag for socks like Gill intended because even the little sock needles now won't be able to escape. I will warn you though, if you have a tit of a cat like Gucci who has a real preference for yarn that costs more than £10 for 100g, they will still be able to get into it and chew a hole in your wool. They are not cat proof.

I've said that the bags are hand wash only. I don't think many people wash project bags do they anyway? Unless something goes majorly wrong I suppose. Maybe I should? Maybe everybody's washing their projects bags all over the place? Anyway, I've said hand wash anyway, because these aren't you're average, quickly knocked up bags, you'll want to treasure these (perfect timing for the knitter/crocheter in your life for Christmas). I suspect they'd take a gentle, if not normal, wash in the machine but I'm not being held responsible. You're probably all much better at washing than I am anyway...

Then there's the sizing - roughly 9.5" by 11". Gill is a big sock knitter so she's made them perfect for 100g of sock yarn, a pattern, your needles and maybe an altoids tin's worth of notions. Like I say, I've had my Fox Paws project in there since I got it really and that's 250g of yarn plus the project itself and there's plenty of wool. I'm thinking, if you're a garment knitter, there's enough space for a piece of the project i.e. a back and the yarn you're working with now, so we're talking an on the go bag. WHICH REMINDS ME! The drawstring ribbons are the perfect length to hang over your wrists so that you can have your wool feeding through as you stand and knit/crochet in a queue! HOW PERFECT IS THAT!?

And I suppose the final thing to talk about are the colourways! Gill has done so well here! The outside of each of the bags are beautiful prints - Superwoman, sugar skulls, cute woodland creatures and because each bag is fully lined, she's chosen a perfectly suited (often plain but not always) lining material. They're all cottons or cotton blends so the colours are delightful! AND the ribbons match! Or sometimes they don't match but they clash in a delicious way. I love these so much, can you tell! EHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!



How gorge is that little collection? A little bit kitsch and a little bit cute and a little bit fancy. Love it!

So, if you want to buy them just click here. Please be aware that the shop has to take precedence over the internet in terms of sales. Because we don't have a fancy till system, and these are one offs, it might be the case that somebody in the shop is buying the exact same bag as you at the moment that you're on the internet. If that happens, the person in the shop gets the bag and I'll come back and offer an alternative. It turns out that sometimes Gill has more of the fabric, so in that case I'd contact her and she'd knock one up. But of course, as crafters we know, it's not just a case of knocking one up, it's time consuming being that brilliant. At the moment we're talking about a week or so to get one made but she works and does other crafts too and it's coming to Christmas so it's possible it might take longer. Anyway, I'll let you know and we can discuss the options. But basically, if you want it, get it. Once it's gone it's gone. I'll do my best to keep the internet up to date for you though - wish me luck on that in November and December.... haha.

And that's it I think! You can find Gill and her other endevours by clicking here and here. She really has a talent for anything colourful and beautiful, and the worst thing is that she's just a lovely person too. Sickening. Ugh.

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxx

P.s. I wanted to show another photo but couldn't work out where to put it.